#195 - Anders Johnson, Professional Track Cyclist - Physics, Fast Laps & The Cost of Chasing LA 2028 - Stupid Questions with Seth Hill

Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hello, and welcome back to the Stupid Questions podcast.
Today on The Pop, we're going tobe talking with Anders Johnson.
He's a professional track cyclist, former mountain pro,
mountain biker and pro triathlete.
So, yeah, make sure to check outhis Instagram for all the cool
stuff there. We talked about some Stanford
studies that he's a part of. Check out the show notes for
that. Yeah, a lot of really cool
things we get to discuss about his professional career in and

(00:24):
outside of cycling and a number of other things as well.
So thanks for being here. Check out the show notes for all
the different things. Sign up for the newsletter if
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(00:45):
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(01:06):
things. That really helps me continue to
grow this podcast and hopefully get it out to more people.
So thank you for being here and without further ado and
introduce. You to Anders Johnson.
So how you doing today? Doing good, yeah.
How about you? Pretty good.
I, you know, it's funny, during the regular kind of training
season for stuff with triathlon,I'm like, I try to stay away

(01:28):
from caffeine except for right around on race day.
And today I was like, I needed to lock in on some stuff, so I
took some caffeine and I am still locked in.
So we're good. Man, I swear, like during the
offseason and not training so much and whatnot, it's like
extra rocket fuel. Maybe it's just not working out
when you have it, just like doing it day-to-day.
Yeah, energy levels are a littlehigher.

(01:49):
Yeah, yeah. But then you start just drinking
it every day and it's like, right At some point if I want to
be using it for key sessions only, yeah.
Yeah, it's interesting. A couple of years ago I found
those Cliff blocks that had caffeine in them, and that was
like they became a crutch for hard sessions.
Honestly, I would take some of those and be like, OK, now I'm
gonna hit these watts or whatever.

(02:10):
Yeah, yeah. It's so funny.
I think the routine's good, though, having something that
like is like a queue, an additional like this taste this
food like, here we go, you know?Yeah, I love that.
Yeah, it's awesome. Well, Anders, thank you so much
for jumping on giving me your time to hopefully ask you some
questions you've never been asked before.
But yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time to make it

(02:32):
happen. Yeah, I appreciate you reaching
out and excited to be here. Yeah, awesome, dude.
So let's just start off with thedeep question right off the bat.
From your perspective, who is Anders?
Yeah, Anders is I guess hopefully mostly maybe most of

(02:53):
these things are wishful thinking, but like tech driven,
science driven really into the numbers as a human and applies
that to on the bike try to bringa lot of stoke and energy to a
lot of situations. And then yeah, just focused and

(03:14):
driven. I would say hopefully I think
these are all, these are all wishful thinking type things.
Hopefully I can be that to the world.
Why do you say wishful thinking?Do you believe that about
yourself at all, or is it? I mean, yeah, yeah, those are
those are all things I feel likeI try to try to put on the world
and like, I guess I don't try toput tech idea out in the world,

(03:34):
but all things I try to like push for and goals of mine and
things I care about. So I hope those are the things
that I am people people perceiveand whatnot.
But yeah. Yeah, cool.
So where are you from? From northern Utah, originally
about an hour north of Salt LakeCity or Park City on the east

(03:56):
side of the mountain so by a fewski resorts.
The town I'm from is actually like 5-6 hundred people.
A little valley of like 5000 or so surrounded by three ski
resorts. The Snow Basin, which was 2002
Olympic downhill Powder Mountain, which a lot of people
in the bike world have heard of,just it was a finish of a stage

(04:18):
of two of Utah for a while. And it's just unbelievably
gnarly climb and then a little tiny night skiing resort that's
gotten better and better. But yeah, grew up skiing,
biking, and yeah, it was a really, really cool place to
grow up for the outdoors. Yeah.
Now I know you travel quite a bit for the stuff you're doing
now, but do you call home base still back in Utah?

(04:38):
Yeah, no, I'm living in San LuisObispo, CA, Central California.
It's about as Central Californiaas you get, directly between San
Francisco and LA. It's kind of a small town, I
think, like published populations like 40,000, but
it's also where I went to school, went to college here.
So in summer versus winter, it changes population quite a bit

(05:00):
when all the students come in. But yeah, good riding, good
access to the ocean, surfing andall that, and just great
weather. So I did move back to Utah after
after school for a little bit, but once I got into it's
tracking and training a little more, it's like winters there

(05:20):
for riding bikes. Not, not your best case scenario
and you can do it totally, but it's like alright, proximity to
LA and just like honestly good weather.
It's it's really nice. Yeah, Yeah, it's cool.
So I'm like from Reading, which is the population size is really
relatively close. And I say from Reading, I moved
here a year ago from the East Coast, so I'm not really from

(05:42):
Reading. Yeah.
But yeah, pretty sweet area. Have you been to?
Have you been up here? I have driven through.
What's the lake that's there? So we have Whiskey Town Lake,
which is like kind of to the West if you're going like toward
the Trinity Alps. But if you go north, it's Lake
Shasta, which is the big dam right South of Mount Shasta,
Yeah. So I've just driven through on a

(06:02):
road trip. I took up the coast one time and
then went into Oregon and then yeah, big loop.
But I haven't spent any time there.
I had some friends in college from Reading, don't know much.
You have to check it out. The summer gets intense like 100
and 10120 days which is crazy because it's far north but.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm just trying to spread
the word. I want some more people from the

(06:23):
Second World in this area. Totally.
Well, cool dude. So a minute ago you were
mentioning a little bit, you know, just a bit who you are.
Some of the aspects you brought to light were driven curiosity,
you know, just wanting to learn as much as you can.
Has that always been the case for you, or is that something

(06:45):
that you've nurtured over time? Yeah, I think so.
I studied physics in college just kind of around the like
physics is can be such a broad term of what it applies to, but
in in general it's kind of how things work.
So you can have the other physics of anything, physics of

(07:06):
riding around in a velodrome, like so many things.
It's like understanding how things work.
And it's kind of like understanding the bigger
picture, a lot of it of just like how nature works, like
particle interactions, things like that.
And so yeah, kind of always beenthat mind.
My brother growing up was kind of the tinkerer, like take apart
a lawnmower, throw that back together.
And I was never kind of outside.And he ended up going mechanical

(07:29):
engineering direction of yeah, just tinkering, figuring things
out. So both like very similar and
honestly, my mom, like growing up was she was an engineer and
she was always just pumping the stem.
So like, I don't quite know if we had any choice in the matter.
But yeah, I've always enjoyed enjoyed that type of thing.
Yeah, it's awesome. What's your what did or does

(07:50):
your dad do? My dad actually, I mean, he was
like a bachelor for a long time.Like my mom and dad met when
they were quite a bit older and he had just been like hiking the
Grand Canyon and going down to Baja to go fishing.
And he's the first descent down a river between Mexico and
Guatemala. And like he was just total,
total mountain man. Like the dad lower there is

(08:12):
crazy, but he is a contractor mostly like build cabins in
Alaska. And then all growing up he's a
stay at home dad. My mom worked really hard and
yeah, he he supported the familyin that way.
So yeah. So how has that or has it
affected the way that you kind of use stay at home mom versus
stay at home dad? Like, yeah.

(08:33):
My mom is an absolute powerhouse.
Like growing up to me, it was never like, Oh yeah, the dad's
the breadwinner like this that it was like, yeah, my mom is a
baller and has like worked very hard and like seeing the
admiration like a lot of really important business people have
for her is, is really cool. So yeah, I kind of was never

(08:55):
really talked about or anything,but it was always just like, Oh
yeah, no, my moms like the the baller businesswoman.
That's how things are, you know?Yeah, it's interesting to me
too, though, because you mentioned, you know, your dad
building cabins in Alaska. I can't think of a more like
rough and tough, I am a providertype of a thing.
Like that's still pretty pretty crazy.

(09:16):
Oh, yeah. And he was like, I mean, as stay
at home dad goes like we would, he would ride me to school on a
tandem, jump on the back of the tandem.
And we'd go to school, He'd packme lunches every single day
through like high school. And definitely like we kind of
lived on some land and mom callsit a farm, didn't really have
any farm animals, but he was always working on projects,

(09:38):
fully remodeled the house himself, like tons of things
like that. So it's not like he was just,
you know, hanging out. He was like full on building the
compound and and doing that thing.
That's awesome. And it was just you and your
brother. Yeah, one older brother.
Nice, how much older 4? Years, yeah.
OK, nice. What is he doing these days?

(10:01):
Yeah, he, he works as a mechanical engineer, has a yeah,
top secret security clearance. So who knows.
But yeah, he's, he's incredibly intelligent and just like really
good problem solver. And then he's gotten more into
biking. He's a he's a big weightlifter.
He's probably gonna be 2:40-ish and has done like, didn't let

(10:22):
Bill last year, did point to Park City point to point this
year. Like, yeah, gotten super stoked
on biking and yeah, skiing and touring and all that.
He's rad. Watching a 240 LB individual do
Leadville would be quite the experience.
Yeah, and he's close to the big belt buckle time.
I think he'll be back for sure. He's jonesing for it.

(10:45):
And yeah, watching, yeah, I can't imagine getting passed by
that person like that would be probably a tough watch.
But he is just holding just likebiceps bulging out of his suit.
Like, yeah, it's, it's awesome. Yeah.
Did you guys get along pretty well when you were younger?
Yeah, yeah, totally. It was like, I think it was a

(11:05):
large enough age gap. Then when we were much younger,
like the maturity gap was prettybig from like, you know, 6th
grade to 10th grade is like, yeah, not too much in common
there. But we definitely so like in
terms of like actually being close, like not too much, but I
don't know. We definitely like did all sorts

(11:27):
of adventures and whatnot, but Iwould say I'm even close.
Well, I guess we were quite close, but I would say I'm
closer to him now. And definitely like almost when
he went away to college, maybe when I was in high school and
kind of both were older and moremature.
But yeah, we we had a lot of fungrowing up, but definitely feel
like I'm closer to him now. Yeah, for sure.
No, I feel similarly about. So I have two younger sisters,

(11:47):
one's four years and 12 years younger.
And especially with the four years younger, similar to your
situation, like we were close inthat all growing up, you know,
I'd build jumps for her and convince her to go off them and
do all that stuff. So we were close enough where I
could influence her to do crazy things.
And now it's like we have like areal real, like I would even
call her a friend. Like we can actually connect
about stuff and kind of see eye to eye and you get over all of

(12:08):
the butting of the heads and thecraziness of being a kid.
Yeah, yeah. Cool.
So I'm curious for you, like, doyou think that you're more like
your mom or your dad? I'd say kind of a split, like my
dad's definitely like the adventurous, like biking,
hiking, all that. And my mom is yeah, definitely

(12:33):
more of the like, yeah, pushing,I guess just kind of the
academic side more follows my mom for sure.
And then I definitely would say there's aspects of both that I
really try to emulate. And so I'd say definitely a good
mix of both. Yeah.
Do you remember who first introduced like this?
First sport you ever cared about?

(12:56):
I do not. Yeah, I don't really remember
getting into sport. I always played soccer growing
up. Like AYSO, you're just running
around, like batting the ball around.
It's just chaos. Like it's like you can really
call it soccer. I did a bunch of stuff.
My brother played a ton of different sports growing up.
I more of kind of just stuck with soccer.

(13:17):
Did gymnastics for like a month at one point, like all kinds of
stuff. I don't know, but yeah.
So what? What brought about the interest?
Increased interest in mountain biking them when you were 12.
Yeah, might well we would alwaysgo on family trips, like growing
up, we would go down to southernUtah.
There's a place called Gooseberry Mesa and we'd take

(13:39):
this Lance camper drive out there and it was pretty like
undiscovered at the time. It's it's quite popular now for
sure. It's like bit of a destination
for riding. It's just really technical, got
some slick rock, just lots of cool features.
You're up on this Mesa, like looking out cool views.
And we'd go on trips there of like once or twice a year

(14:00):
because my dad was always reallyinto biking.
So he would take us out and my mom would kind of like take a
different route out to the end, like a path.
We'd meet at the end, have a picnic.
So it was kind of always was into biking growing up.
And then my brother found out about this team, just some
friends from school or something.

(14:21):
I was like 5 or 6 of them. And it was like a race team.
The the coach of it was Leah Davidson's uncle, so he was
familiar with the whole high performance scene and he pushed
for us to go to like nationals and stuff like that.
I think I got on the team when Iwas like 13.
So, yeah, got into it through that and, you know, kind of rest

(14:42):
was history. It was definitely just like,
yeah, pushing, pushing the limits as much as I could.
Like went to my first mountain bike nationals at thirteen years
old. Yeah.
Did I think this top ten? I think came back when I was 14
and got on the podium and like, definitely cool podium for sure

(15:02):
of like looking back at some of the faces, Yeah.
And then, yeah, just kept kept on the gas from there.
When did you start to feel like,oh, this is something that maybe
I could do for like a long period of time?
Yeah, I, let's see, I was, I think I was still on that team
when I was like 15 and 16 and I got, I applied and got onto a

(15:28):
team called Whole Athlete, whichis out of Marine County.
And yeah, the amount of like cool people that are on that who
are doing crazy impressive things now or have done with
their careers is wild. Is like a really, definitely in
the best development program at the time, kind of a small, small
group, maybe 10 riders. And that was like really cool to

(15:50):
be in that environment of like they're giving you so much.
Like the support was wild for being a junior.
The yeah, we'd go on trips to these races, like month long
road trip of yeah, all over the West, doing all the boot camps,
things like that. And it was like, OK, these are
this is definitely the opportunity that will push me to

(16:11):
take it as far as I can. Honestly, at this age, going to
Junior World championships in Andorra was my first European
race and it was so unbelievably gnarly.
And so I think that I mean, European racing is just
different. Like on the mountain bike, like
just like huge fields, elbows out, just like raw gnarly.

(16:33):
It was dumping rain. Probably one of the more
technical courses I've ever raced on.
It's not an overly technical course, but a lot of US courses
are just like very tame. The climbs are just straight up.
The descents were like carving across this mountain.
Yeah, big deal. I remember sitting on the start
line and at 30 seconds, yeah, 30seconds to go playing music, and

(16:57):
it stops and a heartbeat starts.I mean, it's like, there's a lot
of bass. It's like, yeah.
And I remember like, I was nervous, right?
And I'm sitting there, I look down, heart rate 120.
It's like, OK, that's high. And I watch it in the next 15
seconds, go past 155. And then I just looked away.
So I'm on the start line probably at 165.

(17:20):
Adrenaline dump. I haven't moved yet and I was
yeah, I was like 20. I think I was 24th call out.
So like decent position and it was, yeah, just all chaos broke
loose. I think just getting used.
I'd never had that European racing experience and that's a a
very different experience that there's different ways to race.

(17:41):
And also just like, yeah, never having raced at even close to
that level, it was, it was a wild experience.
Do you still get that at all ever now?
No, luckily no. I definitely get nerves that I
think helped push me, but I, I never feel, I don't think I was
panicked, but I was definitely like quite nervous.

(18:03):
Yeah, I think I've, I've raced at a high enough level and like
just like had more years now where it's like, OK, I can be a
lot calmer in those situations. Yeah.
So I want to think back to like the earlier days when you first
got on a bicycle and just the pieces of it that you loved.
What was it about cycling that kind of just lit you on fire?

(18:23):
The speed is very satisfying, like you can just cover so much
ground and like honestly, the adventures of it, you could go
out and like ride to the top of my ski resort and then down.
And like when I was younger, it's like that's a like gnarly
deal or just ride out into the wilderness.
And that's definitely a bit of freedom for sure of just like
going off exploring, covering a lot of distance, seeing a lot of

(18:47):
things. And then also mountain biking is
just like fun, Like you're in like really pure place and not
out on the road like just like trees and like streams and all
this and like little jumps. And I don't know, I think it's
personally, I just think it's really fun and a lot of a lot of
things like me for sure. Yeah, yeah.

(19:09):
It's interesting with biking because like white walking, most
people can walk around. And for those who hike, maybe
experience this a little bit. But like you, it slows down life
to where like you can take in the perspective of the things
that are closer for a longer period of time.
And then if you get in a car, it's like you can just blow
through everything. But with biking, it's kind of
like an in between where you cansee a lot, but like your focus

(19:30):
and your perspective is able to just be widened so much.
I think that was one of like thethe biggest like life lessons
gained for just learning how to have perspective and take things
a little bit differently. I don't know if you experienced
something like that. Yeah, absolutely.
And just gives you a lot of timeto think honestly.
Or yeah, listen to whatever you want to listen to.
Just yeah, it's cool. Do you have any like things that

(19:55):
you absolutely just like love todo when you go biking to to
reset or to think about? Is there is there like a pattern
to the way that you process or? Not a ton of a pattern.
I mean, sometimes I'll listen tonothing, a lot of times I'll
listen to audiobooks. Definitely a big fan of
audiobooks. Sometimes the music podcasts, if
I like, find specific episodes Iwon't do.

(20:17):
I don't often just jump on and like listen end to end of like
every episode, but like, people I know are interested in things
like that. But it's mostly, I would say,
audiobooks, music and then, yeah, just silence, yeah.
What's the most interesting, like audiobooks that you've been
taking in the past year? Let's see, I love The Martian.

(20:44):
I've listened to that a few times.
I think that's such a good book.I'm trying to think of the.
Physics Alley there. Yeah, yeah, I mean all his
books, he has a few like ProjectHail Mary.
That's really good. I'm trying to think of this
series I just finished. I have I haven't listened to
like this is the longest stretchI'll probably go in a year.
Like not listening to audiobooks, like pre basically

(21:06):
starting the world's camp. It was like, I haven't listen,
didn't listen to any audio like starting then and then, yeah,
been on offseason. I don't really like have a time
where I'm in the car riding or time where I just listen to him.
So kind of been out of it for a month or two.
But yeah, excited to get back totraining partially for that.

(21:26):
Yeah, for sure. So are you, are you still
technically training right now like you, are you going into
offseason you're saying? I'm offseason.
Full offseason, probably jumpingback on the bike tomorrow.
Honestly, I'm still playing as much as I can.
Today was quite a fun day. But yeah, probably jumping back
into at least some unstructured training for a bit starting this
week. Nice.

(21:47):
Right on. What did you what did you do
today that was fun? Yeah, went surfing in the
morning with some homies and yeah, caught a It was a good
day. It was like quite calm, like
kind of glassy, but the waves were building super nice.
That was fun. And then we grabbed some lunch
and then played a bunch of basketball.
And my feet, like, honest, yeah,we are destroyed.

(22:11):
Like walking. Around the back and forth.
Brutal. Yeah.
Like my baby feet that are protected by this carbon shell
all the time just are not used to that.
And I played some soccer a handful of days ago and got the
same thing, just like blisters and whatnot.
So my feet were slightly more resilient, but my yeah, I think
just playing on the hard surfacejust did some damage.

(22:33):
But it was it was a good time for sure.
Yeah, it's so funny. It's same with so many
triathletes I know, or just other people who kind of operate
in one plane of motion. You start going side to side and
it's like, Oh my goodness, I didn't realize I needed these
muscles. Yeah, yeah, totally.
Yeah. We'll see how the soreness sets
in. Yeah, check on, check on me
tomorrow. We'll see.
OK, so that's good. So mountain biking, it's like it

(22:57):
kind of took its distance or what am I trying to say?
Like that was a good chunk of your life up until I guess you
got injured at some point that kind of led you into the Tri
space. With the exterior space, the how
familiar are you with like the exterior space?
I mean, you're into triathlon, so.
Yeah, I know triathlon pretty well.
I've I'd say it's maybe 30% of my understanding compared to

(23:21):
like triathlon. So like a lot.
I know people who've done them and.
Yeah, so for for a long time, I don't know how long, but every
year they would host the like national championships for
XTERRA in the valley I live in. It's called the Ogden Valley.
The bike. So you'd swim in the lake, your
bike would be net climb of like 2025 hundred feet because you'd

(23:42):
climb up to a ski resort and do like a loop up there and then
the run would be up there. But I was always familiar with
it. I had a buddy who did it in high
school and he was, he was quite good.
And so I always knew about it. And then one year I broke my
collarbone and then I broke it again before it was even fully
healed. So I ended up being a in a sling

(24:04):
for over 2 months. Just the second time like kind
of really messed it up and it wasn't, wasn't healing that
well. And so it was like that was a
lot of my spring slash like, yeah, spring summer race season.
So it was like, yeah, what what do I do at this point?
And that race, the exterior national championships is in the
fall, I want to say probably October.

(24:27):
So I was like, OK, this would I was in 2018.
So I was U 23 at the time. And so I was like, OK, might as
well like give this a crack, seewhat this is like.
I've always been interested, kind of missed my main goals for
the biking season and also is like early on in EU 23 ranks,
like on the mountain bike you kind of jump into the elite

(24:49):
field. There's more U23 specific races
now, but used to for most of theraces just for east with the
elites and most people just get their teeth kicked in for a
couple of years. You're 19 racing against full
elite field and pretty brutal. So is, yeah, not finding a ton
of success immediately in that anyways.

(25:09):
And so I was like, OK, this might be a perfect opportunity.
And that went pretty well. I remember like flatted on the
bike, still did well enough to qualify for World Championships.
Went to that total mud fest. Like bike wasn't moving.
Like literally it was odd for like 60 seconds and then your

(25:30):
wheels would be locked up. And it was, you know, just a
miserable experience honestly. So I did that.
That was in Maui, right? Yeah, yeah, Maui and then went
back to the mountain bike for a few years is like, OK, that was
cool. And I don't remember exactly why
I went back. I finished school, wasn't

(25:51):
racing, COVID happened, wasn't racing mountain bikes too much.
I kind of like whatever reason I'm still training but wasn't.
Finished high school in that time, you're saying?
College. OK, Finished College in 2021,
graduated and so I was like, OK,maybe I'd give this a crack
again. So trained for that.

(26:12):
This is back in 2021 and went quite well.
Like it was interesting that year the swim at it was
nationals and Pan American championships were actually like
paired up as the same same race.And the swim was cancelled
because there was like an algae bloom in the lake.
So it was run, bike run, which running is definitely my
weakness. Yeah.
And the first run, you can just go so hard being fresh and just

(26:36):
delete yourself. But advantage of those races is
the mountain bike is such a large portion that you like, if
you're good on the mountain bike, you can build up a lot of
time. So that was always big advantage
for me. And then, yeah, did that, did
well there, went to worlds. And yeah, it was a cool year for

(26:56):
sure, to be able to like, actually push into that and
learn about the training of swimming and running and how to
balance the trio. Yeah, super fun.
So you better triathlete or better pure cyclist?
Definitely a better cyclist, except I was, I was so proud of
like how my swimming developed. Like I've never been a bad
swimmer. But by the time I like got to

(27:17):
Worlds that year, I was, yeah, Iwas stoked.
I was like, man, I'm quick. Like this is going to be awesome
because I'm not going to be coming out of the water way
behind. And then at worlds that year, it
was like a 10 to 12 foot shore break and they were, they had to
cancel a swim because of the lifeguards.
They were like someone will die if we host this.
Like it's so gnarly. In 2018 when I did it it was

(27:39):
like 6 to 8 foot shore break andsomeone broke a femur.
Just from getting thrown on the ground through.
Yeah. And so it was twice as big as
that. They were like, someone will
die. And I was like, Oh my gosh, all
this swim work. I mean, everyone is grinding for
the swim, but some people are probably stoked.
And so I'm not a great runner like I I get by for sure, but it

(28:02):
is brutal for sure. Yeah.
So. That's fascinating.
So then, you know, you said likeyou finished college.
So during like this professionalcareer in cycling, something
I've noticed from a lot of people who I've talked to is
like, well, you know, you kind of deciding not everyone, but a
lot of people was like, am I going to go to college or I'm

(28:22):
going to focus on this cycling career or whatever the career in
sport is? And most people decide to drop
it. So for you, it sounds like you
must have had a pretty direct understanding for what you
wanted out of a college career and then a cycling career.
So what was that? What kept you deciding to kind
of split your time between both things?
Yeah, I think my mom a big one. Just like big education is a

(28:45):
priority and like even if you dowell in sport, there is life
after sport and whatnot. So she was a big driver there.
And then also just like honestly, opportunity, like I
wasn't an 18 year old going to the world tour.
And in that case, it's a lot bigger of a question of like, I
need to move to Europe, I need to do this.
And on the mountain bike it was like, I mean, unless you're at

(29:07):
the very top, it's definitely support is hard, hard to come
by. So it wasn't like I had teams
like, all right, move to Europe,pursue this.
I was like, OK, this is something I think I can balance
while going to school and it's agive and take.
But I think it was definitely, Imean, definitely the right
decision. And even though it meant racing
a little less and putting a little more, less emphasis, I

(29:29):
think it it gave me balance too.So there's a chance I was better
off as a cyclist just because I had that balance and that
outlet. Definitely a large Titan
commitment for being an outlet. But I really enjoy school and
yeah, I got to move out here to California, which really good

(29:50):
training weather and really goodtraining community as well.
So I think definitely a lot of pros of doing both.
It was just just the travel while you're in in school is
kind of the main thing. Yeah.
Would you do it again then? Sounds like.
Yeah, yeah, I think so for sure.Yeah.
So if let's just pretend for a second to like tomorrow, you're

(30:12):
no longer like able to pursue the cycling career, what do you
think you would do? Yeah, I've been thinking about
that a lot recently and actuallywas talking to some people this
weekend about it. I don't know, honestly, hard to
say. I I currently work in like
research and kind of in a medical adjacent area.

(30:34):
I do think I want to be involvedin medicine slash yeah, human
performance. I think so many endurance
athletes like are just interested in like, yeah, high
performance, like how can you get better?
And it comes from a personal interest.
But also like, I think working at like the the cutting edge of

(30:55):
that could be pretty cool. So finding a balance of those
things, something in that area. Not really sure.
Yeah, we'll see what I end up doing.
So I want to ask a little bit about the studies here in a
second. So I'm kind of making a mental
note on that. But I wanted to ask also with
your bachelor's in physics, a minor in mathematics, like

(31:16):
you're a very analytical person.So how has how has have those
degrees in those areas of study informed the way that you just
kind of view training and cycling and even life like
outside of sport? Yeah, I think cycling, it's
pretty straightforward, like especially what I'm in now is

(31:38):
like track cycling. It's such a data-driven and
analytical and you can put numbers to basically everything
and do the math as to like, how fast will I go if I do this?
What will happen if I do this? So I think that's definitely
been like a cool balance of getting into this new sport
that's kind of yeah, come from my interest of yeah, science and

(32:01):
whatnot. And then, yeah, just in general
life, I think it's honestly sometimes more of a hindrance
than anything. I've just like the analytical
side of like, like when I'm going to make a decision, it's
like, OK, I have to think through like every single
outcome. Like, what would this mean if it
did this? And like, it definitely

(32:21):
sometimes leads to some like decision fatigue of like, yeah,
it's like, all right. Like I just like struggle to
make decisions sometimes. I would say.
I think that is just like that analytical side of like, OK,
understanding the outcomes on all sides.
I feel like I'm pretty good at that, but it makes certain
things just like decision makingprocesses difficult.

(32:43):
But yeah, I do think it definitely is factored into my
everyday life for sure. I'm also curious cuz I know just
for being a coach and then also doing some, you know, work by
the numbers and races by the numbers.
It there's a, there's a chance for anyone to kind of become
married to those numbers to where they can dictate even your

(33:04):
mindset and the mentality that you hear carry with inside of a
race. So whether it's a Formula One
driver on looking at their lap times or whatever, or you're
looking at power numbers when you're halfway through the race
and you know, you can kind of let that either determine where
you're going to kind of go. How do you practically combat
that? Yeah, I, I feel like I've gone

(33:24):
through kind of the whole wave you're talking about of, yeah,
becoming like overly analytical of like, yeah, you get a data
tracker and then like your recovery is bad on one day and
like, what do you do? And yeah, it's like, oh man, my
HIV is low. That means I'm like not going to
be able to do this. And I'm getting sick.
And then like I honestly think that leads no, not to more

(33:46):
stress, but like there are people who I think is
detrimental for just of like overly analytical.
You panic about getting sick because like your numbers aren't
perfect. And then it's like you do
different things and like just that stress of like thinking
you're sick, like you just manifest it.
So I think I went through a stage where I was like, OK, all

(34:09):
numbers all the time. And I think like coaching has
honestly helped me like understanding different
athletes, processes and whatnot.But I've come to a place where I
like, I do think the especially in racing, just like getting
kind of into that flow state of just like understanding and
trusting your body of what you're listening to.

(34:31):
I would never look at like recovery scores etcetera on a
race morning just because I do think like the psychology is
really plays a huge factor. Like if you see like, oh, you
just ran like a, you're 10% recovered and it's like, maybe
you feel great, 100% great. And like there, maybe there are

(34:52):
signs, but I think if you let that mental side fall, that can
lead to some pretty big detriments.
Whereas if you like, maybe factors with your body aren't
100%, but if you can mentally focus and like, all right, no,
I'm going to lock in. I'm going to focus.
I'm going to find that flow state.
I'm going to like avoid the numbers because, yeah, when I'm

(35:14):
in this race and someone's attacking, it's like it's all
about sensations. It's not like, look down, I'm at
400 watts. Can I do that?
I do think there are different like paste races that may maybe
mean different things. But I've come to a place where
I'm like really happy with just like the understanding my body
and how how that feels and doinga lot of things intuitively.

(35:35):
And I still track all the numbers, always track heart rate
and power on rides and cadence and things like that and use
those to guide efforts and whatnot.
But I do think, yeah, within day-to-day life, you do have to
train on those bad recoveries because there are going to be
times where you're going to be racing under those conditions
and things like that. So building that mental

(35:57):
resilience to be able to performin any conditions I think is
extremely important. I'm curious what you do because
with, with your stuff, like it'spretty high output.
I don't know a whole lot about track cycling, but I know that
it's fast and arrow and like there's a, there's a lot going
into like a shorter amount of time as compared to like
something like crazy, like an Iron Man.

(36:19):
So for you, you like to just from the little bit of I know
about like high output stuff, there's like a belief that sits
in your mind of like, well, I have to believe that I can like
push harder and get to that nextlevel.
And it's like this, I don't know, it's like neuromuscular,
like you have to raise that bar and be ready to just like
explode to that fashion. But to get there, I also, at

(36:40):
least in my own experience, and I'm curious if you've
experienced this as well, but it's like to get to that place,
you have to have a depth of yourmental well and ability to kind
of prepare and then to grab on to whatever that is that I'm
kind of trying to put words to. What do you do to keep that
ceiling high enough to where you're able to grab for that
when the time comes? Because if you're exhausted or
mentally fatigued, it's just so much harder.

(37:02):
I think it goes just goes back to the same thing as training,
just like taking rest. And it's honestly the key to
like every equation. Like so many people can go
really hard, but so many people are so bad at recovering.
And I think everyone thinks of like, my legs are tired and need
to let them recover. And like very few people think
about like my mind is tired fromall this training.
I need to let that recover. And so I honestly also don't

(37:26):
race a ton because I noticed like it is a big effort mentally
for me when I race. Like when I'm showing up, I'm
like ready to throw down, but like doing that like twice a
week. Like I would just burn out
pretty quickly just like it. Maybe I'm just different from
other people, but it is such a high mental, mental load for me.

(37:50):
And like, yeah, I can do local races and things like that and
have a little different mindset,but it is like when I'm there to
perform, I'm like not holding anything back.
It's definitely just going to goall in.
So I think limiting the amount I'm traveling and racing just so
that I have time to like decompress.
And then, yeah, honestly, just rest your training really hard,

(38:14):
giving yourself mentally and physically rest.
And what mental rest can look like is a little bit different
from for different people. Some people it's yeah, just
sitting, relaxing. Other people it's getting out,
chatting with friends, things like that.
So making time for for the things that like fill your cup,
so to say, I think is extremely important.

(38:36):
What's the biggest mental failure cup thing that you do?
I don't know. I'm definitely a big fan of
surfing for sure. I don't do it a ton, but I would
say like, yeah, after that todayit's like, oh, that's a blast.
But yeah, I, I honestly just like we have a little fireplace

(38:56):
outside and like an evening sitting outside and eating
dinner. Like make dinner, go out, sit by
the fire and like, enjoy that evening.
Like that's such a, such a good routine for me.
That is really, really helpful. Just relax.
Yeah, it's so interesting to me.I've never been able to put like
a practical reason for why it is.
But with sitting by the fire or being in the ocean or hiking

(39:18):
through the woods or slow my mountain biking trail around,
whatever, whenever it has to do with one of these elements that
exist outside of our kind of manufactured world.
It seems to be those things thatkind of bring us back to a
baseline or to like a level of peace and and comfort that
allows us to then go back out tothe battlefield, whatever our
battlefield may be. And I haven't figured that out.
Have you figured it out yet? No, no, but I totally agree.

(39:41):
I think actually like going going back, I would say my
biggest fill in my cup thing is mountain biking of like, I think
it's, I mean, it's still biking and like maybe still training,
still doing volume or whatever, but just like getting out and
like going back to the like the roots of why I got into it and
the fun and whatnot. Sometimes you're on like 5 hour
Rd. rides and like they are. Fun for sure.

(40:03):
And I I really enjoy them. But whenever I get on out on the
mountain bike, it's always like,oh, this is, this is awesome.
Like just really enjoying nature.
And I think it's what you're saying of just like getting out
of the manufactured society and like, yeah, really into nature.
Yeah. So one of the things you spend a
lot of time with is the Stanford, I guess medical

(40:23):
studies. You're doing two of them.
One has to do with like elite study, VO2 Max stuff and then
the other one is a cardiovascular study.
And I have some questions about both.
But first tell me a little bit about the Elite Study and how
much time does that take for you, like weekly you think?
Yeah, totally. And this is going to be a
shameless plug. Everyone, everyone listening to
this. You know, give me the links.

(40:44):
Yeah, elite.stanford.edu, reach out.
It's a study on, yeah, the genetics of high cardio
respiratory fitness. So high VO2 Max, we can get into
that later. But yeah, time wise, it's, I'm
honestly really lucky the lab I work within has like welcomed me
in with open arms and like been very accommodating with what I'm

(41:04):
doing. They're all into sport
themselves. And so I think they understand
like what I'm pursuing. And so it is, it is really
flexible. I make meetings and like outside
of that, it's just like get work.
I need to get done, done. And so it's really nice like
tonight I can because I spent myentire day just playing.

(41:27):
I can work late in the evening. And so time wise on that
project, I don't spend a ton of time on.
I would say yeah, weekly. That's probably only like 5
hours a week or so. I'm definitely more involved in
the cardiovascular health research, like the app I work
on. But that study is, yeah, mostly

(41:49):
reaching out to collaborators, like making those relationships
and then also, yeah, trying to get athletes involved in some
regard. But yeah.
So the elite study, I guess, give me your spiel on what it
is. And is it too early to say like
what you've learned because it I'll let you explain what it is,

(42:10):
but have you with the relationship?
Have you figured out one way or what truth is?
So quite honestly, we're in likealmost totally a recruitment
phase. So we're kind of we haven't done
much of the analysis. There was an initial phase of
the study where the criteria were 65 or 75 and 63.
So 75 for men, 63 for women. And that is like for anyone

(42:34):
familiar with via Tufactia, it'sreally high and like recruitment
obviously quite difficult. And I want to say that phase of
the study they recruited around 8900 athletes and as a genetic
study, it was just underpowered,not high enough resolution to
elucidate any effects. But they opened up the study a

(42:54):
little more for lower VO2 Max. So our study is now 65 for men,
55 for women. So definitely more achievable,
but unless you're have the genetics for it, you're not even
going to train there. So it definitely is easier to
attain by trainability. But that being said, like it's

(43:15):
not everyone could train and hitthose numbers.
So it has opened up recruitment and yeah, a lot of a lot of the
feedback we get like people be like, oh, like running wise,
like it's not all about via 2 Max.
And it's like, yes, I understandthat there's running economy,
there's a lot of other factors, but it is kind of you can't

(43:36):
really argue that it is a gold standard fitness measure like in
terms of endurance sport. And so I think the goal with
that is many things, like there's a really study,
interesting study of like Guy Mantaranta, who had extremely
high, high hematocrit genetically.

(43:58):
And he may have even been like, people thought he was doping at
one point. And then they're testing his
entire family, and it's like, OK, everyone's hematocrit levels
are just crazy high. Yeah.
Led him to success in the Olympics, cross country skiing.
Like, he was extremely good. And there are findings from
people like that that can lead to therapies for people with

(44:22):
heart disease, for example. So it's like looking at how the
body functions or genetics function for people at the
fittest end of the spectrum to try to help those across the
spectrum. So someone's heart can pump
extremely efficiently. Oh, does that, how can that help
someone whose heart is not working as well?
So kind of looking at at both sides of the spectrum.

(44:46):
And so that's, that's kind of the idea there.
In terms of results, we've started sequencing and it is
quite a process to sequence genomes, ton of data, things
like that. So it's a it's a slow study for
sure, like anyone enrolling probably not going to hear back
immediately about results. Like it's definitely going to be

(45:08):
a mini year study as we recruit more and more, doing our best to
recruit as quickly as possible so that we can have a well
enough powered studies, find whatever there is to find.
But it is just quite a process to recruit that many people
because our goal is 10,000. I don't think I mentioned that.
Oh. Nice, where are you at?

(45:30):
I think we just broke 3000, so making progress but just slowly.
Just yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, yeah, it's a lot. But in terms of the overall
goal, got a long way to go. Yeah, what would a success
metric look like for you when this thing's done?
I think honestly, like just being there is a success metric.

(45:53):
Like I'm really interested in also being involved in like any
analysis phase in any way that Ican.
But a lot of the relationships of people I work with are just
extremely intelligent and have really cool ideas and things
like that. So I'm, I feel really lucky just
to work in this lab and like themeetings we have of how they
present and share ideas and the people I get to work with.

(46:14):
So honestly, being in a flexiblerole that allows me to bike,
race and learn from all these cool people at the same time
like I've, I've already succeeded there for sure.
Yeah, I'm sure that helps your even your coaching, not not to
mention your individual experience.
Yeah. Yeah.
So tell me a little bit more about the cardiovascular study,
if you don't mind me asking about that one as well because

(46:36):
you spent more time on that one.Yeah, definitely where I'd spend
more time, the project manager for that study and that is a
cardiovascular health research app and it was first, it's
called My Heart Counts. It was first launched with
research kit, which is Apple's like research suite in 2015 when
they launched that and has been collecting kind of ever since.
And we're working on, yeah, securing the funding to develop

(47:00):
and launch a next phase of that.And that is just like kind of
all metric biobank of collectingall these different markers
questionnaires, like, you know, psychological questionnaires,
things like this and linking those, looking at trends,
patterns and then trying to promote physical activity.
So having trials built in that are, yeah, randomized crossover

(47:24):
trials where this group is giventhis type of intervention, this
group is given this, and then, yeah, swap over after a certain
amount of time to we have the ultimate goal of increasing
physical activity. Because on a population scale,
just small changes in activity can mean huge changes outcome of

(47:45):
a population. Like me doing 5000 more steps a
day might not mean much, but on a population level, if
everyone's doing that, that actually has quite big
implications. Yeah, decreasing alcohols,
mortality, risk of heart attack,risk of anything.
Yeah, exactly. And yeah, on for some people,
that's a much larger percentage increasing by 100 steps a day.

(48:09):
But yeah, yeah, it's fun to be part of.
That's awesome dude. I'll link both of those things
for people who want to get involved with the other one and
then maybe check. Out.
What's going on? Yeah, I appreciate that.
So with everything you've got going on on the study front and
then obviously the cycling front, you've got your sights
set on LA 2028, I would assume. Still, that's a big thing.

(48:30):
I would say that your risk for burnout is relatively high.
Maybe that is my, maybe I'm wrong, but how you, how do you
feel about that? Like what's taking up most of
your mental bandwidth and how doyou, how do you survive?
I guess it's a question I'm asking.
Yeah, I think it's got a pretty balanced situation right now.
Like got a lot going on with like yeah, work and racing and

(48:53):
coaching. But like I said, the the work is
quite flexible and probably on average like 20-5 hours a week.
So not crazy commitment. I would say school was
definitely a larger commitment time wise, just like always
studying. But I think I'm definitely, I

(49:13):
enjoy kind of just taking off the day-to-day, just like
stacking those bricks per SE of yeah, just keeping the build.
And I think I really enjoy the process of the training.
And yeah, like I mentioned, I race very little, which like if
that is all that's keeping you going the racing, then it's
really tough. But I I quite enjoy just the

(49:36):
training and just like building that consistency.
So I think that is my biggest advantage.
I'm not racing just for the races and training just for the
races. Like I enjoy the process.
So I think like it's really coolto have a big goal on the
horizon, but I love doing it regardless of like what what

(49:58):
stage I'm at. Definitely it's it's always
about competition at the end of the day, but I enjoy the
day-to-day. So it doesn't feel like it's
like this big daunting thing to try to tap.
You're racing to live, not living to race.
Yeah. What is what like?
How many times do you race a year?
Like what's a lot to you or what's a little?

(50:19):
I mean, this rate this year was very little.
I'm trying to think main track stuff.
Did a Nations Cup. There was only one Nations Cup
this year. So did that Pan American
Championships, world's nationals.
I did Rd. Nats and then one other race, so
like maybe 6 weekends. Yeah, six or seven weekends was

(50:42):
like pretty much it. It's pretty Dang, pretty Dang
limited compared to most people.I don't race much on the road or
time time jump on the mountain bike or gravel bike, but not
super often. Yeah, so I was also reading, you
know, this cycling adventure is taking you all over the world,
six out of the seven continents.So hopefully you get the 7th

(51:03):
here before too long, but has that experienced ever challenged
the way that you see and understand other people's
perspectives from across the world?
Yeah, I mean, first, I don't think there's too much bike
racing that I'll be doing on on Antarctica, so we'll see.
But I will say it's like, I think travel is such a impactful

(51:25):
teacher like you, just like, I mean, you see the whole human
experience. We've I'd like quite a bit of
racing in South America and likesomewhat underprivileged areas,
also some extremely wealthy and nice areas and things like that.
So I mean, it brings you together in that like, OK, I
just, I went to Turkey earlier this year and it's like, OK,

(51:47):
yeah, just people just like me, like same, same type of thing.
And then also just like everyonehas their own unique experience.
So I think it really brings you together in that like, yeah,
just like if you have never travelled and seen an area, it's
like, yeah, people are just veryalien to you.
Like, you've never heard about this group of people are seeing

(52:07):
them. And it's like, you go there and
it's like, yeah, they love French fries and they love,
like, doing, yeah, hanging out with their friends.
And it's just like very humanizing, but also like shows
you like some things that you don't experience.
Like I live in a affluent area in California.
And it's like, yeah, that can bequite blinding of like not

(52:30):
seeing inequities in the world or people who are in much
different circumstances living under 10 roofs, things like
that. So it's quite humbling as well.
So a lot of a lot of interestingperspective and experiences.
Do you feel like you still have more to learn?
Oh, absolutely. I think anyone who says they

(52:52):
don't is, you know, very misinformed, just very off their
mark. Yeah.
Well, what is something that you've learned about yourself
that is maybe challenged the waythat you view a thing?
Maybe it's a certain belief system or principle of operating
as you relate to others. May may have to table that and

(53:14):
come back to that. I think that's a.
That's a big thought to try to just tackle on the fly, Yeah,
spent some time, spent some timeriding thinking about that.
Christian Yeah, yeah. So let me ask you this question.
If you were to yeah, let's go with this one.
If you were to walk in a room ofeverybody you've ever met or

(53:36):
have known, who would you walk up to?
1st and why? Let's see.
Yeah. That's I mean tough for sure.
There's definitely like a lot oflike incredibly palmar wise,
like impressive people that I'vemet but like don't have

(53:59):
relationships with. I think it would definitely go
back to like family of just likethey're yeah, always pushing me
to grow and learn and I think I yeah, will always have things to
learn from my family and whatnot.
And so I think and also just like, quite honestly, in that
room, it's like familiarity, right?
It's like, OK, if I see my mom, but like, first person I walk up

(54:22):
to is, you know, some rando. But yeah, I think probably I'll
probably go with my mom in that situation.
So do you spend more time in your head or in your heart, in
the way that you live your life,you think?
Probably in my head I would say.Mr. Analytical.
Yeah, I would say if I wanted tothrow a wishful thinking maybe

(54:45):
in my heart, but I'm definitely,I think I've pushed more of a
balance like yeah, in my heart per SE.
But I'm definitely just like by nature, I think extremely
analytical and think through every situation and whatnot.
So yeah, definitely, definitely in my head.
So you're successful by many standards.
I think that people could easilysay in terms of just like

(55:07):
viewing your Instagram or knowing you personally even.
And the things that you've accomplished where you live, the
studies you're involved with, Stanford, like a lot of these
are pretty prestigious things. So a lot of people I'm from the
outside looking in would be like, Oh yeah, Anders is
definitely successful. Do you consider yourself a
success? I I feel very grateful for where

(55:28):
I'm at in my life. Like I think like gotten so
lucky with yeah, some of this work I do and like the
opportunity there and like superlucky with the opportunity I
have with track cycling now. And I, I definitely, yeah, I
think I've, I think it's the athletes curse a little bit of
the shifting goal posts. Like the instant you achieve

(55:50):
something, it's always the next of like you finish and it's
like, oh, like, all right, what's next here?
What's next? Like what's the next goal?
What's next, what's next? And I think it drives us to like
high performance. But it's also, it definitely
makes it hard to sit back and like appreciate like where
you're at. Like in track cycling, like

(56:13):
continental championships is definitely, it's like cool, but
like, and not so much. And it's like, yeah, we went and
I won the individual and team pursuit at Pan Am Championships
this past year. And it's like that alone.
Like I feel like that's quite a big deal.
And like, that's really impressive and exciting.
And I think maybe it's just perception of other people.
It just gets downplayed a lot. And so I, I've tried to work on,

(56:39):
I mean, appreciating where you're at while you're in it,
while still striving to those goals.
I think it's OK to celebrate where you're at and like, yeah,
celebrate the winds of where you're at and appreciate those,
even if they're not exactly meeting your goals.
Like this isn't the highest level race in the world, but
it's really cool. And I did really well at it.

(56:59):
I prepared the best way I could.I showed up in the best way I
could. I think that's important to
celebrate while on that journey to have those mile markers.
So yeah. Good answer.
I really appreciate that. I think it's interesting.
So let me ask you this. You know, with with LA 2028 on
the horizon, that is one of the goal posts at the moment.

(57:21):
If you get there, you know, how will that change the way you
think? Yeah, I think it'll change you.
That's the, that's the thing I'mtalking about.
Like, Oh, it's not the end main goal.
And it's like hard to remove that from like any thought or
any goal or things like that. And that's why I say like Pan
Am's is like really cool, but it's not this thing.

(57:44):
And it's like, but that is like a continental championships.
Like if that's as far as I ever make it, like that's really rad.
I have won like a championships and that's like really cool and
like, but there is this just like outside perspective of
like, but it's not the Olympics,you know what I mean?
But it's always that one thing. But I think it's it's just
really exciting prospect, the prospect of a home games.

(58:07):
It's just like, I don't know, the Olympics like, yeah, I feel
like everyone feels just like that home pride of like even
just thinking about like Miracle, for example, the movie
just like that. That's the that's the pre race,
like pre hype. Like that's what gets me, gets
me going. So I don't it's hard to say.

(58:30):
I think it could be like, oh, it's life changing.
It'll change everything all thislike if I did make it, at the
end of the day, it is a bike race.
It's the same thing and like it is like on a much different
pillar. So I think important to remember
that athletes, a lot of athletesstruggle with mental health post
games because I think you're expecting that it's like this

(58:53):
transcendence of like who you are and whatnot.
And it's you leave the games andlike 2 weeks later, I mean, like
if you have success, you metal do well.
Like obviously there's a lot of media and whatnot, but I think
that always fades out and it always ends up like you are the
person that you are. And so I think that's why a lot
of athletes struggle with mentalhealth of like, you think it's

(59:14):
going to be this crazy, like everything changes past this
moment and it's like you're a different person and all this.
And I think I'm, I'm really excited about the prospect and
just trying to keep it like the love of bike racing, whatever
happens, happens. Just really excited about the
opportunity and just like how special and unique that moment

(59:37):
is itself. As to what changes afterwards,
Steve, once we get there. But yeah, just taken away and
we'll see. See if I can make it.
Yeah. Well, because you are a deeply
analytical person, I just want to ask what percentage chance do
you believe that you will be there?
Hard to say, but I'm going to dothe best, best job I can I can

(59:59):
do at this point, yeah. You you believe you can make it
though, right? I think so, absolutely.
I think we've got really good support right now from USA
Cycling, the staff and coaches and I.
I'm definitely doing everything I can and have had some a really
good trajectory and since I've gotten into the sport past

(01:00:21):
couple years. And so I'm, I'm hoping I can
continue that and continue to push the level of the US
program. And yeah, I, I do think I can
make it, but it's definitely going to be a lot of hard work.
And sure, yeah. Awesome, how is your mental
health? I think I think I'm in a good

(01:00:41):
spot. It's been a tough year.
Had a lot of loss in terms of loved ones, friends, things like
that. And that's definitely put a
little bit of a blanket on the year.
A lot of the successes just likefeel very grayscale.
I guess we'll say, yeah, Dole isbetter way to put it.
But I think overall I'm, I'm definitely in as good of a spot

(01:01:05):
as I could be. I think the circumstances and I
think like general day-to-day, I, I really prioritize it.
I I'm good at saying no to the things that I feel like are
gonna impact me in a negative way, even if they're like, yeah,
friends and things like that. It's like, OK, prioritizing the
sleep and the things that I knowwill keep me going and showing

(01:01:27):
up for the people in my life in the best way.
And that's important. But yeah, I think it's, it's
never the, the social media likeperfect picture you see.
It's like everyone has stuff going on and definitely been one
of the rougher years for me in terms of just loss.
But I think it gives a lot more meaning through a lot of things

(01:01:48):
as well. Just like, yeah, that you can go
out and pursue these things and you have this support from all
these people in your life and like, yeah, so then definitely
an introspective year. Definitely learned a lot.
Yeah, if you don't mind me asking, who'd you lose?
So my girlfriend's dad passed away to cancer early in the

(01:02:09):
year. I lost one of my best friends
two months ago to a paraglide orspeed flying accident.
And another good friend had her mother pass away.
And she was someone who I like grew up with as not extreme
mother figure. But it was a lot of time, Haley
Batten and we, we had kind of this little squad of kids when

(01:02:30):
we were like 12 ripping around. We would do those races and then
honestly we get like 12 of us and go ride like 5X the distance
of the race just hitting jumps and all this.
And she was someone who is definitely like guiding that
ship of like kids energy and took me on a lot of trips and
whatnot. So definitely three, yeah.
Pretty important people in my life and yeah.

(01:02:53):
Yeah, loss is such a interestingthing.
And I'm trying to say interesting all the time because
I say that word too much. But when losing someone, it kind
of puts in things into a perspective that I don't think
many people have the opportunityto see usually until much later
in life, Especially when it's people closer to you or people
that you're close to and the people that they were close to

(01:03:14):
that kind of passed away. Like what you're saying.
Yeah, it's a super difficult thing because there's never
like, a set of phrases or words or things you can do that's like
time and sitting with it, acceptance, like the different
stages of grief. It's like there's no right
pattern or flow that seems to fix it.
I do think just an understandingof just like that sucks.

(01:03:35):
Like the whole there's yeah, so many people like places where
you want to console someone and it's like, oh, but at least
this. But.
And it's like, honestly, just like life throws you like, yeah,
hooked to the jaw sometimes. And like, it's not all going to
be sunshine and sunshine and roses, rainbows, all that.

(01:03:57):
But it's, yeah, sometimes it's just like, yeah, that's brutal.
That sucks. And like, I think like getting
to a place where like, just being thankful for like the
opportunity with that person. But it's really hard place to
get to when it's like, it feels unfair.
A lot of times I'm just like, yeah, why is this person?

(01:04:18):
Have this happened to them when?Yeah, a lot of good things
happen to bad people or bad things happen to good people.
Yeah, and the other way around, yeah.
Yeah, just the reality of life. And I think it, yeah, teaches
you definitely to care for your loved ones, make the most of
like each day and like the relationships you have.

(01:04:38):
I think it's really, really important lessons.
Are you? Are you religious?
I'm not, yeah. Didn't grow up in religious
family and I, I grew up in Utah,so very religious place.
And I feel like I have a lot of perspective there and I have a
lot of respect for a lot of aspects of religion.

(01:04:59):
And the main thing I would go tois just community.
Like, I think so many things go back to the people that are in
your life. And I think religion offers a
really good a lot of community for a lot of people.
But yeah, never have been religious myself.
Yeah. Would you consider yourself
spiritual at all though? I I think so.
I think it makes things easier at certain times of just like, I

(01:05:26):
don't know, it also certain things like loss, like this is,
I feel like hard. I think there's fun things you
find in religion and spirituality that it's like, oh,
discomforting. But also it's like, all right,
why would this happen to like, my buddy was 27 years old and
like, yeah, just like incrediblelight in the world.
And it's like, yeah, how does that type of thing happen?

(01:05:48):
But definitely say I'm not agnostic.
I feel like just like that higher power, whether that's
like kind of Mother Nature, likewhatever you believe in that
keeps you grounded I think is probably important.
But yeah, I don't spend a a ton of time mentally like on those

(01:06:11):
type of topics. I think it's feel like I've
found a good balance of it. I think I like have a lot of
respect for all my friends who are really religious, but I
think it's like I see all the qualities in them that they
find, they explain or find in religion.
And it's like, oh, that's just like who they are as humans.
You see the same things in like,really good people who are not

(01:06:31):
religious. And it's like, however you
explain and get to a point wherethey're just like kind to others
and yeah, you explain your humanexperience like whatever that is
that feels best for you. Like, I'm all for that, Yeah.
What is what's like in your mind?
The best case scenario or if there is one, like after life,

(01:06:54):
after death? Is there one in your mind?
I think we'll find out when we get there for sure.
Yeah. Thanks for letting me ask these
questions. It's always interesting to hear
how people respond to them. So let me ask you, that's just a
couple more questions here. So when people look at you like

(01:07:15):
what do you what, what do that you think that they see and what
would you like them to see? I think, yeah, going back to the
things I mentioned at the start,I definitely want to bring be
someone who like, yeah, brings happiness in each situation,
just like kind of a youthful joyof like, I think it's a maybe

(01:07:37):
it's a Warren Miller thing of like we don't, oh, maybe it's
that movie tech, whatever it is,it's like we don't grow old or
stop playing because we grow old.
We grow old because we stop playing.
And I think just bring that like, I don't know, a lot of
people trying to grow up and be too adult.
Sometimes I feel like I'm just like forgetting to play and just

(01:08:00):
like, yeah, be that, not like whatever is actually fun to you
instead of trying to just be cool or like do whatever you
think is that. So hopefully I'm bringing a bit
of that just like that pure authenticity.
Yeah. And just kindness as well.
Yeah, well, I think that's a great place to end, man.
Anders, thank you so much for sharing your time with me, for

(01:08:22):
sharing your perspectives on theworld, and wish you all the
best. We'll make sure to link the
different stuff that we talked about so people can hopefully be
part of your studies. But yeah, really enjoy getting
to know you a little bit. It's pretty cool what you're
doing. It was an honor, so thank you.
Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much for having me
on. I I really appreciate it and
it's yeah, good to finally meet you.
Yeah, sweet man. Alrighty.

(01:08:45):
Awesome conversation with Anders.
Thank you so much, dude, for coming on.
Yeah, thank you all for being here and being here so
faithfully every week and and out through the seasons of ups
and downs. Yeah, it's been a crazy past few
weeks for me. I have had some ups and downs
mentally, if I'm being completely honest, start doing
counseling again recently. And I've had two sessions in the

(01:09:07):
past week, probably a little toomuch because it spent me to a
degree. And if you guys can see that
coming out in any of the episodes, my apologies.
But such is life, and I want to continue to make this podcast a
journey about the people that I have on, but also letting you
guys just get a little bit of a view into how my life is shaping
and shifting in the way that I understand and perceive and find

(01:09:28):
curiosity in different facets oflife.
Yeah, I cannot believe I forget what episode this is going to
be. I think it's going to be episode
or 195. So that means it's just a few
more to episode 200 where I'm going to be doing a little bit
of a dive into some of the threelines and things that I've
learned about this podcast and or through this podcast.
So thank you guys for being here.

(01:09:50):
Really awesome experience for me. 2 1/2 years, cannot believe
it. And we'll continue to do this
well into perpetuity. So thank you guys for being here
again and I will catch you in the next one piece.

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#195 - Anders Johnson, Professional Track Cyclist - Physics, Fast Laps & The Cost of Chasing LA 2028

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#195 - Anders Johnson, Professional Track Cyclist - Physics, Fast Laps & The Cost of Chasing LA 2028