A former Northwest Coast man is experiencing life in coronavirus
quarantine on the opposite side of the world
Chase Tucker is isolated 40 minutes outside Barcelona Spain and the
adventurous Tasmanian has had to change his routine. The irony of my quarantine life is
that the mountain is right there but I'm not really allowed to go and run and
hike and climb
so today's video was meant to be about aerobic training and
detailing some of the things I've learnt and the adventures that I've had on the
mountain behind me given everything that's happened over the last week or
two with coronavirus and how that impacts all of our adventures how it impacts our training
and what we're doing in the outdoors I thought maybe that video I could wait
and instead we could dive into some of the solutions some of the tools and some
of the tips that I want to share with you that can help us adapt to the new
circumstances that we're facing so that we can come back to the mountains next
time being stronger and more focused and just better at doing what we do in the mountains.
This is a big topic so I'm gonna be breaking it down into mindset
body and gear and it's a little bit windy out here so let's hit the office
and dive into this stuff straight away
okay so if you're new here my name is
chase and this channel is all about mountain sports and how we can prepare
our mind our body and our gear for the mountains so we can get out there
challenge ourselves and go from that experience and don't we have an
opportunity for growth right now with what's happening with the world I'm not
able to get out into the mountains and I think many of you will probably find
yourself in a similar situation very shortly so I wanted to share with you
some things that I've adapted to my life over the last couple of days this is my
fourth day in quarantine you know for me I am right at the base of the mountain
the National Park is a two minute walk from where we are right now
and I've been running every day up until the start of this week so right now as
it stands there's a 3,000 euro fine for me if I'm caught out in the mountains
and in fact my running partner he was caught by the police and said that they
would let him off this time but next time it's a 3,000 euro fine so that
really throws a spanner into the mix with my training I'm preparing for an
ultra marathon in July the buff trail epic it's my first competitive run so
you know theoretically I can get out into the mountains and I can run and I
can train however if I get lost you know if I roll an ankle I'll need to call
emergency services for help that would been dangering the people from the
emergency services not to mention I would be wasting their precious time when
they're already under a lot of stress and also I'm putting myself and everyone
around us at an extra risk and for me that's just not worth it so for once in
my life I have to encourage you not to go to the mountains. ummm.
with that disclaimer out of the way let's get into the mindset and stuff because this is super
super important obviously all of our training depends on whether we're able
to be stable and consistent with our mindset whether we're able to you know
switch our brains on to get us out of bed to do the training and the first
thing I think that is that we should touch on is being optimistic and being
positive today I was going through Facebook and I came across a post from
adventure consultants you guys might know them from being one of the big
businesses that run some commercial trips on Everest from Guy Cotter who's
the leader of the business and he says "to be a successful Mountaineer one must
be optimistic, a pessimistic Mountaineer can always find excuses for not
continuing onwards" so I read that quote from Guy and I thought that that was
such a good message to just share with you guys you know I don't want to play
down the severity of this pandemic at the moment but I think that
think that being optimistic is the number one thing that we can keep in
mind especially as we go through a lot of change in our day to day lives so one
thing that's really helped over the last couple of years for me that I've been
doing solidly is generally so generally for me is both important for training
journaling so running down training it up and doing and really thinking about
how has that training helped me over you know the last phase of training and I've
been doing the way that I do generally is I follow a basic five minute
journaling structure that comes from Tim Ferriss I write down three things that
I'm grateful for in the morning I write down three things that would make today
great that's essentially my to-do list things that I'm working on and I write
down three affirmations generally that's a very you know my training or
self-confidence or something about myself and I'm trying to improve at the
time that takes me five minutes very easy to do in the morning and something
that has been useful for me so just to learn how to journal and to
learn how to reflect I think that generally is not so much a process of
writing down what you're thinking it's really a way to understand what you're
thinking
in terms of the the mindset kind of situation that we're in yes we're going
to be locked inside for the most part if you aren't already you probably will be
in future and that's going to be challenging the thing for me you know I
mean day four and I realized about day three that I do need to adapt and to set
some serious kind of boundaries about what I do first thing in the morning so
having a daily movement practice first thing in the morning to go straight to
that to work on my body to work on my mind
with a lot more restriction comes a lot more freedom so many of you will
probably have to work from home in the near future and that does give you a lot
more freedom to structure your own time that is some of the positives that come
out of being locked in your own home and not really be able to leave I would love
to make a video about mental strength and how to curator's how to creators in
the future but and still at that point there is a mental strength blog post on
my blog that you can check out and I'll link to that in the description all
right that's probably not for the mindset sort of things that dive into
training what are we going to be doing without training over the next couple of
months as we see ourselves locked inside our own homes and clearly some things
are going to have to change because gyms are shut down national parks in some
cases are shut down there certainly are for me that probably will be very soon
in the United States and Canada and so things are gonna have to change with
that train I think this is a great opportunity to take a step back and have
a look at the bigger picture so what I mean by that is what are we gonna be
doing in three to five years what kind of mountains are you going to
be climbing what kind of mountain sports are you going to be doing what skills do
you want to have and so like taking a big soon down if our view of who you
want to be and what you want to be doing in three to five years this is a perfect
time to do it because usually we don't have time to make these decisions we're
rushing for a certain deadline for a trip that's coming up that you want to
get on so this is a really great chance to have a look at those long-term goals
those things that seem outrageous are the things that have been in the past
maybe you've felt like they were out of the range of what you could possibly do
now is the time to bring those things into range in that next five are three
to five years pick those goals and start working backwards from there that's
where I want to be in five so this is what I want to be doing in three
this is what I need to be doing two years or and one year from now and
optimistically speaking hopefully everything's back to normal we do have
the luxury of time in a way to step back and to assess and to test and analyze
what's working without training that's what that journaling process really
comes in handy but a lot of the time these time constraints that people have
when they start training with me very very limited you know it's like three to
six months and when we have those time constraints we need to work on the the
low-hanging fruit the aerobic capacity they lacked of strength and then also
preparing to be durable to the injury proof they're you know the top three
things on my list so with this extra time at hand a lot of that can be
analyzed at a greater level so what's happening with our deeper core strength
mobility how do our joints move of a lubricated are we injury proof are we
building stability and mobility and are we activating the smaller stability
muscles that support the greater movements and the greater muscles
because a lot of the time those muscles are asleep they activate over time from
all of us sitting that we're doing at a desk throughout the day so without the
time constraints and having to go straight into a digitally intensive
aerobic and strength building phase we can step back we can look at those
weaknesses that we all have to start addressing those we can step back and
test and analyze where they are within our body by doing things like a daily
movement practice and by doing things like stretching and movement drills to
find out where those potential limitations are so that's a really good
opportunity that we have there just to get to know our bodies a little bit
better you know and there is nothing stopping you from training at home I do
the vast majority of my training I have done for the last year and a half
I haven't had a gym membership during that time I was spent a lot of time out
in the mountains and the the rest of the training has just been done on the floor
at home using my own bodyweight and some resistance bands at most so there is so
much that you can do for your training at home and you guys have seen on my
channel there's a lot of videos every aren't bodyweight training following on
videos that I had or week them up in the description if you haven't seen them
already but all of those videos can be applied at home and when you step
outside of the gym when you move away from the weights it does provide a
challenge but also an opportunity not only to learn your own body but but also
to use our imagination in our training to learn new things to adapt to move
away from a more traditional style training into something that is
applicable with just your own body I think there's a huge opportunity and
that as well and thankfully over the last 18 months I've been doing that I've
got hundreds of videos in my programs and I'm looking forward to sharing some
of those both on the channel and obviously in my new programs that
they're coming up this year as well we talked about the physical side of
training but one of the most important aspects of training of the parents of
the mountains especially when it comes to mountaineering is just the knowledge
side of things so this is a great opportunity just to read a book I think
that 80% of the preparation for mountains comes down to what's up here
and what's in here as opposed to the physical side of things so things like
learning some theory surrounding avalanche rescue and Apple ranch danger
and getting to know different types of snow that can be really helpful learning
about snow safety practicing knots there's so many things that you can
learn that are on the rope rock climbing side of things that are very useful to
know then we've got navigating there's so much to learn on the navigation side
of things nutrition and even like exercise science
look at Killian journée who is from around this area his well known as one
of the greatest mountain runners ever he spins its own that he's not training he
he spends his time reading upping being interested in his own sport and
particularly with Exercise Science that guy reads a lot he is his own coach he
doesn't have a coach seat he has to understand all that and if you want to
take on that role for yourself as being your own coach and learning more than
understanding some exercise science just the bare minimum is super super
important I have just finished off in nine thousand word eBook then I'm
publishing in just a couple of days I'll link it up here that you can check out
soon that covers a lot of the most crucial information you need to know so
that is some extra reading that you can do in your extra down time but I would
highly encourage you to get into over the next couple of months if you end up
in a situation like it I am and the last thing that I would like to mention in
terms of training and keeping things positive and optimistic is just have a
week off this is a great opportunity for me I've been doing 67 kilometer weeks of
running I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy our service hours and just
appreciate the fact that I can't go running at least for the first week I'm
sure I'll get to you in racing okay we've talked training and we've talked
mindset let's get into gear and discuss some of the things that we can do to
prepare our gear given the situation that we're in over
the coming weeks and months ahead so I think this is a really good opportunity
to have a look in detail the gear that you have what kind of condition is it in
if this is especially important if you're a rock climber and you're relying
on you know wrote cams and nuts and all the rest of it when does it need to
really replaced when does it need to be retired and
that need to be repaired in some cases now I would recommend doing that with
rock climbing gear but you know things like how to fix that hole in your jacket
patch your own tent backpacks that you've got we can apply the extra time
that we have and this beautiful resource we have called the Internet to learn how
we can repair our own gear not only to reduce our own consumption but also just
build those skills that are really useful great time to take a stop at the
gear that we have go through it and just make sure that it's in top condition so
when all of this blows over we can go back to the mountains with gear that is
ready to go or you could you know just go climbing in your kitchen and put it
on your scrap another good thing about having all this extra time before we go
out on any kind of adventure is that you have time to do your own research not
only in terms of the trips that you're going to do which I mentioned earlier
but you've got the time to research and go shopping for just the right products
for you so I used to work in up to retail in mountain designs in Australia
and people would often be coming in at the last minute what's the best jacket
for this what's the best hiking boots for that now is a good opportunity to
learn a little bit more about gear and to do your own research and to find the
right product for you I really encourage you guys to to buy a right to buy once
even if it is a little bit more on the expensive side I think that making those
especially those big gear decisions if you buy well you buy a good quality
piece of gear that's going to last you you know 5 10 years or more then that is
100% worth it so doing the research and learning a little bit about the gear to
find the right piece of gear for you is going to be a super useful thing for you
to do with your time that you maybe would have spent out in the mountains so
I think we really have an opportunity for us as humanity to perceive life a
little bit differently to make some at - general routines that perhaps have us
on these loops that were kind of stuck in this is a really good opportunity to
kind of break out of that to do something different and I'm like I said
to kind of zoom in and look at the bigger picture we are going through a
part of history which is no doubt going to be memorable for all the wrong
reasons but I think that being present now and
understanding what we're going through to help support one another so that we
can you know hopefully get through it as as a group of people and eventually get
back to some normality and get back out into the mountains and continue the the
journey that were on together I'm hoping that this is going to be some sort of
beneficial catalyst that will push us as humans in a better direction I think
that remains to be seen but yeah there is some positives to be taken away from
this I want you to stay safe and look after one another and one more thing I
have like I said that ebook / new program coming out in the next couple of
days probably that my TV app already I'll link it up here if it's done this
is my cheapest program that I've ever at least it's only at the moment ten
dollars and it is by far the most detailed program that I've ever a waste
it is doable for absolutely everyone challenging to absolutely everyone
because of the way that it was designed so that's going to be my program that
put everybody on everyone knew from this point onwards we'll go through that as
almost like a graduation process so that is a perfect place to start is called
art elements and it will be on my website very shortly thanks for watching
guys if you've got questions comments feedback from me on this please put it
in the comment section below I look forward to reading them I read all the
comments I'll see you on Summit
there's the 3000 euro fine standing between me and the mountains
he's keeping fit though showing his followers on social media how you can
stay active in tight confines and he's got a message for friends back home
contemplating quarantine don't freak out it's really not that bad it's actually
kind of fun I get to spend more time kind of reflecting it's not clear how
long the Spanish government will maintain the isolation rules
good old chase Tucker sounds like dinner time enjoyed this win news item like tag
or share with friends