Pedals not Podiums!
Cycling up a mountain pass; the allure of the podium is undeniable, but it's the steady, rhythmic push on the pedals that will get you there. Embracing the journey can lead to unexpected victories...
Listening to a podcast today on my daily walk, three words resonated, “ Pedals not Podiums!” I was curious, what is he on about? I was puzzled what does it mean?
I was listening to The diary of a CEO, Steven Bartlett, a Dragon from UK’s Dragons Den, sharing his diary of how he goes abotulife, and his million dollar lifestyle. He started to go into detail on a change of mindset he learnt from Sir David Brailsford. He went on to describe how the fate of the British cycling team changed one day in 2003. David was hired as the new performance director for British cycling. They needed a change, and had only won, One single cycling gold medal since 1908! GB had endured nearly 100 years of mediocrity and something had to change. David was that change. He set out to improve every individual aspect of the team, and focused on individuals performance and increasing it by a seemingly pointless 1%!
He went on to ask individuals to focus on each pedal stroke, each breath, each heartbeat, their diet, the recovery, each little moment of their day to day routine and improve it by just 1%. See David thought and ultimately proved that individuals were too focused on the big picture, too focused on standing on the podium, too focused on the end goal. Changing this approach, he went on to coach them to focus on each minute, of each day, of each week. Breaking it down to the minutist details, and focusing on improving these tiny controllable elements. I once heard a British Special Forces operative get asked, whats one piece of advice you could give someone, he immediately blurted out…
”If you're worried about a situation then write everything down you're worried about, then cross out the things you cant control and deal with the things you can” - British Special Forces Soldier
Control the controllables.
David had asked his team to focus on the here and now, don’t dream of the big goal, don’t focus on controlling what you cant, focus on what you can control and work on those aspects. By doing so he managed in a short time frame, to turn the team around into a world champion team. In just five short years, Brailsford and the British Cycling team dominated the road and track cycling events at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, where they won an astounding 60 percent of the gold medals available. Four years later at the London Olympics, the Brits raised the bar higher setting nine Olympic records and seven World records.
His method of using marginal gains, had proven successful. Brailsford and his team looked for the little things to gain a huge advantage in their sport. They focused on seemingly mundane things, from the best massage gel for quicker recovery times, to clothing types, switching outdoor cyclists into indoor track cyclists attire for a small gain in aerodynamics, to getting advice on how to wash their hands to avoid getting a comma cold, to the extreme even painting the inside of their team trucks white, to aid in monitoring dust levels, which helped them spot these tiny grains that could have a detrimental effect on a finely tuned bike. They continually looked for 1% improvements in overlooked and unexpected areas.
In James Clears book, Atomic Habits, he sums it up best in the below graph. It demonstrates how 1% gains daily over a year, can lead to exponential growth.
I noticed this best when doing the 75 Hard challenge. Five seemingly innocuous tasks repeated daily for 75 days, had such a profound impact on my health and overall fitness. The little things made such a huge difference. Cutting out that can of coke, eating that little bit more protein, drinking a little bit more water, and pushing yourself to walk that one step further each day. It all added up!
What I learnt from completing 75 HARD
You have to have patience, if you focus on the little things, the big things will come, i’m not sure when, but I guarantee you if you focus on the little things, good things will happen over time. You have to put in the effort, you have to put in the mahi(work), you have to be disciplined and be consistent. It’s ok to fall off the band wagon from time to time, learn from your mistakes, take note, improve on them, and move on. Get back to your reason why, focus on consistency. Eventually when you get further along your journey you’ll look back and discover that you achieved more than you thought you would with just a little change. Compounding 1% changes all add up.
James clear said it best - ”If you improve by 1% each day for a year, you'll end up 37 times better!”
If you were to plant a fruit tree, you wouldn’t expect to put it in the ground and boom, you’d be eating fruit the next day. No, you would have to nurture it, put in good soil, water it, feed it, prune out the deadwood, and help the plant to bear fruit. Eventually after some time the tree will provide for you, but it takes time, consistency and patience.
Keep watering your seeds!
What little tips and tricks or 1% gains have you experimented with or had success with? Let me know in the comments below, or feel free to slide into my DM’s, I’m always looking for that 1% gain in efficiency to improve or adopt so would be keen to hear your thoughts.
The Wrap
I hope you all had a Merry Xmas, and spent time with Family and Loved ones, and remembered those that are no longer with us.
And that’s it for this Year! Im off for a few weeks taking break in my favourite camping spot Totaranui to kick back and reenergise my self for a huge 2025!
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Until next time…
