The Flock Go The Distance Zwift Tips
On the 25th February,
I joined Danny Pecorelli, Managing Director at Exclusive Collection and Graeme Bowerbank,
Head of Rugby Operations at Harlequins for a panel discussion to focus on
sporting endurance and professional business practices and where skills and
learning points complement each other. In part of the process and
as lead in questions, I half drafted replies in a word file which I've put into
context below and extended some of the answers.
For those doing The Flock Go The Distance Everesting challenge, I am the rider who appears as "a. cyclists (GTD)", have a habit/passion for riding longer distances. I did a vEveresting and ROAM challenge in 2020 with the Covid restrictions, completed a Road Everesting in 2019 in Scoltand and I've also done various other long distance events (such as TransWales, LEL and EL). I had hoped for a stella 2020 before everything changed. With what I've done, I've put in some advice and notes to help those going into the GTD challenge and my business thoughts too. For those who prefer a video format, here's an around 10 min summary I recorded while Zwift'ing this morning. The panel discussion will be hosted through the Exclusive Collection and The Flock for the full picture.
Mental health and mental hygiene is a term increasingly associated with the pandemic. While wellness and wellbeing have been on the business agenda for some years, do you think only now companies and organisations are taking the term seriously?
Yes! I work
for ThermoFisher Scientific and they have recognised the impact and recent
HR hires are looking closely at it – specifically related to our "new
normal". Most noticeable which has been seen from the top down
is that our global CEO Marc Casper (based in North America) has become more
personable – not that he wasn't before, but through the pandemic there's more
personal, intimate and emotional language used from the highest position which
breaks a lot of the taboos. Hearing your top line CEO say that
they have found working from home tough but also immense value in sitting down
to have dinner with his family instantly connects to the rest of the work force
all doing the same or similar. Previously it had felt there is a
much bigger gulf between the Executive Leadership Team and the common
employee. The move to ELT Townhalls livestreamed globally to
all rather than a recorded message and yet another corporate branded email, has
made the company feel more as one. It's something which I
think is a practice that will long outlive Covid.
For us, the pandemic
problem is touching every employee, industry, territory, and we've a very
common problem which everyone is coping with
differently. Mental health in employment is traditionally seen
as a company specific weakness which a rival will exploit (so often hidden away
rather than discussed). If anything the mental health discussion has
brought us closer together – it's a common foe for internal and external
partners and everyone has had this massive disruption. It is
something we've become more willing to discuss with our supplier communities,
and we feedback through our HR and Employee Survey Channels. It is
going to be on our priorities list long term especially with the difficulties
of remote working and different personal lives.
Can wellness be
attributed to productivity in business / on the field?
Physical wellness can
make big contributions just by a walk around the block at home or out of the
building when at the office makes a difference. Endurance sport or a
specific class or club isn't required, just the act of moving. Just
giving oxygen to the brain and stirring up the body gives that
boost. But mental wellness is very personal and comes from many
different areas, not all of which workspaces always cater for and that is where
peer communities and interests need to be encouraged – common interests in
arts, craft, literature, sports, entertainment, gaming or anything else. Sharing
a mental health conversation between peers while discussing an interest can be
as or more impactful than meeting the HR expert in yet another Zoom meeting and
cautious to how they will respond. My immediate team always
use webcams just to see each other and arn't afraid to say "are you OK
today?"
The way which I see my balance between business and the sport fields is:
- My physical cycling contributes to my physical wellness and allows me to "do stuff."
- My family and friends contribute to my emotional wellness so I can enjoy and engage in.
- My professional mentoring and peers in my sciences, sports and business practices contributes to my mental wellness and keeps me productive
- My workplace contributes to my financial wellness (!) and overlaps with my emotional, physical and mental wellness but I don't expect it to be my sole source of wellness.
Do you see mood
affecting performance?
On endurance events, mood is extremely dynamic and it's one of the
greatest draws to the activities. I like the idea of Pandora's Box –
"at the end, the only thing left is hope." My personal endurance
goals of self-challenge is often to see how deep into the box I can get. If
you take on a massive challenge, you'll go through every emotion and mood
possible; anticipation, fear, joy, pleasure, relaxation, focus, distraction,
happiness, calm, fraught fighting, fear again, back to joy, nervousness,
exhilaration, despair, hope, accomplishment, depression, and then back to
anticipation of the next event. Letting yourself go and riding at
dusk in the calm with owls flying around you is amazing before the fear of
leaving the last town as shops close, the climbs in the wilderness starts and spots
of rain start to fall with hours and hours of riding to go until breakfast and
first light. It's what make the event a living experience rather
than going through the motions. Reaching the next morning, shaking
off the night, stowing the extra layer and riding through a town or city while
people wake up and walk to get the morning paper is the
lift. Managing the emotions and moods is one of the keys to
endurance and how you respond to challenges.
When this goes to the day job, the feel of riding before or after work
makes a firebreak between personal and professional
affairs. The feeling of turning the wheels brings me joy and
de-couples work and home life although this is harder during Covid. The
cycle commute makes me daydream of riding with owls on remote roads which is
where my endurance riding feeds that relativity of thinking "I only have
to ride 25km home in October rain, that's nothing compared to what I did in
North Wales on that race…..". Cycle commuting achieves
that easily in a way car commutes can't and that massively boosts my
productivity. It also fights depression, even in the depths of
winter where I love the feeling of riding with my dynamo light whirring on yet
another country lane, jacket keeping my chest warm and work emails can't catch
me.
Do you / your organisation take time to introspect?
This is undervalued
by far. Our leaders are high on introspect and will wax about its
value. Lower in the business we encourage and we have a lot of work
going into understanding employee emotional and physiological behaviours,
motivations and health. With future, post-Covid developments, I
hope that all business and health services build to develop more tools to
understand and cater for the range of diversities in all employees, citizens,
humans, all of us. My industry has been at high speed for over a
year now and only in the next six to nine months will we start to slow.
Other industries are our inverse. For time to be
introspective, the sooner we can tackle it, the better.
Personally, this blog
is part of my introspective process. I can waffle on, think about what's
going on while I put it into type and re-assess values, events and
actions. As I've put before, life is about learning from yourself
and from others and keeping out of your own silo. Discussing,
talking, sharing, blogging, recording this snapshot of life, all helps move on
to the next steps.
How do you deal with
a day when you feel tired?
I plan what work suits what day and then slot projects to the available spaces. I know specific days will be harder physically and mentally so I look at which tasks need interpersonal tact and avoid them when tired, and which ones I can shut out the world, put on headphones and "just do it." Rest days are very important so periodising training in weekdays and weeks minimises the tired day slump. Both nutrition and hydration mindfulness helps and sleep is vital. Apps and connected devices, even the cheapest versions, go a long way to help this.
We talk about RPE
(rate of perceived exertion) in sport and exercise - can it be applied to
business?
The process I work off is something nicknamed "The Grit Bank." I can't recall
where I picked it up from but it's the idea that you pay in and payout from the
Grit Bank and you can have credit, debit and an overdraft. How
you use them in sport and business is similar. Every action
you do that pays into the Grit account, you can withdraw at some point in the
future. You'll have maintenance fees on your account so can't just
neglect it because it will dwindle and go back to zero. Once
you become a habitual saver, it's easy. The healthier the credit
score from crediting and withdrawing from the account the better your business
and sports health will be, so you must manage the process. If you
pay in a mix of shorter high RPE efforts and a lot of low level RPE you'll
build your reserve, develop your skills and bank the effort. This
can be HIIT's and steady state riding, or it could be flash work projects and
routine baseload business development. Both of these you can
track in excel sheets, apps, files and PowerBI trackers. You can
then apply and withdraw your currency to what you want – burn brightly in a
project, race hard, faster or longer or even go into the negative and start
using the overdraft. BUT, if you burn too hard or go to fast
or too long, the account empties and the overdraft interest rates kick in –
time to stop, rest, and rebuild. The idea is to use the war
chest in the Grit Bank for the races, battles, big projects and keep bankruptcy
at bay. Although you may not share your personal financial
bank details with anyone but your partner, sharing your Grit Bank with your
sports coach, trusted friend or business mentor helps as an impartial auditor.
In sport I use various bits of tech and software to
help. RPE is extremely good but sometimes you can fool
yourself and the numbers show. If the TSS score is too high to
manage and the RPE is pushed to the limit, something snaps. If the
Grit Bank both physically and mentally runs out it's time to stop before damage
kicks in. If you approaching an event with a very high Grit Bank,
then you'll peak at just the right time and the RPE feels so much lower for the
same performance.
In business I know key projects kick in each autumn and this is when you
want a healthy Grit Account before starting that process – clear the decks,
build the reserve, hand over tasks to focus and burn bright on task needed and
if you complete at a positive balance sheet that’s a bonus. If
you need the overdraft, it’s there but you should have built enough credit in
the account first. Never start the task already in the red!
Considering the
importance of team work in business / on the field how do you ensure everyone
is in tune with the same goal/outcome?
This is where my endurance cycling side splits from a lot of normal cyclist’s expectations! I am passionate about solo, self-support endurance style of riding. If you're thinking of professional cycling with team cars, sponsors, support teams, analysts and micro-nutrition counted to the last calorie I'm the opposite end of the scale. I typically don't club ride, I don't have a fast sprint or lightning fast climb or fastest bike, I'm more interested in big solo effort. The events I enjoy by far the most are events where it is checkpoint marker, any route events and between those checkpoints, you're on your own. You have to find food and water on route, fix any punctures and carry any clothes and lights you'll require.
My cycling team is more myself, my wife and immediate family, a few
close friends and lose bag of other crazies out there who support
me. The importance of team work is a little different as my support
team is less direct during the hardest phases while they log or track me and
understand that parts of me will go through a lot of hardship which isn't
personal to them - my own goals are my responsibility, but if I fail in them or
have an extremely tough time, I don't blame the team or lash out at them (or at
least try not too!). At the same time, my wife isn't afraid of
asking if what I am doing is right or wise. I'll save the
horror stories for some other time!
For my professional life, the ideas of team objectives vastly contrast! Compared to cycling where I am selfishly the solo rider and center of my own performance, professionally I am a team member within the group lead by a director. My role is to liaise and communicate between suppliers and commercial teams, develop strategies and work them into revenue generation and seamless customer transactions. To be frank, I'm still improving and learning in my role - it will always be a learning curve as the world changes and keeping pace is part of the job. As a team, we each have our strengths and weaknesses but build the business as a group. In contrast to being a solo effort in the saddle, my position in the workplace is domestique to the team leader and we all share the responsibilities and report upwards. I work my own groups, have overlaps with others, co-ordinate handovers, raise, flag and address problems and curate the companies position.
To keep everyone in
the same focus, our company has a strong directional method from the top down
and even willing to change course when required (such as walking away from an
acquisition). Our goal tree then breaks down to manageable branches and
then to the task level. We will always have conflicts, but work
through PPI's and projects to complete them resolves these easily in much the
same way a field sports team operates to the same objective - very different to
my cycling mindset but the same in unit methods.
How have you built
you own endurance mindset?
Always learning. Never stop listening and learning from
others. Work out what type of learner you are and then never stop
adventuring and learning. I have an immense amount of curiosity and
dreaming of the next evolution or challenge. I learn from a mix
of peer mentoring and experience. I find that if I read, or I've
been told or shown how to do it, I may be able to mimic it, be inspired or
think about the process but never master of "know" it. If
I do it, experience the process and know what it feels like, then it sticks and
next time I know what to expect and what to do or not do. I find the
ways that work from me but understand that others have their own
ways. One of my biggest personal breakthroughs was finding out
that both personally (endurance cycling) and professionally (EU Category
Manager) other voices who stop me being my own isolated
island. Hearing and exchanging stories, ideas, processes, and views
takes you away from being the only person in the fight and facing both the positive
and negative aspects becomes easier. Post event depression,
pre-event fears, insurmountable work tasks, silly mistakes made then aren’t
just yours but a known facet of the activity. Then it becomes all
about owning the mindset and practice. Time and practice
builds the endurance and sharing what you've done formally or informally
consolidates it. In business this is often communications and
sharing best practice. In sport it can be helping others but also
blogging and find a way of recording it.
The advent of
apps like Strava, Training Peaks and even Zwift means we can see how our bodies
are faring. How reliant are you on gut feel vs the metrics.
I use Strava as social (free!) because I love seeing friends and family
doing activities – ranging from nieces and nephews doing baby steps walks
through to close friends doing ultra-distance events running and
cycling. I like to have a connection to the person in some way and
see it as a diary of my activities. Strava tells personal stories.
I have used TP but have been a fan of Intervals.icu, GoldenCheetah and
VeloViewer for a number of years.
Intervals and GC tells me the numbers without me trying to lie to
myself. If I think I've hit it out the park but the power meter
tells me I never woke up, I can't fudge it. I can then see if I've
gone into over training, prime condition or can push
harder. I've had a couple of health concerns and seeing where
these have hit relative to going into the red, I can then work out when to pull
back.
Veloviewer is fantastic for the exploration, planning and recording
where your adventures have been or when to avoid next time.
For numbers v's feels (RPE), a huge variable in endurance especially as
the time frames get longer is the conditions and mental robustness that the
data tracking sites don't show. On a 400km ride that I
scrubbed at over 300km, my numbers look OK for HR, cadence, power etc, but the
speed was low. What the data doesn't show is the headwinds and
navigation trouble I had; then riding into more hills with sudden steep
gradients in the night; not fully confident on the traffic around me and my
lights batteries playing on my mind; and just feeling that the bike was too
heavy; I lacked water and couldn't find an open shop to replenish and my mental
state was going from "I've got this" to questioning "how can I
do this?" At that point I did (reluctantly) stop and find
shelter, but mentally, that decline was already slipping down the slope.
Little of that shows in the .gpx file of HR, cadence numbers, time,
elevation gain and temperature. There is a lot of quantitative data
and sites are good for that but the qualitative data comes to photos, writing
it down, discussing, talking etc and then learning where to be human, where to
push harder, where to be super-human and where to admit that you've just had a
very off period.
I've learnt for next time.
Alex – we are looking
to summit Everest on Zwift . You’ve already done it – what tips can you give us
all?
It is enjoyable! It's is a challenge – if it was that
easy, Flock wouldn't be setting it as a focus and target so expect to be
tested. So share the experience, make it fun, smile and keep a
positive mindset for both training and the attempts. This is
likely to be something outside of your work life so see it as a window of group
challenging fun, not a chore to add to the endless Teams meetings we are in
these days. So my advice:
1) Contact points –
buying stuff has a limit but it certainly helps. Decent (not massively
expensive!) cycling shorts are your friend, and ride commando.
They're designed to be ridden without knickers on and this also means no
worries about bunching or VPL. They are comfier that way and
designed for it. You are on a static bike so may not think mitts will
help, but if you're going to have pressure on your wrists for a long time, have
that bit of padding handy. And get used the feelings and
tweak. The time to try your shorts on is earlier in training, not
the days before when you find the seam "sits in just the wrong
place."
2) Bike position – book a
bit of time with a set of Allen keys and your bike on the turbo.
The intention is to find the sweetest, most comfy and sustainable
position. Moves saddles back and forwards, tilt it in different
ways, raise and lower the seat post until you find that spot.
Tweak handlebars too. IF the saddle is really not getting on with you,
consider switching it. Your bum is extremely personal and no matter
how many reviews you'll read or recommendation, a saddle is a very personal choice.
A £300 saddle of the wrong style can be hell compared to a £20 saddle that
works with you. Then in the weekly Wednesday night ride, try it for a
full ride and see how it feels. If it's obviously wrong, change it.
If it is right, get used to it and you will find the future training and event
a lot easier!
3) Time and pace – If you
are doing the Alpe on Zwift you're likely to be riding anywhere from an hour to
2.5hrs per accent. As you get use to longer times sat in the saddle, it
gets a lot easier! The hills have features which helps to make
noticeable staging points – ignore the finish line, chunk the ride it to
smaller parts and aim just for the chunk. The hairpins in general have an
easier, flatter pit on the corners which allows you to rest the legs again.
Use these to your advantage. If you are doing multiple climbs, even your
pace to something with a sustainable RPE for all of the climbs and the descent
is your recovery period – eat, drink, fuel, wiggle about, shake out lactic
acid, send a tweet, message friends, send selfies, order a JustEat, give Ride
On's, refill water bottles, see how others are doing………. On the
next accent, get comfy, find your natural rhythm, use the gears and keep
going. Time flies quicker than you expect on each
accent. Just makes sure that before starting each climb, you have
recovered as much as you can. Celebrate each and every
time anyone in your team gets to the top!
4) Gears – there are two
schools of thought: spinning at high rpm and grinding at a low rpm to
climb. Whichever works for you, makes sure your bike has a low enough
gear should you need it. There is nothing worse than hitting the lowest
gear and finding there's nothing easier below it and you have an enormous task
ahead. This only comes from experience which you will pick up as the
weeks go on. If you need to go for a bigger cassette or lower gears,
better to be prepared earlier than later.
5) Get your friends and family
involved – (erm…….in a Covid safe way….). I did the v8848
in March 2020 solo and cycled on to 24hrs/10,000m and >500km. My
family had a BBQ in the back garden, my cycling friends were on Whatsapp and
meme's were shared, my brother abused me via messenger as normal, my kids
watched Star Wars with me, I tweeted others, my work mates called and cheered
me on (virtually) and although alone in the challenge and turning the legs, the
event was very positive.
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