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The Matt King Show
050: Solo Episode | I’m Cycling Across America (And I’m Not a Cyclist) | The Matt King Show
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Back in the Saddle to talk to you a little bit about doing hard things. Now, when I came up with this concept of the solo podcast episodes being called Back in the Saddle, I was not yet a cyclist, and I had this idea that a saddle had to do with a ranch. And since all the podcasts are recorded from the ranch, I thought, what a cool name. Even though I'm deathly allergic to horses, let's call this Back in the Saddle. Now, having ridden a bike for a lot of hours preparing for this thing that I'm about to talk to you about, I realize that the word saddle gives me a lot of different vibes and feelings than it once did, because the world of cycling oftentimes calls the seat a saddle. And I can tell you from firsthand experience, that seat is no saddle. That is the most uncomfortable little thing that you have to sit on that I have ever experienced. But today, I want to give you a little update about what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and how it's going. So every single year, I do something that scares me to death. And most often, it's a selfish thing or an isolating thing. It's me doing something. And what I realized is, is we're only here on this Earth for a small amount of time, and I don't know what happens once we're gone, but the story I'm telling myself is, is we only live once. And so why not do as much as we can for as many people as we possibly can while we're here? So this year, I have committed to ride my bike from the border of Mexico all the way up to the border of Canada. 2,000 miles should take us 13 days, 150 miles a day, 10 hours a day riding the bike, or as the cyclists call it, in the saddle. But all for a mission and a cause that I feel called to, to raise a million dollars for underprivileged, underserved kids and families, small communities across this beautiful country, the United States of America. I wasn't a cyclist growing up. I'm still not a cyclist. Never been big into biking. Rode my bike a little bit as a kid, but it was always one of those kind of like, trick bikes that we'd try to do wheelies on. Never got into the 21 speed or the 10 speed or the 7 speeds. But a couple of years ago, one of my friends, Ryan, came to me and he said, hey, let's get into cycling. I think it'd be a good workout. So I went on to Craigslist bought a bike, and we got into cycling. I personally got into cycling for a whopping day, went for one ride, enjoyed it. I didn't, like, love it, but I was like, oh, that was a good workout. That was fun. And then went back to the house, hung my bike up on the wall and let it sit there. And sit there it did for over 18 months. But this year, that bike came off the damn wall. And we're riding the bike because I'm not a cyclist. I'm having to train a lot, and I mean a lot, to get my body, my mind right to do this 2,000 mile journey. I mean, if you talk to anybody in the world of cycling, they'll tell you 100 miles is a long way to go. They'll tell you 100 miles for multiple days in a row is a really long way to go. But I don't really care what they'll tell you because I've made a decision that I'm going to ride my bike 150 miles a day on average for 13 days in a row. When you think about the choices you make, I believe it's important to think about the people that are impacted by those choices. When I made the choice to go on this journey, on this ride, I had to think about my family. I had to think about Melissa, my wife, or my kids, Rylan, Bodie and Marley. And I had to think about what impact this would have on them. And when I first started socializing this idea of what I was gonna do, I got an unsolicited phone call from somebody I truly, truly respect and look up to that has become what I would call a friend. And he said, hey, Matt, I'm gonna give you some unsolicited advice, my perspective, even though you didn't ask for it. And oh, by the way, I've already consulted with my wife and she agrees with me. I could have done two things in that moment. I could have just said, like, I don't want your opinion, thanks, and hung up. Or I could have said, okay, cool, tell me more, let me listen. Now, if I said, cool, tell me more, let me listen again, I have more choices there. I could say, let me listen, but I'm not really going to listen. Or I could have said, let me listen from a place of curiosity and see what this man that I look up to has to say. Now, what Aaron said in that moment was he said, this is a terrible idea. I don't think you should do it. You should stop talking about it, and you need to Go back to the drawing board. I was like, oh, really, Aaron, thank you for your perspective. Tell me more. I've trained for a lot of ironmans, Aaron said. And I can tell you that the amount of sacrifices I had to make in business and for my family in order to be a man who could do an ironman was way greater than I thought. And I don't think, Matt, where you're at in this moment in your life, you should make those sacrifices or those choices or those decisions. You're trying to build businesses, you're trying to build a family, you're trying to run a ranch. Like, what are you going to do when all of that stuff gets pushed to the back burner? My wife and I talked about it and we don't think you should do this. I was like, wow, what an interesting perspective. You and your wife are talking about what I'm up to behind my back. Not in a negative way, but in a hey, let's look out for Matt's best interest way and are telling me that you think I can't do this or I shouldn't do this because of what I'm going to have to sacrifice now. Again, all the choices we make in our lives are going to always impact the people closest to us, whether we want to admit it or not. And so when I made the choice to do this ride, I also made a choice to impact my family and the businesses and the ranch and my health as little as I possibly could. Now that's exactly why I want to hit the mileage average every single day that I have planned. People have told me, you're doing it wrong. You should take longer, do less miles in a day, enjoy the journey. But what people don't know is I don't want to do less miles in a day because I don't want to sacrifice my family more than I already am. I don't want them to suffer more than they're already going to suffer from me doing this thing. So I am willing to. To endure a little bit more pain. I'm willing to sit in the saddle a little bit longer every single day and ride a couple more miles so that I can get home to my family faster. Where are we at in the journey? Dang. I'll tell you, I should have rode the bike a little bit before I committed to this thing. I just kind of had thought that I would get used to sitting on the bike and it would be fine. We're two months into training or seven weeks into training. I am not yet used to Sitting on the bike. We're averaging about two hours a day right now, quote unquote in the saddle. We have some three hour riding days already under my belt. And let me just say this. When you sit on that bike seat for two hours or three hours, you don't care how bad your legs hurt because your butt hurts so damn bad that when you get off the bike and you try to sit in a nice comfy couch or a nice leather chair or even in your car, it hurts to sit down on a comfortable thing. But what I'm learning about myself is that I have this uncanny ability to obsess about something. I am so committed to this ride and this cause that I'm waking up at 2:30 or 3 in the morning before my alarm clock goes off so I can get to the ranch, get on the bike and put in the work, get my training done. I've built a little workstation, albeit it's a garbage can, two 5 gallon paint cans, a box of shop wipes, some trim spread across the handlebars of the bike so that I can do zoom calls, I can do emails, I can write newsletters. I can work while I'm training so that I don't have to sacrifice the business or my family in order to accomplish this mission. I'm also realizing that I do not eat nearly enough food in a day. And I think many of us probably don't eat enough of the right foods in a day. My calorie intake is way too low, my protein intake is way too low. And so I'm learning a lot about myself on this mission. What my body needs instead of what my body wants, what my mind needs instead of what my mind wants. And I'm just really excited to see who I become on the other side of this thing. I'm incredibly fortunate to have a great group of people around me that are supporting me on this mission. I mean, the ride is powered by gobundance. The members, the tribe, the community of gobundance, rallying around this. Recently at one of our gobundance events, I really announced what I'm doing and why I'm doing it and what I needed from the group in order to achieve this mission. I had, and in literally one night, we raised over $257,000 for this cause. That means I'm 25% of the way. There was still a hundred days to go before I actually have to do the damn thing. Now, don't get me wrong, I got a lot of money left to raise and I got a Lot of miles left to go. But when the people that you look up to or the people that you believe in show you with their actions, not their words, that they too believe in you, you find this different fuel or this different pace or this different obsession that you're able to tap into. I mean, literally that night, we raised all that money for these families and these children across the United States. I had already done all of the training I needed to do for that day. But when I got back to my hotel room where I had a bike and a trainer set up so I could train while traveling, I got back on the bike and I did another hour, I was like, man, if those people believe in me, I have to make sure I don't let them down. I have to get back on this bike. I have to make sure I'm ready. The team, man, we have such a cool team that's helping us accomplish this mission. From the crew chief to the logistics, to the content, to the men that are going to also join on the ride. Like, I just love being with these people. I love collaborating with these people. I feel like they make me and challenge me to be a better version of myself, and I hope that they can say the same of me. And then the causes that we've already been connected to, the stories that we've already been connected to, it's just so cool to see what you're capable of if you just put your mind to it and your heart to it and you're just willing to go for it even when everybody else is telling you not to. I literally have in my journal what I call my book of receipts. Every single time somebody tells me it's a bad idea or I'm not going to get it done, or I'm going to sacrifice too much or I'm going to take. I'm going to go too fast and I should enjoy the journey more. I write down the date, I write down who told it to me, and I write down what they told me. And I call it my book of receipts. And I don't use it from a place of, like, resentment. I'm keeping that book of receipts as fuel when I find the ruts that I want to become graves when I'm on the ride, I have a plan to go back into that journal journal every single day while I'm out there. But when I'm feeling down, I or I want to quit. I'm going to go back to that journal and remember what I was told on December 8th or November 17th or January 5th. I'm going to look at those notes not as a reminder of like, that guy's a jerk, let me do it in spite of him, but as a reminder of if I can show them that even I can accomplish this mission not being a cyclist, what are they capable of accomplishing that they haven't yet committed to? Again, I'm not using it to say, like, this is hate mail or to despise people. I'm using it as a reminder that my actions and my examples on this ride just might be the thing that somebody needs to see in order to give themselves the permission they desire. My goal is to update you guys along the way on the training, on the ride. The good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful. When it comes to the giving and the stories and the lives, we're able to impact along the way. I can tell you right now, I don't feel ready yet, but I feel like I am getting ready in the right ways. My legs are feeling really good, my lungs are feeling really good. My heart rate is staying at a really good pace. While I'm pushing pace during training, I feel like I'm learning about the gear and the equipment I'm going to need to accomplish this thing. I'm still doing a little work on the fueling and the recovery side, but I'm getting ready. I can feel myself evolving. I can feel myself getting better, stronger, faster, wiser even. But it still sucks. I mean, starting next week, I've got multiple days in a row where I have to be on that damn bike for five hours a day. And when I look at that, I feel like extremely overwhelmed as to just how bad my butt is going to hurt. And then I sit with it and I look at it and say, that is only 50% of the day when I'm out there on the ride. And when people ask me, how are you going to look at this mission? What I often tell them is it's this. It's not a 13 day ride for 2,000 miles. It's a one day ride broken into four chunks. The morning block, I just want to hit 60 miles. That's going to be my first finish line. For some context, 60 miles should be about four hours on the bike. My goal is to average 15 miles an hour. I think we'll be able to hit some faster speeds. Whether it's downhill or winds that are back or flatland or I'm feeling good. But I know damn well that when I have to climb 45,000ft of elevation across this entire thing, there's Going to be moments and days where we're going 6 miles an hour or 7 miles an hour or 8. So can I average 15 miles an hour if I do my first finish line? That 60 mile mark is just four hours. All I gotta do is ride the bike for four hours. Once I'm done, I'll get off the bike, I'll refuel, I'll talk to the team, I'll get some water and then I'll look at my next race for the day. That next block will probably be a 45 mile block. That means three hours on the bike. That's it, just three hours on the bike. Just moving my legs for three hours. Now, if you think about that, we're seven hours into the day. Well, probably a little bit more because of the stop. So let's say we're seven and a half hours into the day. We've accomplished 105 miles. We rest, we get some lunch, we hang out, maybe change some clothes. Definitely put on new socks because my feet sweat but my armpits don't. Put on some sunscreen, change the music, listen to a podcast and then get back on the bike. Now, after those first two missions or races of the day, I only have 45 miles left. Well, that's easy. Two 70 minute blocks, one 75 minute block, three 45 minute blocks, like whatever I want that to look like. I took that big, bold, delusional goal for the day, hit 150 miles and I broke it down into bite sized pieces that I'm able to digest. And I've done it in a way that I found finish lines along the way, opportunities on the waypoints or the checkpoints to celebrate, to enjoy, to have some fun, to reward myself. And then I just have to go rest. That's it, the day's done. Next day, day two, same damn thing. So I'm not looking at this as 13 days, 150 miles a day, 2,000 miles, 45,000ft of elevation gain. I'm looking at it as one day, one block at a time, for one cause. Raise a million dollars for people who need it. I think people who deserve it. And I think in communities that we far too often overlook or don't think about, we drive right through these communities, we drive right past these people. But at the end of the day, they're the backbone of America. They're Americans. They're people. Their children, sons, daughters, their mothers, their fathers, whatever they are, it doesn't matter. They're in a situation where I have the opportunity with the help of you, with the help of so many people, to pause, hear their story, see them, and do whatever I can to make their life just a little bit better. Maybe it's a little bit of money. Maybe it's paying for the apartment for the year. Maybe it's buying the single mom with three kids, two jobs, and no car. A car. Whatever it looks like, my plan is to see these people, to hear these people, to truly feel what these people have gone through and to do all I can with all of the donations and all of the gifts from so many incredible human beings, including yourself across the country, to just help them and then just get on my bike and keep going. And when you start to think from that perspective, I believe that this whole bike ride becomes so much more powerful than just the bike or the personal challenges or the mental challenges. It just doesn't even become an option. It's like a duty or an obligation of I'm called to do this thing, and it is my job to do this damn thing. And so that's exactly what we're doing. If you're interested in following along at all on the ride, just go to gobundance.com the ride. We have all the updates there. You can find ways to ride with me. You can find the route. You can find ways to nominate people who need to be seen and loved and helped along the journey. You can even find ways to donate if you feel called or inspired to help us with the mission of getting to a million dollars or follow along on social media. GoBundance @King ATX both of those channels on YouTube. GoBundance Matt King ATX all of stuff, all of the content, all of the stuff, all the good, all the bad, all the fun, all the humor, all the sad, all the giving is going to be documented and told through those mediums. Whatever it is that you experience today, my ask of you is just pause and see somebody you oftentimes walk past and just ask them how they are now with your phone in your hand, not rushing to get to the next meeting or grab your coffee off the coffee bar, but to truly listen to them, to truly hear them. And what I encourage you to do is pay attention to their body language. Because when you stop and you see someone and you ask them how they are and you listen, you will see it in their face and in their body, how much that truly meant to them. And the last thing I'll say, if you haven't ridden a bike in a long time, my encouragement, don't do it. The saddle sucks.