52: Building Confidence, Nutrition for Runners

Juggling work-life balance can be a real three-ring circus, which Lauren & Jesse know first hand. Led by listener questions, the Work, Play, Love Podcast is all about sports, biz, and family. [ASK YOUR QUESTION]

52: Building Confidence, Cultivating a Healthy Team, the Final Weeks of Recovery, Proposing

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Description:

Lauren and Jesse are just back from a hilariously disastrous family camping trip. Still, despite the nightmare of being in a poison-oak-infested campground with kids under 10, your favorite podcast hosts managed to have a pretty fun(ny) time balancing play and love. They recount the story of the trip and then dive into your burning questions, like: are used running shorts a good deal, or just plain gross? Should you race when you’re sick? How do you build confidence? How do you build a healthy team? And much more about work, play, and love.

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Tasty Bites

11:50 - What are your thoughts on used running shorts? The price is right! But is it just gross?

No way. Lauren and Jesse agree that used stuff is great. Four thumbs up on used running shorts from this podcasting duo.

13:08 - How often do you breathe when you swim in the pool and open water?

Breathe every stroke! Or every other stroke as it were. So breathe with your right arm (or your left arm) every time you use it. To build symmetry, switch it up on every lap so you get used to breathing with your right arm and your left arm. Coach Gerry Rodrigues has an awesome podcast about swimming and triathlon with tips about breathing and much more. You can check out the Tower 26 “Be Race Ready” podcast here.

14:29 - What’s the monthly/ quarterly close process like at Picky Bars?

The monthly close is about two weeks! Jesse dives in with a bit more nerdy accounting detail on why it can be “a bit of a circus” when trying to reconcile reporting from various vendors.

15:45 - How do you decide whether to race when a little bit sick?

Generally speaking, and especially in the endurance world, if you’re feeling a little bit sick—or if you are sick—it’s better not to race. However, if it’s a short race, you can go ahead and get out there. Just know that you might get your butt kicked and that’s OK. Give yourself some challenging training when you recover to rebuild your confidence! 

19:44 - Why is Steph Bruce’s name listed on the back of the new granola, but not on PB&J all day?

Ack! It’s because we messed up. It should be on there, and it will be on the next round of packaging. Lauren and Jesse joke that this is not the first time (and probably not the last time) that a typo has made it past the many rounds of internal review at Picky Bars.

20:59 - Do you have any book recommendations on nutrition? (for runners or more generally)

Check out the following nutrition books for athletes, and stay away from extreme diets:

• ROAR by Stacy Sims and Selene Yeager
• Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook

22:24 - When is the new Believe Training Journal coming out?

New colors and some minor updates to the Believe journal are coming this fall (2019).

Meat & Potatoes

23:25 - When you’re injured, how do you manage those final weeks of resting and quieting your mind when you just want to cut your rest period short?

It’s completely normal to feel restless and antsy during your recovery. Here are a few tips to help keep you on track!

• Check in with your doctor and create game plan for being more active as you recover
• Try to focus less on what you can’t do and more on what you can do
• Take up another activity or sport that you can do while injured to challenge you and keep your mind engaged
• Be prepared to say “no” to things you’ve used to fill your time while injured—like watching movies, etc.

29:54 - How does a person gain more confidence? Where does your confidence come from?

Confidence is a mix of many different factors from the stories you tell yourself to the relationships you maintain. Here are some tips for building confidence from Jesse and Lauren:

• Make SMART goals for yourself—start small—and stick to achieving them
• “Fake it until you make it” – project confidence in the world, even if you don’t feel it
• Use affirmations—tell yourself that you arethe things you want to feel more confident about, even if they feel untrue
• Take an inventory of your relationships and see if any toxic relationships are tearing you down and affecting your confidence

It takes time to build confidence, but confidence can have a snowball effect. Once you start to achieve SMART goals, say affirming things to yourself, you can start to build confidence faster than you might think.

You can also check out Strong, a confidence journal by Kara Goucher.

36:09 - What can you do to cultivate a healthy, positive and supportive team environment?

When it comes to cultivating a healthy team environment, there’s a lot of crossover in work and play. Here are a few suggestions Lauren and Jesse make:

• Get ego outta there! The less ego the better
• Reward team members that exhibit less ego and more openness
• In business—be transparent so your team knows what’s going on and feels a sense of ownership in the business
• Celebrate cultural and results-based wins with employee of the month or athlete of the week
• Focus on creating connections on your team that aren’t race or results related
• Remind your team that they’re there for fun and connection
• Define success together—sit with your team and find themes outside of results that the team defines as success. Then, work towards those goals and feel success in achieving them as a team!

42:30 - How do I get my partner to put a ring on it already?

Welllll…. Aside from having fun with it—you know, like playing “All the Single Ladies,” or making “ring” puns every chance you get—you could always ask your partner ;)

Follow-Ups

48:03 - A listener who works 12-hour shifts writes in with a follow up about finding time to eat while at work. Their pro tip? Picky Bars sure provide consistent and easy energy throughout the day!

49:07 - As a follow-up to the looovvvveeepisode, a listener writes in with a tip on how to stay intimate with your partner amidst the other crazy aspects of your life, like kids, work, etc. For women, they recommend MyFlo Period tracker which may help you align with your natural cycle and find out what different types of intimacy work for you at different parts of your cycle.

50:24 - A listener took the USATF Level 1 certification course and was pretty disappointed. They found that the course covered EVERY track and field event and were more technically than functionally oriented. Then they took an RRCA Level 1 course and were totally impressed. They recommend this course for anyone who wants to get into running coaching.

51:17 - A listener follows up on Jesse’s recent post about swimming with Gwen Jorgensen and wants to know if this is what Bend, OR is really like. Yep. It’s a pretty magical place. The listener and Jesse also give a shout out to Stacey Kiefer of Zealios.

53:04 - Another follow up to the Love episode. This correspondent reminds everyone that—hey!—condoms are an effective birth control method, too, if the pill or other methods aren’t working or are messing with your athletic abilities.

54:02 - Struggling with money issues in your relationship?! A work, play, lovahhh writes in to recommend You Need A Budget (YNAB). Since using YNAB, they haven’t had an argument about money in their relationship! Check it out!   

56:08 - The final follow up clarifies how Lauren is wise like the OA (yep, from the TV show).

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As always, submit your work/play/love question at pickybars.com/workplaylove - Thanks for listening!

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