Liz Donahey’s Traction: a Mountain Biking Podcast

Life is short. We only have a few rides left. We gotta ride with the one care about us the most or it won’t be fun and healthy for anyone. If we want to stay together on this big ride of life, it’s easier to stay close to those we love enough to communicate but far enough not to crowd or crash into each other we’re good.

In this episode, I get real about losing myself a little and why, all driven by the feeling of passionate, confident, happy, and resilient by not feeling like others want me to win or encouraged by others, compounded by not able to ride my bike and all it means to me in all dimensions of my life. We have to be our own bike sometimes.

In this episode, join me as I interview an amazing Marin County cycling coach and former pro racer Robin Zellner on the great things he loves about coaching women. Robin also shares 40 year journey the cycling world starting off as a young 17 athlete competing in races in Europe and what his experience was like a such a young age.

Just because we really want some thing and we’re very passionate about it doesn’t mean that we are expert enough to accomplish it very well. It takes being honest about what we know, and what we don’t know, what we can do, and what we cannot do, in our current level of capability and knowledge about a topic or an activity. If we don’t, then we’re going to end up, hurting ourselves and others in the process. Let’s dive in and learn how not to crash.

In this episode, I go deep into setting smart 2024 goals, or what I call the big and small finish lines, in all areas of our lives. I’m extremely goal-oriented, but I really don’t like setting New Year’s resolutions because sometimes it feels like you’re setting yourself up for failure, not acting on the thoughts and feelings that you desire to. So instead, why don’t we set some big and some small finish lines that we know we can cross in 2024.

From getting up at 4:30 AM for my hot Pilates class, or jumping on my bike to get those training hours in, to racing to get my kids to school so I can make it all happen, we have to have a sense of urgency or time will go by and leave us without The things we love to do and be with the most in our lives. We’re not promised any specific number of hours days weeks on this plan we better commit and decide on the things we want the most and go after them immediately there’s no time to waste. This is your time on the planet.

We can’t get anywhere if we don’t have enough traction. But what does it really mean to gain traction, and what the heck is traction at its core? And why do we need it to get through the finish lines of life on and off our bikes?

Something’s definitely changed in me in the last 28 days. It all started when I committed to the mindset of moving from sport to expert in mountain biking we have to say yes first, and then let our passion fuel our efforts in every way to stay, balanced, and moving forward with constant momentum. I don’t know what my limitations are, because I’ve never pushed them as much as I think I’m gonna push them in the new year. I can’t wait to take you on the journey with me let’s go!

This Thanksgiving, 2023, was a quiet one, and gave me lots of time to think. I’m not sure I have made it quiet because I am not a quiet person, but I don’t need to tell you that. Reflecting on what? I’m thankful for I would say I’m most thankful for being a human. More specifically I’ve thought deeply about what three things I’m most thankful for being a human and it starts with you. Here we go.

In this episode, I touch what mountain biking has taught me about being resilient and successful in my life off my bike. About 20 years ago when I started mountain biking, I realized that the mental and physical challenges mirrored the challenges I faced in my personal and business life off the trail.

On this 48th birthday, I’ve realized that we must appreciate and honor getting older, instead of dreading it. In this episode, we climb the feat of aging with lots of respect, love, and happiness.

We can get hit my changes every day by choice or chance. If we overestimate the magnitude and impact of these changes, we will struggle to get through them and get stuck. Here’s how I’m learning to get through my current changes like my kids new schedules, impacting everything in my personal and professional demands.

You’re charging up a hill on smooth single-track trail. It’s perfectly cool and sunny, and you’re feeling free, fast and flowing, until you see a tight switchback ahead and need to think quickly and decide the best line choice. It’s a tight, tricky and steep turn which makes lose your bike confidence and clearing it. But if you don’t, you’re going to be stuck in the same position or level, or you’re gonna have to go back down the mountain and start all over again, or you could decide. Yes, I want to make progress and figure out how to get around these big obstacles in life with the right people, resources in tools in partners that you need to to get to the top of your goals.

To be the happiest, healthiest, and most successful you can be, you must start focusing on and investing in the people, things, and activities that give you most happiness in this short, amazing life.

When we want to make changes and level up in our performance, get happier and get stronger, get better every second counts. Things take so much more time than we actually think they do because we see it in our head before we play it out in our behavior, thoughts, actions and emotions. By lining up the daily activities that you must accomplish in priority, order and assign time blocks, whether they be 30 minutes or two hours every day to get your work and personal activities, accomplished every day this episode gives examples of how to win every real or metaphorical race that you’re trying to achieve every day and how to balance the activities across all six human capital domains, so that you’re not neglecting one area and focusing too much on another, and other words staying balanced and focused on the priorities, so that you get things done in the right order and don’t drop the ball. This allows us to dedicate enough valuable time, resources, and energy to our self, the one that’s driving the ship and all the domains, and get the challenging stuff done in the right order with the right resources, gear, equipment, partners tools, all the things that we need to get our work done so that we can achieve the most success. We can even on a minute 10 minute basis so let’s dive in!

Sometimes we can’t help ourselves from making things too complicated. I think it’s a fact of human nature that we strive to have solutions, be smart, and show others that we can provide value. But we have to stay balanced while doing this. How do we stay balanced while being both the silver lining to a cloud in the darkest center parts? Let’s dive in, shall we?

There's no shame in showing others your beauty when it’s done with purpose. In this episode, I dive into that how our outward beauty and attractiveness is direct reflection of achieving feeling our own self-worth, value, confident, and happiness. Sometimes, especially with women, we can fall into the the trap of just being pretty for pretty sake, instead of it being wrapped in purpose, or a mission that helps not only ourselves, but inspires and helps others in our universe (self, family, partner, community, home, work). Let's dive in, shall we?

How excited and happy are you to see your significant other today? Are you biting at the bit, or a bit detached? In this episode, I’m sharing my real and raw lessons from my #23principles, Principle No. 8, #partnerwell. I believe that #couplesthatplaytogetherstaytogether, bonded by common passions, and interest that keep them healthy, young and inspired. If you are both excited about doing something together, your build up your mindset and body and lifestyle around the closest bonding that you create from doing things you’re both passionate about let’s dive into her mountain biking with your partner can teach us this.

Sometimes it’s hard to navigate relationships because we don’t know if we’re crowding our partner, or being too distant. In this episode, I focus on keeping happy and healthy distances between ourselves and our partners, so that we can maintain good communication and get our needs, met and healthy and happy ways.

In this episode, I’ll take on the fast and furious journey of how my leg injury led to finishing something amassing and challenging, my new book, The High-Value Woman.

What is a high-value woman? It seems I don’t go a day without thinking about the topic of what makes a high-value woman. As a motivated, ambitious, and driven woman, I’ve listen to so many podcasts and YouTube episodes focused on self-development and relationship centered around becoming a high-value woman without a clear definition or path to get there. Let’s dive into what it really means, and what it takes to become a high value-woman.

Exchequer Extravaganza Race 2023, featuring Enduro and Cross-Country Mountain Biking races, was put on March 25 and 26 by Nathan Powell of Bear Adventures and held at Barrett Cove Recreation Area in La Grange, CA. The third time must be a charm as in the first year of this 3-year-old event, I was a rookie (arguably still am) and raced and won 3rd at the Beginner. Learned a ton since then. Here is my tell-all.

In this episode, you'll discover the Know-Like-Trust Rule of growth. In the beginning stages of any new business, there's a simple and easy rule that I've discovered that works to start growing your business at scale. It's imperative that you get enough of your targeted audience and buyers to know you and your products and services, like them, and finally trust them to create revenue and growth for your company.

On Sunday, January 29 at 10 am, I represented my team Hella Mello Racing (HRM), the North Bay's Premier Women's Cycling Team, raced and won my first mountain biking race of the season at the Granite Bay MTB Challenge 2023, Cross-Country Mountain Race at Folsom Lake in California. This awesome race was put on by TBF, Total Body Fitness. Learn how I prepped my gear, my mind, and my body to step up to this amazing physical and mental challenge.

I’ve been waiting for 2023 for too long that’s it’s become a symbol of accomplishments surrounding the 23 principles of mountain biking, my ultimate passion projects waiting to be born.

This Thanksgiving, I’m reminded of the things I’m thankful for within my MTB life and community and push myself to be even more thankful about the things that I take for granted. Be thankful.

I think I’m going through a growth spurt, even though most people my age at 47-year old may not think this is possible, but I do. I think we can grow younger, not older if we make the conscious decision to devote our physical and mental energy towards living , not dying. From the moment we wake up to the time we fall asleep, we can choose the feelings, actions, and behaviors that keep us growing younger, happier, and healthier.

Studies have shown that couples who do adventurous activities together stimulate bonding chemicals, which makes their time together more fun and happy and healthy. In this episode, I talk about the need to find time with your partner that brings out the adventure side and yourselves like mountain biking does for me and my boyfriend. I share our first mountain biking day and the crazy adventure we had and the lessons I’ve learned from it over the last four years of riding bikes together.

In this episodes, I take you on a quick tour of my daily morning routine, not to bore you with all the minute details, but to talk about the Principles around having a repeatable and healthy routines that make us stronger healthier and happier every day.

It’s been a crazy for weeks and it all had to do with me breaking my blonde hair and losing my confidence and self-esteem that I’ve been taking for granted.

I crashed so hard last Monday, June 6th. I slammed down into the ground hitting my shoulder on a really easy trail that I've done a million times before. I'm now learning how to deal with the body pain and lack of movement, and the threat of not being able to do what I love do the most.

This was one of the most difficult cross country mountain biking races on Strava to finish within the top 10. Man did I work hard and learn a lot on this race. Check it out!

I am so thrilled to share with you the experiences and preparation that occurred leading up to me winning first place at the Skyline XC cross country race 1-lap in Napa California last weekend!

Stay Balanced. If you move in too many directions, or extremes, you’re going to lose your balance, fall, fail, and perhaps hurt yourself or others on your way down.

If you want to go fast especially downhill on things that are dangerous in risky and Ne-Yo and challenging then get off the brakes and trust yourself.

No matter how much success and wealth we accumulate, the relationships we establish with others our children or family or friends or coworkers, it doesn’t mean anything and doesn’t feel great and wonderful if it’s not driven by passion. What’s your passion? Why is it important to have? Let’s dive in.

In this episode, I talk about the process, challenges, feelings, and experience of joining the premier women’s cycling team, Hella Mello Racing🦩(MTB community calls us flamingos) that is bigger than yourself and beyond the self or individual.

When it come to getting through challenges in life or business, it can come down to whether or not you’re capable enough to keep moving up when around tricky situations like riding around a tough switchback up the hill or back down it to get to your destination.
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Being kind to your partners is sometimes more important than being correct. You might be really surprised at how many partners you actually have in your personal and business life. They all play an important part of our overall happiness, wellbeing, growth and success to we must become experts on our partners.

Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know and it’s better to research the unknowns and eliminate challenging factors that are just going to get us completely stuck in the mud. This is just like it happen today when I made an assumption that conditions would be better and easier riding after the rain on a simpler mountain, but no. You’ll find out why.

I just got back last week from central California winning 3rd place and my first podium medal in the Exchequer mountain biking extravaganza in La Grange, California. I learned a ton about what it took to win something and all the sweets and people that needed to align in order for it to come together. It took a village. Surround yourself mister a team and go after what you love most in life. Now when’s the next race?

Yesterday I rode in Calistoga on a trail called Oak Hill mine. It is infamous for being treacherous and challenging and dangerous. So when we’re in those difficult life challenges there’s things that mountain biking and crashing on your mountain bike will teach you about how to go best about trying new challenges and taking it as an opportunity to grow and not go backwards.

We have to let outselves get outside and play every once in a while. It’s good for our hearts and it’s good for our minds and is good for our souls. Just because we’re not kids anymore, as adults we need to remember to connect back with that inner child and get outside and play.

Liz Donahey with the 23 Principles and guest Natalie Mannherz, an Occupational Therapist and busy new mother of two young boys, discuss the rewards and benefits of advocating for time for dedicated self-care every day.

Yes, we’re all super busy with competing demands from our work, households, families, and friends. Great improvements can happen in our lives if we are not afraid to schedule regular times every day to taking care of our bodies and minds.

Greg Dickerson leads us through how to best manage our fears that can hold us back from accomplishing our goals. Whether we’re living through unpredictable times, or simply our everyday lives, our fears can stop us from reaching our potential. In this episode, Greg inspires us with his belief that the only thing we should be fearing is not going after our goals and dreams.