Stories about how hard things build stronger humans who have more fun. Guests from pro cycling, sports, politics, business, tech, journalism, the military and m...
Harry Sweeny - Pro Cycling & High Performance Living
The #1 thing you can do to support this podcast is to subscribe to the Choose the Hard Way substack. Just go to substack and search for ‘Choose the Hard Way’ or go to https://alwaysthehardway.substack.com/ and hit subscribe today. That’s where Andrew Vontz writes about bikes, zen and life + shares his reflections on conversations with guests on the Choose the Hard Way podcast and more. @Harry-Sweeny rides for the EF Education-Easy Post World Tour team in the biggest races in pro cycling and his YouTube channel tells the story of his life as a pro cyclist, semi-pro chef and adventurer. Harry also shares about his journey with level 1 autism and how it led him to discover the importance of taking 10 minutes a day to do nothing in order to unlock higher levels of performance during critical moments in races. Find Harry on YouTube and Instagram: https://www.youtube.com/@Harry-Sweeny www.instagram.com/harry.sweeny Over $1 trillion in crypto transactions have been trusted to Blockchain.com and I’m excited to welcome them as the new title sponsor of Choose the Hard Way. Blockchain.com is your trusted platform for buying, selling and holding crypto, no matter your experience level. Create your free wallet and get up to 10% in annual rewards by putting your crypto to work. When you crypto, crypto with Blockchain.com. Palm Tree Pod Co is my production and marketing partner of choice because they do exceptional work that lets me focus on the part of podcasting I love the most, interviewing amazing guests. When you’re ready to start a pod or take your pod to the next level, work with Palm Tree Pod Co. Find them at www.palmtreepodco.com. Follow @hardwaypod on Instagram to get a look behind the scenes at what goes into the Choose the Hard Way podcast and substack and more.
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Christopher Blevins - the World Champion & Olympian on Mindfulness + the Transformative Power of Community & Bikes
Christopher Blevins is a mindfulness practitioner who builds community and a more inclusive and healthy world through bikes. He’s one of the best professional mountain bikers America has ever produced and one of the best in the world. He has won the Cape Epic and taken gold in the mountain bike world championships in the short track and cross-country mixed relay disciplines. He has also won UCI World Cups in the short track and cross country disciplines. Outside of bike racing, Christopher has a wide range of interests. He started his own production company, produces and performs music and is an active member in a sangha, a Buddhist community. You can find him on social @christopherblevs. Choose the Hard Way is brought to you by Palm Tree Pod Co. If you’re ready to start a podcast or want to take your existing podcast to the next level, the team at Palm Tree Pod Co. is your ace. They’re the team behind some of the best podcasts on the planet and they’re ready to help you make your podcast all that it can be. Find them today at www.palmtreepodco.com and on social @palmtreepodco. I helped start The Better Lab because I found that there are many people out there like me who know a lot about sleep and track their sleep and recovery but still struggle to do the things that actually improve sleep. Get the Better Lab app now in the Apple App Store and be more rested, happy and present for the moments that matter most to you in life. Learn more at www.thebetterlab.io and DM @thebetterlabhq and let me know what you think. Watch on YouTube Sign up for the Hard Way Newsletter- - - - - - - - - - Choose The Hard Way Website | Instagram Andrew Vontz LinkedIn
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Rewind: Olympic Gold Medalist Kristen Faulkner - The Power of Positive Risk Taking, Why She Walked Away from Her Dream Job & the Path to Pro Cycling Success
Kristen Faulkner is an American pro cyclist who won the gold medal in the women’s cycling road race at the Paris Olympics in truly stunning fashion, surpassing two of the most dominant racers in the sport with a bold attack that left them looking at each other while she drilled it to victory. It’s one of my favorite bike races I’ve ever watched. If you want to know what it took for Kristen to get to her gold medal moment, this episode is for you. Remember in life and sport, everything changes. No risks, no champagne. This episode is a replay of my 2023 conversation with Kristen and Spencer Martin, my co-host on Beyond the Peloton, America’s fastest growing independent pro cycling analysis podcast. My whole family loves watching Kristen race and my daughter is one of her biggest fans. After this episode originally aired, Kristen took time to send my daughter a video encouraging her to keep riding and to keep doing the art projects she loves. Trust me when I tell you that’s not something that many world-class athletes would take the time to do. Kristen did, because that’s the kind of human she is. When you reach out and lift people up, it makes a difference. This episode is brought to you by The Better Lab. I’ve found that when I get bad sleep, everything in my life is worse and when I get good sleep, everything in my life gets better--I’m a better parent, I’m a better partner to my wife, I’m more creative, I think more clearly, I’m more effective at work and I enjoy riding my bike more. The science to get great sleep is straightforward. But putting it into practice can be really hard. That’s why we built The Better Lab, the app that guides you to mindfully build science-backed practices to sleep better that stick. What works is what you get done consistently and The Better Lab helps you take simple steps every day to be more present, aware and conscious as you build one practice at a time to sleep better. Get the Better Lab app now for free in the Apple App Store and learn more at www.thebetterlab.io. Give it a try and DM me @hardwaypod and tell me what you think. I’d love to hear your feedback. Choose the Hard Way is the podcast about how hard things build stronger humans who have more fun. Humans like you. Please take a moment to rate this show five stars wherever you listen to podcasts and share this episode with a pal. In This Episode: Kristen Faulkner Instagram, Twitter - - - - - - - - - - Andrew Vontz LinkedIn Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher Sign up for the Hard Way Newsletter Choose The Hard Way is a Palm Tree Pod Co. production
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Cory Richards pt. 2 - the Legendary Alpinist & Nat Geo Photographer on his new book 'The Color of Everything' - Rising, Falling & Beginning Again
A student struggling with his practice once asked the zen master Shunryu Suzuki to boil down Buddhism into a single phrase. Suzuki thought for a moment, then he responded: everything changes. This is part two of my conversation with Cory Richards about his memoir, The Color of Everything. Cory is bipolar and at different moments in his life he has been famous, homeless, institutionalized and an addict. He has climbed Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, he won the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award and he has traveled the planet adventuring and shooting for Nat Geo. Then he started over as a writer. Healthy, sick, good, bad, rich, poor, famous, homeless. Everything changes. A great book is one you can’t put down that you miss when it’s over. The Color of Everything is such a book and I highly recommend reading it. This episode is brought to you by The Better Lab. Good sleep amplifies health, wellness and performance. Getting good sleep can be hard and many people struggle to consistently take the actions that support solid sleep. That’s why I co-founded The Better Lab, the app that helps active people like you to mindfully build conscious, science-backed practices to sleep better that stick. It’s just what works to help you get great sleep and you can get started today at www.thebetterlab.io and the app is live in the Apple App Store. Check it out and send a DM to @hardwaypod to let me know what you think. Choose the Hard Way is the podcast about how hard things build stronger humans who have more fun. The purpose of this podcast is not for you to envy, admire or imitate the stories people like Cory share here. This podcast is here to hopefully inspire and empower you to fully embrace being the writer of your own story. It’s a great one, you’re the author and you bring it into being every moment. Find Cory @coryrichards on Instagram and pre-order The Color of Everything here. Watch on YouTube Sign up for the Hard Way Newsletter- - - - - - - - - - Choose The Hard Way Website | Instagram Andrew Vontz LinkedIn
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Rewind: 2nd at the Unbound 100 Gravel Race 2014 with @vontz x @blakeotoday - from the Archives
Doing hard things with friends is fun and even when you lose, you win. In 2014 I took second at Unbound 100 and superstar creator and now BJJ black belt @blakeoftoday took third. This episode originally dropped in 2019. I skipped the weddings of several close friends and trained 20+ hours many weeks for months to prepare for this event. When we did the race and when we originally recorded this episode it kind bummed me out that I didn’t win the race in 2014 or in 2015 when I went back and got second again with a side of food poisoning that left me unable to hold down food for a week after the race. Now I’m just grateful for the memories I have of training for and competing in this brutal event with Blake and for everything that happened along the way. With Unbound coming up this weekend, I wanted to drop this episode again for anyone who is new to the show and anyone has an interest in Unbound. This may be difficult to imagine, but 2014 was a time when there were zero tubeless gravel tires on the market and I ran 50 psi in tubed Clement MSOs and lived. A lot has changed since then and a lot has changed since I created Choose the Hard Way. When I started this project in 2017, I thought the point was to share lessons learned at the limits of human experience. Over time I’ve realized people, including me, forget most of the specific details that they hear on podcasts--but they almost always remember how podcasts make them feel. And at their best, the stories we hear on great podcasts motivate and inspire us to take action and be more present in other areas of our lives. This episode is brought to you by The Better Lab. Sleep is the greatest performance enhancer on the planet and the science to improve sleep is straightforward. Putting it into action on your own can be challenging. That’s why I co-founded The Better Lab to help guide active people like you to mindfully build conscious, science-backed practices to sleep better that stick. We’re an early stage startup and right now the Better Lab app is free in the Apple App store. You can find the link in the show notes. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/better-lab/id6479452885 Check it out and as an early user, we want to hear your feedback to help us continually improve the product. Shoutout to Hard Way listeners Chris Scott, Jeffrey Nebolini, Shannon Jones and many others who have been using the app to get better sleep and sharing their feedback with us. Thank you! You can learn more at www.thebetterlab.io.
Stories about how hard things build stronger humans who have more fun. Guests from pro cycling, sports, politics, business, tech, journalism, the military and more. Resilience, grit, mental health, high performance, mindfulness. Host Andrew Vontz is an entrepreneur & co-founder of TheBetterLab.io, the company that helps you build mindful, science-backed practices to sleep better. Previously, he was a Strava executive; a communications leader at the human performance company, TRX; and a journalist with hundreds of bylines in dozens of top outlets including The LA Times, Outside Magazine, Rolling Stone and more.
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