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Welcome to Spoke and Sole, home of the essential athlete. I'm Terrance here with Anthony. And today, we're just gonna talk about some of the rituals that we go through, whether it be a race or an event. So lace up, clip in, let's get into it. So Ant, you have a race coming up.

And it reminded me of all the preparation that goes into actually preparing for a race and an event. But then there are those things that happen the night before, the week before, and the day of, those rituals. And so I wanted to talk about some of those rituals that we actually have when it comes to whether it be a race or an event. And so I wanna start with you because there's one particular ritual that you have after a race that I wanna touch on. And I wanna talk about the evolution or not necessarily the evolution, where it came from and why you actually do what it is that you do.

And of course I'm talking about kissing the bricks.

Kissing bricks. That is, that I think came from my, I believe it was my first marathon. After that, you know, it's kind of like a celebration and an honoring of all the work that you did. You know, I think, you know, we all sit and think about, and I was talking to my son about this the other day, think, in life and in sport, we spend a lot of time thinking about when you get to the finish line. You know, no one ever thinks about the work that's put in in between, you know, from when you start till you actually get to the finish line.

So kissing the bricks is kind of like honoring what you did, celebrating what you did, you know, and saying, okay, you know, because when you show up that day, you know, whether it be a five ks, 10 ks, the triathlon, whatever it is, you know, everybody's celebrating just to finish, but nobody thinks about like all the work you did that no one ever saw. And that's kind of, it's kind of thanking yourself and reminding yourself that, you know, number one you did it, number two you're thanking, you know, whoever that higher being is by kissing the bricks that you're saying thank you that I could still do that.

Just turn it up, there you go.

But you're saying thank you that I can do that. Like that's very important because I think, you know, I know we've been speaking about this, during the, the episodes about, you know, I know you say, I say aging, you say

maturing, I'm vintage.

You know, but as you mature and you get an understanding that there's a lot of people out there who don't have the opportunity to do what you're doing and that you still can do that, you know, as you progress in life, like that's a gift. So that's where the concept of kissing the bricks came from is like just honoring that you could still do that and that, you know, that you actually finished something that you wanted to do. Because that's, you know, a lot of people start, but some people don't Yeah.

So I don't have, I'm a stick with race day. I don't have any post race rituals, but I do have rituals that I do every day before, not every day, well, I do have rituals that I do before every race. The first one is, before every race, I always show up early, but I always get a mile run-in for warm up before the race. And before even getting to the race, again, because I'm an early person, I make sure I have my waffle with my peanut butter on it. My waffle, a waffle with peanut butter on it symbolizes race day for me.

So I start with that waffle and that peanut butter. And then when I get there, I gotta get that mile in. My body, I mean, lot of people warm up and that's the main reason is the warm up. But getting that mile in allows me to get everything out, whether it's, if I have a particular goal that I'm concerned with, and that's typically not the case. Mean, it comes to racing, know, at the point where, and I've always, and I learned this early on, it's always about enjoying the actual experience.

But the way that I'm actually able to enjoy it is by running that mile, getting whatever I need to get out, any issues, concerns, just getting my body loose and warm ready for the race. So that's one of the ones that I do before the race. During the race, you may be familiar with this, but Scott is, during the race, it's all about fishing. I've always found that when the gun goes off, people just jet. And some of those people jet because it's part of their plan.

They have that pace, they have a strategy that they're using to finish where they want to finish. Some people get caught up in the actual excitement and they get caught up in the rush. So I don't get caught up in the rush, I just sit back and I fish. And what I mean by that is, I let the race come to me and then I just take one person at a time and I focus on their back and I slowly reel them in until I get to the next person, the next person, and the next person. And it might not, I mean, that might be more of a strategy as opposed to a ritual, but to me, that's part of my race day ritual when it comes to once the actual race starts.

All right, so you're looking for pre, pre poll, let's say this.

Let's do it from this perspective. Let's race day. Yep. And then we go backwards.

Okay, so race day for me is somebody, so what you do is, so I know it's race day.

Jackson, why are you ignoring me? He ignoring you, Jax?

I know it's race day when, you know, I get up for the race and if I, and I really ever eat it, but I know it's race day when I have, I get up and I have a piece of toast with peanut butter. That means like that's only reserved

for race day,

only. Like I, you know, like I never eat it any other time, but that's, you know, that's the one thing that I know is, you know, if I eat that peanut butter with toast, I know that it's, you know, I know it's never gonna kill my stomach. I know it's never gonna, you know, do anything. It's not gonna upset my body. So I know at least if I've done that, that you know I prepared and I have that pre race fuel that I need until at least get me you know through the first you know half hour forty five minutes of the run so that that's my and then from there I know it's race day normally, I normally always wear calf sleeves when it's race day, so if I put those on, it's either I'm running a very long run or it's race day.

And I think it's, to me, it's more of a, it's probably more of a psychological thing than anything else. If it's a shorter run, but if it's a longer run, it's really like, I find like a lot of comfort and like, they really do help for long runs.

You So. Want strange? I've never worn the, the calf sleeves. Never worn them. Listen, they've, they've gotten me through.

I don't even own a pair.

Oh, okay. They've gotten me through four, I have to gift you some. They've gotten me through tough long runs for the leading up to marathon training. You know, they really especially like once you get in and like the casket fatigue III found really they work. So that would be my ritual and I think the day of ritual too is, see and you're actually getting me in the mind of things because I haven't, I haven't raised in so long, I have a race coming up to Saturday so I have to actually go and get ready and then for me is, I don't know if you ever seen me at a Reese's but sometimes like I'll go into a corner and then there's like a four or five song slot that I'll listen to and like one of them is, I listen to the Whitney Houston Star

with Spangled

her then there's this motivational one where he talks about, you know, this is your time and it's almost like he's psychologically, you know, amping you up. So I listened to those are two of the four songs that I listened to, you know, and I'll be like rocking, but in my mind, I'm I'm playing the race through my mind like how I want to go through it. Know, most mostly every race that I race like that's my ritual. If I can, if I can play it in my mind, then I know I can finish it, you know, so I'll start thinking about, okay, you know, not in-depth, but okay, this it's a, you know, it's a half, you know, half marathon. So I'll start thinking about, you know, what I want the first five ks to look like, what I want to, you know, the second five ks and so forth, you know, and how, where I want to get to the point where, you know, I turn it up because I don't, and I should do that, I should make a better effort at running beforehand.

I do a good job cooling down, but I don't do a good job warming up, you know, so normally the first two miles for me is kind of like a warmup and I'm not going to have that option at the five ks, so.

Oh yeah.

So I got to figure that piece, that piece out, but you know, normally trying to walk your way, my way through it mentally where I want to go with it. So that, that's, that's kind of like my, my pre in, my pre in day of ritual.

You know what's crazy? It, it doesn't make a difference what the actual distance is for the race. I still do the mile. Even if it's a five ks, I still do the mile. Only because again, that's what I'm used to.

I mean, even, you wanna know the crazy part about that, say race day, you know, before every run, I do the mile. I gotta do that mile warmup.

And I have to say, you know, when we talk about teammates too, that's one of the things like we pick up good habits from each other, because I don't know if you've noticed, but I like when I do get there on time, you know, occasionally, I may not necessarily run, but I'll walk to kind of like get myself loose or I'll do stretching, that again, those are good habits that you pick up from teammates that you, you know, that you implement, you know, and, I think that that's really good because again, a lot of times you don't really get ready for it because you you get and I see it actually because I was not that I'll struggle but I'm more of a person who like I warm up into it and I let it heat up and then, by the time it's toward the end, like, all right, it's championship miles time. Championship miles. So

do you have a particular meal that you have the night before the race?

Hell yeah. And it's funny because I, I haven't done this in ages and I actually haven't eaten that meal, but, my go to meal the night before is, is chicken lo mein.

Chicken lo mein, really?

Chicken lo mein. Like that's, that's my, what I normally do is the night before or, depending upon how long the race is, so if the race happens to be, and I learned, again, I picked that up from you, where, I try to carb load for longer reasons from a period of time, so for me I'll even go two or three days out and that'll be my meal for those three days to kinda get those carbs stored in. But chicken lo mein, chicken lo mein and water's my thing.

Yeah. If I'm doing a half marathon, I start carb loading probably four or five days before. But the night of, it's always a light meal, but it's always pasta and chicken. I always have pasta and chicken. Pasta and chicken the night before, and then that peanut butter and that waffle, that one peanut butter and that waffle will get me through.

But other than that, I mean, in the night before, other than, you know, that meal, it's, for me, it's really always about trying to make sure I get enough sleep, which doesn't always happen for me on a regular basis. But the night before a race, yeah, I'm trying to, I'm trying to get, get a good night's sleep.

Yeah, I, again, I struggle with that too. I mean, think the sleep part is important because, and I don't care how many races you've run, always in the back of your mind you still have anxiety, still have fears, you know, that's the excitement in the allure of running is to have that so you have that so I think for me I try to, I try to go to sleep extra early than I normally would just because I know I'm gonna be playing the race in my mind and thinking about the strategy and trying to really get mentally set because it's a different zone, know, it's not, you know, and I don't care what anyone says, you know, no matter how many times you've done it, you know, when you practice versus when you run is a totally different thing because you're pulling from so many different areas than you normally would that you're not when you would be training, you And plus you have, you know, again, like you said about the practice piece where if we would be on a train it's no different than if we're running on the road we know we're playing but we know it's different when I'm out on the road and there's, you know, 200, two fifty more people.

Or if I happen to be doing a triathlon and I'm swimming and I swim in the pool by myself and I'm swimming with 400 to 500 different people that, you know, are swimming all over you. So to have to get your mindset ready for that, I think is important.

Yeah, and you say this all the time, on race day, you don't do nothing different. Nothing. Nothing different than from what you did in training. I remember, I it's a funny remember Sandy's first half marathon and for one reason or another, she decided that while she was running that half, that she was going to take a goo. And you know, I don't do goos.

Yep. Never did. I know you don't. And when the race was over, that goose started talking to her. And she was, I'm like, oh listen, you know the rule.

You don't do nothing different on race day. You don't do nothing different on race day. So from, I mean, from a ritual perspective, that's the thing. I mean, whatever you used and whatever you did during your training, you keep it the same.

Listen, you got me, and again, I can't wait to come back and talk about my comeback and my post Reese because all these things I've had to think about that I haven't had to think about in a long time because leading up to, and again, and I don't want to downplay it for anyone. Want to sound like a running snob because it is a five ks, you know, and we've done dozens, it is a five ks so it is a shorter race, I'm not gonna disrespect it, but it still is a race, so you still gotta take it serious. So even with that, and you said it earlier, discipline's everything and discipline and also just having consistency. So, you know, my race is on, it's on Saturday. I actually yesterday, it's funny we're having this conversation because I was thinking about it.

I actually, I was, I had to start thinking, okay, so what you wearing?

Yeah. You

know, because again, you know, I haven't reached, I haven't had any of that and you know, normally whether it be your shoes, whether it be your socks, whatever that may be, you gotta stay consistent. So it was funny because I was thinking about that yesterday and I had to go back in my back, I couldn't, I haven't, I couldn't find a racing singlet but I, you know, we always got swag. So I found an old, found an old, new, we run this town, remember the classic joints that we had? I had lost my other one but I found one of the new ones but I got a run-in that this week because I got to know what it feels like. So know what I getting into that, you know, all right, I don't want to just go on the same day, although it's only a short race, anything can happen, you can get chafed, whatever else and all that stuff mentally can throw you off.

So I think it's important and like you said, you know, don't change anything up. Mean the same thing I do, I'm having a little vest on that caught cracks on, my little water bottle even though it's a five ks, you know. Actually, I probably won't, you know. But I'm a go out there and do the same thing that I do all the time that we run.

And I can't forget I forgot about this. And we all do this the night before. You gotta lay out the fit.

Stanley, baby. Yes. You gotta lay out the fit.

Forgot about that. You lay out the fit. Yep,

we normally lay out the fit. You know, if we got our bib, make sure the bib's on, you know, you make sure you got, you know, you make sure your headphones are charged. You know, if, you know, back in the day when we were running, you know, if you had, you know, if you had like your little, like little body bands for the sweat, you had your whole outfit laid out. So you knew that you didn't have to worry about that in the morning and you knew, you know that once you get up, all that stuff's laid out. All you gotta do, all you gotta do is just go do what you want, you know, you put that stuff on and then you, you know, you go through your ritual, you know, whatever that may be first, you know, some it may be, you know, I may eat my peanut butter toast, then I may go get dressed, you know, whatever that may be, you know, and then to proceed from there.

I think that's important because I think that structure keeps you safe.

You know, and this is gonna sound funny. One other thing that I forgot about on, that I do race day and it's only because, man, I don't wanna deal with them porta johns. Oh. Race day, I gots to make sure I go before You I leave the ain't Gotta make sure I go I leave the house. You

ain't never lied about that. And I'm glad you talked about that, although it may be too much information. That is one of the things I would tell you, for me, before I even have the toasting coffee, I'll have some coffee because you know coffee is a diuretic. So I'll go, I have my sip of coffee, I'll go, I do what I gotta do, go back twice. Gotta listen, I make sure I am empty.

It is a double tap. Yes, it's a double tap. And as a matter of fact, I try to do that not only on race day, but I especially do that on our long, our long rides, because there's nothing worse than whatever activity you're doing and you're bloated and you gotta take a shit like that. That's the worst. That's the worst bro.

So we covered race day rituals from a run perspective. When we're doing, or when you're doing events or, you know, these long rides, are there anything, are there any rituals in particular that you have, that you do before each ride or during the ride? Like, I'm a give you example. So, during each ride as we start, you may notice this, but I always pedal with one foot. I keep one foot out and I always pedal with one foot.

Part of that is because, you know, some of the training that I do on isolating, but at the same time, I know that when we're coming to these stoplights and we're on the road, clipping in, trying to clip in as you move always takes a little bit longer.

So

I try to get my legs in prepared to actually do that, you know, one leg

rotation. Yeah, my ride day, I probably, I always sort of ride my rituals, just think about, you know, what we said, we talked about in the prior one to make sure I have everything, I also, for me, it's more about how I'm gonna feel on the road. So you know for me I always check my tires the night before and the day of, like that's something I always do because again I've had issues where I had flats so so that's a big thing for me. I always make sure that, you know, like I always prepare my bottles the night before. So like I'm, you know, like I'll, in my tail wind, I put that in the refrigerator, so like that's my thing, so when, you know I come down and I have and again ride rituals so my Rite Aid ritual is or the night before I'll make all my bottles, I'll come I'll put them in the refrigerator then the day of the ride when we ride I'll go down, I'll have, I don't eat a lot, so I'll have like a granola bar like two hours so I'll get up, two hours before I have that granola bar, I'll make sure that I take the bottles, I'll put the bottles right in the compartment so I know that I have that.

I do a weather check, that's my, I always do a weather check to make sure, you know, I kind of

That's a good one because I don't do a weather check.

Do a weather check all the time so, and if the weather's kind of, if it's, if it's very varied from what I thought it was going to be then I'll make sure that I grab even though I know I have something in the bag I'll grab you know if it's gonna be colder I'll make sure I grab something just in case you know like say if it's gonna be windy I don't normally keep like one of the the wind long sleeves so if that's not in the back I'll I'll grab that and then if it happens to gonna be cold I I really ever wear socks but I know I got the socks in there so I'll do that and then again, I'll I'll check the computer and the light to make sure that they're you know, that I have enough battery life but I normally charge them the night before. Yeah. But every now and then like for example, I rode yesterday. So, if today's, actually I'm sorry, rode Thursday, so if today happens to be really crazy, I may forget to charge them today. So, you know, I'll check then during that two hour timeframe, because you still can get a pretty good charge.

Yeah.

Just to make sure that everything's in order. And then I'll, you know, I'll, I'll grab some goo, and just make sure I'm, I'm, I'm straight with that. Everything else will be in the bag when you're ready.

Yeah. Typically before any, any ritual or preparation I have before a ride, it's for the most part happens outside of preparing tailwind, happens the morning of. The tailwind I do the night before. I do the night before and I put those in the refrigerator. I keep, like I said, I keep water bottles in the bag.

I mean, they're empty, but the tail one, I'll prepare the night before. Everything else is the morning of. And I say the morning of with the exception of after every ride, I make it a point to plug all my devices in. And the challenge is they stay plugged in all that time. So the lights, because I mean, we've been on some rides and I tell you in my lights, although the last one it didn't, the lights tend to die, they tend to die out before the end of the ride.

The little ones, the bigger one lasted for most of the ride last time, but I do a good job plugging that stuff in. The morning of, I check two devices. I checked the Garmin because if there's an actual update there, it'll mess up the map and then won't know where I'm going. And I checked the watch because the watch is where I actually play the actual music from.

Yeah, see, we didn't even touch on that with the, I mean, music is everything, you know? Oh yeah. And especially, and it's funny, that is one of the rituals too. I always make sure my headphones are charged and I don't really play the music all throughout because actually for most of our rides, you know, we, we try to do whatever else, but

I will. It's one of those just in case moments.

Actually, you know what, and again, we talk about rituals. One of my new rituals is, you know, when, when people start to pull and they start to really like, they pick it up, I just hit that, you know, just tap that button right there and then, you know what I'm saying? It's like

You push the button.

Push the button and then push the button and I, you know, got the music for a little bit extra, you know, motivation that, yeah, that's kind of normally what I use, but normally, we're all talking, laughing, joking, whatever else, you know, but that, so that, you know, those rituals are important though because one thing that you don't get right can ruin the whole experience and I think that's really important about the rituals and even with your race too, like you can throw your psyche off, you know, I remember, I think it might've been Providence marathon, think it might've been the third one I did, at one point running that race, I had everything prepared, but I think, and I'm gonna bring it way back to you, back then part of the pre race ritual was, and actually we used it a lot, we used, the Icy Hot and, the hell's her name? Sue Nugent, turned us on to the White Monkey. Remember the White Monkey? Remember the White Monkey? Yep.

White Monkey saved lives, baby. That saved lives.

Yo, the white monkey reminds me of that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer used the Tiger Bomb. Listen. The white monkey.

Tell you something. That white monkey saved a lot of long distance runs but I remember all throughout training we have been using, I have been using that and I use, I only use it on my calves so I you know I would use it on the calves and I would put the calf sleeves on and it would help warm it up and it would stay warm so like I wouldn't I wouldn't cramp throughout the one, the run. And at one particular time I think on that one I ended up not doing it and I paid the price. But the funny part about it is how sometimes not following your rituals can help you because I actually, that was the best marathon I ended up running. I ended up running that like I had a sub four, I was trying to beat Oprah at 04:30.

You said I was trying

to be Oprah.

I got Oprah, I think I got like four twenty nine, 42 or something, but rituals helping. Goals. Yes, that was my goal. But you know, I think again, rituals I think are important not just in sport, but in life too. I think what, you know, the podcast is kind of meshing together how things in sport translate over into life.

Know, like if you have rituals or what you do and you stay consistent, that's how you, that's how you reach those goals and that's how you stay safe too, especially in sport, you know, for me, I think, not just the pre race, but just the rituals in general, you know, those are the things that can prevent you from getting injured, you know what I mean? If you do those things.

Yeah, and I think that that's a great segue, right? What the rituals do is what you just said. From a consistency perspective, it provides you with that consistency. From a preparation perspective, it makes you prepare, And so that preparation and that consistency only betters your readiness for what it is that you actually need to do. And the funny thing is, it's funny how sometimes some people's rituals rub off on you.

And I say that because I remember the first time I saw you pull one of them Uncrustables. I saw you pull one of them Uncrustables out of your pocket. I'm like, man, what are you doing with these Uncrustables? And now for every ride, I end up packing Uncrustables.

That's awesome.

Now, you know, I have them after the ride, but it's funny how that works out. But yeah, from a ritual perspective, again, it goes to the mental side of being prepared. Yes. It goes to the, just the consistency, dedication you have to have to sticking to those actual rituals, and like you said, those rituals end up leaking over into different aspects of And your everyday I think that that makes it so much easier from a stress perspective when it comes to whether it's a race, whether it's a run, whether it's an actual ride. And I think that's a great way to sum up this episode.

So with that being said, let us know what your race day rituals or ride day rituals are down in the comments. Until next time, I'm gonna get this right. Keep those wheels turning and those feet moving, and we'll see you on the road.

Yep. And like, Scott says, if you stay ready, you don't have to get There

it is.