The phenomenon of the retired professional athlete is a subject that continues to fascinate me. Having engaged in extended conversations and the odd blog post of those who were willing to reflect on life “post pro,” I must admit that I surprised by the lack of literature and awareness there is on this subject. That said, perhaps my interest in this notion is reflective of my own observant nature, although I do feel that increased awareness of life after sport would be of benefit to all.
Brad Kearns certainly understands that lifestyle adjustment. With a professional triathlon career spanning almost a decade, he now leads a happy, healthy and fruitful life balancing a career in the health and fitness industry with family and social responsibilities.
Previous interviews with Brad in 2010 and 2011 proved extremely insightful, and this one is no different. The transition process upon retirement from pro sport is discussed in depth as well as a diversion into his thoughts on the current coaching industry.
The Nature Gym: Many professional athletes have difficulty adjusting to “normal” life upon retirement from competitive sport, yet little is has been documented about this phenomenon. While Scott Tinley’s excellent “Racing the Sunset” gives an insight into his own experiences, talk about your shift in mindset in the tail end of your career and how you came to terms with calling it a day.
Brad Kearns: Yes it’s not easy to walk away and I imagine the more intense and more successful the athletic career the more difficult it would be to transition to normal life. Fortunately for triathletes, we are not such a big deal in the first place so it’s pretty easy to get over yourself and move along. On a more serious note, many of the attributes that make for a successful athlete can actually make the transition more difficult: being self-focused/self-important, single minded, hyper-competitive, etc. All of a sudden you have to get over yourself and go stand in line for a job interview or whatever.
In my case, it was difficult to move on from pro triathlon circuit because I wasn’t sure what the next step was. I was so focused on my career for nine years that I didn’t think about setting myself up for the next step, besides writing magazine articles and a couple books in my down time as an athlete…which helped set me up to establish in career with these relevant skills. But during that period where I was afraid of the future and struggling as an athlete, I had a tough time. I wasn’t honest with myself or others; I was in denial while harboring the incredibly positive attitude that you need to succeed as an athlete. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my good friend and noted triathlon coach Peter Coulson, who reminded me over and over in my final year on the circuit that I “sucked”, that I was past my prime, how strong I was when I was at my best and how far off I was at present. It’s nice to have supportive people around you but it is also nice to have people who are brutally honest and help you to face the music!
One fortunate thing for my transition that occurred from staying a bit too long on the circuit was that I started getting my butt kicked in my final couple seasons. This makes for a nice graceful exit with no remorse or misgivings about pursuing more glory and success. After a while you have to wake up and realize that you have had your day and that day is behind you. For a triathlete, it’s pretty graphic and easier to accept than perhaps a team sport athlete who gets cut by the coach, disagrees with the decision and tries to keep plugging away.
For example, I had my favorite hill climb which took me 14:45 to ascend from the bottom of the canyon to the trail-head in the town of Auburn where I live. This was a very intense effort delivered by a #3 world-ranked triathlete at the top of his game. As I struggled in my final years, I’d hit the time trial hard and notice a 16:03 at the top! Hey man, I gave it all I had and when I see 16:03 I can figure out what will happen at the next event on the circuit. Since triathlon is such a small sport, you literally cannot afford to drop from 1st place to 4th or from 3rd place to 8th. With the prize purses and my endorsement contracts, I would earn 10x more for a victory than for a 5th place. So for me, walking away was pretty easy. It was more like I was kicked out by Spencer Smith, Simon Lessing, and the rest of the young up and comers who were performing at a higher level than I!
NG: Given the accumulated fatigue (physical and mental) from years of training, racing and travelling, how long did it take you to recover from being a professional athlete?
BK: I have no lasting physical injuries unlike most people in contact sports who suffer forever. Right now I train for sprinting and strength, and compete in high jumping and Speed Golf. And at the age of forty-nine, I believe I am healthier and fitter than I was when I felt like an old man at the age of thirty; when I washed out of the tri circuit. I am no longer able to drop a 1hr46 for Olympic distance triathlon, but I don’t care. During my career I was good for one thing, going fast in a triathlon. But you couldn’t ask me to lift a sandbag or anything or I might tweak something! Or stand up for three hours straight at a trade show – no chance.
However I feel like the stress of training for such a grueling sport really did some damage to my endocrine system, my adrenal glands, my ability to handle stress. Fortunately, I take good care of myself with lots of sleep, an excellent Primal-aligned diet, and a sensible exercise program today. The aging process is accelerated when you are competing as an elite athlete, so today I am doing everything I can to slow the aging process. My biggest concern is for many of my peers in elite endurance sports who have suffered serious damage to their hearts, I believe from the extreme stress of endurance training at the highest level.
NG: A lot of ex-pro athletes across the sporting spectrum ditch the exercise “cold turkey”, yet retain the “athlete’s appetite.” Given that you are still in exceptional health and fitness two decades later, talk about the evolution of your exercise habits immediately after your pro career to the present day.
BK: After I retired I still had a desire to do endurance feats. I rode my mountain bike across the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Lake Tahoe a couple times and I did 50km and 50-mile ultramarathon runs. These events were to prepare me for the epic Western States 100 mile Endurance Run across the Sierra that finishes in my hometown of Auburn. It was a compelling goal to imagine running across the mountains in one day! However when I crossed the finish line of the American River 50-mile in 8hr28, all endurance goals were forever extinguished in my brain. Every endurance athlete knows that feeling during the race when you go, “what am I doing here? What am I doing this for?” Or it’s a common story where the athlete finishes the race and says, “Never again” and then a week later jumps on the Internet to pre-register for the next year’s event! Well, that feeling of “why am I doing this?” hit at mile 40 of the ultra-run and it never went away; that was 19 years ago!
Soon after that time we started a family and my fitness efforts were minimal, just jogging and riding my bike on the weekends for a couple of hours. Soon after that I started coaching my children in soccer, basketball, running. I realized that I was an aging piece of crap who thought I was fit because I could ride a bike in the hills for two hours, but my knees were falling apart, my back would go out from time to time, and all the other crap that happens to guys in their 40s. I embarked on a new fitness path of introducing high intensity strength training and all-out sprinting, from the inspiration of Mark Sisson and MarksDailyApple.com back in 2006. Mark basically informed me that being in cardiovascular good form from endurance training might not even be that healthy (Case against Cardio was his popular post), and that fitness had a broader connotation that what I conceived.
I started sprinting, going barefoot; doing body weight resistance exercises back in 2006 and have become more and more interested and committed to these kinds of fitness goals. In 2014 at age 49 I cleared 5’3” in the high jump and ran 400m in 59.6 seconds. I also placed 20th in the World Speed Golf Championships in Bandon, OR, shooting 83 in 51 minutes.
NG: The coaching industry, especially in multi-sport, has grown ten-fold over the years, with a seeming saturation of coaching guidance out there. Are you still coaching athletes and if so, what do you deem as the essential attributes of a good coach?
BK: I heard a great quote from Vinnie Tortorich who said, “There are more coaches in triathlon today than there are participants.” It is a little ridiculous, especially since the industry seems to be focused on the workout programming element. This is only a small part of a true coaching relationship, and not one of the most important elements in my opinion. All kinds of workout programs will work, or fail, but everything depends upon the athlete’s mindset and disposition and philosophical approach. I tried to coach athletes in a holistic manner emphasizing these elements instead of spitting out workouts, but it is not as effective of a revenue model actually.
NG: Generally speaking, do former top athletes make good coaches?
BK: It is an excellent prerequisite. I certainly don’t buy the argument that the greatest athletes are so natural that they DON’T make good coaches - that’s silly. However it is highly individual. Some former athletes are excellent coaches. Mark Sisson was an excellent coach for me, and he could relate to everything I was doing very well because of his elite athlete background. And also because he was smart.
Today the best endurance coach in the world is Andrew MacNaughton of The Athletes Potential. He is not as well-known as others who have more aggressive business models, but he understands the complete picture of what it takes to be an athlete. Of course his background as an elite triathlete helps him, but his gifts extend way beyond that. I can also think of many former elite athletes who would be terrible coaches and consequently have no interest in it!
NG: Your recent Primal Blueprint Podcast with Ben Greenfield outlines some great topics, perhaps the central theme being “hacking” one’s daily life to benefit respective athletic pursuits. Outline some basic lifestyle adjustments a busy irrigation specialist can apply to his and his HR practitioner wife’s lives in order to successfully prepare and complete and eight day mountain bike stage race in March 2015.
BK: I despise the term “hacking” because it connotes “shortcut”. I pursue endeavors in life that I enjoy and do not inspire the need to find a shortcut. For example, if you want to lose weight, Tim Ferriss says you can take an ice bath for 30 minutes and activate your brown fat. But how about eating a nutritious Primal-aligned diet, getting adequate sleep and exercising sensibly to enable natural body fat reduction? Dave Asprey says you can lie on a spike bed to hack into optimal sleeping mode, but how about enjoying a quiet evening of calm socializing or reading, a dark environment and a comfortable transition away from screens and into an evening of sleep?
Now that that is out of the way, I can answer the question.
The best thing to apply with a busy life and ambitious goals is to sleep more, not train more. Set aside more time to sleep, and relax. Do the important workouts to prepare your body but realize that you don’t have to “practice” doing 8-day stage races to do well in an 8-day stage race. The human body is capable of great feats when the time comes, if you lead a healthy, balanced lifestyle. A super hard training session once in a while coupled with complementary lifestyle habits will be the best choice for an ambitious future athletic goal.
