Tales of Toughness By cover art

Tales of Toughness

By: Sonja Wieck
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  • Summary

  • What if you could hang out with adventurous endurance athletes who've participated in the World's Toughest Race and also dealt with tough stuff in their own lives; ask them about how they got back up when they were down on their knees; their challenges, successes, and failures; their worldviews and habits; then take an insight or two to inspire your own growth? That’s what we do each week on Tales of Toughness. Hosted by goSonja (Sonja Wieck) –– mom, 18X Ironman, World's Toughest Race Eco-Challenge Fiji airing on @amazonprime 8/14/20 –– every episode is an in-depth look at how to overcome limiting beliefs, develop a deeper awareness into why you compete, and understand what makes high-performers tick. The goal is to help develop more confidence and toughness both mentally and physically.
    goSonja 2020
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Episodes
  • 021: Nathan Fa'avae - The Unconventional Wisdom of Winning

    021: Nathan Fa'avae - The Unconventional Wisdom of Winning
    Feb 5 2021
    Known by the world as “The Greatest Adventure Racer”, Nathan showed the world his prodigious leadership skills—by winning six world championship out of fifteen world championship events across the globe. Adventure racing enraptured his youthful heart after attending the Outdoor Adventure Program. Nathan’s favorite part of racing is to refine every mistake his team encountered; transforming them into better decision-making outputs that would aid his team into winning the entire race. Currently, Nathan dedicates his time building a harmonious and willful family—the thing he inherited from his mother.   In this episode, you will hear about: Nathan’s mischievous historyHow Nathan found his callingWhy being a parent is not the “end” of your adventureLearning from mistakes in racingDealing with pressure and uncertaintiesNathan’s “Winner’s Philosophy”   [03:01] Nathan originated from a family who were adventurer at heart in terms of camping, fishing and diving but not in extreme sports like mountain climbing and hiking. He enjoyed being one with the environment and its exploratory nature. [05:01] Growing up free-willed and mischievous, Nathan felt the unhealthy directions he was heading into. Even though he felt the excitement, he knew there was no future waiting for him by going to that path. [06:28] How Nathan found his calling: He got the opportunity by attending the Outdoor Adventure Program. It was a pilot program for twelve boys where it involves challenges that frightened the participants but Nathan found interest from it. He fell in-love with the outdoor sports and the adventure of being in the wilderness. [08:46] Nathan’s brother is exceptional at multiple sports like soccer, rugby, cricket but he discovered outdoor sports and the might of his endurance. He found the thing that was for him and he went off. [11:01] Nathan and Jodie, who is an outdoor educator, decided to have a family. They wanted to build their family through their strengths as a couple and outdoor athletes, offer their children with meaningful experiences and teaching them with lessons they have learned in life. [12:46] Many people predicted that by being a young parent, it is the end of your sporting career. But Nathan and Jodie defied expectations and prove the people who doubted them wrong. [16:30] Nathan’s children are all involved in high school adventure racing where his eldest daughter and son belong to the senior team while his younger daughter is in the junior team. [18:52] Adventure racing was not a thing until Jodie started an adventure club with the goal to compete in the nationals. In just five years, the school won championships from nothing. [20:30] Nathan deliberately took a step back because he did not want to put pressure to his children by being too involved in the school’s activities. However, he coaches the teams by making a training program for them or if they wish to seek advice from him. [22:43] In 1999, the Southern Traverse in New Zealand was Nathan’s first adventure. [26:00] Learn small things from the race in terms of the checkpoints, route choices, trails and being critical with the chosen equipment. Through this, you can make better decisions on your next race. [32:37] Even when Nathan’s had kids, he still attended adventure racing since he was essentially employed by Seagate as an adventure racer. However, he felt the need to take a break due to the difficulty of balancing family matters and his pressing heart condition. [38:23] The pressure comes from the team’s standard. If you know what it feels like to underperform as a team and get beaten up by better teams, then you are good to go. [44:04] To navigate the uncertainties during an adventure race, you need to accept what happened as soon as possible. Have the solution-based thinking and focus on what things will be helpful to navigate that moment. Stay calm, be rational and identify the mistakes committed and the solutions you formulated to fix it. [51:04] If you are in a challenging spot, Nathan encourages people to think what you will say first and if that will help your team. [55:58] To become a winner, you need to be prepared to lose it—have the confidence to do the best for your team even if you put yourselves out of the race. [01:00:57] You always do more when you’ve got to race. CONNECT WITH NATHAN! Website: https://nathanfaavae.nz/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathan.faavae JOIN MY ADVENTURES!   JOIN MY INNER CIRCLE! If you would like to support the podcast – this space that I'm creating and these conversations that I'm having – please join my inner circle at https://www.patreon.com/GoSonja. Patreon is my online membership community that enables you to support my creative work as well as get access to more amazing resources!    Subscribe and Review I’d love for you to subscribe to my podcast. Each week, Tales of Toughness takes a deep dive into how to overcome limiting beliefs, ...
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • 020: CJ Kobliska - Breathing, Spiraling, and Coherence... oh my!

    020: CJ Kobliska - Breathing, Spiraling, and Coherence... oh my!
    Jan 29 2021
    CJ believes it takes hard work and strong mental toughness to achieve any goal. He grew up playing various sports and developed a strong passion for mentoring and coaching youth athletes. CJ also works with individual athletes to help them achieve their full potential through mental and self-discipline. In this episode, you will hear about: How CJ turned his hobbies into daily workImpact of coachingCoaches’ JourneyFear of Overcoming LimitsConnection of Body, Mind, & Soul [02:10] CJ wasn’t sure what to do for the rest of his life or what group of individuals he would serve -- until he noticed his own interests while playing sports and exercising. CJ decided to explore Kinesiology and Sport Science and landed internship at a facility called Gymnazo. [04:01] Working with individuals in an open environment, where there were no machines, CJ found a way to connect with individuals who are struggling to figure out how their body moves. He realized that working out is like a chore, and it's just something that he must do to stay healthy. Through different communication styles, CJ learned the deeper purpose of working out.  [07:30] Coaches meet different people with their own story, their own goals, ambitions, and even setbacks. CJ wanted to share authentic positive energy, which sometimes leads people to ask questions like, "why are you so happy all the time?". Coaches believe that when they show up for work, they are there to serve and are happy to help and guide others when someone is lost, or they're on their path, and we want to affirm it." [11:10] Being in a gym with coaches is like building chemistry for CJ. He believes that there is no one coach by themselves; they've got to work together. And as a team, they help to be a cutting edge of innovation and training. For CJ, it's not just about our physical training. It's a mental challenge and a spiritual challenge. [14:12] Every piece of equipment has its certification. CJ thinks that coaches end up getting stuck on how it needs to be done appropriately. CJ felt the limitation of working out, which will lead to burnout. Somehow, what changed his perception of how to program and how to see movement was that there are infinite ways to move people's bodies. [23:21] CJ's job is to help define what it means for someone to be healthy, fit, and more active, get to the more profound questions that drive someone's personality and their reality to shift in the way that they have always wanted to. CJ believes that's it is still accessible, but we have to be able to do the work and put in the effort to apply those things in practice. CJ wanted people to come back and give their best effort for him to do so as well. [25:33] CJ believes that to change someone's mindset starts with self-talk. [26:53] Accepting people's answers to what it means for them to be healthy and not questioning their beliefs. [29:02] Find your own goal or purpose for doing your training. It helps people to recognize the improvements and changes that happen over time. [36:21] Learning the proper way to breathing is beneficial to people. When it feels uncomfortable, people tend to react and stop doing it. But that's when people start to break free. As soon as they begin to have that basal foundation layer that's good for training, they begin to explore and turning it into a habit for better endurance and to be in tune. [42:56] Core values are essential for discovering what we value and what we believe in, connecting people that have the same wavelength as theirs. CONNECT WITH CJ! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-kobliska-8275538b/ JOIN MY ADVENTURES!   JOIN MY INNER CIRCLE! If you would like to support the podcast – this space that I'm creating and these conversations that I'm having – please join my inner circle at https://www.patreon.com/GoSonja. Patreon is my online membership community that enables you to support my creative work as well as get access to more amazing resources!    Subscribe and Review I’d love for you to subscribe to my podcast. Each week, Tales of Toughness takes a deep dive into how to overcome limiting beliefs, developing awareness into why you compete and understanding what makes high-performers tick. The goal is to help develop more confidence and toughness both mentally and physically. If you’re feeling really generous, I’d love for you to give me a review over on iTunes. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps me out a ton!   If you really enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at https://gosonja.com/podcast to download it.   ***   EPISODE CREDITS: If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, ...
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    51 mins
  • 019: Dan Staudigel - Choose Your Suffering

    019: Dan Staudigel - Choose Your Suffering
    Jan 22 2021
    Today, I have Dan Staudigel who will be talking about “Bend Racing.” Coming up in December, they'll be climbing 30,000 feet, close to a level of Mount Everest. Known on the team as "The Mule," Dan is a particularly skilled bushwacker, navigator, and analyst. He was drawn to adventure racing after being a student in Jason's high school class. His favorite part of racing is the power of having a team with a common sense of purpose; and therefore, being able to move with a speed that each teammate could never maintain individually. When not racing, Dan can be found creating digital spaces solutions as a software architect. In this episode, you will hear about: How Dan discovered the sport worldThe need to get engaged with a communityHealth awareness in sportingPhilosophy of suffering and stressJourney towards body acceptance   [03:15] How Dan started the adventure racing sport: Jason was his teacher in high school (Dan was taking a climbing fitness class). He overheard Jason mention adventure racing, which was padding and running. They trained and then raced. [05:25] The team was originally Team Yoga Slackers, then became Team Gear Junkie, and now, Bend Racing. [07:15] Dan is a new Dad. His kid is just over 2 years old with one more on the way. He lives in Bend, about 100 yards from Jason. It began with an offer to watch Jason's parent's house. They have a modern racing, kid raising compound in their neighborhood. [09:45] One season, they ran three expedition races in two months: it was an expedition race every 4 weeks. Dan's wife Chelsea got a gallstone 30-60 minutes into the race. Every time they came back from a race, they had the "post-race blues." Around that time, a book came out about tribes and how important it was to mental health. The depression was due to being separate from the tribe. [13:45] Culture is so individual, and it's a lie. It's a relief to set aside that personal piece and ask the group how to help. [16:15] Dan participated in World's Biggest Race: Eco Challenge Fiji. [19:30] People talked about Dan's team "pushing really hard" but they could have continued at that pace indefinitely (fighting 7K tailwind) if it was colder. He didn't supplement enough salt. During eight hours of paddling, he drank six liters of water, ate 300 calories per hour, but only consumed a gram of salt. He sweat out his electrolytes. [21:30] For every liter of water you drink, you should consume 10 grams of salt, to help your muscles work. When you drink water, your body wants to move it from your gut into your body water system, but if it doesn't have enough electrolytes, it pulls the needed electrolytes from your body water and into your gut. It steals from the preserve. [23:45] The final stages of hyponatremia are: seizures, coma, death. In hindsight: carry salt pills. Dan prefers to drink water and supplement salt, because the 1% solution tastes awful to him. They dropped out of one race because of Jason's hip. [26:00] The team had a 24 hour headstart, but then it took 36 hours to traverse the distance the other teams took 8-12 hours. They ended in 7th-8th place because they did not want to inch-worm up a mountain and across a glacier. [29:30] The adventure racing mindset is: you push as hard as you can, and if they cut you off, they cut you off. Don't take yourself off the course, let the course take you off. [34:50] Dan explains his philosophy about suffering and trade-offs. Walking through 100K of thornfield jungles of Patagonia is good practice to "being where you want to be. Life will be hard no matter what. Choose HOW you want to suffer. [38:00] It's highly adaptive to think you are not enough, because how else will you progress towards the next "carrot" that's just ahead? In some cases, this can be demoralizing. If you don't choose your suffering, your mind will make up something else to suffer about. [40:00] Avoid suffering by cutting out doomscrolling and Netflix binging. Most humans in America experience fight-or-fight in relation to their power bill, mortgage, or job. There's something freeing about getting that stress response in the "nature intended way" -- you get the adaptiveness that way. [42:45] It's easy to over-train emotionally (in the same way you could over-train physically and injure yourself throwing weights around). Seek adaptive improvements to build resiliency instead of maladaptive responses, i.e. a toxic team. A benchpress can be done correctly or incorrectly, in the same way a difficult talk can be done "the wrong way." [44:00] Dan explains how failure in physical training and relationships can be corrected and lead to increase strength. [47:00] Dan describes his journey towards body acceptance. Everyone else in the race, relaxing in the pool, were very "jacked." But Dan realized his arms and legs were more efficient. [51:00] If Dan was slightly slimmer, he would have been at less risk of overheating, but would have had less sodium reserves. [52:30] When you see an ...
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    1 hr
Art Sports & Outdoors
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