 I think we are live. How is everybody doing? Let me just make you up to big screen. Okay I'm assuming other people are going, yes we have Laura. How is everybody doing? Is everyone well? All the participants, I was expecting, I think it's so funny I was expecting like voices in my head to be like, yeah it's really well because that's what I'm expecting from everybody watching. Yeah I'm just chat going, people are typing away. I love it, we've got some, we've got a lot of people joining us today so I'm just going to move you down here but do you know what, let's just, here we go, oh Joe Bradshaw, amazing, fantastic. I'm just catching it as it comes in. Hi everyone, so Langley Wether, first one to walk around Wales. I forget I'm waving and people can't actually raise their hands. That's what we love to hear. Oh it's amazing, oh it's Donna, oh Donna, so Donna is a member of my community and it is five o'clock in the morning I think in Australia. Tuning in some very fast. Well done Donna. And Allian Aimee, I hope you both are well. So Allian Aimee just started a new podcast as well called Live Life Differently which is absolutely amazing. Tell a language, cycle the language. Got Fiona, Allian Kendall, nice, beautiful Lake District. Yeah, Aimee, yeah, let us know where you're calling. Yeah, where is everyone? I'll tell you where I am then Laura, you can tell them where you are. So I'm currently in the northwest of England, a little place called the Wirral, I'm very close to the beach and I was just, today it was beautiful blue skies, it was still a little bit chilly outside but it was glorious and Laura where are you? I'm in Essex, we've got no beach and it wasn't quite so sunny but that's fine, that's absolutely fine. Oh we've got London, New Forest, London, Dundee, Gotland, Bristol, Oh another Gotland, love it. Okay, so I'm excited about the Scots in the room. I was literally just like oh my god we're getting too excited, we're just everybody joining us and we haven't even started the conversation. I know it's very exciting, very exciting. But no honestly amazing to have you all here tuning in, it's going to be such a jam packed, fun, filled live session. Laura actually probably knows an incredible adventurer and I'm going to get her to introduce herself, oh my god it's like I'm doing a podcast. I know it does feel a bit like a podcast. Tell everybody a little bit more about you and then but you're here, we're going to be talking about endurance and mental resilience. So Laura just go on tell everybody, give some people the highlights. Cool so I think a few of you might know me already but for those that don't I am an endurance athlete, adventure athlete kind of interchangeable terms for me and specialised in self propelled adventures really. So kayaking, bit of swimming, mostly cycling at the moment but I have done some running as well. Anything long distance, self propelled. I think it's a good speed to travel at and that's where my passion lies, kind of unlocking the endurance capabilities of the human body and exploring the world normally. I love it and Laura's done some amazing rides from the wild Atlantic way to the great north great north ride. Yeah so North Sea Cycle Route that one is. That sounds good. So my I suppose like my little my little endurance trips, a couple of them are marathon to sub so running a few of you in the comments may have heard of it, you may have done it, you may want to do it, you may not but running six marathons and six days across the Sahara Desert, the longest distance was 52 miles which was pretty brutal. The year after that like through White Yappellation Trail, 2,190 miles in 100 days and then I cycled down Pacific Coast Highway which was about 4,000 kilometers from Vancouver all the way down to Cabo San Lucas. So we are going to be sharing, we are going to be sharing our top tips, our knowledge, what we have learned from doing these big endurance challenges and talk to you about mental resilience. So I'm going to kick off the conversation because we obviously can't ignore the elephant in the room because I know a lot of people are at home, you're probably doing too many of these Zoom conversations but the world has changed drastically over the last year with COVID. So there's been tough times, there's been lockdowns, there's been a lot of changes happening. So Laura is going to hopefully, not hopefully, is going to share more about yeah let's talk about, let's talk about the differences between going on adventures and then dealing with COVID like how can we apply some of the lessons learned to that. Yeah I think it's interesting actually because I think there are some similarities for sure. One of the similarities I guess is you know it's dragged on a bit, Stephanie gone on the novelty has worn off and there's a lot of that I think that happens on an endurance adventure you know you reach that point where you're just a bit over it and you would quit if you can and I think that one of the big differences I guess so that's maybe one of the similarities, one of the big differences I guess is that you choose to be on an adventure you know even when the times are really rough I can sit there and be like well you know I did choose this and both however have caused me to dip into my reserves financially and emotionally you know I'm sure a lot of you guys can relate to that as well and I guess a perk is that the food and hygiene situation is better in lockdown than it is on an adventure so swing them around about there but I definitely think there's you know a lot of resilience lessons that have crossed over from slogging it out on the bike for 11 hours a day to getting through this tough few months we've had as well for sure. Yeah I was gonna say hi Jean I was thinking oh no I think mine might have dipped a little bit like it's like maybe like once a week if I'm lucky. I think overall I probably smell better though. At least I have children. Yeah food is definitely better. I mean let's talk about that a little bit more so with like the exercise and doing these challenges you know when you've gone out you're doing these long days you know sometimes riding on your bike for like eight hours at a time what's going through your head when you're doing these long big challenges? I think a lot of the time actually is very peaceful and I think this is one of the things I've missed certainly from spending a lot of time outside is that you escape of it you know you're spending way less time in front of your screens and you're just focused on the scenery so for me it's just really like this mental clarifying process because you're really present and as cheesy as it sounds you know you're super focused on where you are on taking in what's going on you know your immediate world becomes so much smaller it's like where can I eat and where am I going to sleep tonight and is the bike or are my muscles are they all working you know it just your world becomes much smaller and much simpler and I think that's actually something that I've missed over the last few months that you haven't had that kind of escape and I've been very much connected you know through zooms and everything else and spending a lot more time in front of a laptop than usual I think we all have because even our social interactions have kind of got a bit more digital so yeah actually in terms of what I normally think about on the road it's I'd love to say it's really profound but a lot of the time it's probably just about kind of where I can get some food what I know how hungry I am it's kind of mindless and that just peaceful the piece that comes from being so tired as well and kind of exploring somewhere new it can be it's very simple I'm sure people have experienced this it's very sort of this simple way of living and I I really enjoy like the time to like deeply reflect which is I think sometimes we don't really get that in normal life we're either so busy moving from one thing to the next whereas actually when you're just on the road and you just sort of yeah you have time to kind of let these ideas percolate as well you know if you've got like a long stretch ahead of you know you're going to be in the road all day you're not going to be interrupted by phone calls you know times like that are when I kind of think that I'm planting some seeds for some ideas in the future and I think well maybe what what do I want life to look like in a few years you know maybe I want to run a farm or maybe I want to do all this kind of cool stuff and that's when the big ideas start to germinate because you have faith to let them to let them grow I think one of the one of the one of the interesting topics that I'd love to talk about a little bit more and hopefully you will as well is it's around motivation so it can be when you've got like a big goal like a big challenge it's it can be quite easy to almost I'm saying this from my perspective but you know self motivation to get up to get going motivation during lockdown I have to say for me it's been a little bit like this some days I like surprise myself with how much I've achieved and then other days it's literally like oh my god I've brushed my teeth and that is about it but I'd love for you to share a little bit more about motivation and that classic question you know how do you say motivated yeah motivation for me is a really interesting topic because largely I have to say I think it's a bit overrated um and the reason say what the reason I say that is because um going back to the idea of an endurance challenge I can tell you if I've got to get up at five in the morning and I've got a big day ahead of me I don't feel motivated like motivation doesn't even come into it you know there is not a morning in hell I want to just get out my sleeping bag and hit the road and I don't think it's motivation that gets me up and gets me Adam I think it's two more important things one of them is discipline and one of them is habit and that's certainly true for lockdown my motivation has done this just like anyone else's you know I'm not I don't consider myself much more motivated than other people but I do rely a lot on habits so for example if I don't train it feels weird like I get to about midday because I always train in the morning I get to about midday and it just starts to feel really like antsy like something's missing from my daily routine you know it's a bit like I think of motivation like brushing your teeth like I don't ever wake up pumped I'm like yes it's time to brush my teeth I don't ever go to bed like yes so can't wait like it's brushing time no I don't but I do it because there's consequences and I think that actually we've kind of overlooked the physical benefits quite a lot you know when we need to move and that's how I think of it in lockdown especially like it's different if I'm training for for something that's kind of a separate motivation but in terms of just general well-being and getting through a pretty horrendous pandemic situation I think it comes down to something much more simpler and that it's just a form of self-care like brushing your teeth is a form of self-care you don't want to get cavities you don't want your muscles to be all out of joint especially because we're all like our laptop so much you know moving going for a walk has never been more important you're a hundred percent I think it's one of those interesting things because I sometimes I think people can look at me and think oh my god she's um she's so motivated I do think I'm very motivated but other times I think I'm one of the laziest people that you can ever imagine but I do think I'm a disciplined lazy person as in I know what I've got to do right when I've got to do it let's get it done let's get on it yeah but let's sort of dig a little bit deeper into the into these habits and I think one of the reasons for doing this it's not so that people can copy your schedule exactly but this is about sort of picking and choosing what bits can I apply to my life what habits um you know am I doing good or good to me what habits maybe I need to improve upon and get a little bit better so habits do you have do you have a morning routine do you have an evening routine yeah my morning routine is a bit more flexible I have to say so it has some general components like I make sure I exercise in the morning um and that's just for me it's a good way to start my day I try not to check my phone I try and have the first couple of hours of just focusing on whatever training I'm doing or if I'm not training for something just doing a bit of yoga whatever it is like I just that's that's how I always kickstart my days um evening is a bit more dialed in I find that I really love my evening routine actually um because I struggle to sleep without it um so my evenings are usually pretty pretty set um I try not to have tech after eight o'clock of tonight is a wonderful exception um but yeah my phone goes away about eight o'clock usually um and the last couple of hours of my evenings are spent reading so I try and put screens away I don't watch Netflix or anything like that for the last couple of hours I spend the last couple of hours you know just just writing anything down that I need to for tomorrow clearing the brain um and reading and I find that that helps me sleep oh my god you what that is so good I've got to be very careful with myself with Netflix because I know that if I start watching something then I'm done like I'm watching the full series I have like a I have a cut off like eight o'clock because you can kind of go either side of that a bit but it definitely means by nine o'clock you know I'm well on my way to to being to sleep I like to go to like at least be in bed by ten um like ten thirty eleven like and that but if it goes past eleven I feel outrageous if I'm up at eleven o'clock I I mean my 20 year old self would be like cringing at this but but yeah like I it's that's what I was saying earlier it's a habit so it starts every now and then it's fine but it starts to feel odd if you go outside of that so what book are you reading at the moment any top tips any books that people should be reading yeah I'm reading what is it called it's I think it's called occasional magic and it's a collection of short stories you know there's moss um it's an American I think based I've only just kind of downloaded it two days ago so I'm a bit hazing on details but it's a collection of short stories from people it's achieving extraordinary things it's all these wacky weird really cool stories um it's called occasional magic oh I love I think we all need a bit of magic in our life for them that moment in time really lovely so okay I say um you're reading a good book at the moment which you think other people should be reading yeah I love book recommendations please do let me know yeah pop them in the comments and I'm going to start trying to read a little bit more in the evening because I know that I am bad with my screens it's so easy though isn't it well you know that's I think that's why I put in the eight o'clock thing because we do it without realizing like you just sit there scrolling and you're like what the hell are you doing stop it stop it just just like my posts um just keep following me Laura do you follow everyone yeah exactly one of the great things that um is about habit building so when you can sort of nail one habit you can then sort of start adding on the rest so for me that's and this is going to sound really ridiculous but it's it's drinking water I know that if I'm drinking enough water I'm going to have a much more productive day because I'm just going to be healthier I know that sounds weird but I can add on more stuff to my day but what would be like one of your top habits favorite habits you know that really works for you that when you're doing it you feel amazing drinking water um I can offer a really cheesy one actually um this is something I started doing maybe eight years ago now when I was in a job that I absolutely hated really struggling um I started doing a gratitude list every night and I'm rolling my eyes as I say it because like it just sounds so cheesy and I know it sounds like but it's for me it's such an important way to end the day um and it becomes even more important in times like this because you know I'll have a really awful day um and actually just making a list of three things that I can be grateful for I just find helps me reframe it that actually there was a pocket of goodness in that day that otherwise I would totally overlook before I go to bed and I do I do it on adventures as well like I do a mental list and again I find it really helps because if I've been battered by the elements all day and I've run out of food and I'm eating like a stale wrap for dinner and I make myself find something you know that's gone well and actually I just I just find it helps refocus it through a bit of a different lens um and that again I guess that helps the motivation because a lot of motivation slips when you just start to feel like things are spiraling down um but if you celebrate your little wins and you celebrate something you have to be grateful for I do think it kind of adds up and it helps oh my god massively I I remember when I was on the Appalachian Trail on the Appalachian Trail they have these white blazes on the trees which you follow through the woods and you're walking through it's sometimes called the green tunnel as you're walking through and you can actually feel yourself sometimes going into that like sort of negative sort of spiral it's like oh my god it's cold it's wet my feet are hurting I've still got miles to go and for me to flip the switch in my head was gratitude and so every time I saw a white blaze I'd be like right what can I be grateful for today I love that whether it my favorite one was like I've still got a snickers bar to eat it's like you know it's always food it's always food I try I try not to make it always about food but the food on it just does rape pretty highly oh god yeah and in lockdown but no I think because you know our brains are actually wired to look for the negative and I find this my default state especially if there's something going on like if there's a big project that I'm working on I find this is why I keep a journal next to my bed and I try and keep screens away because the last thing that my brain decides to do really helpfully before I go to bed is come up with all the things that can go wrong so for example when I was preparing for the Great North Ride and I was I was just lying there when I'd been like oh what if I can an army of rats like invades my tent and there's like hundreds of them what would then happen and I'm sat there being like that's really not a good time to be contemplating this so yeah again like that gratitude thing just kind of quietens down that bit of your brain that's wired to look for stress as a survival mechanism do you know I'm just gonna I'm just gonna add on to that because this is actually one of actually Ali Mahoney Johnson who is watching a mother panelist she first got me started because I heard I give a talk at the women adventure expo one of the things that she talked about was doing something called a what if list so I love we'll take your example what if I do you know a hundred rats do sort of enter my tent what do you do about it and it can end up you know freaking out when it's going around and around in your head and one of my practical things is literally getting a pad of paper a piece of paper laura light laura light laura line down the centre and the left hand side that's when you write down all of these yeah these what is you know yeah what if I lose lose my backpack what if I run out of food what if I run out of water it's getting out your head isn't it yeah so important yeah but but then the follow on is actually is filling out the right hand side column but I do that how I do that is I would like sit in a bath have a glass of wine sit so I really come to them but I'm really contemplate the answer you know what would I do if the if a hundred rats did enter my tent or what would I do if I faced the bear and then I sit down and write it out but that's so powerful your brain is then actually going through it in your head yeah definitely like I do the same actually so I have this um notebook next to my bed and anything like that pops up I write it down and like okay so with that I can logistically work out what that is you know like what like this broke and I'm like well reasonably I can fix something or I can find someone to fix it you know there's there's a logical answer for it and then also I think it's really important to write it down because in a more logical when you go to go through it and do what you're doing you're talking about going through it you can also remind yourself of the likelihood of that actually happening um so when I first my first trip cycling cross island I was like oh what if the serial killer like it's just lurking and it's like cool what do we think the the actual statistics are for that scenario and it's like good reminder good reminder really really low I remember when one of mine mine came through but I didn't have quite the reaction that I should have done it was so when I was on the Appalachian trail I was walking along you know my own little world and then a baby bear little bear cup I know that's the reaction I had I was like oh it's so cute like the cutest bear ever quickly followed like two seconds later by like oh no well okay right think back to my list what do I do when a bear's here okay walk back slowly make some noise between the bear and the bear cup we're covering off we covered off sort of you know motivation we've broken that down into do you know it's about discipline it's about habits and these these are all fantastic but sometimes you can be in a rut you can be in a in a little bit of a hole you can be in a place where you don't necessarily want to be and I think one of the interesting things for me is it's like how do you take that first step to to get out of the rut and I'd love to hear your advice of people who are you know stuck in a rut yeah it's so easily done I think especially at the moment I think that's a big thing right now because all the things I mean personally for me all the things that I normally do to get re-inspired aren't really possible you know lots of us we're just kind of literally stuck which is rut conducive isn't it it's very conducive for getting yourself in a rut um so for me there's a couple of things really I think take that first step whatever it is like if it's if it's a one percent of what you want to do so say one of your you want to get back into running um just go for a walk you know just start however small you need to start just do a token gesture towards it a big one for me when I used to struggle to get up in the mornings and actually still do this is I tell myself I can just do the first five ten minutes I can come home if I want to so I'm like okay you don't have to do the whole bike ride just just go out for ten minutes if you still want to quit after ten minutes you can come home I would say nine times out of ten by the time you're out the door you won't you won't want you won't need to come back you'll have already broken that habit um but lying to yourself and telling yourself that you can come back after ten minutes is quite helpful um something else I think can be really powerful is make a list I've obviously loveless don't worry people answer to anything make a list um but maybe take some time and write out why that is important to you so like I want to get back into running why does it matter why does it matter and what are the consequences if you don't follow through so like if you want to get back you'd be like oh I need to be healthier and actually I'm starting to notice that my health is suffering my mental health is suffering you know and then you're faced with the consequences of not doing it and all the reasons why and I think it's really important to check in with that initial kind of impulse why you wanted to start something and then I guess um this goes back to what I said just kind of taking that first bit just break it down you know it's that age-old thing of how is a marathon run it's run one step at a time um you know and I think you just have to give yourself permission to to start and without seeing the end in mind you know something is always better than nothing and I think that as soon as you start the feel good factor of having broken that will then actually build some momentum and get it going yeah I do know one of the things that works for me um and you know I'd love you all to try it and let me know what you think is is I don't know sometimes people have these certain songs which just like you know you hear them it's like and like it just raises your heartbeat and your energy and you're just like dancing like this a good playlist and a list is me off to the races oh my god we're taking lists to play list but like I think it's about sort of changing the state and changing 100 so find a good playlist or find a good song put it on have a good in your pajamas I was gonna say one of one of my tips for getting out running and this is going to be good for me next month because I'm doing um run one mile every day in March challenge and um sometimes I know that when I wake in the morning I can't even be bothered say to put my running gear on sometimes I'll actually sleep in it the night before so when I wake up it's like I'm good to go let's go for a run no excuses then you're literally in the gear I love that so to say we've got we've having by the way thank you everybody for your book recommendations yeah I'm loving this they are fantastic I keep being like oh there's no one that'll be good that'll be good but we are going to be answering questions from you as well so I've got a question here it's from from Megan so thank you so much Megan so this is a great question with the unpredictability of the last 12 months has it been difficult to motivate yourself to plan the next adventure knowing it might not happen when you want it to um so that's question yeah I'll read it all so how do you cope with plans changing um and you know my motivation has fluctuated so much particularly over the last few weeks and it's exhausting Megan I totally agree it is exhausting so let me just go back to that question so um has it been difficult to motivate yourself to plan the next adventure knowing it might not happen when you want it to and how do you cope with plans changing oh yeah I mean wow there's what what a year um it has been incredibly difficult um I think I said this when we spoke earlier in the week there is a the year I had planned versus the year that I got um you know was was really something and there is that you know I think it's really important to acknowledge when the curve ball hits and when it really hits and it wipes the wind out of you and you know I think it's really important to not try and gloss past that and to allow yourself some time to adjust that you had this big amazing plan um that this pandemic wiped out or whatever it is and I have I have personally found it I've had that moment of being like oh I'm trying to plan for this I don't know what's what's going to happen um and I think the only coping strategy really that I've relied on consistently is one you just got to focus on the next bit um so I've made some plans I mean in some ways it's been easier after the initial hit of lockdown because the first thing that when it happened in March it was completely blindsided and I was like wow that's just wiped out my entire year this time I'm I've made plans and all the rest of it but I'm kind of half-tentatively being like well if that has to move it might have to move so I'm kind of got half an eye on the news headlines so I'm kind of already in a better place than I was this time last year um and just I think all you can do is take one day at a time um as cheesy as that sounds but you know actually although this is a really extreme example none of us really we can make plans none of us really know if they're ever going to happen so this has just been like a masterclass in adjusting to when life throws you curveballs left right and center um for me personally I've taken the last few months to really reconsider um and I've been like is this something that I still is an arena I still want to work in is this something that I'm doing um and luckily I've I've navigated my way through that um but I don't think that's a process that can be rushed I think you have to give yourself time to adjust and just then because there've been times when I felt completely overwhelmed bringing it back into that you know okay what can I do today I don't know what I can do next month but I know what I can do today I know what I can do to make today a better day um and that's actually been a bit more of a focus than oh what amazing endurance challenge can I do in a couple of months it's like well let's just actually focus on today let's see you know if I can shut my gremlin down today and what can I do in the meantime because it is a you know it's an unprecedented time isn't it um sorry yeah I know I know um but yeah I think you have to allow yourself to go through it and then just trust that nothing lasts forever um yeah I don't know if that answers the question but I guess it's like on a challenge when you're having a really difficult day um I break it down into the next mile the next you know the next town the next and I think that's something that I've been doing a lot throughout this as well I said my answer when I think about it and and this might sound a little bit weird but it's made me realise like how much I enjoy like planning and looking at different types of adventures so I actually start I like I do like the research side of things you know when I start to think about you know for example like the Tuora trail in New Zealand and then I like watching the YouTube videos and I found a couple of people who've you know done it before and I've read their books and listened to a few podcasts and then I basically I give myself permission to dream and to think about it and to imagine myself sort of out there but on the flip side I'm also being very realistic you know if it happens it happens fantastic if it doesn't yeah that's okay too because I can still really enjoy this whole process of wanting to do this and gear I think I've gotten much better at not being attached to it so when it first hit this time last year I had like all my hopes pinned on this thing that was happening in the year that I had planned out and um as I said like that made it really difficult this time round I'm I'm already kind of less attached and I'm trying to be a bit more flexible with it and I'm like okay what are my options so I've got about five different plans that I think will work for about five different levels of whatever is going on um so yeah it's a lesson in adaptability isn't inflexibility which I guess is is good anyway yeah and and like you know the second part of that question was around like plans changing and I think sometimes it comes down to you've actually got no control over a lot of things like you know if you imagine you know when you're when you're out in you know if you're out in the mountains and or you're out hiking or cycling or something then sometimes what you can control really comes back to you and your mindset and you know what's going on and Jo Bradshaw actually had a great tip which I learned from from Jo when she was climbing Mount Everest which was and I hope I say this right now it's about um attitude over altitude oh I love that I hope I've said that right it's basically it's about your your attitude and your view and thinking okay well how can I react to this situation you know yes I can get angry annoyed up you know upset frustrated or you can take the lessons from it and take the positives from it so um I mean I think yeah I think I'm a big fan of always trying to find something like find the pocket I've been calling them pockets of goodness over the last few months and I you know whatever they are I've been really trying to seek them out like actively which again goes back to the gratitude thing like I I really find that very helpful and actually Rachel has just said you know how she had to cancel some plans and that led to her discovering some you know incredible things locally but more locally and I think that's really worth highlighting too you know actually there are some plus I did it like a bike ride last year that I would never have done um otherwise you know it has taught me to kind of re-appreciate and rethink a few things like that absolutely and the last part of Megan's Megan's question was a sort of around exhaustion and I want to link this to um to stress basically because it has been Jo I'm not gonna lie it's been stress not it's been relentless I'm sure but I'd love for you to talk more about stress dealing with this stress like how yeah yeah I think thanks so much for bringing this up Sarah so I think stress is such an important topic um and it goes back to the stress cycle um that I think we all kind of have heard about once or twice and then kind of tentatively know about it but forget about it but um I found myself pretty burnt out in December so I did a lot of research into stress and the the term burnout um and so it comes back to the stress cycle which is a little recap um back back in the day when we're chasing around you know if we we came into into contact with a sabertooth tiger so that's that's a stressful situation um yeah so we have we have the three responses right so we either have the fight response which is like I'm gonna take on the tiger like let me add him we're gonna fight we're gonna we're gonna run away or one that I hadn't actually heard of which is freeze um so I knew about fight or flight and I didn't know about freeze and freeze is basically our last ditch resort so if you've ever been watching an Attenborough documentary and you see the gazelle just go limp in the jaws you know it's realized it's can't run it can't fight and it it's nervous literally shuts down as the best is to play dead um what then happens after each of those three stress things um you either run it off or you get back and you have this physical reaction if you've ever seen anyone come out of a surgery as well um their their body will start to twitch and that's because they've been induced into the freeze part of that stress response um the roundabout way of me saying this is that stress obviously results in a physical stress response in the body so we're talking about all those stress chemicals that flood our system either to run away to fight or you know just shut down and the thing I think we forget is that that then needs a physical response to let your body know that the stress has gone which is something I didn't think that I really paid enough attention to you last year because obviously we're getting bombarded with stress a lot at the moment and we're not labelling it um as stress because it's just we're watching the news and we can feel we're getting a bit anxious but that's the last we think of it um and that then that then obviously accumulates in the body so I think one of the reasons I am so keen to advocate you know moving your body is because it's the most effective way to signal that the stress has passed it's the most effective way to ditch those stress hormones the other things you can do are kind of let it out you can just have a cry or have a scream whatever but it needs to be physical you know with physical beings and like just kind of watching this and then trying to ignore it isn't going to do it that's stress the stress hormones and stress chemicals sorry build up into your body and that's when you burn out because it will just it will completely weigh you down so I think it's really important to remember that you need a physical reaction to the physical symptoms the physical thing of stress um like doing anything creative does it breathing is a really important way to do it but again it needs to you know you need to match physical with physical um which was a big learning for me last year someone's um notice uh someone's mentioned the chimp paradox really great book another one I can recommend is a book called burnout um which is one I really enjoyed last year but um yeah it's really important I think to not underestimate the stress that comes from this situation um because it's it's kind of just simmering in the background um kind of omnipresent and we don't think of it because we haven't had like an acute stress situation um but yeah it's still it's still kind of builds up in the body system which I think is really interesting I mean one of the things that you talked about there is the power of exercise and James has asked um a really great question which says James wants to know is do you exercise every day some days I just can't do it but no I'll feel better do you make it a habit to exercise every day I do I do um not every day is like a hardest nail session on the bike sometimes it's just like once a week I it's just over and a walk um and I think that's the most important thing um for me like I'm I train quite hard because at the moment I'm training for something and you know I it makes me feel better anyway I quite like that but um taking all that to one side I actually don't think it really matters what you do um you know if yoga's your thing do some yoga obviously I hope the gyms and stuff open up soon because I know a lot of people you know it's hard to find the motivation to work up from home as well I can I completely understand that that takes a whole another level like I feel like I live my life in this room it's where I train it's where I work you know so I get that um but yeah absolutely um I just think doing anything is always better than nothing um and again just do it with that kind of five minutes in mind like I really don't feel like doing this okay so today I'll just do 10 minutes and I do this with my walks like I'm really over the same lap that I've been doing like the local walk um but I make myself do it in five minutes in I'm like yeah this was a good idea actually um it's the same same lap but still good to get outside I have to say so I wish I could say that I exercise every day and unfortunately it's sometimes it's just not the case because um my bad habit is because I work for my bed and my laptop is down on the right hand side so I wake up and I literally grab my laptop put it up because I I basically I don't like sitting behind there so I actually work lying in my bed lying down which I'm pretty sure about I love it my bed is amazing it's my really comfortable having anyway getting away from my bed and focusing on exercise so I mean what what I've um for me I've broken it down to almost two things that one of them is something is better than nothing uh 100 yeah like the even and this we you know we've got a kettlebell here sometimes I just go in I do 15 20 kettlebell right yeah until my glutes start to hurt and then I'm like you know I've done something yeah the other thing a bit random um it's sometimes when I'm walking up the the stairs and I'm like okay I really haven't done the exercise I will drop onto the stairs so I'm on the stairs and I will do some push ups while I'm waiting another random one which you can all try tonight when you're brushing your teeth is try balancing on one leg so you stand up you're brushing your teeth holding your leg up and just your balance it's a little bit of fun but actually you're squeezing your glutes you're squeezing your core you know you're engaging a few of your muscles so um my friend Jules actually does something really cool with brushing you just remind me when she brushes her teeth so she's got the timer for her electric toothbrush and she does squats just in that two minute timer at the end of the day so I think um someone has just said movement instead of exercise and I think I think that's it I think that's exactly the point um and it goes back to what I was saying you know I don't feel motivated to brush my teeth but I do it because I don't want my teeth to fall out and I think we need to get away from this idea that exercise is some kind of punishment for like the pizza we had last night um it's whatever makes you know it's just something to check in with your body make yourself feel good and something as you said and we've both said it's always better than nothing yeah and even just you know a good morning stretch in the morning and I was like you know that's a nice way to just feel really good now everyone do that roll your shoulders stretch up you'll feel good a little bit of movement I love that doing squats while you're brushing a few other people up people are doing that okay so we've got we've got quite a few questions coming in so let me just see okay so John Battis um who's on Facebook asks how do you keep your focus on your routine when you get injured so unfortunately it happens to him too often so John Battis I'm so sorry I had to say I've been injured I know the pain oh it's the worst if you follow me on my podcast you're probably like I know Sarah's going to mention her I've got lazy glutes and we all have lazy glutes yeah so tight hip flexors yeah but let's talk about that because you've actually um I remember you shared about sort of dealing with your injury before the um or you got injured on the NC 500 when you when you're up in Scotland and I did maybe just talk a little bit you know getting through that process yeah um that was that was awful I've completely sympathised because um you know injury does make me grumpy I'm not you know I'm not going to sugarcoat it it obviously does make you grumpy if you're used to doing it especially I'm quite used to doing quite a high volume so if I ever need to not do that because I've got injured I'm pretty grumpy but um a couple of things on that I now prioritise yoga and strength training because that I haven't been injured since um in in that I think Scotland was a couple of years ago now so um yeah I think that's massively important for preventing it um I do 20 minutes yoga every day most days just with that in mind um and then I guess if you do have an injury work out what you can do um so for example when I I pulled the my quad um which meant cycling was out uh running was pretty much out as well but there was still some stuff that I could do um so I focused a lot on rehabbing it um and also just tried to put my my excess energy into other projects and this happened a bit in lockdown as well so I I started baking um and it's just something just to get so I wasn't sat there scrolling on my phone being a grumpy sod um it's just actively putting your attention elsewhere like I nearly started knitting um I haven't done that yet but it did I you know I think anything you know just with this excess time that you have rather than sit there being like I should be doing this right now just figure out something else that you've always wanted to do maybe like another hobby um yeah it is really tough I think um I channeled a lot of energy into into rehab um so that's a lot of foam rolling like a lot of lacrosse ball a lot of of that sort of stuff um I was gonna say it's all um this I think this is the thing that I found really frustrating is it's all the really little exercises which are the most important like I had like a band around my foot and I had to move my foot like this and I was just like oh I had to push up on my tiptoe this is like my calves and stuff and I was you know I do eight and then it was like done I was like yeah yeah but I used to lift big heavy weights and I mean this was a thing about running especially because um I came to running from a cycling background so obviously had lazy lazy glutes and overactive quads um that are chestnut and so they would always go through when I teamed up with the running school like years ago now but they would always go through like a pre-running warm-up and I did it for a while and then I was like oh yeah whatever he's got time for that I just want to go for like a 20 minute run I've got some time between I want to do that and honestly it takes five minutes um and it less than that sometimes it's like a three minute thing just to activate the glutes and I haven't been injured since so it is normally like these small little things into every day um you know and again going back to like the movement rather than exercising um you can you can pepper in little 10 minute breaks of movement throughout your day for sure even if you don't have time to do a workout session like you said you know you're on the stairs you're doing something while you're brushing your teeth um all those little things really add up so I'm going to um we've got a great question here around on the top so this is from Allie so thank you Allie great question on the topic of resilience which I always want to do yeah resilience can you think of a time I'll let you go first so I can think about my can you think of a time on one of your adventures where you where your own resilience has surprised you in a good way oh what a question I can't believe you're making me go first okay I've got time to read it so I'll read it again for you so yeah on the topic of resilience can you think of a time on one of your adventures where your own resilience has surprised you oh I've got one yeah all right so mine was to me was on there when I was on marathon serves I was out in the middle of the Sahara desert I'll set the scene for you imagine undulating sand dunes as far as the eye could see and um it was started the sun was starting to set and to go down I'd run uh make I got to like 34 miles or something and I was feeling like pumped and pretty epic I just climbed the top of this sand dune and looking down I was like this is what I have trained for so I will go on the resilience bit a bit but tightened up the straps on my backpack took some sips of my water had some salt tablets and started running down these sand dunes with these big long steps and you know she's glorious we need a soundtrack to this at the moment exactly but that's in my head I was literally like this like beautiful flowing runner you know just everything just in flow and I was like oh my god I've only got like 20 miles to go this is going to be a piece okay however about 20 minutes later I suddenly hit like the dark tunnel it was just like it just went into this negative spiral where my body was like what are we doing my feet hurt Sara this is with you know the negative voice in your head I think you know you talk about like you're in a gremlin and we'll come up a little bit later and uh got to this really to be honest this really really dark place where I was literally like I've got to stop I'm going to cry I'm going to hit my you know SOS button I need I need help here like how am I going to continue it's getting so dark and I remember there was almost this like it was a a flip of the switch in my head where it was changing it around like right what can you focus on okay let's break this down like you're obviously working in five mile distances isn't working right can you focus on the next mile no okay I can't you can't focus on the next mile okay what can you focus on what about steps so I was like okay steps can you make can you make 10 steps and I was thinking oh that might be a bit difficult four that was the number I stopped on I can manage four steps at a time but I'd slow down so much in my head all I was having to shout to myself was literally step step step step step to keep on moving forward but then I slowly got out of it and we built up from four steps the 10 steps back up to half a mile a mile to five minutes to 10 minutes and I think that changed a lot for me because it was it was about breaking it down into these little habits and and also just feeling really proud of myself thinking hold on I'm out here in the middle of the desert by myself there's no one else to you know to rely on it's just me and you know I I did that so anyway that's that's I love that I love that story and I just forever now got this image of you like with the soundtrack and it's glorious that's going to be my motivation the next time I go for a run I'm just going to think of you with a soundtrack thank you yeah um the one that immediately sprung to my mind as well was actually quite similar um it was when I ran across Fetimentura so very similar terrain like arid desert completely like disgustingly hot um and up until I did that that run which is a hundred miles end to end um so it was four marathons four days hadn't really done anywhere near enough training for it um so I basically spent four days in my pain cave absolutely broken um like day one was kind of okay but I think from day two onwards I woke up every morning with one thought playing in my head I don't think I can do this um you know I'm quite a strong I'm quite a strong cyclist and I've got some experience there um but this run was like my my running like demon um so it's like the first long run I'd ever done um and every morning I was I just woke up with this story in my head of like what the hell are you doing you're not a runner like you are not a runner and it it was so loud and I I I mean I had my friend Tessa with me we had our another friend with us trying to take photos for us for this magazine thing we were doing and I was just like oh you're gonna have to go out into this apartment you're gonna have to tell them you can't do it and I never quite managed to like pipe up to them every morning that I couldn't do it and so I I think I confessed to my friend Tessa on day three I was like Tessa I'm not sure I can I could do it my my legs were kind of okay my feet were revolting um like you've never seen anything like it like they were basically mummified by the end of day two like blisters on top of blisters um so that was my real my real pain um and I honestly thought up until the moment we crossed that finish line on day four I didn't think I was gonna do it so um every morning I woke up and I was like oh my god I I can't do it I can't do it and then I was like I'll just do the morning and so I was like okay we'll get through the morning I'll just get exactly the same as you just said like we'll just break it down into what I can do um and I did I had to do that sometimes minute by minute um like signpost to signpost hour by hour and like I remembered day two day three day four like every night I finished I was like I can't believe I actually got through today um but then we'd wake up the next morning be like I can't there's no way I'm doing it I'm gonna have to tell them I can't do it um and actually it was exactly the same process of like let's just break it down let's do one step at a time um we'll just get to lunch we'll just get to lunch so I can quit after lunch um and then I would have like an orange fanta at lunch and I'm like okay just see if you can do another hour on the trails um let's just see if you can do that um and I remember actually finish it when we finally reached like the end of it and I was just like oh my god like I just and it's like my little if there was like a little running gremlin it's like he evaporated because he had nothing left to say because it was just that moment of actually proving that this story I had about myself about not being a runner was complete nonsense which I think is really important as well because I think we do tell ourselves stories about the things that we can and cannot do um growing up I was like oh I'm just not very athletic um and that was like an identity that I had really strongly um and it was the same with running um and I think that strategy has actually played out in so many different ways on so many different trips um of just just get through the next hour and then you can quit and just kind of chunking it down um and I think that is pretty much how anything has ever been done I think what's really what's really interesting there is you talked about like you know you're you're in a gremlin you're you know you're in a voice that that in a beep who could sometimes be not very nice to you yeah um but Sophie's got a great question here is um and this is all this is to do with the people not I'll let me ask let me ask the question first so Sophie asked how do you deal with the naysayers she worries about other people's doubts oh sorry worrying about other people's doubts about her ability I know I could do a b or c but then don't want to tell people about ideas because I don't want them to tell me that I can't do it so how do you deal with doubt with um with doubts like this so this isn't the internal this is other people doubting you're good yeah I'm gonna be like get away get away love love like me yeah um I think I figured out very early on um with my first my first adventure was an attempt to kayak in Russia uh kayak the Volga river in Russia and I can tell you now pretty much everyone has something to say about it um and actually a lot of adventures since someone's always has you know something to say about it and I think I realized very early on my key for um the negatives is to figure out who's saying it and if they have any reason why I should listen to them as an authority on the subject so for example if someone was telling me that that you know you shouldn't do this because this bit of water is really dangerous I'd be like okay cool so what you're telling me is that I need to improve my water handling skills or whatever if it's just some bloke in the pub I'm just like well seriously who are you and why give me a reason why your opinion is relevant to this situation and I find nine times out of 10 um it's not it's just other people really scared of the world that we live in um like especially you must get this I'm sure as a solo female traveler they're like oh you can't do that by yourself it's really dangerous and it's like but you can't tell me why you that I should listen to that it's just an idea that you have in your head about the world and I have all this experience over here that tells me something completely different that actually most people are really kind and actually that I am fully capable of doing this um so yeah I think you have to filter the criticism before you let it in for one and secondly then try and see why someone is saying that to you um so my family are kind of pretty much used to it now but it was quite difficult in the early stages I'm like oh they're just scared and they're trying to protect me and it you know so if you can one filter out and two see the good intention behind it because it makes it a bit easier to kind of just soften it and not take it as an attack um but the third thing I think is you know you've got to protect you've got to protect your ideas and your weirdness um and your little spark of madness and don't you know don't need other people to to to um endorse it um because it's your dream so nine times at ten I don't think most people will get it and they don't have to and that's okay I think make it okay um you know we all have different paths in life like it's getting a mortgage and starting a family wasn't for me but it doesn't mean that I'm criticising someone over there it just means that we don't necessarily understand each other's life choices but that's fine because it's a big big planet so I say one of the tactics that I use which works really well for me now is is when people like oh you really want to do that all you want to go that is I end up thanking them and say oh you know thanks so much for sharing that with me move on and then I basically forget about it so I thank them for it because it makes them feel better that they've got to share their opinion about what I'm doing with me the other thing which I've realised is when you when you tell people what you're what you want to do I want to go Cyclone Pacific Coast Highway their response is back to you is basically just telling you what their personal fears are I 100% agree but they'll basically say are you not worried about XYZ and that is basically what they are worried about what they are concerned about yeah filter isn't it because we all communicate to our own filters and so what you'll see is that exactly how you just said like whatever they're saying is just demonstrating their filter of the world but I mean I think I mean I remember back so you probably quite a few of you know might know my backstory but you know worked in banking many years ago in London got to day two day three so I was going to change my life went traveling and I decided I was going to become you know an adventurer and I was going to become a motivational speaker and I remember I was at a wedding and I was telling somebody like you know a friend from like university and they laughed in my face like literally just like what are you know literally wow but not when I say ripped me to shreds it wasn't malicious it was literally just like what are you thinking you're you're crazy so even though you know deep down inside me that little flame which was burning about this little idea that I that I had was strong like that was honestly so so gutting so it made what it made me do is keep a lot of things almost like close to my chest about my goals and ambitions and what I wanted to do until that sort of little flickering flame was like a full-on fire burn I do think you have to protect it you know I think you learn actually um who you tell and who you confide in and who you don't um and I I think you do like I keep a lot of stuff to myself until I'm secure and it's going ahead and all the rest of it and also you just learn who not to you know who are the who are the cheerleaders and who are the people that are just like just dampening stuff with their misery and they're like oh you can't do this you know like you you learn quite quickly who those people are so um I'm just going to make sure we've got we've got about we've got about five minutes left oh my goodness because so quickly it's got to be great but this is for everybody watching we have an amazing prize for you but you're going to have to use your thinking no cheating I don't think you'd be able to cheat anyway so as you probably know myself and Laura have done some amazing endurance challenges from you know cycling the the the Great North Rides 6000 kilometers I've cycled Pacifico highway 4000 kilometers marathon deserves 250 kilometers we've done a whole host which Laura has mentioned like running for for to venture we want to know if you can guess how many human powered miles me and Laura have done combined put your guess down in the comments and the person oh we're doing it in kilometers sorry how many human kilometers have Laura and Sarah done combined over the years so um it's not no I don't know the challenges I think we worked it out based on our challenges yeah based on our challenges so Laura do you I've done I think like six challenges not training not training just because we'd be up in the millions yeah so hard Carol so basically just how many kilometers that we have done with our challenges combined together um pop pop your guess down in the comments and the person closest is going to win oh I love these guesses but no this is great oh my god they're all coming 30 000 kilometers 29 000 kilometers 16 500 450 000 I don't think we're getting close to half a million kilometers but I love that passion we got 77 000 oh my god it's it's going to pass you've got to be in it to win it so take a guess have a thing what we could you know what we've done pop down your guess there's a link there's our mark put a link for you to enter so make sure you check that out as well as well but oh my god so right we are I'm so excited about everyone's guesses I know um so we've got we've got a couple of minutes left um so Laura uh are there any questions or any final questions but otherwise final words of advice for all of our I actually know do you know what we should say is me and Laura are both available online to answer any questions all of that good stuff so Laura where's the best place for people to go to find more information oh that is my podcast find more information about you um yeah so I can be found on Instagram at Laura Kairos same on Facebook Laura Kairos and Twitter it's Kairos Laura um the website is Laura Kairos.com so yeah pretty easy to find come and say hello fabulous and Laura's also got an amazing book as well called Kairos it is a laugh out loud everything that's the theme here yeah and but do I just quickly tell you what Kairos means yeah um I do so I've got a postcard that I was trying to reach I can't reach it um yeah basically there are two types of time the ancient Greeks had two uh two words for different types of time so Kronos we might be very aware of it's the chronological time so on your watch very logical Kairos is is something else it's this magical time when everything lines up so if you've ever experienced some divine serendipity everything just working out and you've got no idea what happened that's Kairos time um and the reason I attached everything to Kairos is because I think a lot of us spend a lifetime waiting for things to line up magically you know like I'll do this when this happens um and I actually figured out a few years ago that actually you get Kairos time when you take the first step so I don't think Kairos time finds you I think you have to get started um and that's when it that's when it happens you have to be in the arena you know you have to to make that first absolutely and you spell Kairos K A I everybody who is guessing please use the link that Marcus shared as well keep on guessing keep on putting it in the link it will make us easier when we go through everything but I just want to say um massive thank you to everybody watching thank you Kim um thank you Sophie Hannah um okay I was going to be Sue amazing to have you all involved with us it's been super fun we hope you've enjoyed it thank you Amanda uh Lovina thank you so much Lisa oh god I was going to actually like to carry on I'm like all 100 of you yeah so good to see you guys but um yeah I'm gonna have to say goodbye now but yeah um I'm going well we're probably going to be hanging out in the comments we'll play to any comments on there but just thanks again for everybody for watching thank you to um thank you a massive thank you thanks for the book recommendations also really enjoying those we love it we love it um brilliant well take care everybody and we will be back with soon also massive thank you to Alice Brigham for for having us on to talk we obviously love talking and it's like chat chat stop talking forget that brilliant thanks everyone bye