Ken Hola
Full Transcript
Brad Cooper
Welcome to the latest episode of the Catalyst Health and Wellness Coaching Podcast. My name is Brad Cooper, and I’ll be your host. Now, last month we had Dr. Allen Castelle discussing how to reduce the declines as we age, how to keep things from, from dropping off as fast and different things you can do around that. But what about the other side of the coin? What about, instead of simply limiting the decline we were able to, or we were able to help our clients actually optimize our pursuits, even as we age? That’s where today’s guests Ken Hola comes in. Ken is a multiple time Ironman, including the Hawaii Ironman world championship last year in Kona, Hawaii. He’s also competed in the US national championships and multiple half Ironman, 70.3. Oh, by the way, Ken just celebrated his 75th birthday. And yet that’s the life he’s living. Now, we had Dr. Carla Meijin on in early March, discussing all the research behind challenge and threat. And I think you pick up a little bit of this as you listen to Ken speak. He’s not looking at the threat of aging. He’s excited about the challenge of what’s next. And I think there’s a lesson in there for all of us. So if you or your clients are thinking you’re in quotes too old folks, this is our wake-up call. And what a fun wake-up call it is. Just a quick reminder for those of you who have been considering the Rocky mountain coaching retreat and symposium up in Estes park, Colorado, this September 6th to the 8th, if you’re serious about it, and it may not be for you, but if you’re serious about it, get on the website as soon as possible and get registered because that big discount window it’s about to wrap up. So that’s CatalystCoachingInstitute.com, just click on the retreat tab and you’ll see it. CatalystCoachingInstitute.com as always reach out to us if you have any questions, things you want to talk about, try to figure out what’s this coaching certification all about how does it fit with your career? The email is Results@CatalystCoachingInstitute.com. Now on with the latest episode of the Catalyst Health and Wellness Coaching Podcast.
Brad Cooper
It’s so fun to have you on the podcast today. I think the lessons we’re going to learn across the board from this discussion are going to be fun. So thanks for joining us.
Ken Hola
Oh yeah. You’re really welcome.
Brad Cooper
Talk us through a little bit about your background. The audience knows some of the basics, but what led to you doing triathlons well into your mid seventies now?
Ken Hola
I really didn’t do a lot of exercises till I was probably, you know, in my forties. And it was just kind of something that was convenient. I moved to a place that had YMCA next door to it or close to it. And, uh, my boss said, uh, why don’t we go to the Y for lunch? And I said, well, if the boss wants to go to the Y for lunch, I’m going and you know, I wasn’t really opposed to exercise, but it just wasn’t fitting into my schedule. So all of a sudden it fit into my schedule cause I never thought about it. And then, so we would go to the Y and we would do some running and uh, it worked out good. And then we just go back to work and eat our lunch at, at the desk and go from there. So, um, we just, I started doing that and then maybe I had a little bit of knee injury. So then I switched to swimming and then one day my wife said, look, what I bought at a garage sale. Oh, really? What did it cost? $10. Well, I’ll try it out, whatever. There’s like five speeds on this bike. You know, I tried that out and you know, deep inside me, there’s also a desire to compete and I like to feel speed. Um, and the feeling of speed and actually causing it yourself. I have another issue that I deal with as I, I like motorcycles too, but I, uh, so I got the bike I said, Hey, you know, this is kind of fun. I’m getting a workout and I’m getting some speed out of it too. And also what I noticed in why you know, I questioned myself what I like to work out? There was just a feeling after workout that it’s hard to identify, but I just felt good being hot, breaking up a sweat and afterwards, and it just felt good. So we went from that, got us the bike.
Ken Hola
And then, uh, you know, one day we’re watching television and we saw on TV and this is in the eighties, like mid eighties, like 84. Uh, there was a, what they call the triathlon. And I watched that and I’ve never even seen it before. Well, they’re women and they’re biking and they’re running and there’s people of all ages. So I don’t have to be twenty-five years old and compete in something. So, Hey, that’d be something we could try. And so my wife said, well, we’ll do it together. So we found one, we signed up for one in 1984 and, uh, did some training. I took the fenders off the garage sale bikes. So I looked really cool. I didn’t see any bikes on a trail. I didn’t see a lot of bikes with fenders on it. So anyway, we, we, we did it, it was like a, it was that Lake Okoboji in Iowa. And it was like, uh, you know, a mile swim and an 18 bike around the Lake and then a six mile run and we survived it. And, uh, I thought, well, this is kind of fun. I liked, I liked to work out and like to compete. So it looked like something I could do. So we just started doing it and really didn’t do a lot of it, you know, because I had a job and everything to do a couple of years. And then actually, as I got older and I think it was 95, I asked my son, you know, I’m doing this triathlon. Do you want to try it? Well, okay, I’ll give it a try. So it was 95. We did one together. And then since then it grew with him and he has now done 16 Ironman in Hawaii. So that, that really worked out good.
Brad Cooper
Yeah, you got him started nicely Dad.
Ken Hola
Yeah. So, and now he’s the one that’s pushing me as I got older towards retirement and things like that. And having more time to train, I always had in the back of my mind, maybe someday I could even do Hawaii iron man, but at, at my age, in those age groups, I was nowhere near, you know, you need to be like right at the top to do that, but there’s an advantage of getting older. There’s a little less competition. And as I got older, I was getting closer to, uh, being able to qualify and then finally using, uh, using age to my advantage. And there is an advantage as you get older, certain goals, uh, cause there’s, as you, as you start. And what I say sometimes 80% of life is showing up. I’ve heard that, someone said that. So you start showing up and you’re going to make it. So finally I started showing up and starting doing better in my age group and in 2000, well, in 2018, everything was aligned. I was just entering this, uh, 75 age group. I was the youngest guy in the group and I looked at some races that, you know, have some competition. And so, uh, I qualified at Texas in April. Um, I was first place and then, uh, got to go to Hawaii. So my goal, October of 2018, I, I made it to Hawaii, but there’s a lot of stuff going on in between there that makes it, you know, you’ve, you’ve had a goal, you know, the less competition, but now there’s a lot of other things that need to be done to get that done.
Brad Cooper
Yeah, exactly. There is less competition. Now you’re competing against more injuries. Now you’re competing against more variables. Now you’re competing against somebody that’s in their thirties and yeah, they have more people out there on the course, but they have less variables in their life. As you get into 60 seventies, eighties, there are all these other variables and you overcame those things.
Ken Hola
Right. And you know, how do you overcome those variables? You know, you talk about some strategies. One of them is you can’t do it by yourself. As you’re older, you need support. You need support from family. Um, I had great support. My wife’s a swim instructor. She even did the first triathlon with me. So I got support. And so, I mean, if you’re going to go out and train for four or five hours, you better have a spouse that understands why you’re gone. And then I, you know, my son who is an outstanding athlete, gives me all the advice and he supplied me with the right equipment.
Brad Cooper
You mentioned something Ken that has me intrigued here because a lot of the folks listening have parents that may be in their late fifties, mid sixties, seventies. And it’s, and you mentioned that Tim’s encouragement played a pretty big role with this. Can you talk us through what worked with that? Because it doesn’t help to nag anybody. It never has. It never will. What approach did he take that did help in terms of that encouragement, that made a difference?
Ken Hola
I tell you what really helped is, and you can’t tell people, Hey, dad, you need to do this, once you hear that you don’t turn it off. Right. But subtly said that, and this was back in 2016, he said, dad, what you need, and I’ve always had, you know, injury here, injury there. Well, I needed to walk and all this other stuff, he said dad, what you need is some professional help. You need a coach. And I’m saying, well, I don’t need a coach. I know what to do. Right. Him and I work with, he says, no, it’s, you know, at this point, now you need someone that can really help you get through this and understands what’s going on with aging and recovery. So he recommended a coach and that was, uh, Kelly, Philno, Philno coaching. And I started with her in 16. I’m still with her right now. And we just, every day, what to do every day varies in communication. The key thing I learned as you get older and where are my mistakes were an issue is I like to work out well, if you like to work out, then you’re going to push yourself and push yourself and you don’t recover and you don’t do it very well. And you get a lot of injuries, right? So what I’ve learned now is there’s more recovery going on, more strength training versus just aerobics. All of these other things are happening. And I really, you know, I have injuries, but I’m recovering a lot better.
Brad Cooper
Thanks for bringing that up. It’s interesting. You mentioned, you knew how to swim. You knew how to bike and you had to run, but pulling it all together with the help of your coach made a big difference. I think the wellness coaches are nodding their heads. Cause they’re, they’re saying, Oh my gosh, that’s exactly my clients. Uh, they know how to sleep. They know how to manage stress. They know how to eat better. But our conversations is what takes that from being knowledge to being application. So yeah, that’s good stuff. Good stuff. Okay. So a little more philosophical here. We live in society, obviously where people are generally encouraged to, and I’m using quote marks here, slow down or take it easy. As we get in our sixties, seventies, even late fifties, you just celebrated 75 years. And I looked at your list. You’ve you’ve really competed. I mean, you’ve done two full iron mans, including the world championship. You’ve done several halfs. You’ve been very competitive. Your time at Texas was fantastic. My friend, what words of advice? More generally. Not, not triathlon specific, but generally what, what words of advice would you have for those entering the second half of their life in terms of activity, competition, fitness, any of those things for the person 50 plus 60, plus what general words of advice would you have for them?
Ken Hola
You know, the general advice is, you know, if you’re 50, 60, plus you can still do what you want to do. Uh, yes, you have to do some adjustments for your body and things like that, but, and pick something that you enjoy, you’re going to pick up in your enjoy and go ahead and do it, but don’t overdo it. And that’s where I see people having problems. Well, I went out there and I went out and played some pickup basketball, and then I twisted my knee. Well, you gotta be realistic. There’s a lot of things you can do to be active and just take it easy in the beginning and just work your way up.
Brad Cooper
So good. Something you enjoy and ease in on it.
Ken Hola
Not everybody enjoys triathlon. I get a lot of blank stares from people. Why do you do that? I mean, I have some, not my close relatives, distant relatives. Why don’t you just take a break? Have you ever thought, what does your doctor say about what you’re doing? That’s a good question. I asked my doctor, what do you think? And he says, if you can do it, do it.
Brad Cooper
Yeah. That’s so awesome. We’re, we’re seeing more of this. We’re seeing more and more people. I just saw. Uh, what was it, a guy in his 90s run, a 90 second, 400 meters had multiple people in their eighties run sub three hours in the marathon. Now. What, what do you think is going on? Why, why are we seeing so much more of this with people in their seventies, eighties, even nineties, doing the things that you’re doing? What, what, what do you think is going on?
Ken Hola
I think in my opinion is, they’re seeing more, I mean, there’s more publicized that, Hey, this can be done. And so you, I think you’re seeing more of that, Hey, you know, at any age, there’s people are doing it and you’re no different than them and they can, they can get it done. You know, I could drag a little bit because, you know, the media did use me as an example. And then the example was when I started training for the first iron man in 2016, I had a set. I had a setback. I started with my coach in April. She had everything laid out. We’re going to, we’re going to do this. It was, uh, the Florida Ironman. I have another interest of mine and it was in the garage. And it’s a, um, it’s a sport motorcycle. I would take, I don’t ride on the road. I don’t think that’s safe, but I would take it to the track and then just do practicing on it. And I’ve been doing it for, you know, six or seven years. Remember I said, I have a need for speed. I like the bike. The motorcycle really satisfy the need for speed. So, anyway, on mother’s day in 2016, I had just finished the date for Epsilon, that the track practicing. And let’s just say, I got over aggressive and I missed the turn at 80 miles an hour and went into the dirt line. It didn’t end well, I’m laying in the dirt with a quick inventory of what worked and what didn’t work. The legs worked pretty good. So I was very happy with that. The right arm were pretty good, but the left one didn’t and I detected some fluid in my lungs that kind of compressed. What happened here, I broke some ribs, punctured a lung, punctured the spleen shattered my, uh, my shoulder blade. And this is, this is may of 2016, and I’m supposed to do an iron man in November. We started the healing process and, um, had an operation to fix my shoulder blade. And I asked the doctor, I say, you know, I got this iron man scheduled in November. What do you think? What do you think about that, please? He looked at this, x-ray says you need full range of motion to swim. Yes, I do. He says, well, the only way you can get that if I get back in there and put some metal in there and straighten things out and I can do it in two days, I mean, I’ll get you a scheduled right away. So he scheduled me. I had the operation, told my coach, we’re going to wait a while until I could start swimming again and doing things. So we gradually built back up and had the operation in June. And about mid July, I started swimming again and started getting, going, went from zero back up. And I did do the iron man. You know, you can make it if you try.
Brad Cooper
Well. And it’s interesting because that is such a cool story. And the different people that we were talking about that are doing that. And there again, 70, 80 nineties, but the other end of the spectrum, we’re seeing this huge part of the population completely missing out on the joy of having a life of health and fitness. Why, why do you think that is? What, what do you, think’s going on there that there’s such the dichotomy, you have this percentage that are going to be beyond, but then you have the majority that are not enjoying this great opportunity. Right.
Ken Hola
And I, you know, I kind of look at my peers, you know, I’m in a rotary club, a lot of people might similar age and other things. How many of this group are well, there’s another person that I know that that does some triathlon, but most of them are not. Now the ones I see my age that had changed over, usually it ended up being some kind of a significant emotional event that said, Oh, Oh, I think I need to start doing something. Or I’m going to ask some help. So I’ve known a couple of that to really get them going. They were interested. I think they looked at exercise as painful, but then due to, let’s say some health events, it turned around really quick. And they said, Oh, and now I do see the benefit. And somehow if we could have somehow got to them sooner, they wouldn’t have needed that event, which is a hard event. Or yeah. Most of them were some, some health events that said, you know, you need to, uh, change your ways.
Brad Cooper
Something that had to flip the switch, instead of them choosing it, it was almost forced on them. And then they realized that after that, the, the benefits.
Ken Hola
That’s it. So I’m saying, how do I get the people that they, some people have this wall of fear, oh it can be painful. And how do you tell them that once you break through the wall of fear, things are pretty good on the other side.
Brad Cooper
Yeah. Very cool. Talk us through a day in the life of Ken, in terms of exercise, weight, training, nutrition, and sleep patterns.
Ken Hola
I think where I need to improve is probably on sleep. I’ll go to bed at 10 30. I will get up at four 30, do some stretching, a little strength training exercises. I have one issue I’m working on with the plantar fasciitis, which is getting better, but I do those exercises. Even it gets better. I do those exercises every morning to make sure that’s still in good shape. Do some stretching, go down, have breakfast. I’m a big fan of oatmeal and bananas, and maybe some other fruits. I like eggs. So I’ll throw a couple of hard-boiled eggs. Get that all done, do just a few more pre swimming exercises, go to the YMCA. I’ll probably swim. My schedule is for like 2000 yards, takes me about an hour. And then I will hop in the car. I do volunteer work for, uh, adult education. And that’s where I’ll spend in the morning with, uh, individuals that are trying to learn English they’re from all over the world. So I worked with them for a while. I find that very rewarding and one-on-one seeing some progress and then I’ll come home. Usually my lunches, um, I’m in the peanut butter and jelly wheat bread, maybe a little fruits and cheese. And then, uh, I probably do some more strength training. So tomorrow I’ll probably do lower body strength training, and then take a break from that and work on other stuff. And then for dinner, usually I like vegetables. And either for protein, I’ll either go for a Turkey or for a fish. And then I can’t resist a nice sunday, but I’ll take a banana and make a banana split. But you know, every, every morning, you know, I weigh myself to see, am I on target off target where I want to be, how I’m gonna do my eating. So that’s it. And then I’ll check on my workout. Then the swimming is over. So the next workout, I’ll probably be either biking or a combination of biking and running the next day. And so works out. And then on the weekends, then there’s a longer workout involved. What I, you know, I get rewards not only from exercise, but from the one-on-one contact. So I go to a senior center and I have a friend there and the group gets together. So we played dominoes at the senior center and he, they call me the link to the outside. There is my, here comes my link to the outside world because these people don’t get out too much. So we talk about that. And you know, if you bring up the exercises, what you do with it, Oh, that’s interesting. Although there’s a couple there that do we talk about certain things and they’ll spend a little time with that. And then after that, since I’m a water guy and exercise guy, I have an evening class where I go to where there are special needs kids, teenagers, that I work with them in the water or exercise in. And it’s always a goal to increase communication. Look, what’s the key to this person. How can I communicate with them to exercise the bottom line? How can I make exercise fun for somebody else? So we always try to make it fun.
Brad Cooper
Great strategy. What keeps you motivated day after day, year after year, especially in this world where mediocrity is just fine. Everybody’s like, yeah, come on. You’re fine. You’re fine. Why do you need to do all that stuff? What keeps you motivated in that kind of a setting where everybody around you is saying, really? Why are you doing this stuff?
Ken Hola
I don’t know if I’m special and maybe I’m just lucky that I just have fun. I mean, I enjoy, I enjoy exercise. I enjoy the feeling afterwards. You know, now that you know, I’m retired, I have more time. I think it’s really tough for somebody who has a full-time job, it’s a little tougher to do all these things. So I’m taking advantage of my age by just, Hey, this is, do I enjoy going down and work out? I do. You know, is there any time where I’m well, do I really want to do this? The question that only happens, first thing in the morning I get up and I thinking now, wait a minute. So then I have to go through that little wall. Once I get through the wall, I’m rocking. And it’s the same thing in the triathlon. It’s it’s the wall. My wall in the triathlon is when I first jumped in the water and maybe it’s 60 degrees. It’s cold here. I’m thinking, you know, wait a minute. What’s happening here? What am I doing here? What am I doing here in the middle of? And like in Hawaii, what am I doing in the middle of the Pacific ocean with all these people swimming around me, hit me in the head. Do I really want to do this? And I say, go for it.
Brad Cooper
Nice. Did you have for the person that’s sitting there listening to this and they’re sitting on the couch and they’re thinking, you know, that’s great for Ken, but I’m so out of shape, it’s been so long, it’s not even worth trying.
Ken Hola
Just go a little bit at a time, Hey, let’s take a walk around the block. Yeah. Just go on something like that. Just try something, start out and you’d be surprised how good you feel. A lot of people, I know a lot of people walking seems to work just fine and you get the lights and stuff like that. So look for the thing we talked about. Look for the thing. If you’re going to do something, you could enjoy, see some rewards. You know what I do? You can get really on board, pick a good movie, get on the bike and you can get two things done at the same time. I can watch the movie, but you can be on the bike and you get a little distracted and you’re having a good time. You could be on a treadmill watch movies. In Minnesota, where I’m at biking, you don’t get out much in the winter. A lot of training is done in the base. The race I did last year in Texas to qualify in end of April. Um, yeah, we had our last snow storm in mid April. And so instead of me going for a bike ride the week before the race, um, my wife has a video of me blowing snow. So everything, I think I spent maybe a half hour outside before Houston. It’s okay. You can do, you can train then, you can train in the basement.
Brad Cooper
Similarly, what advice would you have for a health and wellness coach? Who’s working with a client who might be hesitant to get started and maybe it’s the same advice or maybe there’s something else that comes to mind.
Ken Hola
My daughter, I guess she’s a personal trainer. And so she deals a lot with beginning people that are just trying to work. They just want to do, do something, you know, interview, you know, what do you like to do? A light bulb might come up, Oh, wait a minute. You did do that. You kind of enjoy that. So you kinda, there’s a little bit of background work as I’m sure they’ll do that. You know, interview what they’ve done in the past that worked. What’s not worked for them. What they’ve seen, they enjoyed and then key on something like that. Then you can build from there.
Brad Cooper
Great advice. Last question, my friend, one of the things that seems to be so different about you is you have this clear vision, you know, where you want to go, you know where you’re heading, you, you get that focused in and then you move forward. Tell us about the next five years.
Ken Hola
My next major goal is there is a full iron man in Madison, Wisconsin in September, my son and I are going to do that together, possibly we could qualify. It’s going to take a lot of preparation, but it’s going to be fun and whatever happens happens. But I always know I give it my best and my son and I were talking about this, no matter what happens. If I can get most of the race done, I’ve never not finished one, at least, I know I got a good workout in, and then we’ve never, didn’t finish a race, but we always say, as long as we get to the point in a race where we’ve had a good workout, we’re ahead of the game. You know, in the future, I shouldn’t look, look forward to being 80, but at 80 I’m again at the beginning of an age group. So I’ve, I’ve got an advantage. All the, all the other people in that age group.
Brad Cooper
I love it. I love it. This is so good, Ken. Thanks for joining us. This was, I think people are going to hear this and just reset their bar. They’re just going to say, wait, wait, wait a minute. I remember what Ken said. He’s looking forward to turning 80 because then dot, dot, dot. Thanks for motivator. I know this is going to go a long way and we’ll need to check in after Ironman, Wisconsin and see how things went.
Ken Hola
Sure. Looking forward to it.
Brad Cooper
That sounds great. Thanks so much again.
Ken Hola
Yeah. I like to think these are the good old days.
Brad Cooper
Did you catch all those great nuggets? I mean, he didn’t start until he was in his forties. He got an encouragement, but not a push from his son. And then down the road, he was actually the encouragement to his son who’s becoming an incredibly successful triathlete. He talked about picking something you enjoy. Now, I think we get that personally, but oftentimes with others, we may use words like, should, you should do this, that doesn’t work. Long-term it’s gotta be something you get to do, not something you’ve got to do. One letter difference, massive impact. And then just doing a little bit at a time, not trying to jump in too fast, causing those injuries, those kinds of things. So really some great advice from Ken. So much appreciate him joining us and wow. What an inspiration. The next wellness coach certification fast-track weekends are coming up in mid August in New Jersey, August 16th and 17th, and in Colorado, the following weekend, August 24th and 25th. If you’ve got any questions about that, if you want to look into details, it’s on our new website at CatalystCoachingInstitute.com and just a side note, we’re happy to bring the fast track to your state or your organization. That’s, that’s how we ended up scheduling this New Jersey course is an organization, wanted us to bring it to them. And so we did. And then part of that is we opened it up to outside attendees. So if you’re interested in that, let us know Results@CatalystCoachingInstitute.com, we can provide you all the details and how that might work. I just want to say thank you for your encouragement, the emails, the, the notes we’re getting about this podcast have been so nice. So thank you for those of you who’ve taken the time to do that. And I’m told the subscribers that you rock again, I don’t know how this all works, but that supposedly really helps the podcast. So thank you to those of you who who’ve gone that extra mile and actually subscribed to it. We have some awesome guests coming up in the coming weeks. With that, let’s tie a ribbon on this one. Thanks again, Ken Hola definitely provided a great example for us in terms of the pursuit of better make it a great week. And I’ll speak with you soon on the next episode of the Catalyst Health and Wellness Coaching Podcast.