 Alright, so I'm here with Hannah and she was just telling me something pretty cool. She's really simplified her goals in recent times. So for the most recent 2018 world chance for the time trial, you've basically pulled back your goals and made them really simple. So what were they Hannah? So I'm at O'Mara Cycles and today we're going to go for a little ride with an elite para athlete Hannah McDougal. And if you've just landed on this channel, this is where I do cycling videos, both inspirational and entertaining. And I do love a deep dive road bike review. So if that sounds up your alley, consider subscribing below. So Hannah has been elite across two major disciplines, swimming and cycling. And in 2010 she transitioned from the pool to the road. And over the past eight years in cycling, both on the road and on the track, she has achieved some pretty phenomenal results at state, national and at international levels. But her most recent results at the 2018 UCI Para Cycling World Champs, she came home with two silvers, one in the road race and one for the time trial. Now when Hannah got back from Italy a couple of months ago from the World Champs, she wrote a pretty compelling blog article, which I'll link to below. But in that she talks about the wisdom and learnings that she's obtained over the past eight years in cycling to best prepare for that event. In addition, the burnout that can typically go hand in hand with preparing for these major events. So Hannah's got some pretty compelling insights to share with us in today's video. So I think I can see her coming now. Yep, here she comes. Hello Hannah. Good morning. How are we? We're good, how are you? Melbourne's turned on the weather for us. Hell yes. Yeah, it's under storming last night. Flooding in Elwood. Like I was scared I was going to have to build Noah's Ark. Yeah, you haven't brought your time trial by. I was afraid I was going to be hanging onto your wheel. We're just going for a cruise today. Hell yes. There we go. Sounds good. Basically pull back your goals and make them really simple. So what were they Hannah? So Cam, what's to say on the bike? Number two, what's to go fast? And number three, what's to have fun? I like it. And what impact, what impacted simplify the goal? So yeah, it's so so don't get me wrong. We have a lot going on in the background working with coaches and really harnessing the power of presence. Love it. For right then Hannah, first one back in three weeks. Tell you what, that sunshine was bloody amazing. I'm really glad we didn't go last night. Yeah. It was probably it was a different burnout. So it got to the point in swimming where I hated what I was doing. I so like mentally I just didn't want to do it anymore. And I figure if you're dedicating so much of your time, effort, energy, true something, you got to love it. And when I say love it and it's not all about feeling good all the time, because there's going to be mornings when you know I'm out on the bike and it's two degrees and I'm frozen and you know I don't I don't feel good. But I still have that underlying drive and motivation and love for the sport. Whereas that had gone for some weeks. Wow. How long did you swim for? I swam competitively essentially from 2000 to 2000 and end of 2009. So 10 years. Yeah, wow. Why did you decide to go? Why was it something else? Process of elimination. So the goal was to still get to a Paralympic Games. So that narrowed it down in terms of sports. So as we saw before my leg is really long and skinny. So I guess stress fracture is really easily. So essentially all running sports are out. I can't save a ball to catch my life. I have that like scar on my forehead is from not catching balls. So it literally left rowing and cycling and rowing was another early morning water based sport. Okay, I'll give cycling a well. And it was pretty addictive and I loved it. Didn't you have a really awesome result in the first month or two? First couple of months. Yeah, I literally I'd been riding for about three months and I went up to Nationals and did really well there and impressed coaches and everything. And so that kind of first three months, six months was a dream and really, really quick progression. Paris sport has changed a lot since then in terms of over the eight years. It's a lot more competitive. So you kind of get to know in terms of racing specific race day preparation. So I know what I like to eat on race day, the music I listen to during my warm up, what kind of... Do you need to tell us what you eat and what music you listen to? Oh, for sure. Like it's very specific in terms of, you know, at breakfast it has changed since I've burnt out but I was I generally was eating a gluten-free dairy-free diet. So for breakfast that would entail what I call a sweet omelet. So it's weird. Don't knock it until you try it because it's awesome. Two eggs, banana, dates, coconut, ginger, maybe a few nuts and seeds and then to make the omelet fluffy you use soda water and it makes a sweet omelet. And so that's what I have for breakfast or variations of. When you go away it's like okay you get your boiled eggs and you have your banana and you just kind of have everything separately. I have my beetroot shot two hours out making sure that I don't brush my teeth kind of close to that or chew gum during that time period. Apparently that's what we're advised to do like apparently that negates the effects of the nitrate. I couldn't tell you why. I haven't done research into it but that's what we've been told. Some people might do because of the redness. Or they want to go into a race with fresh teeth. I don't know. Smile. Because there is a little bit of research if you smile you should go faster. Anyway another conversation and I have depending on the race length so for a time trial um then generally I'll have caffeine and that'll be a no-dose and a shot of coffee about an hour out. And then I kind of stop having yeah generally it's all the food's two hours out and then I have my honey shot when I finish my warm-up and I'm on the way to the race. So it's all and then after my race I have some carbs and tina tuna or sardines weirdly because I really feel like some salt. Nobody's my friend at that point. So you have the things that you like and you've developed. I like getting to race earlier and giving myself plenty of times so I'm not stressed. So time trial I probably like to be there two hours before the race. Minimum 90 minutes somewhere in between that time period. Because then I have time to fluff and essentially my insides pack up on me and I need to go to the bathroom a lot of times. So I kind of strategically place things near the bathroom and the start line as well. Carry toilet paper now in my car too just in case. But I have learned you know that's ideal and I don't say perfect preparation anymore or you know perfect warm-up because you're never going to have a perfect warm-up. It's you know that's ideally what I like to do. But you know shit hits the fan. Life gets in the way things are wrong. Cycling you know you might get a puncture or garments might not work. You might have felt on your heart rate strap. You might need to chase down a real light because you've forgotten that. Always carry a spare especially for time trials these days. So I just take a deep breath and you know roll with it. Whenever I can. So I've come a long way in terms of letting those little things get to me. And it's like okay if I get a shot of warmer I get a shot of warmer. And that's okay. There was one really cool piece of advice that I got from listening to Catherine Freeman and that was um so I like I get pretty stressed like raising all of these girls and who are amazing and you know ex-military and whatnot and super fitness is like oh Catherine Freeman said you know I use the competition to draw out the best in myself because at the end of the day that's all I can do is the best I can do. And it's so much easier said than done. But just remembering okay well I'm a highly highly competitive person how can I use that competition to then get the best out of me. So it's just a kind of good reframe in terms of competition and the people that you're up against. There's been some massive highs this year. World Championships graduating from a PhD. A whole lot of other stuff but and hit the ground hard when I got back. What do you say hard what do you mean? So emotionally pretty pretty burnt out and because cycling is such like it's a habit and a routine. So my coaches will like hand you need to take some time off. Don't cycle a lot so I cycled to be social to have coffee rise but in retrospect I really needed to take complete time off and I was still exercising and I literally went back to work the next day. So that was in the theory of getting my body into time zone quickly and getting back to normal and then you know wanting to celebrate with everyone and trying to catch up with so many people and then dealing with one of things but death and people that I love passing away it ended up compounding to the point where I tried I got back on the bike and all I could do was to ride. Like I didn't have that was just survival. There wasn't anything else above that. There wasn't any health benefits to it and I was just taking out of an empty tank and I had quite a few people probably about three or four really close trusted sources all say to me hand you need to take some time off and I was getting sick as well constantly no immune system. So yeah for the first time since 2012 I took time off the bike and off work at the same time and I've had to take really small steps in terms of building back in work and making that more sustainable. There's been a whole support team so I see Dr. Drew Mitchell out of the mind room so we kind of I like to call him my well-being psych. It's a bit more holistic I feel and uses some of the the things I really enjoy like mindfulness and gratitude and focusing on strengths those kinds of things. So really being able to to small steps in terms of flipping that fight and flight into digest and rest taking really deep breaths I've programmed onto my work computer a thing that a bell that rings every half an hour that says you know breathe deeply. So just building in that routine starting up Tai Chi and Qigong and but it's it's like the weather Melbourne weather. Some days like Friday I was completely overwhelmed and I literally thought the world was ending and I was in hysterical tears and I couldn't do anything like it was ridiculous. Whereas today I feel like the sunny shining literally inside and out. No like I think maybe like I was talking with Steggels from the hurt box about this and I reckon who works in tandem with Victorian Institute of Sport and Nick Owen and there's a team it's ridiculous it's amazing. But essentially like maybe come back have a few social rides in terms of having the coffee celebrating with people but then having two to three weeks completely off. So having that first kind of couple of days to celebrate and then taking the time off and also it's tough because you take time off work you take your leave for work to go and cycle. So you kind of use up a whole lot of leave and then you don't have much leave when you come back. So essentially I need to go fast stay on my bike and have fun. In May next year is our World Cup so that's over in Italy I believe and then World Championships is in M and in about August September next year. So they're my two key events that I need to for me like I'm on the train for Tokyo and that's where I want to go. So in order to get on that train for Tokyo then May and August September next year is when I need to set that up. So if I do that well then that train will head in that direction and if not then we need to sit back and have another evaluation. Yes well as long as you're having fun. Yes that's the main thing. Well thanks Hannah and all the best. Thank you very much. Loved it. So Hannah thanks for your time. Really enjoyed the conversation. Where are you going now? To bloody have some food. I'm starving. All right. And then we can do like a lift up for today. No worries. Great chatting with you. Love that green bike. You take care too. So I hope you enjoyed that chat with Hannah McDougall. She's very insightful. She's a legend and I'll catch you in the next video.