The Sonya Looney Show

Kate Courtney found her love for cycling with tandem bike rides with her father in middle school and enjoying blueberry pancakes after the ride. "It was really just a vehicle for pancakes," she laughed. This was the beginning of 10x National Champion Kate Courtney's career on a bike.  Who knew that the little girl pedalling behind her dad in the woods of Mount Tam would become one of the top female cyclists in the world?  She started her racing career at the age of 14 in the NICA NorCal League, rapidly moved up the ranks and was racing Junior World Cups just 2 years later. Kate is down to earth, approachable and vibrant.  As a recent graduate from Stanford University, she knows a thing or two about balancing school with training and travel as well as commitment.  She also knows what it takes to perform at the highest level.  She is sponsored by Specialized and won the U23 Elite World Cup series this year.  Next year, the 22 year old will be turning 23 and racing in the Elite World Cup Circuit. Topics Discusse

"Once you start acknowledging, and looking at, and being honest with yourself the role that the ego plays in the sport, and it's a big deal in mountain biking... once that starts to be addressed, then some smarter decisions can be made."  -Ryan Leech   Ryan Leech is one of the world's best Trials Mountain Bikers and has even performed with Cirque du Soleil.  But what is trials?  Trials is a discipline of mountain biking where you have to navigate an obstacle course at very slow speeds without putting your foot down.  In his shows, you will see him hopping from a railing to a rock like he is on a pogo stick or jumping up onto trailers.  To be a trails rider, you basically have to be a ninja on a bike.   Not only is Ryan one of the best technical mountain bikers in the world, but he is a meditation and yoga instructor and has an online skills coaching business called Ryan Leech Connection where he breaks down mountain bike skills into bite sized chunks. Most people who learn to mountain bike pick up the bike as

"The person inside your head that you're with 24/7 is yourself. So you have to be your own supportive friend. I tell people you have a choice. you can be an inner ally or an inner enemy. It's that simple.  The voice in your head can either be kind, supportive, encouraging, nurturing 24/7 or cutting you down telling you you're a loser, you're no good, you're not good enough." - Dr. Kristin Neff The voice inside our head is possibly one of the most powerful influences on our lives.  Most people are very self-critical and hard on themselves.  Have you ever noticed that if a friend makes a mistake, you say "oh, that's ok, everyone makes mistakes" but if you make the same mistake yourself, you might say, "Ah Gosh! I'm such an IDIOT!"  How we talk to ourselves is extremely powerful and being mindful about your self-talk is the key to getting started. One of my favorite quotes is "The voice inside your head that says you can't do this is a liar."  I first learned about training my inner voice to be more supportive a

Some people are wonderfully infectious with their smile and enthusiasm.  Caroline Burckle is one of those people.  Not only is she a positive force that transcends the 2 dimensional boundaries of social media, but she mentors athletes who are rising stars through her RISE LIFE business.  Caroline is a veteran in what goes on behind the scenes of human performance.  She knows about pressure, accomplishments, and hard work.  She has personal experience with overtraining. Caroline is a Bronze Medalist Swimmer performing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 4 x 200m relay.  Not only that, she took gold in the 2007 Pan Am Games in the 800m freestyle, was the 2x NCAA champ, and was named the 2008 NCAA Swimmer of the Year! I first found Caroline on Instagram and we instantly became online friends.  After only a few conversations with her, I was inspired by her energy, her commitment to personal growth, and her journey.  She was training to race the Othillo Swim Run World Championships with Hilary as her teammate and

Goal setting is tricky. It's most common around January 1 when people are setting their New Year's Resolution. In fact, 92% of people who set them for the new year fail!  Here's a post I wrote about goal-setting. We are told that we need to have a 5 year plan, find our purpose, and set challenging goals but it's rare that you read about the actual process behind goal setting.  I've done a lot of my own research and found Brian P. Moran's book, the 12 Week Year. As athletes, we have all heard of using periodization in our training.  Brian P Moran took Periodization and converted it into a goal execution system. In Brian's book, he creates a different system around goal-setting where you view your year as 12 weeks long and set only 2-3 new goals in that period.  Through process control, weekly scoring of your process, and by taking ownership of your execution, it's a lot easier to take the steps needed to lead you down the right path.  Brian says, "You don’t have to be perfect on the execution side. [stay on

When it comes to food and all the different views on what is healthy, how do you know what to believe? Overwhelmed with confusion and decision fatigue, most people simply just give up and I can see why! With so many different opposing views on what you should eat and what it means to be healthy, it’s often hard to know where to turn, who to trust, or what to do when it comes to our diet. I’ve personally felt frustrated with an overflow of conflicting information and rebuttles. The key is learning how to do your own research and how to know if a study is actually true. I personally eat my diet based on evidence-based nutrition with articles published in peer-reviewed journals. A huge resource for me has been NutritionFacts.org. Let’s talk more about that. Nutritionfacts.org was founded by Dr. Michael Greger.  He is medical doctor, a New York Times Best-Selling Author, and internationally acclaimed speaker. As a little boy, his grandmother was diagnosed with end stage heart disease and had many bypass surgeries

Sonya Looney and Amy Beth McDougall won the La Leyenda Del Dorado - a 7 day ultra-endurance mountain bike stage race.  Amy is from South Africa and they met when Sonya raced the Joberg2C Stage Race in South Africa last year as competitors. This episode is about their experience as a team, how to race as a team, how to do a stage race, and all about their experience in Colombia.  The La Leyenda Del Dorado is a premiere and one of the hardest stage races in South America.  It takes place in Caldas, Colombia with stages ranging from 1.5 hours to nearly 8 hours.  The terrain included high altitude jungles, volcanoes, and very steep climbs. Amy and Sonya were overwhelmed with gratitude during the race. The Colombians were huge cycling fans with over a thousand people at the finish line each day.

Matt Ruscigno knows a thing or two about extreme ultra-endurance sports and thriving on a plant-based diet. He has been a vegan for the last 20 years after being influenced at a teenager through punk music. His passion for his diet led him to his career path: a world-renowned vegan dietician with a Master's in Public Health from Loma Linda, California. Interestingly enough, Loma Linda is one of the 5 blue zones in the world.  Blue zones are five geographic areas where people statistically live the longest.  Read National Geographic's feature on Blue Zones here.  They key elements common to the all the Blue zones are eating primarily a plant-based diet (particularly high in legumes), strong sense of community, no smoking, daily exercise.  In fact, Matt recommends 3.5 servings of legumes per day.  Examples of one serving of legumes can be: 1/4c hummus, 1/2c cooked beans (split peas, lentils, black beans, butter beans, etc), tofu, tempeh.  Most people know that eating more fruits and vegetables is healthier, bu

“Stress is global. It’s really important to not just switch tasks but to try to build some space into your day, into your life where you can really just check out from all of those stimuli... the lowest hanging fruit is sleep. Sleep is so important [for mind, body, and emotional capacity].”     -Brad Stulberg libsyn  Have you ever felt overwhelmed like every part of your day was spiraling out of control and you weren’t enjoying your life at all? I admit that I have, and so have this week’s podcast guests Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness. Feelings of overwhelm and burnout happen to the best of us. In a society that pressures us to do everything and be everything all the time and where we are connected to our devices 24 hours a day, the idea of balance is impossible. We are told to have great careers, be in great shape, spend quality time with our families, cook, sleep 8 hours a night, eat healthy, have a social life and the list goes on. It’s hard to pull the e-brake and take some down time without feeling guil

"There are always opportunities every single day to challenge yourself mentally and grow and progress as a human." - James Lawrence James Lawrence, The Iron Cowboy, is a man with seemingly no limits.  He holds not one, but two different records in the  Guinness Book of World Records for insane Ironman Triathlon feats.  His most recent record was called the 50-50-50.  He completed 50 Ironman distance triathlons in 50 consecutive days in 50 different states.  Many said it could not be done, but he redefined what others said was impossible.  From there, his endurance career has continued to branch out with a trip to Mt Kilimanjaro with his mountain bike, a 235 mile walk across Greece with Navy Seals, and doing the 4 hardest Ironmans in the world this year (Alaskaman, Norseman, Keltman, Swissman). He wasn't always an endurance machine.  He was a couch potato with a mortgage company and his wife was sick of it.  It all started when she empowered him to do a what James called a "pathetic mess of a 4 mile run."  She

What if you found out that Heart Disease, type 2 Diabetes, most cancers, high blood pressure, and even Parkinson's Disease was preventable and even reversible by changing what you ate?  I found out about 4 years ago and changed my diet. Getting control back over what you thought was simply your genetics is a very powerful feeling.  The answer is eating a plant-based diet. I'm really excited about today's guest, Rip Esselstyn.  He is the author of 3 books and creator of Engine2Diet. Engine2 is an impressive resource and community that gives you everything you could possibly need if you're considering trying a plant-based diet including meal planning. Rip's story is pretty cool.  He is a former world-class Professional Triathlete turned firefighter turned health activist.  Engine 2 was the name of the fire station he worked at in Texas and one of his firefighter brothers was a heart attack waiting to happen.  After 28 days of eating a plant-based diet, everyone at the fire station was healthier and his firefig

Being Intentional in Your Life  How would you show up in your daily life if you felt like all of your needs were met and you treated yourself with compassion? In this day and age with our electronic devices constantly demanding immediate attention, overcommitted schedules for both ourselves and our families, managing our work and trying to take time out of each day to take care of our health and well-being, it can be hard to navigate each day with any sense of ease or balance. Dana Skoglund has been there. As a busy mother of two young boys and emerging from the buzzing metropolis of New York City, Dana felt overwhelmed and frustrated as she tried to build her practice as a yoga instructor and manage her family. When she moved to Kelowna, BC, she began to re-evaluate her habits and realized the importance of self-care, having a routine, and setting boundaries. Currently, she is teaching yoga but also leads multiple lifestyle/yoga coaching courses on better sleep habits, the keystone habits to create healthy d

Rob Krar is a special breed of human being.  It's not only because he was crowned Ultra-Runner of the year in both 2013 and 2014, has won the Western States multiple times, or excels in Ski Mountaineering around the world during his off-season.  Rob's inspiring energy and sense of calm is easily conveyed behind his beard and crystal blue eyes.  It's that energy that propelled him to setting the World Record of the Fastest Known Time (FKT) of the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim and that drives him to take on challenges at the hardest running races across the globe. Rob was a successful triathlete as a junior, representing Canada twice at the World Championships.  He was working as a night Pharmacist for years before transitioning to full-time professional ultra-running. This transparent conversation with Rob delves into the darkness of depression and how running and the support of his beloved wife, Christina have helped him tackle his demons.  Rob goes into detail about his mindset around running 100 miles at a

How do you define success and where does personal motivation come from? Jessica Lahey is a law school graduate, writer, educator, speaker, and researcher. Her book, The Gift of Failure:How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed (Harper Books) is about how to motivate kids, the different types of motivation, how to avoid overparenting, and how to give your kids the right amount of autonomy. Her work has been influenced by the work of Carol Dweck and Dr. Dweck’s book, Mindset. This book is also one of my favorites as well. It’s about growth versus fixed mindset and that the amount of intelligence or talent we have in our lives is actually not fixed. There are two types of motivation; extrinsic motivation (getting rewarded for achieving a goal like paying kids for grades or even a medal for getting on the podium) and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is doing a task for the love and the personal satisfaction of hard work and best effort. Jessica says “A-F grades are a disaster be

How would your approach to challenges change if you focused on giving your best effort for that moment instead of focusing what you wish the end result could be?  2016 Mountain Bike Olympic Bronze Medalist, Catharine Pendrel knows. Her plan going into the Rio Olympics was to work hard, but to show up with a mindset to ride a race she could be proud of, regardless of what the final result would be. With a crash in the first minute of her Olympic medal pursuit, she had a choice and it was to come from behind and courageously earn every second to the podium. And she took the Bronze by only 2 seconds. No stranger, to the Olympics, Catharine competed in both Beijing (2008) and London (2012). She also is two time World XC Champion, and 3x World Cup Series Winner. Catharine Pendrel is a model of what it means to have discipline, race consistently, constantly push the growth curve, and to keep perspective in life.   Her calm and kind demeanor almost makes it hard to imagine that she would be so lethal on a mountain b

Rob Loud is a yoga instructor in Boulder, Colorado. His story is unique and courageous. Rob transformed from someone who struggled for many years with dark drug and alcohol addiction into a person and teacher who transmits so much positivity in the world through his work as a yoga instructor. In Rob’s classes, he always has an insightful message on cultivating mindfulness, acceptance, suffering, dealing with change, and self-discovery both on and off the mat. There is always a fun light-hearted element to his demeanor and asana practice. His classes can also be really challenging and allow space to grow as a yoga practitioner.   Rob’s willingness to be vulnerable and transparent about his battle with addiction and how his yoga practice saved his life. Rob passionately says, “My ability to touch just one person through yoga can have the same profound effect on them as it did for me. I know this going into any class I teach that I have an opportunity to change someone’s life completely, give it a 180 degree tur

This special edition of the podcast is with myself and Matt Ewonus.  I raced the Transsylvania Epic Mountain Bike Stage Race: a 5 day event in the rocky, dense forests outside State College, PA. We recorded this special edition while in New York City and were doing a vegan food tour of the city!  Make sure you're subscribed to my newsletter  - I'll be writing about NYC soon!  Leading up to the event, I had to work on the mental aspect of not feeling prepared for the race. At certain events, I've also had instances of getting stuck focusing too much on the outcome rather than the journey or the process.  We discuss that topic in this episode.  There was a lot of adversity and challenges in the few days leading up to the race including travel challenges and I had a huge cooking accident causing blistered 2nd degree burns all over my upper body. I had to put it all behind me on race day.  What happened surprised me.  Despite less than ideal training an preparation for the event due to other (fun) life and work c

There is no such thing as overnight success. This is a story about hard work, a magnetizing passion, and transparency with Brian Kennedy on his wildly popular adventure mountain bike YouTube channel BKXC.   Brian says “I always wanted that mission to pour myself into 100%.... I’m not going to sit at my stupid cubicle for the rest of my life making some other guy rich when I have this crazy passion.” Brian Kennedy rides the best mountain bike trails around the world and creates 3 entertaining YouTube videos per week. In this conversation, he tells us how he quit his full time to job to become a full-time YouTuber and mountain biker. We talk about personal growth and the fear of starting something new and unknown. He grew his YouTube channel from 1000 to 55,000 subscribers in 10 months. He first found success on YouTube when he recognized there weren’t any videos or reviews on automatic sprinkler controllers, and he filled that space with instructional content that began to monetize. From there, he was inspired

Dr. Brent Barlow is a Naturopathic Doctor. Naturopathic Medicine is a holistic practice where the doctor works with the patient to make lifestyle changes to treat the cause of a disease or ailment rather than simply providing drugs to mask symptoms. NDs look for natural ways to help the body heal itself through changes in sleep, energy use, and diet.  Treat the cause, treat the whole person. In this episode, we discuss a number of topics that are present in our daily lives as human beings and as athletes. Some topics:   Caffeine and coffee Overtraining Hormone imbalances What is a healthy way to lose weight? Vitamin D Adrenal glands Managing energy Digestive health Candida Overgrowth Anti-inflammatory foods Probiotics Supplementation and when to use them   Dr. Barlow’s book, To Feel Well – Improve Your Digestive System is a great resource for digestive health and can be found on his website: http://drbrentbarlownd.com/ He also encourages listeners to get in touch with him with questions! Alkaline/pH Food Gu

Today’s episode is an interesting conversation about my background and how I’ve arrived at the place I am in my life with a special guest co-host: my husband, Matt Ewonus! I sincerely appreciate all of my listeners, but I realize not everyone has followed my journey and I think there are some important themes that come out along the way. Mainly, the ability to make changes in your life, being open to try new things, and the amazing life-changing direction it can take.   We discuss my first memories on a bike, how I found confidence as an insecure teenager, team sports vs individual sports, and taking personal responsibility in life. We also discuss how to deal with anxiety around racing, being “in flow”, how I got into racing and the experiences around that, and surrounding yourself with like-minded people to help you implement changes. Fixed vs growth mindset is a huge part of our daily discussions, so we touch on perfectionism and how to work to overcome it, why I’m thankful for the failures and difficult m