The Sonya Looney Show

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I want to talk about how changing just a few words can make a big difference with your perspective and attitude. How many times have you felt like you had to do something?  I have to go to work.  I have to take out the trash.  I have to do intervals today.  I have to take my kid to soccer practice.  Even if you don't always intend for it to be this task you are forced to do, saying I have to makes it sound like a chore. And let's face it, sometimes they are just chores and you would rather be doing something else.  Simply rephrasing how you talk about things you have to do, whether it be in your head or out loud, it makes a difference. So instead of saying you have to do something, trying saying you get to do something.  Saying I get to go to work, I get to take out the trash, I get to do intervals today, I get to take my kid to

If you're familiar with my podcast, I'm sure you've heard other episodes with the acclaimed researcher and environmental physiologist, Dr. Stephen Cheung.  Dr. Cheung is not only a well of knowledge on the topic of environmental physiology, but he is an avid cyclist himself.  He is a professor at Brock University in the Department of Kinesiology.  He also is an author of the textbook Advanced Environmental Physiology and the books: Cutting-Edge Cycling, and Cycling Science.  You may have heard him on the show in Episode 93 talking about how to heat train or Episode 114 on how to train for altitude.  He was on sabbatical from Brock University earlier this year in my hometown of Kelowna, BC and I was fortunate enough to pick his brain on all kinds of topics.  In his spare time, he is the Sports Science & Training editor for www.pezcyclingnews.com. I'm excited about this episode because it involves something we have all experienced- wanting to slow down while exercising.  There are several schools of thoug

Gary Dudney has ran 70 100 mile running races...and he is 66 years old.  His goal is to get to 100 100 milers.  Gary is the author of the 2 books: The Tao of Running and The Mindful Runner where he writes about using mindfulness to combat common problems when tackling a big event: thinks like quitting, staying positive, getting through the dark moments, expectations and acceptance, and how to view the bad things as good things. He is a long time columnist at Ultrarunning Magazine.  In this episode, we get into what it takes to have mental endurance.   Topics Discussed in the Podcast  how gary got into running progressing to 100 miles how he started writing how not to quit, how to get out of a quitting rut techniques to stay positive and keep going why mindfulness is a useful tool mantra: Infinite patience, steely determination 4 horsemen to positive thinking expectations & acceptance how to make bad things good story of 3 vinegar tasters Listen Now     Resources taoofrunning.com       Support the

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I want to talk about a random and awesome thing that happened in the grocery store. Listen Now   I was at the grocery store admiring all the summer produce.  As a side note, I counted and there are about 10 types of fruit in my fridge right now- one of the perks of summer. As I was lost in my own thoughts, a guy came up to me and said, "Hey...Sonya?"  It turns out he knew me from my racing and my online content.  I'm always super humbled when this happens, so thank you to the guy that said hi- you made my day.  He told me he was about to leave for Europe to take on a bikepacking race. He wanted to know if I had any advice for him.  I wanted to give him something that I thought would be useful, but I kind of froze for a minute because I was caught a bit off guard!  I loved it. The first thing that came to my mind is advice I've gi

A common question I get emailed to me is what I eat on race day.  Race nutrition is very individual - what works for one person may not work for another.  In this episode, I sat down with GU Energy LabsNutrition & Performance Research Manager, Roxanne Vogel  to help give you guys some guidelines on how to create your own personalized race nutrition plan.  This applies to any endurance sport.     Topics Discussed in the Podcast  The keys to structuring your race nutrition plan how many calories to start with per hour how long to digest gel vs solid food how to come back around when you make a nutrition mistake chews vs gels hydration strategies how to use caffeine in endurance racing what to eat and when on race morning what to eat after your workout for recovery do you need to carbo load? supplements to take and protein what to eat on a recovery day how to eat for weight loss/fasted rides Listen Now     Resources Ask the GURU  Roxanne's instagram Roxanne on Everest Support the Show If you would

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I want to talk about how our thoughts affect our emotions, and how it can alter the consequences of a situation. Listen Now I was prepping for a new format of a speech that I just had the opportunity to give at the Inspired Your Ride event in Nampa, ID.  I have my usual topics I love to discuss, but I came across the ABC Model in Cognitive Behavioral Psychology.  I often think about and discuss the importance of being aware of emotions.  It's hard sometimes... sometimes you feel disrespected and get angry, sometimes someone says something that makes you feel embarrassed.  And maybe you say or do something that you wish you hadn't. In this model, we are going to break down a situation into A,B,Cs. Let's start with A. A is the adversity that you are experiencing. It's something that happened to cause you stress, make you worry, or

Steph Gaudreau's mission is to help women create bigger, bolder, fiercer lives — by building health from the inside out.  From her incredibly powerful instagram posts of 200k followers to her best selling books, she creates meaningful content to help people change for the better. Her new book, The Core 4 is coming out on July 30 and you can actually pre-order it on Amazon now!  It cover 4 pillars: Eat nourishing foods, Strengthen your body Recharge your energy, and Get your mindset right.  I personally enjoyed this book because it's very interactive with worksheets and even journal prompt. She is also the host Harder to Kill Radio. Steph is well-versed in creating changes in life.  Steph was a teacher for 12 years and created a successful food blog. She transitioned again and spend her time as a Nutritional Therapy Consultant, author, blogger, podcaster, and also is the host and founder of the Women's Strength Summit.   Topics Discussed in the Podcast  where Steph came up with the Core 4 and holistic coa

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I want to talk about health. Listen Now What comes to mind when you hear the word "health?"  For me, the first things that come to mind are things like absence of illness, whether someone exercises, and the food that someone eats.  When we say that someone that looks healthy, it usually means that look fit and maybe have healthy looking skin.  But health goes far beyond exercise and the plate.  It's something that we often forget.  For example, you can look healthy and still have an eating disorder or mental illness.  You can look healthy but maybe be suffering from burnout or you can even look healthy and have heart disease. After reading Dan Buettner's work with National Geographic a few years ago in Blue Zones and Blue Zones of Happiness, it reshaped what health meant to me. If you haven't heard of the Blue Zones, the Blue Zon

Today's guest is a fascinating best selling author: David Epstein.  He is the author of two best selling books: The Sports Gene and his more recent book: Range, Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World.  He is currently an investigative report at Pro Publica and was formerly a staff writer at Sports Illustrated.  David's new book, Range makes a strong case that it is better to be a generalist rather than a specialist in both sports and life.  I'm sure you've heard of the "cult of the head start" or Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 hour" rule but David Epstein argues that you don't need it to be successful. We often assume that the greats in sports, music, and art started at a very young age and were singularly focused their entire lives.  But in David's book, he shows us that the opposite is true and that being a generalist gives one a better chance to succeed than early specialization.  In this thought-provoking episode, you'll learn why.  And as a special treat today, my friend and previous podcast guest, B

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I wanted to talk about numbers and data. In the information and web-based age that we live in, numbers are used in so many ways.  Hours of training, number of miles ridden, number of followers, number of likes, heart rate, power, HRV, number of emails left unanswered in a day, a race time, etc. I'm sure you can think of some ways that numbers are a part of your daily life. It can be really easy to fall into a trap or habit of assigning something as good or bad, as a success or failure based on a number.  Numbers are useful tools to help us measure what we are doing so we can improve and are necessary, but the importance of them can be overemphasized. They can affect our happiness. I've created a couple of categories to help you (and of course, me) keep some perspective with numbers. The elements are purpose, quality, and comparis

Today's guest is the most impressive Dr. Dave Vago. I first found Dr. Vago in the Ten Percent Happier Meditation app that I use.  In the app, there are several different meditation instructors and courses with educational videos before you get started.  I found a course called "Meditation and the Brain" in the app and I was immediately drawn to it.   I took a deeper look into Dr. Vago and I learned that he is a cognitive neuroscientist and is the research director for the Osher Center of Integrative Medicine at Vanderbuilt University Medical Center.  He also maintains an appointment as a research associate in the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory (FNL) at Harvard.  If you're not impressed yet, he held the position of Senior Research Coordinator for the Mind & Life Institute and is currently a Mind and Life Fellow, supporting the Mind and Life mission by advising on strategy and programs.  He's worked with John Cabot Zinn and even the Dalai Lama.   Some of his work includes studying brain scans of meditat

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week’s episode, I wanted to share some of my favorite apps.   Noislii TrainerRoad  Happiness Planner and Five Minute Journal Ten Percent Happier Meditation App  Follow Up.CC for Gmail Toggl Airtable Snapseed Flux Listen Now

It's a miracle that John Joseph McGowan isn't dead or in prison.  He's escaped AR-15 gun shots from cocaine dealers, managed to just miss being arrested while AWOL, and instigated many fights himself while he was a crackhead with a violent streak. It's hard to imagine that a human could have endured so much adversity in his life and even more inspiring, come out the other side helping change peoples' lives for the better.  JJ's early days began with being sexually and physically abused in foster homes as a young child.  He ended up homeless living in burnt out buildings in the streets of New York City selling drugs and committing robberies and acts of violence in the 1970's.  After being incarcerated as a juvenile, he was given the option to spend 4 years in the Navy instead of go to prison.  His drug and alcohol addiction did not end, nor did his fighting habits.  He even was smuggling drugs from Jamaica on his naval ship.  After getting in a fight on his ship, he was arrested, but a tooth infection sent him

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  In this week's episode, I want to talk about a technique I discovered that helps with rumination. You know- when something is bothering you and then you can't stop thinking about it. Or when someone really pisses you off and you can't stop thinking about how angry you are, what you should have said, etc. I learned this technique in one of the mindfulness meditations I practice, but I use it all the time during my day- I think that's why you practice it in meditation! It's easiest to learn the technique using meditation before applying it to your life, but you can do it however you like.  To start, put 5 minutes on your timer.  Sit somewhere and start counting your breaths.  It's guaranteed that all sorts of thoughts will start flooding in.  When they do, label the type of thought. If "what am I having for dinner?" pops up- label it Planning If "Did reme

I'm super excited about today's guest: Caitlin Landesberg formerly Caitlin Looney.  We aren't sure if we are related but if our interest in business, endurance sports and beer are any indication, then I'd say we are sisters!  I love today's special story because it's one of transparency, inspiration, hard work, and courage. Caitlin is a former college tennis player turned trail runner.  Caitlin was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease rendering her unable to consume gluten. That meant her favorite post-run beers were off the list.  She couldn't find a good tasting gluten free or gluten removed beer, so she took it upon herself to learn how to brew her own beer. Outfitted with a homebrew kit that was a gift from her husband and a can-do attitude, she got started.  What happened next was as she calls it "a happy accident."  Her recipes became wildly popular and in high demand. She founded her company, Sufferfest beer that was beer for athletes. Upon inspection, I found that the beer had delicious twists to like

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  I originally had a different topic queued up for today's Crush It Monday, but in the middle of my race over the weekend, I realized that the way I think about pain during a race or during an interval workout might be helpful.  It's something I've had to work on. You've probably heard the quote "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable."  Of course, that quote extends far past just the discomfort of exercise. So this weekend I did a 2 day mountain bike race in Squamish, BC.  I've been trying to stay more local and go to races I can drive to in order to prevent burnout from too much time on airplanes (and save money). That means that I've been doing races that are shorter than my normal 50-100 mile mountain bike races.  The races I've been doing have been under 3 hours.  I still prefer longer races and my true talent is in the longer races, but I'm proud

If you're an endurance athlete, you've probably thought about altitude.  I grew up in Albuquerque, NM and lived in Colorado for my 20s. I never thought about altitude training until I did the highest mountain bike race in the world in 2011.  The race was a 10 day race in Nepal called the Yak Attack that topped out at 17,769'.  I admit I still wasn't fully acquainted with the data of training at altitude.  I knew how dangerous the symptoms of acute mountain sickness or altitude sickness could be.  In fact, it was my primary fear for tackling this race and wanting to be the first woman to ever finish.  You can watch my TED Talk about it.  I started spending a lot of time in BC in 2013 and eventually moved in 2014.  That also meant I moved from living at altitude my entire life to 1,000' where I still live.  Racing in Colorado became a problem- I could only race in third gear.  It was frustrating.  I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could about potentially prepping for altitude and used myself as a guin

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  This week, I want to talk about intensity.  More specifically, I want to talk about a quote I heard. I can't remember exactly where I heard this quote, but I wrote it down and recently found it.  I think it might have been from a Sharon Salzberg meditation, but I am not sure. It said, "We count on intensity to feel alive instead of stillness" Wow.  How many of you can relate to that statement?  I definitely can.  I'm an excitement junkie. I love doing things at a fast pace. I like being busy and having tons of plans and projects but as I have found out on more than one occasion, it can also lead to overwhelm and burnout.  When I heard this quote, it hit home.  I do admit to feeling most alive when I'm out doing and pushing.  My biggest challenge is to slow down. To be still. To avoid filling empty minutes or seconds with something else and to just be. 

What secrets are your body trying to tell you? How do you know if you should keep pushing or if you should rest?  If you listen to the podcast where our unifying theme is about high performance living, then I think you'll love today's topic.  It's about measuring strain and recovery.  There's a great deal of research uncovering biomarkers to give insight to your sleep, recovery, and HRV (heart rate variability).  Today's guest is the CEO and Founder of the wildly successful and rapidly expanding company, WHOOP.  His name is Will Ahmed and if you listen to WHOOP Podcast, you're familiar with Will and WHOOP's mission.  Their goal is to unlock human performance by monitoring heart rate 24/7, creating smart algorithms to gauge the stress on your body, prevent overtraining, provide an individualized in depth analysis of sleep, and help contribute to the broader picture of not just athletic performance, but life performance. WHOOP's software uses sleep, HRV, and real time heart rate that is measured 100 times per s

This is an episode of Crush It Mondays.  Each week, I’ll bring to you an inspiring message, habit, or contemplation to get your week off to a powerful start.  This week, I want to talk about happiness.  More specifically, I want to talk about what you are linking your happiness to.   The biggest problem is we often assign contentment to the end point of a goal. I'll be happy (or content) when I save $10,000 or I'll be happy when I lose 5 lbs, I'll be happy when I win a race, I'll be happy when I go on vacation.  I'll be happy when I buy a house.  The first problem is that our happiness is outcome based.  We'll only be happy if we achieve a certain result.  The second problem with this is that even if you do achieve the outcome, your brain will rapidly recalibrate to a new normal.  We've all progressed and met goals that we thought would make us happy, but when we get there, it's often not as amazing as we had hoped or we don't feel that contentment we were hoping for. We also look at other people who have mor