We're back for a brand new season of the podcast, and to celebrate our 3rd year, we have an extra special guest. Today, I sit down with Squamish local legend, Greg Day.
Greg has a rich history in mountain biking, starting with racing XC and going on to compete in hundreds of races, becoming the Overall Champion of the BC Bike Race three times.
As a former school teacher and competitive skier, Greg has a diverse perspective across education and competition. These days, he runs Daytime Cycling, offering unique spin classes, full-service bike maintenance, and a retail shop.
Known locally for his inspiring race-day stories and his ability to bring out the best in people, Greg has launched a new Marathon XC Mountain Bike race in Squamish called The Haulback. At ~ 34 km and ~ 1,269 m, with a mix of classic trails and a few hidden gems it's sure to be a brilliant test of determination and skill. The race is happening on June 22nd and rumour has it, there are a couple of spots left!
The Sports Psychology For Cyclists book by Peg Hill that Greg references can be found here. And you can check out @thehaulback and @day.time.cycling on Instagram via these links.
Listen here or by searching for ‘Grit with Wisdom’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube, or over on my website, and you can follow me on Instagram @the_mind_mountain
Happy trails - Jake Johnstone
Photo Credit: Andrew Hughes, Dave Silver.
Full Episode Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hello everyone. We are back today with a brand new season of the podcast and to celebrate our third year run in, we have an extra special guest today. I'm lucky enough to sit down with Squamish local legend, Greg Day. Greg has a rich, rich history in the sport of mountain biking. Growing up racing XC bikes and going on to compete in hundreds of [00:01:00] races, he went on to become the overall champion of the BC bike race, not just once, but three times.
Jake Johnstone: As a guy that gets things done, Greg is also a former school teacher and a competitive skier. These days he's busy running his own business, daytime cycling here in Squamish, who offer a spin class like no other, as well. And also a full service mountain bike maintenance shop and retail shop Known locally for his inspiring race day stories and his ability to get the best out of people whether it's an athlete or the everyday enthusiast Greg has launched a brand new mountain bike race here in squamish called the haulback and i'm very excited to learn more about it today Greg, welcome to the show, man Bummed a beer what a spot I love it.
Beautiful spot to be hanging out at. Yeah, this is great. How was that intro then? Did I miss anything you wanted to add? No, I don't know. It makes me feel, uh, yeah, it makes me feel welcome. It makes me feel good.
Greg Day: Yeah.
Jake Johnstone: Fantastic, dude. I'm glad to hear that. Um, how are you doing today? You competed in a [00:02:00] race over the weekend.
Greg Day: Yeah, I'm good, honestly. I'm a little sore. It's, uh, like I haven't
really been, or I haven't been bike racing and I kind of got, I was like, oh, I think I want to start. Get the bug a little bit. Now, you know, we're putting on our race. I'm looking forward to talking about that. And I'm like, Hey, I'm going to do some races.
And I went and did the, um, the Whistler back 40, which is kind of like a cool format. It's, uh, it's, there's like three stage, it's a three stage cross country race. Um, which I think is really neat. And, uh, there were kind of like three, uh, like three, like single races or three tuning races, but like really, really hard.
And I just, I, yeah, I'm, I'm like, I'm been, Blasted the last two days. Yeah, I totally I think I went I think I was in my mind I was believing I was still like a full on bike racer and I went way too hard and trying to hang hang at the front with the guys I shouldn't be hanging with and I just paid the price and But yeah, it was still fun.
Super fun I clipped I clipped a tree at the end of the last stage and it just just augured my hip and Took the wind out of my sails, but I [00:03:00] finished I didn't crash my bike didn't break. So Yeah, that's fantastic dude. Don't you forget the data? Oh my god Yeah, bike racing is kind of like a there's like a serious reminder of how hard bike racing is.
Yeah, totally.
Jake Johnstone: Oh,
Greg Day: totally
Jake Johnstone: That's awesome. Why don't we wind the clock back a little bit here for those that don't know you? Okay i'd love you to tell us a little bit just about like who you are where you grew up And perhaps when bikes first came into your life.
Greg Day: Yeah, totally. Um, well, um, I don't know you had a nice intro for that For me there, but, uh, I've been kind of had a, kind of a, I guess, a unique upbringing.
Cause, uh, I like, I always like to say that I was born and raised in the sea to sky, but I did, I went to school in the city. So we were a family that would travel to Whistler. You know, we were, we had a family cabin and we went there every weekend to ski and you know, my parents were teachers. So we spent all the summers and spring break and yeah, all our time in Whistler, all our spare time.
And uh, I grew up as a competitive ski racer, [00:04:00] like Alpine ski racer and for skiing for Whistler Mountain Ski Club. Okay. And, um, yeah, that just kind of was, was a really great way to really great way to grow up and really, if you know anything about ski racing, it's a really competitive and technical sport.
And, um, and, uh, that's actually how I got introduced into biking because in the summer we'd have our ski camps. So we'd be on the glacier in the morning. So we'd ski from, you know, like seven to noon and then we download and then we go mountain biking. So yeah, I think, I think when I was maybe 11 or 12, I kind of, I think I always biked a little bit just around Whistler, but then I actually started getting into it and like riding trails and doing the toony races and in Whistler, actually there were loony races back then.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and yeah, you'd show up, you'd show up the glory days. I'm sure you'd show up and you'd literally like put your loony in the bottle. And then if you won your category, you got all the loonies. Yeah. So good. Um, Yeah, so that's, that was my, that was my [00:05:00] intro to, to, to kind of mountain biking.
Jake Johnstone: So you got into mountain biking as kind of something to do when you weren't skiing? Totally. Yeah.
Greg Day: Yeah, for sure. And then I caught the bug as most people do. And then I was trying to do, I think when I was maybe like 17, 16, 17, I was, I was trying to do both at like a, kind of like a decent level. And it was getting to be like, you know, you get to that age where you're kind of, Which is crazy to think, you know, you're 16 or 17 and having to make a choice on a sport.
But, I don't know, that's, that's kind of the way it was then, and so it was like I needed to, if I wanted to focus on one sport, I needed to, yeah, just kind of drop the other. So I decided to go with, go with mountain biking. Wow,
Jake Johnstone: was that a tough decision?
Greg Day: Yeah, you know, Looking back, I think it was, but at the time I don't think it was because I just skied my whole life.
And it's, you know, anyone that grows up as a ski racer, it's like, number one, it's really, it's a massive time investment. It's massive financial investment. Like it's, it's like a really expensive sport. So I, you know, I always remember thinking of that with my parents, you know, they were, yeah, they, they spent a lot of money [00:06:00] on it.
And I was like, I felt really fortunate, but I'd just done it for so long. I was kind of like, eh, I didn't really, Yeah, I didn't really miss it. And then when I stopped I worked, I worked for the ski club. So I coached ski racing on the weekend. So I was kind of still on my fingers and in ski racing a little bit.
Um, but yeah, and that's kind of how I, how I got on to, got on to bike racing.
Jake Johnstone: Fantastic. So, and straight kind of into the competitive world of bike racing as well, by the sounds of
Greg Day: it. Yeah. Yeah. Like I was already, I was already doing some bike racing, you know, like Whistler was. Yeah, Whistler was, there was such a great opportunity to race.
Well, there still is, but you know, we had every single Thursday there was a loony race and, uh, and then, uh, Warka back then, it's changed a little bit, but they had a really cool, like, athlete, junior athlete program. So they had a coach for us and that all the, all the, like, local BC Cups and Canada Cups, they'd hire a van and they'd take all the kids.
So we'd have, like, We got taken to these races from Borca. Yeah, it was really cool. Really, really cool. Um, and then from there, you know, you just, lots of lots of other opportunities came up. [00:07:00] That's fantastic,
Jake Johnstone: man. So cool to hear that backstory. And so cool just to see the passion on your face as you, as you relive those days and, and to, to know that it hasn't gone away.
You just did a race in Whistler on the weekend. I'm curious. Yeah. From your perspective, what is it that keeps you so passionate and motivated?
Greg Day: Ooh. Um, well, I think. I think I have a little bit of a fitness addiction. I do. I really, I love the way it makes me feel. Right. So there's a little bit of that. Like I feel like, uh, like a little bit of a, like a golden retriever, a dog that just needs to get moving.
Right. I don't get exercise. I go kind of squirrelly. So there's a little bit of that. I do. I do really like the way, the way, you know, like getting my heart rate makes me feel I get my heart rate up, I should say. Um, but, uh, yeah, I don't know. I think I just always, it's always a competitive kid. Um, I'm sure it was a nightmare in gym class, um, but yeah, I just, I just always really enjoyed competition and, and, uh, and then I [00:08:00] really found out late, like as I got older and like progressed and was, you know, racing more like as an adult, like I really started to enjoy the process of like the training process that would take you to racing, uh, like periodization and following a plan and like peaks and valleys and like the buildup, I don't know, it was really like really, really exciting to me.
Um, And yeah, yeah, so
Jake Johnstone: that's super cool. Yeah. All those positive aspects. Let's feel good. Feel good aspects. Yeah, totally. Curious. Use the word addiction there. Like there's so much good that comes from mountain biking and racing. Yep. Has there been any like downsides to like this almost obsession that we both have for the sport?
Greg Day: Yeah, I don't know. Maybe ask my wife, but
Jake Johnstone: yeah,
Greg Day: no, I, for me, no, it's good. It's like, it's literally my, like riding bikes is totally my life. And, uh, Yeah, like it's so much so that I've done like a really hard left hand turn in, in, in life here. Like, you know, leaving, like I was a school, I've been a school teacher.
Yeah. I guess, I guess I still, I'd like to say I'm [00:09:00] a recovering school teacher, but I know I'm still a school teacher. Well, you mentioned
Jake Johnstone: that you were a nightmare in gym class. Yeah. I'm curious, did that go full circle? Totally, yeah. Well,
Greg Day: it was funny, I taught, I, I taught gym, I taught gym and math. Right. In Squamish here, but uh, Yeah, like it's, I like biking, I just, I love it so much, and I love racing, and I love watching racing, and I love bikes, and love riding bikes, and, um, and, uh, I, I just needed a bit of a change in my, in my, my career, and, so I, you know, like I decided to leave, leave teaching, and, and, and open up a bike shop, which, you know, isn't a, isn't a bad idea.
Wasn't a small decision. No, it takes
Jake Johnstone: so much courage, I think, especially getting into a space where we're in Squamish. There's already quite a few bike shops. Totally,
Greg Day: yeah. Yeah, it was a big decision, but, uh, but I don't know. It's, it's, it's a big part of my life and, uh, now I get to like live it, live it even more.
Yeah, which is a dream.
Jake Johnstone: Good on you for making that leap, man. That's so inspiring. Let's get straight into it. Let's talk about the Hallback.
Greg Day: Okay.
Jake Johnstone: Yeah. What is the Hallback for those that haven't heard of it yet?
Greg Day: Yeah. So the haulback [00:10:00] is a new, uh, new mountain bike race in Squamish. Um, it's happening in just under two weeks.
So June 22nd. And, um, it's a marathon point to point cross country mountain bike race, um, with a time descent in it. Um, so it's definitely been, it's been a bit of a bit of a, um, I don't want to say dream but a bit of an idea of wanting to put on a race and have a race like, you know, we're like Squamish and Whistler and like Pemberton is like so rich with like opportunity for people to race and you know COVID obviously like stopped all racing Entirely and over the last few years.
We've kind of seen lots of events come back to town But what we haven't seen come back to town is a cross country mountain bike race. Yes, and You know, that's my like that's my love Like I I love all kinds of riding bikes and racing bikes and and I watch it all and I follow it all but like cross country racing is like really special to me and [00:11:00] You know talking to a few people and like there's a little bit everyone's like, oh It'd be great if there was a race and it's just a matter of like someone stepping up to do it You So anyways, um, I, yeah, like, you know, backing up like the history of, of, of racing in Squamish.
Like we had the Test of Metal, which, you know, anyone who's been around for a little while in town has heard of it. Like it went on for 20, 20 something years. Like I did my first Test of Metal when I was 13. And I think I did the last Test of Metal when I was probably 14. 34?
Wow.
It's a long, like, yeah, there's a lot of 11 years, wow.
Oh my god, and it was just Canada's biggest race, and, you know, just did so much good for the community, and uh, yeah, and then lots of other races happened in our community before that. Because of the test of metal. And so yeah, COVID happened and then no more racing. So it was just a matter of like, okay, let's do this.
And, uh, a good friend of mine, Terry Evans. So he used to put on a race in Pemberton called the NIMBY 50, which was a really successful race. They had 10 years of 10 years of success. And it was a race that I [00:12:00] did. I don't know if I did all 10 years, but I did most of it. Wow. And, uh, it was a really fun race.
It was really hard, uh, super technical, and anyways, it was, I'm getting sidetracked, but yeah, Terry said, yeah, I'll, I'll run this with you, and so that was the little, like, Kind of kicking the butt that I needed with his like experience doing it. I've never put on, I've put on some high school mountain bike races, but nothing like this.
Jake Johnstone: That's so cool to hear. I was going to ask you like, where does one start? You want to create a race? How do you? Yeah. Uh, believe it or not, it's a lot of work.
Greg Day: I can believe it. Yeah, totally. It's kind of like, I kind of like, Let me think of it like running a business a little bit like I vastly underestimated how much work it's going to be But thankfully you're running too.
Yeah, totally. Well, i've got terry and terry's terry's wife sarah She's she's also a big part of it. And my wife carly as well has been a been a massive help. So yeah, we just kind of we we we came together with the course we we wanted it to be you know, the the goal of the race is to like Is is to have you can show up and you can [00:13:00] ride any bike so like You Something that I always really liked when I was bike racing is when you would go pre ride a race course and it would be, it would be a ride that you would do.
Jake Johnstone: Right.
Greg Day: Yeah. You know what I mean? Like you're not like even just, just the course would be like, yeah, that'd be like you and I go for ride and be awesome to go do that course. So that was kind of what we were thinking. We're like, okay, how do we put together a course that people would want to just go do and ride?
So you can be riding, you know, you can be riding your 180 mil bike or you could ride, you know, like 120 mil XC bike. So that's kind of how we designed the course. Definitely on the more. technical side for cross country, but I don't know, we live in Squamish, right? And, and I think it's what the people want.
And, you know, seeing this race last weekend or two days ago in Whistler, it was super technical and it was packed. There was like 300 racers, totally sold out. People were into it. And there was all sorts of like, there was like, you know, all the shaved legs and the spandex at the front on these pinner little bikes, and then all the Excuse me, backpacks and baggies and people on like really big bikes.
So [00:14:00] anyways, yeah, that's how we, we kind of designed the course as, uh, to make it a fun ride. And then yeah, we've just kind of, kind of gone for it. It's, uh, yeah, registration's been pretty good. We still have some spots available. Fantastic.
Jake Johnstone: We put a link in the show. Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm interested in signing up.
Come do it.
Greg Day: Um, and uh, something else that I always, I always really enjoyed is, uh, is a really fun after party. Um, especially as I got into my more adult years, I always enjoyed a good bike race party. Um, and, uh, so we're trying to bring back that. So we've got, we've got the backyard booked out in Valleycliff.
Okay. We've got some live music at this, this guy named Papa Josh doing live PA and just like super funky and uh, yeah. So it should be
Jake Johnstone: such a good time. Yeah.
Greg Day: I'm hoping so.
Jake Johnstone: Yeah. Awesome. You've kind of answered one of the questions I wanted to ask, but I guess drawing on your experience, trying out, you know, the test of metal for so many years and then so many other races.
It's curious. Yeah. What kind of vibe are you hoping to create for the participants? [00:15:00]
Greg Day: Yeah,
Jake Johnstone: totally.
Greg Day: Um, well, that's a great question. Well, we definitely want it to be like, everyone's welcome. And, you know, I think. We've definitely made the course challenging, like a technical challenging course. So, you know, the course is what it is this year and, uh, and, uh, you know, maybe we need to revisit it a little bit.
Cause it's definitely a more of an. It's like intermediate to experience, I would say,
Jake Johnstone: like what are some of the highlights for those listening? You don't have to reel off the whole course, but there's a few good trails. Yeah.
Greg Day: What do we have? Well, we have Rupert in there, which I think is going to be great.
Um, that's definitely pushing, pushing kind of the boundaries of cross country. Um, we've got the lower, lower lumbar. I don't know if you've ridden that, but it's like. That's fantastic. Oh, it's so great. Yeah, it's such a nice big climb up there. Um, we've got Angry M, um, which is going to be our time descent.
Okay, awesome. Um, so that's, yeah, that's a fairly, uh, fairly technical trail. And then, uh, and then the last trail, um, is somewhere over there. Well, actually, sorry, I should [00:16:00] say, we're doing Powerhouse Plunge, which, A lot of people don't ride anymore. Yeah. But it's like a little bit of a tip of our hat to the test metal.
'cause Fantastic. The plunge was like the big descent Right, okay. In the test, which is kind of funny looking back. Yeah,
Jake Johnstone: that's, that's a great one. The rock over, there's a little bit different to some of the other rocks. Oh, totally. Yeah.
Greg Day: And you go in there and you, you can't even see the entrance to the, into the plunge anymore.
'cause everyone just goes right into the power hood connector. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah. So the plunge the first half and then we're, then we're gonna ride, uh, somewhere over there. Which is a great trail, but yeah, it's pretty it's a technical trail.
Jake Johnstone: What an awesome course It must have been hard to choose.
We've just got so many good options. Yeah,
Greg Day: it's really endless here. Yeah. Yeah, totally So yeah, anyways, yeah, we definitely wanted it to be yeah, we want it to be hard And we want to have like a really really fun jam and after party. That's big to us as well We've got some we've got some kind of like I don't know if entertainment is the right, right word, but we've got some like stoke out on the course from some of our sponsors.
Yeah. So there's going to be like a, like an amped up cheer section, which would be [00:17:00] pretty fun. I don't want to give too much away. Um, yeah. And we have a, have a pump and feed station as well. Yeah. Fantastic. It sounds like you've got all the
Jake Johnstone: boxes ticked.
Greg Day: Yeah,
Jake Johnstone: hopefully. Hopefully that's great. If you could give those racing one piece of advice, what would your biggest bit of advice be?
Greg Day: Ooh, um, um, One piece of advice. What's it gonna be? Yeah, make sure you're eating and drinking. Yeah, because people forget. Yeah, the simple stuff. The simple, people forget to eat and they forget to drink and it catches up to them later. Right, you gotta be, you gotta be eating and you gotta be drinking. And you gotta know, I always like to like, when I was coaching, coaching athletes, we'd always work on like their, their race nutrition plan.
Right. And even as like as simple as even if you're a weekend warrior, right? Like you should be eating, you should be eating in the, in the race, the things you'd normally eat when you ride. Right. Just so you know, they're not going to upset your stomach.
Jake Johnstone: So yeah, that's a good point I guess if you're not usually taking lots of snacks out for a regular ride like totally starting to eat While you're riding
Greg Day: and figuring out what food works.
What doesn't [00:18:00] totally yeah, I'd be like, you know Like I always use the analogy not that I've ever done a marathon But like you would never do want to do a marathon in brand new running shoes. Yes, right You don't
Jake Johnstone: be eating all these gels that you've never tried before totally. Yeah. Yeah.
Greg Day: Yeah. So yeah, I guess I'll be though one Probably the one piece of advice if I could give just one.
Great advice. And uh, if
Jake Johnstone: you're a
Greg Day: betting man, who's going to come in top three? Ooh, okay. Yeah, that's, that is, so we've got, we've got some heavy hitters, which is cool. We're really, really psyched about that. Um, so we've got, um, on the women's side, uh, we've got Katarina Nash. Um, she is, she's She's Czech. Uh, she resides in California though.
She spends a lot of time here in Squamish though. Uh, but she's like. She's done it like Olympics, like world cup wins, like cyclocross world cup wins. Like she's a total champ. Yeah. So she's racing, which is really cool. So, um, and then I think there's, we have Sonya Looney, so she's still racing pro and then a few other [00:19:00] fast locals.
Um, so that's on the women's side. And then on the men's side, we've got, uh, Jeff Kabush, who's same thing. He's, you know, three Olympics. He's won a world cup. He's like, Yeah, he's about as decorated as it gets when it comes to, comes to cross country racing. So that's really cool. We got him racing. He won the back 40 last weekend.
So he's, he's, he's on fire. Um, we've got another local guy named Sean Fincham, who I don't know if you know Sean. But so Sean is born and, born and raised in Squamish, but he just came off his World Cup. Okay. Um, career, but he's still racing. So he's now focusing on like more marathon races. Okay, great. He's, he's flying.
Um, and then we've got another Racer named Carter Neustag who's from Fernie and same thing. He's like, yeah, full pro racing full time So I think I think those guys will be going toe to toe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be it'll be
Jake Johnstone: cool Man, that's so awesome to hear that you've attracted like top racers from all around the world
Greg Day: Yeah, that's
Jake Johnstone: like also got space for just everyday guys and girls as
Greg Day: well.
Totally. Yeah. Yeah The everydays and guys they go, of course, it's [00:20:00] nice to have the the fast the fast pros, you know Like we I think that's awesome. But it's like it's more the everyday Humans that, you know, they make the race, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
Jake Johnstone: I guess it takes everyone. Yeah Fantastic, man. Well, I'm super psyched for your race.
Um, thanks Jake. I recommend everyone goes and checks it out You've got some good interviews up on the Instagram page. Some of the people you mentioned there some of the races Yeah, yeah, if you want to get psyched and learn a little bit more about it go check out the Haulback on Instagram Yeah, right on.
[00:21:00]
Jake Johnstone: I'd love to talk here a little bit about mindset and riding bikes for you this is a topic very close to my heart and I know everyone's kind of got a different take on it or some different tools. so let's dive into that. Okay. I'm curious. Uh, do you have any mental tools or any mental techniques that you've used for mountain biking over the years?
Greg Day: Yeah.
Jake Johnstone: Um,
Greg Day: I do. And I, yeah. And you know, a couple of them I still use. Um, when I was a, when I was a kid, a junior racer, I had, uh, I had a coach and her name is, uh, or her name still is Peg Hill. I, you know, I haven't talked to Peg for a long time, but she, she was a, she was a, she was like a Vancouver coach and she, you know, she was, uh, she was a former pro bike racer and she wrote, she wrote a book called sports psychology for cyclists and she wrote it with a sports psychologist named, um, Saul Miller, Dr.
Saul Miller. Anyways, it's a book all about sports psychology for, for cyclists. Yeah. And I actually, I still have it. And I all like a lend [00:22:00] it out to people when they want to read it. And, uh, something like a book. That always stuck with me is, um, was if you don't like what you're watching, change the channel.
And it's like, it's so simple, right? Like you're watching TV and we don't really change channels too much anymore. Cause everything's Netflix, but scroll on. Yeah. Yeah. Scroll on. Right. Like if you don't like, if you don't like what you don't like, what's going on in your mind, change the channel, right? Like you're in control.
Right. So you're feeling like you're hurting or you're like, you know, like, Oh, this climb is never going to end. And like, you know, those negative thoughts, like they really will spiral. So if you don't like it, just change the channel, change the, like change the mental perception. So I actually use that.
Like it sounds kind of funny, but like, even when I'm just like riding on my own, I use that a fair amount. Um, but that's one that I've used. It's kind of pretty much, I don't know, I probably read the book when I was 17, so I'm 40 now.
Jake Johnstone: That's awesome to hear. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was stuck with you. Yeah. And so cool that you were exposed to that knowledge at such a young age.
Totally. Because I know like, yeah, psychology in [00:23:00] cycling or in mountain biking, sometimes it isn't super easy to find. No. And there's not a whole lot of psychologists specifically working with cyclists. Yeah.
Greg Day: Super cool. There should be, yeah. Like, I, you know, I listened to, uh, I was out on a ride last week and I listened to, I was listening, getting a little It's familiar with your podcast.
I'm listening to Greg Mack, who's, who's, uh, who's a friend of mine. And I could listen to him talk all day long and I really enjoyed your guys talk. Um, but yeah, just like listening to him, like, man, that guy would be what an asset to athletes. It sounds like he is talking to some athletes.
Jake Johnstone: Absolutely. Yeah.
Yeah. I just, there was some things I was like, Oh
Greg Day: yeah, right. Okay. I got to use that.
Jake Johnstone: Yeah, it's been really cool since we did that interview last summer. Oh, was that last summer? Yeah, quite a few people reached out to me and said, Oh, you know, great introduction to Greg, I'm now working with him. Either for racing or for, you know, personal life stuff, that kind of thing.
Yeah. Yeah, he's a great resource to the community. Yeah, that's really cool. Um, yeah. Yeah. Greg McDonnell. If anyone wants to listen to that episode, it's another good one. Um, but [00:24:00] getting back to this one, I really love that analogy there of like, if you don't like it, change the channel.
Greg Day: Totally.
Jake Johnstone: What are some of the channels you do like watching when you're on a big Sufferfest?
Greg Day: Well, recently, you know, I'd say in the last number of years, I like, I, I listened to, I listened to a lot of podcasts when I'm funny enough when I'm, when I'm riding. Um, you know, like I said, I was just doing a, doing a big climb in town here and listening to you and Greg speak. Um, um, But, uh, yeah, what, what do I
Jake Johnstone: Yeah, what do you, like, do you have any, say, if you're feeling some negative thoughts, and you're like, hey, this isn't helping me, this isn't serving me, do you have any, like, affirmations or anything you'll say to yourself to perhaps replace those thoughts?
Greg Day: Yeah, I used to like, I don't really do it anymore, but I had, I can't, I always had some words each, each, uh, each year that I would race. I'd always have some like my power words that I would say. Um, it sounds like, and they're always, they're always total, like totally cheesy, you know, like you're powerful, you're strong, like you got this, I don't know.
And you just say them. One thing I do use it. I actually caught myself saying it, uh, [00:25:00] this past weekend. It's just funny. They get back into racing, like the world
cup
of the 40 year olds. Um, I use the word smooth a lot. Yeah. And, uh, I don't, I think I, I, I don't use it when I'm riding, but I know when I'm racing, you know, you get like, you get tense, you get like, right.
You gripping the bars and like you taking bad lines and just like smooth. And it's just like that, that, um, that cue to just like drop your shoulders. It's just like, relax. Um, so I, I definitely caught myself saying that, which is good, which is great. Right. I said that to myself for a long time.
Jake Johnstone: Awesome. I love that.
Yeah. And it's amazing, isn't it? How just like that one simple word can change so much in like, you know, how you're breathing, how you're standing on the bike, how far ahead you're looking.
Greg Day: Totally. Yeah. And like that one word can mean so much to one person, right? And uh, yeah, each person, like, I think all people should have something like that.
Jake Johnstone: Yeah. Some kind of power word to kind of pull out when you need it. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome, man. I love that. You've obviously had some good mentors [00:26:00] over the years and had the chance to kind of rub shoulders with some of the best in the business. Um, I'm curious, is there any like one bit of advice that sticks out that you got from a mentor or someone else you were racing with?
Greg Day: Ah, okay, yeah. Who Yeah, there's, I had, I had a lot of, a lot of great mentors. Um Who did I Yeah, a lot of guys I looked up to like when I, when I was, when I was a kid, like I say kid, but when I was a teenager, so like, you know, like the late 90s, the early 2000s, uh, like cross country, it was like Canada was really, really strong.
Like we had, uh, Yeah, we had riders like, whoa, Jeff Kabush, who won this weekend, man, that guy's been around forever. It's incredible. So like he was racing, but he was a young guy, but then there'd be like Andreas Hessler and Seamus McGrath and like Ryder Hesterjahl was a mountain biker then and Chris [00:27:00] Shepard and Chris Shepard's a close friend of mine.
So yeah, I really looked up to those guys and then being able to, like when I became older, like I ended up racing on, you know, on some teams with those guys and that was, that was really cool for me. Um, just to be able to ride with them and like, you know, like see how they trained and get their experience and, um, like hearing about travel, like, uh, one thing that, uh, My buddy Chris always said whenever we were flying his, his move and I started doing it as like paid a little bit extra money to go to the lounge.
Right. Right? Yeah. So some, especially if you have a layover and a, like you're flying somewhere, pay the, like those, the like business class lounges, like they're kind of expensive for like a, you know, dirt bag mount. Definitely. Yeah. But I think they were like a hundred bucks or I can't, I can't even remember what they cost now.
Okay. But yeah, I always, that was something I always did and I'd go and I'd put my feet up and I'd have like a proper sleep and um, yeah.
Jake Johnstone: So really
Greg Day: prioritizing that self care before the race. Yeah. Yeah. [00:28:00] Um, but yeah, I would say, I'd say all those guys were, you know, and some, some of those guys are, are, have become really good friends of mine.
Um, which is, which is really cool to like, you know, idle, idle, these, these guys as a young person and then, you know, become buddies with them. Um, yeah, just kind of just watching. Right. I think it's, I think that's the best really
Jake Johnstone: cool. Hey, there's that old saying success leaves clues. I guess you were kind of really modeling that.
I like that success leaves clues. Yeah.
So, when it comes to setting goals, whether that be in a race environment or just in from a, you know, personal fitness level or riding level, how do you go about setting goals that are achievable, but also exciting?
Right. Yeah.
Greg Day: Um, yeah. I would always. I would always set, yeah, I would always set goals. Um, and I remember sometimes being like trying to learn how to set goals. It can kind of be intimidating, you know, especially like, because I always worried about setting the goal and then not being able to achieve it.
It's kind of weird. Yeah. Kind of fear of failure. [00:29:00] Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Totally fear of failure. Um, and, uh, yeah, like goals are, yeah, goals are so important. Um, but I had like, I had like a little, like, I called it my little race Bible, but like my little training, kind of training journal where I would, you know, set my, set my goals for the year.
Um, and a lot of that was based on, like for me, it was based on like what the, what races I was going to be doing. So, you know, we try to like plan out the whole race calendar for the year and then have those like important, you know, those important races, the like A races and B races and the C races. Um, But yeah, the goal, the goals were really, really, really important.
Um, and yeah, there's definitely, there's definitely some I know I set that I never, never achieved. Okay. I still think of those.
Jake Johnstone: Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. And looking back on those, if you were to perhaps be able to go back in time and do it different, is there anything you'd do different within that process next time?
Greg Day: Yeah.
[00:30:00] Um, Yeah, what would I do? Um, yeah, I took a small, I took a small stint off from racing, like when I was kind of in my, probably in my early twenties, maybe, I think I took maybe three years off racing, like entirely, like I didn't ride. And I think I just got a little burnt out. And, you know, I look back at that and, you know, and like in your, like in a, in a, like a Cyclists, like those are pretty formative years.
Like, you know, like all your, all your years when you're young are very formative, but you're like your, your early twenties are like super formative. So like, I think if I could, could go back, it would've been like, you know, me older, me talking to me then being like, no, stick with it. Like maybe just like change the schedule.
Okay. Yeah. Right. So
Jake Johnstone: just so that you don't get burnout out, but you could still race Totally. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's like,
Greg Day: you know, it's sports, sport's hard, you know? Yeah. Hard to find, find that balance. Isn't it hard? It is hard to find that balance and. People put a lot of, athletes put a lot of pressure on themselves.
I know, I know I did that. My own worst, [00:31:00] worst enemy. Um, so sometimes just taking a step back and taking a rest can be really important.
Jake Johnstone: Yeah. Yeah.
What are some of the ways you've learned to manage that pressure over the years?
Greg Day: Yeah, um, Yeah, pressure is a crazy thing. Um, I know You know, I know for me, I would always, I'd always put a lot of pressure on myself and like, you know, uh, and then I would, I, a good, a good friend of mine, he, uh, we raced together for years and we still ride a lot together.
His name's Kevin, uh, and he, uh, you know, he would always just be like, you know, we're just literally riding bikes, man. Like, you know, just kind of reminding yourself like what you're doing and you're like, oh yeah, we're just, uh, Ride bikes around like it's not a big not a big deal trying to trying to like normalize it Like this is not a big deal.
Yeah, yeah, but tough tough to do you know when you put a lot of put a lot of time and put a lot of effort and like Put a lot of money and you know, maybe you've traveled like halfway across the world um but uh [00:32:00] Yeah, I I Yeah, the pressure Pressure is a pressure is a tricky one. Um, I know I I personally struggle with that like I always worry about uh Like not performing,
Jake Johnstone: right?
Greg Day: Yeah.
Jake Johnstone: How was that like a sense of letting
Greg Day: yourself down or letting your sponsors down? Yeah. I think, I think like just kind of like letting, yeah, maybe letting myself down and people, you know, people like worrying about what people think. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy, crazy to think that, but
Jake Johnstone: it's true though. It is, but it's so hard not to at the same time.
For sure.
Greg Day: Yeah. You know, you put a lot into it and yeah, sponsors, they've invested money in a spot on a team.
Jake Johnstone: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
Greg Day: it's really tough stuff
Jake Johnstone: and then talk about their like on race day Yeah, obviously whenever we ride a mountain bike, we're taking risks, but on race day, that's perhaps heightened.
Yep. I'm curious What's your your personal recipe for risk management when it comes to racing?
Greg Day: Yeah Yeah, I've definitely hurt myself a few times [00:33:00] and Yeah, I've had some bad crashes and I've had some some broken bones Um But I never like racing cross country. I don't know. It's like, it's different. Funny.
Like I remember I want, I wanted to race downhill when I was a kid, like it goes with like Alpine ski racing. And my mom was like, no.
What
do you mean? No. She's like, no, I won't. She wouldn't sign the, the waiver forms. Okay. She, yeah, she wouldn't let me. So I was like, oh, okay, well, I guess I'll cross country race.
But like, it's like, you can still really hurt yourself.
Jake Johnstone: Um, but like there's arguments to be had either way, right? Like you're gassed when you get to the downhills and you've got half the travel. Yeah.
Greg Day: Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, totally. But you didn't, I didn't, I didn't really know I had half the trouble. That's it.
Right. You only know what you know. That's true. Yeah. You know, we, I just like a hundred mil, a hundred mil and seat up. That's what we did. Um, yeah. But I don't know if I ever really had to, uh, worry about mitigating that. I know that I would often, uh, the way we would train is we would, we would [00:34:00] train like being redlined into really hard technical riding.
I would actively do that. So you'd sprint, you'd do efforts where you would go into really hard, hard riding with your heart rate, like at full max. So you'd just be able to learn how to, uh, Learn how to handle it. Yeah. Um, so yeah did it did a lot of that when I was racing which i'm sure Probably helped.
Yeah, that's super interesting. Like yeah, I guess
Jake Johnstone: Yeah, normalizing exposing yourself to those feelings of what it feels to be like redlining totally Yeah,
Greg Day: and then you know using words like smooth or relax or whatever, you know, whatever whatever it was at the time Whatever that hot word was for me, but yeah as far as like mitigation.
No, I don't I don't think I really You know, I don't think I really I did Too much to be honest, okay. Yeah Yeah,
Jake Johnstone: it's good training. Good technique. Yeah, I guess so.
Greg Day: Yeah Yeah, but you know crashes happen like it's a hard sport and yeah I've definitely taken my licks as most people who mountain bike have right?
Yeah, it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when
Jake Johnstone: Right. Yeah What do you do these days you've had a crash is [00:35:00] there anything you'll tell yourself directly after the crash Try and move through what can be a pretty uncomfortable space sometimes.
Greg Day: Yeah, totally. Well like, knock on wood, I've, whatever. Yeah, I've had a, I've had a decent run now with no, with no crashes, but um, yeah, I, I, the last big crash I had, I just opened the shop, well, It was May, so the shop had been open a couple months and we were up riding Diamond Head, riding some steep trails.
And I wasn't feeling great. I was out the night before and we went into this really hard trail. And I just wasn't, like, I wasn't feeling good and I was struggling down. And anyways, I ended up going over the handlebars and I totally shattered my hand and broke my hand. And, uh, yeah, that one was like, that was a bit of a, that was like a bit of a reality check.
I was like, oh, okay, this is like I don't know before when I crashed I felt like stakes weren't as high but I'm like trying to run this business and Excuse me. So yeah, I [00:36:00] think i've like I think it backed things off a little bit took me quite a while to build back up You know, you get the window to your sales.
Yeah sure you talk about sometimes with your people you're coaching, you know, you You like you build you build you build and you have this big crash and you can get back right down and I think it's normal to To not feel very good on your bike afterwards.
Jake Johnstone: Totally. Yeah, what I find so often in myself and my clients is like we, we have built ourselves up to be really proficient riders.
We have that crash and all of a sudden we're way back here. It can be really tough because we want to keep building off where we were,
Greg Day: not where we are. Yep. Yep. For sure. Right. Finding that flow back on the bike and getting comfortable. And, you know, so I think it's important, like, You know, managing injury obviously is important, but like if you're not injured, it's just like, get back on the bike, and just get riding again, and just go ride mellow trails, and you know.
Enjoy your, enjoy yourself.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's that's always what I've done at least. Right. Like get back riding as soon as you can and just slowly build yourself back up. And I would always ride by myself after I had a big [00:37:00] crash. If I had a big crash, cause you know, I found sometimes when you're riding with friends or I guess it depends on your friend group, but at least mine, we were always pushing one another.
So I sometimes found that tough to like, not be super confident, but then to be riding with people who are going fast and charging hard. So I'd always take time, take time on my own to ride.
Jake Johnstone: Totally. Yeah. Take that time to go out at your own pace. Totally. Really feeling into how your body's feeling. Yeah.
Greg Day: Yeah. Yeah.
Jake Johnstone: Wise advice. Now you've got something called the poor man's workout. Can you tell us what that is?
Greg Day: The
poor
man's workout. You heard about that? Okay. Yeah. So it's a, I'd like to say it's famous, but anyone who comes to spin class like has probably done it before. So basically, um, it, uh, so it comes from a, some, a good friend of mine named Chris Shepard.
And, you know, he, he, he raced for a long time, raced at a high level and, and it was a workout that he, I can't really take, I can't take. I, I basically stole it from him and I shouldn't say stole. All good ideas [00:38:00] have been stolen somewhere. He was helping me with my training and he was kind of, had finished racing and I was still like my last few years of racing and he, I wouldn't say he was coaching me because, but he was maybe more men, men, mentoring, I guess would be the way.
And we'd like, you know, I'd talk about workouts and bounce ideas. And, and, and he, he introduced this workout to me called the poor man's workout. And holy, if I could swear, I'd swear right now, but holy shoot, this is like, like. Like, it doesn't even seem achievable. And, uh, and basically his whole thing was, he, uh, he raced on the national team, and, um, he never lived in Victoria, so a lot of the, a lot of the, um, national team riders would live in Victoria, and the National Training Centre was there, and they had access to the, to the national team coach, and they'd train together, and, and, uh, And they would, um, you know, they would do something called moto pacing.
So where they would ride behind a, like a motorbike or a moped and they'd ride at like tempo pace, really fast legs. So what it does is just creates, creates a lot of speed and they would do this before, um, before big [00:39:00] events and to create really fast legs at, at, at speed. And, uh, anyway, so Chris kind of designed this workout on his own that he called the poor man's workout.
Cause he would do it. He lived in Kamloops and he would, he would do this workout by himself. And it was like really. It's done at 80 percent and whatever of heart rate or wattage or whatever the metric you're using and and it would be The for there's always two two parts to it So the first half was like really slow rpm But at the same thing at that 80 output for whatever the allotted time was call it two minutes,
right?
and then directly after He would so about 60 rpm so super slow and then he would Double his cadence and try to go to 120 rpm You So it's obviously a much easier gear, but double the cadence and still working at that 80 percent for that allotted time. And I'd have to look back. I have it in, I have it in my, like one of my, like, uh, in my like race, like training journal somewhere, anybody, it was like, It was so hard.
It was so hard. And yeah, it was like 2 minutes, [00:40:00] 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 5 minutes. I think the longest one was 7 minutes, 7 minutes. And it was a pyramid so it would go up and then it would come back down. Anyways, I really liked it and it was so hard. So I took the workout and I modified it. And we would do it, you know, in our, we have an indoor cycling studio at my shop.
So in the winter we do the poor man's workout. And, uh, I don't know, I always, Chris is a good buddy of mine, and he's a, he's a total character, and he just, he, like, the way he would tell me, he was just this, like, poor guy by himself in Kamloops doing this workout, and, like, I always thought of, like, I don't know if you've seen Rocky, right, where he fights the Russian, you know, like, Rocky's, like, running around the house chopping wood and running through snow, and the Russian's in the, like, the lab, I don't, that's what it always made me think of, so, yeah, so we do the poor man's workout, we get to do it, uh, we only do it twice, though, we do it once in the fall, and then we do it once in the winter, and, uh, Yeah.
It's always, uh, it's always well received. It's that workout that you start and like, you're like, how the hell am I going to finish that? And then everyone does. And it's like, it's incredible. It's like that mind over matter. Like you [00:41:00] would love it. Cause it's like, it's, it's so amazing what like people can do.
Right. And I always, I always like to remind people of like, you know, the efforts in it, they get longer and they can't do it. But then miraculously, when it's the last one, everyone can do it. Yeah. Oh. He's just like, why can you do it? It's like, cause you know, it's the last ones you can just do it. So it's that mind over matter thing.
Yeah. Yeah, it's cool. I love that. I love that. You know about that workout.
Jake Johnstone: Yeah, that's a super interesting point. Getting me all excited. I want to come and try it now. When does the spin class open back up?
Greg Day: Yeah. So we, we run classes. We've been kind of running them from like Thanksgiving. Usually we open back up until about, uh, mid March.
Like when, when kids go out for spring break, that was kind of our window. Um, yeah, so we're, we're going to change things up a little bit this fall. I'm still working through some of the details, but, uh, but one way or another, we're going to be having, having some indoor cycling.
Jake Johnstone: Fantastic. Yeah, man. I'm excited to, uh, to come along.
You're well versed in getting the best out of yourself, whether you're at a spin class or out on [00:42:00] the bike between the tape. What are some of the ways that you squeeze the best out of every person in the room while they're coaching?
Greg Day: Well, I turn my music up super loud and I really like to, like, I, I always, I love loud music and I love, uh, yeah, I love, like, banging, like, electronic music.
Um, so music is really important to me. Um, so yeah, I, I always make sure that the music I've chosen, like, all the, all the tracks of the music I've chosen have, like, Um, so I'll even do that with like a workout. I'll, I'll like choose something that I know is going to get me, get me pumped up. Um, so that's one, one way, you know, getting out of people.
And then I, I really enjoy when people are allowed to kind of that, I don't know. I hate to say like drill sergeant kind of like, um, Not like belittling people, but like the drill surgeon that's like in your face, like, come on, like you can
do it. Like,
I always like was so fired up in like in races where you'd be going through, like, you know, the feed station, it's just [00:43:00] like chaos and it's loud.
And it's just like, I don't know. I'd always, I'd always really, really vibe off that. So yeah, it's usually what I do really up in the energy. Oh
yeah, totally. Yeah.
So I just try to make it as energetic as possible for people. That sounds great.
People, I don't know, I think people seem to like it and, I don't know, I always say like if you don't like it
loud then don't, don't, don't come.
There's other classes you can come to. Yeah, there's definitely some quieter like, Yeah.
Jake Johnstone: And I know you also kind of, you know, pull out some random motivational stories and talk about your days on the race course. Yeah. Have you got a favorite story you'd like to tell, um, listeners? Yeah, totally. Perhaps they're on a big climb.
Yeah. No, no. This
Greg Day: is my favorite one. And I like, I love it. So, and it involves a swear word. So just heads up. That is completely fine. Okay. Okay. So I went to you, um, I went to Europe to do this, uh, do this race called the Transalp. So it was like a eight day stage race through the Alps. And, uh, it was, it was a really hard [00:44:00] race.
It was a super, super challenging race. Really long, long days. Like, you know, like we're mountain biking and like most of the days we're like upwards of like a hundred K and we'd be like, you know, over 3000 meters of climbing just. Big long hard days and fast. There's a bunch of like really really fast Europeans there But you race as a team of two So you got your you got like you and then some other human you're racing with and I was racing with this Uh this guy who's who's kind of become a good buddy of mine, but he's this austrian guy named guido and uh, we raced, uh He raced for like the european team and I raced for the canadian team of our sponsor So we weren't actually teammates, but we raced like For, for Rocky mountain.
So we were like kind of teammates, but anyways, we came together and I went and traveled with, with the European Rocky team, which was really cool. So he was a fit dude and he was definitely stronger than I was in this race, but you got to stay together. And, uh, and he was just dragging me along and I've just like, yeah, I was totally just.
a passenger and holding [00:45:00] on and, and a little, I don't know. Yeah. Maybe a little out of my own. But anyways, so within this race, you've got to follow each other. Yeah. You've got to be together the whole time. You start together, you finish together, you're, you're racing everyone else teams of two. So, you know, like, yeah, it's, it's definitely a different dynamic.
Uh, because like, if you flat your teammate flats, right. If you have a bonk or you have a tough day, like your teammate has a tough day, like you gotta be together. So anyway, so we get to, uh, uh, We get to Italy and I don't know if you've seen the Dolomites before.
Jake Johnstone: On the on Instagram.
Greg Day: Oh my god, like the most, I'd never, I'd never seen the Dolomites before.
Like they, they don't look real. They're amazing. There's like the most beautiful mountains you've ever seen. They're just like raw. And I remember coming, we've been riding for three hours, four hours. There's no one in front of us. There's no one behind us. And Guido's just drilling it. And I'm like in behind him, just like holding on, just like a shell.
And we come into this like meadow. And then like, poof, like the Dolomites just like erupted out of, out of like, they were just in the sky and I was like, [00:46:00] whoa. And, like, poof. I'm behind Guido and he looks back and it like it literally, I'd been looking at them for like 10 seconds. And like I said, keep in mind, we've been racing for hours, like hours, probably three hours, probably still had two or three more hours of racing to go.
No one in front of us, no one's behind us. And I'm like looking, I'm like hanging up in this climb. And I'm like looking over at the, at the dull nights, just like, wow, these like, I said, wow, this is like really, really cool, but suffering and Guido like looks back and he's just like spitting that. And he's like, he's Austrian as well.
He's like, stop looking at the fucking mountains and race
your bike. And I was like, you asshole, here we go, here we go again, into the Dolomites didn't even get to look at him. That's always my favorite. Stop looking at the mountains. That's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Just as
Austrian, he's like, Yeah, he's an intense dude, but he's a really good bike racer and yeah.
We, uh, yeah, we got along, we forged a really good [00:47:00] friendship from that race. Oh man,
Jake Johnstone: what an awesome story. It's such a good lesson in that too, isn't it? Like, when you're in between the tape, it's like, what am I doing now? Where am I? I
Greg Day: guess so. Yeah. Like, I just could have thought, man, like.
Maybe take a moment of appreciation.
Just take a moment, but yeah, no, no, no, not into it. Good reminder. Yeah, yeah, we're there, we're there to race. I guess but yeah, that's that's that's a good one.
Jake Johnstone: That's a fantastic story. I love it We're going to start winding down here. Yeah, I'm gonna hit you with a deep question to finish off Okay, if you didn't enter the world of mountain biking, where would you be today?
Greg Day: I Didn't enter the world of mountain biking Yeah, where would I be so I think I probably would be into music. Music.
Jake Johnstone: Great. Do you play any instruments?
Greg Day: No, I don't play any. So I, yeah, I, I am, I guess more of like, I guess I could say a hobby DJ now. I just do it for fun, but I [00:48:00] used to, my little stint, I always loved music when I was young and I, and I loved electronic music and, uh, When my little stint when I was I said I stopped racing for a bit I bought turntables and I started deejaying when I was young and Then it ended up being that was my job all through university is pretty much like how I paid my how I lived during University was just deejaying lots of Club nights and you know raves and all sorts of stuff and like and then some weddings and and then I go back in a bike Racing and it was like, yeah, it's not really a It's not really conducive to it.
I mean, yeah, the late nights. Oh, totally. Yeah. They don't go together, but I've always kind of kept my hand in it and I like, I still love it. And I've got my gear at home and I like, you know, I sometimes will like play like fun events for like friends and things like that. And, and, uh, yeah, I like, I really, really love music and I, I never really got into like, I've, I have a lot of friends that are like, like, you know, full time DJs and producers and stuff.
And, uh, and I really envy that. I think that's like, it's so cool. So I think I. Probably [00:49:00] would have gone that way. Yeah. I don't know. It's like a kind of a crazy lifestyle though.
Jake Johnstone: Awesome. Like, yeah. Two different sides of a coin. Hey. Yeah. Super cool to hear that you've had that other like really strong hobby throughout your career as well.
I'm curious, like, has that helped perhaps the times when you have been down and out, you can't ride your mountain bike. Have you lent back on DJs? I
Greg Day: guess
like, I don't know. I go through waves a little bit. Like, uh, you know, at home I still have all my stuff in the, in, in the room. And, uh, Um, I'll go through, I'll go through waves of like being really motivated to like play music at home and like work on mixes.
And then sometimes like, I won't touch my gear for, for a little while. Um, but, uh, yeah, like it's definitely always been there for me. I'd spent COVID when we were, everyone was home doing whatever. I was DJing a ton at home. It was really fun. I really kind of rekindled my, like my love of that. Um, yeah. Um, but yeah, how I bought turntables is I, I, uh, when I was like, Oh, I don't know.
I [00:50:00] remember I sold a bike actually. I sold a bike to some guy in Ontario and then I, I bought like turntables and a mixer and a bunch of records. Fantastic. Yeah, that's
Jake Johnstone: awesome. Totally. There we go. The things you learn. Yeah. This has been a fantastic conversation. Thank you. Thanks for having me Jake. It's nice to chat.
You're welcome man. I feel like we've talked about so many different things. If you could send the listeners away with just one thing to remember from this conversation, what would it be?
Greg Day: Ooh Um Yeah, I think, I think similar to what you were saying about, you know, when you're working with your, your clients and you're saying, you know, like about building, building up like that progression piece, we didn't really get into it, but like it sparked my interest and I'm sorry, I should have asked a little bit more about that, but like, it's
Jake Johnstone: great.
Tell me about like, yeah, what does progression mean for you or perhaps some of the clients you're coaching?
Greg Day: Yeah, well, I guess like, Well, progression can mean so many things, but like, you think of mountain biking and where we live, it's like such a technical sport. Right. So like, you know, like [00:51:00] progressing, you know, I was checking out your website and like, I can, like, I, I don't know.
I just feel like I created like a little bit of a dialogue of like what you're saying to your, to your, to your clients, right. Of like them, like progressing into like a rock role. And, um, you know, I think in, I think in our town, it's like, It's just like everyone's like how rad you can get and like how fast you can ride these trails And I know kids really get on to that, but it's like really progressing riding Simple terrain really well is Way more important than riding gnarly terrain horribly.
Totally.
Jake Johnstone: Yeah,
Greg Day: if like yeah It's
Jake Johnstone: quite it's not like you agree with that perspective. I'm like you're rich racing perspective and that kind of thing. Totally Yeah, I'm always thinking about like how can we minimize the terrain so that we can maximize the skill? And then once we've got that, we can go and do mountain bike races and ride all kinds of things.
Totally. If we go the other way around, it usually doesn't end that well, does it?
Greg Day: No, no, totally. Yeah, so, um, yeah, I think, like, progression is important. And, uh, you know, [00:52:00] riding moderate terrain really, really well and being dialed on that is, is like, I don't know, arguably more important than riding, you know, Really, really hard terrain, not very well, potentially hurting yourself, but I guess some people like scaring themselves as part of it.
Jake Johnstone: Yeah, totally. That's such wise advice. Thank you. Awesome. Do you have any, any industry partners or sponsors you wanted to mention? I know you're an Ibis distributor. Yeah, yeah, we sell, we sell
Greg Day: Ibis at the shop. Um, so a California brand. Um, and yeah, it's been like I, we started selling Ibis last year. So the brand was new to me and I've been, I've been really, really pumped with, uh, with their bikes.
That's really cool. Um, yeah. We going back to the haul back for a second. So we, some of our, we've got one up as one of the title sponsors, one of components, um, and then also seven mesh cycling apparel. So it's been really, they've been awesome to, uh, to work with. And they've been a big part of, um, yeah, getting the race up and going.[00:53:00]
Yeah, I don't know. We've got lots of stuff and I don't want to plug the bike
shop. Yeah, come by, say hi.
Yeah.
Jake Johnstone: Awesome. And yeah, where can people follow along with your adventures online? Perhaps check out Daytime Cycling, check out The Haulback.
Greg Day: Yeah, absolutely. So The Haulback is just at The Haulback, is our kind of Instagram and thehaulback.
com is the website. Um, and then our shop is just at day. time. cycling for all our social media stuff and just daytimecycling. com. Um, all the, all the info is, is on there. Fantastic. Good. Nice and easy. Yeah. Thanks buddy.
Jake Johnstone: Thank you so much for the chat. Yeah, man. This is great. Look forward to getting a ride in when your, your hips a little
Greg Day: bit better.
Totally. I did. I did. Full disclosure for everyone. We were, we were going to go ride today and I was really psyched for it. And I like, just like, I think I said earlier, I smoked a tree, so I had to say, I'm sorry, Jake, I can't go riding.
Jake Johnstone: You know what? You did a fantastic job sitting in a chair for an hour.
Awesome dude. Thanks so much. Cheers.
[00:54:00]
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