January Positive Habit Brainstorm and Challenge...

Coach Patrick

Following on the footsteps of my most recent Coach Lesson (Video and PDF here), I wanted to challenge the broader Endurance Nation community to each implement one new healthy habit for January 2019.

You can suggest any habit here, or just model your own. The more, the merrier!

Remember, habits should be SIMPLE in concept and EASY to implement. Start small and you'll build something pretty amazing by the end!

My Habit: Hip and Ankle Mobility - I've got Some serious goals and need to take care of my body so I can eventually do all the training I want to do!

I get to cheat because I work at home, but I am doing to start by doing 5' of stretching at YOLO HOUR (11:11am)...and Go from there.

How about you?????

~ Coach P

Patrick Large

Besides being healthy, body comp is the #1 challenge for me. I find that I fell so mmuch better and my body responds well (the metrics prove it) if I have little to no dinner. This isn't skimping on calories, just eating them earlier in the day.

So my habit is to eat a decent sized meal late in the day and before I leave the office. This way I will NOT leave the office hungry (or hangry) and I can enjoy a small plate/bowl of dinner with the family.

Tony Ledden

1. Take HRV reading first thing in am, enter into spreadsheet, compare 7 day rolling average to + / - .5 standard deviation of prior 30 day average in order to decide whether to switch up training days for more recovery or go hard.
2. Be present in training sessions: go hard on hard days and easy on easier days and focus on hitting training zones.
3. General Strength and Mobility 3x per week focusing on glute med work, core, and squats
4. Recovery: 8 hours sleep, post workout refuel with chocolate milk or 4:1 CHO / Protein ratio, stretch and roll (Theragun, Marc Pro).
5. Nutrition: real whole food; banana before workout; calories during workout if workout is over an hour, 3 litres per day of water; experiment with race day nutrition -- low osmo drink (EFS Pro) supplemented with EFS Liquid Shot

Dave Tallo

I will do a 2 minute eyes-closed, focus-on-breathing, calm-the-mind-and-body relaxation exercise every day.

And eat more ribs.

Al Truscott

First off, a fundamental tenet of Quality Improvement: You don't improve what you don't measure. Second, research shows that if one can successfully complete six weeks of an attempt at behaviour change, that change has a good chance of becoming permanent.

So: if it's not something you are already recording/documenting, start a simple chart to track daily efforts at whatever habit you are seeking to deploy. And commit to making it as far as Valentine's Day.

For me (see this thread: https://endurancenation.vanillacommunities.com/discussion/25449/new-years-triathlon-resolutions#latest), I am committed in 2018 to running 365 times. (Not necessarily every every day: twice daily runs will count as 2). I successfully crossed my first hurdle Jan 7, 8, 9, when I was in Santa Fe for a shindig my sister and her husband were throwing for their 25 anniversary. I had to use the hotel treadmill, amidst a party of about 50 people who were celebrating over that 2-3 day period. Next challenge will be Feb 3-21, when I'm in CO in the cold and snow to ski...

Dave Tallo

Nice point, Al. And to marry that measure imperative with coach Ps point about input (and not outcome) goals, just a tick on the calendar to say “done”, where getting strings of days ticked off begings to really be reinforcing, is huge. A story I remember ... sSienfeld attributed his success as a comic by a habit he adopted to write a joke/bit every day, NO MATTER WHAT. So days turned into weeks and then months on the calendar, so much so that the thought of missing a day was a heckuva lot harder than writing.

Francis Picard

for me it some of the habits were implemented at the end of 2018..

1) Run to work starting November 15 (that date is when bike sharing system goes down for the winter) and keep up until April 15th when bike sharing system resumes. It was a bit mayhem when I started for the first 2 weeks, where I forgot stuff at home etc, but now its all settle.

2) As a family we decided not to own a car anymore, our lease ended on Dec 20, we havent got a new car and we will try to do our part by not having a car.. we will rent when needed as my wife works 2 blocks away. We did 10000 miles in the last 4 years with the last Subaru.

3) Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time and try to get a 8h30 night sleep, considering my job its been impossible except on weekend so far, I expect to be a total fail until June but might be able to implement it after.

4) Keep strength and flexibility 10' per day exercices I have been doing since I consulted for my groin