Episode Transcript

Julia Landauer 0:04 Hello, everybody and welcome back to another episode of if I'm honest with Julia Landauer. I am very excited to be here with my longtime friend Trey Shannon, who is the program director at PitFit Charlotte in Cornelius North Carolina. He has been training racing drivers since 2014. Joining PitFit two years ago, Trey has been involved in motorsports for over 20 years in a variety of roles ranging from driver to spotter to data engineer, and of course, his current role as performance coach and program director at PitFit. Trey, thank you so much for joining me on if I'm honest, Trey Shannon 0:34 oh, thank you so much for having me. Julia Landauer 0:35 We are recording this from my office. And I don't get to see Trey as much anymore, but it's always a pleasure to hang out. So for context for our listeners, we met I believe in 2017. Back when you were kind of starting out in your coaching journey, when you were, I believe renting a room at Mountain Island fitness and drivers would go in there and we kind of use the gym and do these funky training activities with other gym members who were just there. And then we did some more specialized training in that little room. But that is how we know each other. I think I think Corey LaJoie was posting videos of training with you. And so I was like, Ah, this is great. I know that I can be stronger and more racing focus in my training efforts. So that's how we've met worked with him for then, I guess, almost five years after that throughout my racing in the minor leagues at NASCAR time. Yeah, we go way back. Trey Shannon 1:28 That's right. I had forgotten until you just mentioned that that Corey Lajoie was the one that got us. Connected. But yeah, about 2017. Sounds right. We're definitely still a mountain Island at that point. And I know you were one of the, you know, one of the originals that was with me when I opened up my facility in 2019. So I was very appreciative of you. That was with me for so long. Julia Landauer 1:49 Oh, yeah. Well, so when I joined, like, I think it was like spring of 2017. So how long at that point, had you been doing training motorsports training? Trey Shannon 1:58 So I started, it would have been around February of 2014. So my very first client was Tom Long, and he was somebody that believe it or not, our parents lived down the street from each other when we were in high school. And we actually didn't know each other. Oh, but at the beginning of 2014, he got the ride with the prototype ride with Mazda. So I reached out to him, I said, Hey, if you want to do any training, I'd love to help you out. And he said, Yeah, thanks. I'll keep it in mind and then went and did the Rolex 24 And like the next week and said, Alright, let's get training. And that was the genesis of all of it was training him. It actually started at a rec center Gym, in Charlotte. Yeah, until they kicked us out of there. And we had to go to mountain island, so it worked out pretty well. That's fine. Julia Landauer 2:44 Okay, so motorsports in general isn't the most accessible sport for a lot of people. But here you are kind of now living this really cool sports focused life in motorsports. Can you give us a little more background on your education and what you did first, because you started in a more traditional role, but then got your, you know, broke into motorsports. So tell me about that. Trey Shannon 3:06 Yeah. So I started as an engineer, and the whole time I was, you know, whole time I was studying and even before that, the whole idea was to be a part of motorsports. So I had you done some racing as the Yeah. Okay. So my dad took me to the Long Beach Grand Prix when I was four years old. That promises to be a quick story when they were starting. You've got time, you've got time. My dad took me to this race, the Long Beach Grand Prix, the first time I saw Indy cars, and I thought it was the coolest thing I've ever seen in my entire life, which was only four years up to that point. But it was just it was amazing. And I knew immediately I was like, I have to be a part of this somehow. So for the next few years, I begged my parents to get me a go kart race, go karts. And we're living in Southern California, which is not the cheapest place to live. And like you said, racing was not the most accessible. So I actually started with racing BMX, when I was about seven years old, so I started racing BMX, and that kind of progressed until I was about 12. And all of the all the other kids started growing a lot more. And suddenly, suddenly my legs weren't nearly as powerful as it were. 789 Yeah, and man when you're used to winning races, and then you go to not winning races it gets it gets slow real fast. So I got back on the I got back on the let's do a go kart bandwagon here. And you know, we're still living in Southern California. And when I, when I got to about I want to say it was maybe like 11, 12 years old, I realized that like math and science was a real strong point for me, and that I actually enjoyed it. So my whole plan became, I'm going to be an aerodynamicist or racing, my hashtag plan when I was like 12 years old. So I ended up going to Virginia Tech to study aerospace engineering plans still in motion, you know, it's still going we're heading that direction. I get my degree in in aerospace engineering. I actually end up, I ended up at AIM data systems, which for anybody who doesn't know, they, they make the data systems and like dashes and things like that for motorsports. So I ended up as a data engineer first and ultimately decided that it ended up not being as much of a challenge. You know, I knew nothing about electronics and data when I when I got there. And I learned a ton, and had kind of gotten to the point where there wasn't really too much more for me to learn. So I started to seek other opportunities. I actually interviewed with an IndyCar team, thankfully didn't take that job, because it ended up being a team that folded the next year. Oh, yeah, so I dodged that bullet, for sure. Dodged that bullet, and and thankfully didn't, you know, didn't drag my beautiful wife to Chicago to outside of Chicago, where she probably would have absolutely hated the cold and it just wouldn't have worked out very well. So you know, whether things happen for a reason or not, that's a no, that's a different conversation, but thankfully, dodged a little bit of a bullet on that one. And ended up taking a I guess, like a subcontractor engineering job in Maryland, doing what's called condition based monitoring for like Navy ships and cement plants and super, you know, nerdy engineering kind of stuff. And I'd actually kind of shifted my mindset in terms of racing to now let's get a job that's just makes enough money for me to be able to go race on my own. So I was doing that and trying to do some racing on my own got through a few races I think you and I were actually teammates for one of them with Mike Doty down it down to Daytona. Yeah, go kart. Julia Landauer 6:47 It was my local, I guess, local track team. Trey Shannon 6:52 Yeah, New York based team, but Mike was a big customer of ours at that AIM. So I I had a pretty good relationship with him. So when I was you know, switching jobs and about to make make more money, and I had a bunch saved up from you know, living with my wife now but girlfriend at the time, and like her college, townhouse, and whole bunch of money saved up. So I'm like, You know what, let's go do a nap. Let's go national go karting. Yes, exactly. So first time ever in a two stroke cart, and just you know, we'll do a national race sounds good. So had a lot of fun doing that. And try started trying to think of ways to do more racing while I was now at this new job in Maryland and making a little bit more money so I can actually think about it. And I came up with the idea to do a 24 hour Guinness World Record attempt. And through the process of training for that event, I started really falling in love with that. That whole process of training an athlete for peak performance, and I was I enjoyed being the athlete, but I also found myself starting to think about it a lot more from the trainer's my trainers perspective and the coach's perspective. So I was doing that I was training for that. And I reached out to Jim, who's now my business partner at PitFit, I reached out to him to see if he had any advice for what I was trying to do. And he invited me to come by the facility in Indianapolis for you know, a couple of workouts over the weekend and give me an assessment and see how I am with like the reaction, you know, reaction time type stuff that I had never even gotten into at that point. Julia Landauer 8:28 And for quick context for our listeners, Jim Leo and PitFit in Indy is kind of like one of the first major motorsports training facilities from what I hear me up first, yeah, Trey Shannon 8:40 the first in the US, he was first to market by, you know, 20 something years. I mean, he was way ahead of the game on that one. And in he ended up helping me out a lot with that, that record attempt he actually was my physio for it. And, again, going to work with him. I kept finding these thoughts creeping into my head of like, not only do I really enjoy this, but like, I can do this in I think I can be really good at it. And at that point, I was enjoying engineering, didn't dislike my job, but it also wasn't something that I had like still had a major passion for and I found myself really passionate about this. So I finished the record attempt. Thankfully, we got it. Good work from everyone on that one. Julia Landauer 8:40 It's hanging in your office. Trey Shannon 8:49 Yeah. Well, you know, it looks better there than in the house back. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Very cool beat. Yeah, it doesn't really go with the the feng shui of the house. So the it works better. Yeah, exactly. I ultimately just kind of looked and looked to see what other coaches in the position I wanted to be in what kind of certifications they have what they had to do to get it and, you know, studied new, got the material studied for a couple of years, just, you know, getting up early and studying for an hour, hour and a half before I started my work, and it all just sort of came come together, and I got my certification in October of 2013. My wife and I moved to Charlotte so that I can do this, which that was a fun conversation. When when I told her I want to do this, the options were Indianapolis or Charlotte. And and, you know, Amber, her exact response was I'm not moving to Indianapolis, and they're just so they're so sure. Yeah, but Charlotte, I said, Hey, you know what, I prefer Charlotte myself. So that all worked out really well. And we moved right around the same time that I did my certification, like late in 2013. And here we are. Julia Landauer 10:37 Yeah. So piggybacking off of that, was there a very clear moment for you where you realize like, okay, yes, I have to quit my traditional job and pursue this passion interest, you know, career that you've been clearly thinking about for a while? Trey Shannon 10:52 Yeah, yeah, well, so it was, it was a pretty long transition. Actually, when we initially moved to North Carolina, I was still working from home. So I kept my engineering job actually kept it for a while, there was even a point where I was in a front office at Mountain Island fitness, doing my job doing my engineering job, and then popping out to train no one and coming back and doing my engineering job. So from 2014, to 2017, I was still doing the engineering, I was doing both. And then right around that same time of the year, in 2017, October 2017, I get a, I get a call from the owner of the owner of the company that I'm working for, and he says, Hey, we just signed Catawba nuke as a customer. So Duke Energy's power plant on the Catawba. He said, we want we want you to be our person, like our on site, person there, which normally would be great news, right? For me, it meant that I couldn't be at the gym. So I had, you know, Amber, and I had already been talking about how this transition was going to work, because we knew that I wanted to do it, right. But this was sort of the, it was almost like I was about to get pushed in the wrong direction. So we had to kind of dodge that push. So as a result, I tendered my resignation. And, you know, file I had already filed my LLC and all that kind of stuff. I already had my business set up. But that was the one thing that kind of gave me that last little nudge into trading one full time for the other and getting, you know, getting rid of the first one. So yeah, that was that was it. Julia Landauer 12:42 So even though you had been planning for this, and you had been kind of controlling the timeline, and it was, you know, kind of controlled timeline? Were you at all scared when you were kind of forced to say, Okay, this is actually it? Or was it like pure excitement? Trey Shannon 12:58 It was pure excitement. I think if you ask Amber, she was probably a little bit scared. But for me, I was, I was so eager to go ahead and do it. And I was trying so hard to be patient. You know, I'm fairly sensible. I do take risks, but I don't, you know, I take very calculated risks. And this was a calculated risks that I was willing to take. But at the same time, I wanted to make sure that, like you said, the timing was right, and that I was being patient about it not making that switch too soon, where it kind of left us in a tough spot. Yeah. So I think at that moment, the timing was right. And, you know, if I had to do over again, I don't think I would have done anything differently. In terms of the timeline. I think that all worked out really, really well. Julia Landauer 13:44 But you also might not have made the jump if you weren't kind of put or like right, then if you weren't put in that position. It would have been pretty close. Trey Shannon 13:51 Yeah, it would have been pretty close. After maybe a couple of months, like within the next six months, I would have made the would have made the transition. Yeah, Julia Landauer 13:57 how serendipitous. Trey Shannon 13:59 Yeah, it was. I mean, it was kind of it was the second time that happened to us. That happened to us to bring us to Charlotte, as well. We were living in Roanoke, Virginia, and I knew we couldn't, I couldn't do any driver training and Roanoke, Virginia. And we were renting a house there kind of similar to what you guys are doing here. And our landlord calls us one day and says, Hey, I sold the house. And we're trying to figure out what we're going to do and I I say Amber. So you want to just move to Charlotte. Yeah, we're planning on doing it eventually. You want to just go ahead and do it. We just went ahead and did it. So it's, it's almost like things that we are already planning just kind of get move forward a little bit by some external circumstances, which, you know, in my opinion, whenever you whenever you see those, you kind of need to just be able to go with it. Yeah, yeah, it's worked out well for us. Julia Landauer 14:50 That's awesome. Well, we're gonna take a quick break, but then we'll be back with Trey Shannon to keep discussing his journey. We're back with Trey Shannon on if I'm honest, and we've talked a lot about your journey to getting to the point of being a motorsports trainer. And at this point, you are training NASCAR Cup Series drivers and IMSA drivers. And, you know, go kart as you were coming up like a really cool array of people. And throughout the time that I have been working with you, you know, we've had a lot of really creative motorsports training. And so I think a lot of people, if they're not racers kind of have a hard time conceptualizing where drivers need to be athletes. And I like to explain that. On the one hand, it's can be 150 degrees in the car. So there's heat training, and it's an endurance sport with hours long racing, and you need core strength, and neck strength, but you also need like neurological training. And so there's so many elements that go into training for motorsports. So are there on the one hand I'm going to ask you two questions are there like key things that you think are kind of the most important to keep in mind for motorsports training? And then I'm gonna ask you, how you come up with the really unique and creative exercises? Trey Shannon 16:10 Yeah, absolutely. Well, like any sport, we do a, what we call a needs analysis for the athlete. And we break it down into the three categories you just mentioned. So there's the physical stress, the cognitive stress and the environmental stress. So physically, it depends on what kind of car you racing, like an IndyCar, for instance, doesn't have any power steering, so shoulder strength, forearm strength, things like that need to be need to be top shelf. Whereas when it comes to a, you know, a stock car, or especially some of these new, the IMSA GTP, cars, they are just so hot inside, so we have to really prepare them for for the heat, the cognitive demands are pretty similar across across the board, we may focus a little bit a little bit differently on certain things depending on what kind of track they're going to. So for instance, a, if a cup driver is going to a super speedway will focus a little bit more on their peripheral vision or something like that. Julia Landauer 17:08 And a super speedway for those who might not know is the big two mile plus racetracks that NASCAR primarily goes to which are high banked or flat out, it's a very different flow than having to hit the brakes and turn it and get back on Trey Shannon 17:22 right. And the reason we focus on the peripheral side a little bit more there is they're running in big packs. So you have to have a lot more spatial and situational awareness, then you may need to have at say, a road course or something like that, where things can get strung out a little bit. And then when it comes to the I can't remember if I mentioned it already, but when it comes to some of these closed cockpit cars, the heats incredible, I mean, 100, 150 degrees, and then they're wearing fireproof suit helmet, it's sealed off like it's, it gets incredibly hot. And what that can do is not only fatigue you physically but it actually where's your, you know, where's your mental state down as well. So we want to make sure that we're working on not just like their reflexes, but also their brain endurance and things like that, too. So when it comes to like, how do we come up with what we do, again, we look at that needs analysis, and I rely a bit on just my experience as a as a driver. And we've like you said, we get creative, we, I'm not really worried what other people may think of our program, so I'm not afraid to try things that, you know, could potentially be useless. I'll try them myself first, and create, you know, a filter that they all need to go through. But for the most part, it's, it's just taking a really hard look at what it is that they're dealing with inside the car, what I remember dealing with inside the inside the cart and going from there. Julia Landauer 18:53 So on that point, like there are a couple of exercises that I want to describe for our listeners, because I have a lot of fun with them. I share these videos in my keynotes because I think it's really interesting look at how you can add depth and dimension to whatever it is that you're practicing training, whatever. So one of them is we are and I want you to I'm going to say them and I want you to explain kind of your thought process behind them. So one of them was I would be pedaling on a semi a medium resistance stationary bike and I had strobe goggles on so if you think of a strobe light that flashes black and white, these goggles literally like blocked my vision for a little bit and there were different speeds, different time periods that my vision would be blacked out. And while that was going on, you were throwing two tennis balls at me that I had to catch. Yep. So talk me through how you came up with that what is working I know Yeah, for the listeners will have what it's working in the car and Trey Shannon 19:44 yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So let's let's start with just the two tennis balls. The obvious element there is hand eye coordination. And then when we make it to tennis balls now we're working the peripheral vision a lot more than just, you know focusing on one object. So we're already hitting peripheral vision, spatial awareness, hand eye coordination, and what we call a multiple object tracking. So we're getting, we're tackling a lot of different cognitive skills just with the two tap just with throwing two tennis balls catching two tennis balls. When we put the stroke goggles on, what we're doing is we're, like you said, reducing visual information. So when we're catching a ball, normally, we're watching it, follow its arc into our hand, when we have the stroke goggles on, now, we're only seeing data points. So one of the things that our brains all do on a normal basis, this is just in our everyday life, not even necessarily in a race cars, we all make predictions, we all make predictions as to what we think is going to happen next, and then we're already reacting to that we do it even when we're walking forward, we predict that our foot is going to land in a in the spot, we think it's going to and that we're going to continue moving forward. So when you're in the race car, you're constantly making predictions based on what's happening in front of you what's happening around you a good example of that would be if somebody spins in front of you, you're already looking at, you're looking at, you're not even doing this consciously, you're looking at things like the angle of the car, the rotation of the tires, if you can see the drivers hands are looking at what they're doing. And you're making a decision about whether that car is going to go to your right to your left or stay directly in front of you, you're looking at very high speeds, and all has to be done very quickly, in order to be done subconsciously, if you're, if you're thinking about it consciously, then it's too late. You know, there's that famous line from top gun that you don't have time to think up there if you think you're dead. And it's a very dramatic line. But it's not untrue. All of those reactions need to be done unconsciously, it's got to be, you know, reflex or instinct or whatever you want to refer to it as. But it's something that can be trained. And that's what we do with this rope goggles is we're enhancing your brain's ability to make those predictions by only giving you data points, as opposed to giving you the full arc. At the same time, when you reduce visual information, you're actually enhancing other senses, you hear about how you know blind people have a more refined sense of smell, or taste, or touch or whatever it is. So by taking the visual information, you actually overload the vestibular system and the proprioceptive system, those are your your inner ear, and your field. So your feel of catching the ball actually gets more sensitive, because you have the the flashing goggles. And then the third element of that is the being on the bike. And what we're trying to do there is work two different things, we're elevating your heart rate, so we can have you at a heart rate that's more similar to what you'll be in the race car. And you're performing an unconscious motor task, which would be akin to driving the racecar. Julia Landauer 22:50 Yeah, that's so cool. Like, you know, when I translate that into, like layman racing terms, it's like, well, I am driving this race car, I have the motor skills going, you know, I think also with, for me, at least what I felt was when limiting the visual input. You know, there are some times where there is shit on our windshield, and we have limited visual input, or the sun is setting at the worst angle. And so you just can't see as much or you go from like light to dark. And so then you're getting that practice with kind of making these decisions with varied input. Trey Shannon 23:20 So with limited information, you do a lot of things where we try to limit the amount of information you get visual or otherwise. And you have to make a decision on the minimal amount of information necessary to make the correct decision. And the less information that can be the faster you'll make the decision because there's less to filter through and we're talking, you know, milliseconds here, but milliseconds in a race car could be, you know, the could be an inch, and that in an inch could be huge. Yeah. So it really does end up making a huge difference. Julia Landauer 23:54 Yeah. So the second exercise I want you to talk us through is using the iron neck, which is a neck strengthening device where it kind of is like a head crown that you it's like a halo, like a halo helmet that you buckle on. And then we connect a chain resistance band resistance band, literally not technically literate when it comes to the workout tool. Nothing too fancy that's put on like a stationary object and then so we kind of step out and have that resistance on our neck. But then we also have a resistance band of some capacity where we're kind of doing some deep breathing in a certain pattern and then I think we called pal off press Oh, that's right. Yeah. Like push your hold your perpendicular to the anchor, the anchor. Thank you. Clearly I'm not good with my words. I have to explain this every day. So and then I'm pushing I'm having this resistance band and kind of pushing it away from me bringing it close to me. So talk us through what we're working with that. Trey Shannon 25:03 yeah, really, you have a you pick two really good exercises here, because they're actually both extremely advanced in terms of our program. And you of course, were with us long enough to make it to that level with with some of these exercises. And there, they really are like full integration level exercises. So with the, with the iron neck, what we're doing is we're putting load on the neck. So similar to what you would do in the race car, every time you go through a corner, the neck is loaded, and the core is loaded to there's there's force being exerted on those and there's the resistance centripetal force trying to take you out of the car, and then the centrifugal force of, or centrifugal force trying to take you out of the car, the centripetal force of the seat holding you in, and the centripetal force of your muscles holding you and holding you. And so you need your muscles to create some of that centripetal force. And that's what we want. That's what we want to train when we're doing exercises like this. So the the iron neck, like you mentioned, puts load on the neck. And then the Paloff press essentially puts what's called rotational load on the core. So to hold yourself in place, your core and your neck are now both contracted. And what that does is, it makes it tougher to breathe. And when you're in the car, what a lot of people I think really don't realize when it comes to the stresses that drivers face is it's very difficult to breathe when you're in the car, you're being compressed constantly. Now, other athletes do experience short periods of compression, think of football player getting hit or something like that. But that's very brief. It's an impulse as opposed to something that's sustained. And then when you want to talk about like weightlifters or something like that, they create the compression on purpose, that's intentional to be able to move more weight. In the case of a driver, if you're going through a corner that's going to last, you know, 10 to 12 seconds, you can't afford to hold your breath for that long. You deprive your brain and your muscles of oxygen. So the purpose of the exercise you just mentioned, which we call the iron neck pal off press with a breath cycle. Julia Landauer 27:09 I hate breath cycle. Trey Shannon 27:11 Yeah, the breath cycles are hardest part, the hardest part. But that's what every driver needs to do in the car every single lap multiple times every lap. So what we do is we, we get the tension on the neck, we get the tension on the core, and then we make you breathe. And what that helps you do is it helps you expand the ribcage against external forces, because that's the most efficient way to breathe. And our bodies are pretty good at finding space for air. But when you're in the car, even if you're being pushed into the right side of the seat, you think okay, that opens up, that opens up some space on the left side of the of the chest cavity to get some air and expand that left lung. Well hang on a second, the rib, the ribcage on the left side is now is now being weighed down by the same number of G forces as you're experiencing the corner. So if you're going through a 2 g corner, you're the left side of your ribcage now weighs twice as much. So those muscles have to work twice as hard to expand. So the biggest thing that we do try to do is is making sure that all of those breathing muscles, diaphragm, the intercostal, stuff around the ribcage is actually stronger than a normal person's would be, so that it can expand the ribcage. And also when we breathe, the diaphragm contracts and moves organs out of the way. Well, when you're sitting in a race car, and your core is contracted, there's a lot less space for those organs to move into. So the diaphragm has to work even harder to actually create a little bit of compression on those organs to make space for the lungs. So as a result, you see drivers super winded after races and things like that. That's the thing we're trying to avoid. And then there's also the neck element of it. We talked about, yeah, we loaded the neck. Why do we want to do that? There is the obvious drivers need stronger necks than most people do. You're experiencing G forces the helmets, you have a helmet on top of your already 10 pound 11 pound head, and you need to be able to hold that up. But at the same time, if you do suffer an impact, then having a stronger neck actually can help reduce the risk of concussion when that impact happens. So you know, in certain instances, it may prevent a concussion and certain instances may make it so that you know the concussion isn't as severe as it may have may have been without any neck training. Yeah, so we're working a lot of different things with with both the exercises you mentioned we're working a lot of different elements and like I said, those are both pretty advanced and you know not everybody is quite at that level, not something everybody comes in and does on day one, like those are all very, very much a workup to kind of right kind of thing. Julia Landauer 29:46 Well, there are also plenty of things that like I feel like for whatever reason my coordination was not there like even just like understanding the sequence of some of the breathing cycles that we had to incorporate. I know that I struggled to them. So it was just it was a humbling experience have to be in this gym. But, you know, I find that even though I knew all that ahead of time is so cool for me to hear kind of that explicit breakdown. And so I don't know if Is there any other kind of type of sequence or exercise that you're particularly proud of that you've developed? Or something that's just been interesting to kind of go through? Trey Shannon 30:19 Um, yeah, I, there are some where I'm just like, man, that's kind of weird. Why did I come up with that? And, you know, like I said, I try to filter everything, as well as I possibly can. But I think you kind of nailed it with the with the neck and the breathing together, the neck core and breathing together. I think that's kind of been, I don't know, my, my contribution to motorsport strength and conditioning, that one, I think, um, that one's probably my, my chef's kiss, yeah, I'm happy with how that's helped Drivers really improve. And when a driver comes to me and says, Man, I'm breathing so much better in the car. It's extremely gratifying to hear that, knowing that am I'm on the right track, and I'm doing something right. But more importantly, that I'm that I'm actually succeeding and helping these drivers feel better in the car and perform better in the car. And that's why, you know, that's why I'm here. Julia Landauer 31:16 And I think that, you know, there were even like, what I thought was really useful is understanding where, like, my own certain weaknesses were like, believe it or not, I have known that my depth perception needs Particular attention. And so there were some fun exercises we did with a string that was out a little below eye level with different colored balls on it, and I just had to adjust and let you know, like, when, when that came when it came in focus, so I thought stuff like that was really cool. Have there been any things that you've developed? Or that you've learned about yourself as you're developing these training? Or like, Oh, this is not as much, or this is an area that could use improvement in my own physical training, even if you're not, you know, racing full time, but just stuff that you recognize? Trey Shannon 31:57 Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. 100% I think I've always known it, but I didn't know the how bad it was. I have no mobility whatsoever. I am just a rigid, immobile human being, I'm just stuck in place. So when and one of the things that we work on with people is making sure that they're not limited and compressed and things like that they actually have movement capabilities. And, and I don't, I just, I just don't, it seems like, even with with working on it, not, you know, I've, there are certain reasons for why that's the case. You know, I've had a lot of surgeries when I was younger, and, you know, back in the late 80s, and early 90s, and you're, you know, not even 10 years old, yet, doctors don't tell you that scar tissue is going to create problems later in life, like, you know, so things like that happen, like, I'm not really too worried about that. Now, but yeah, I've definitely noticed, you know, we do like a relay race or something like that, and I participate, you know, my cardiac output and lactic capacity are not nearly as high as some of these professional athletes, which I somewhat expected. But I think, I think for me, it would have been nicer to be able to hang with them a little bit more. Right. Right. But, but yeah, it's still, you know, still able to have fun and participate and stuff like that. But yeah, other than that, I think, you know, I've been, I've been training for a long time before even doing this sort of training in high school. And I think I was pretty aware of where my, where my weaknesses were, at least in the in the weight room, and then, you know, was was fully aware of my weaknesses behind the wheel. Before that, or otherwise, I would have actually pursued a career as a driver. But thankfully, I had a little bit of self awareness there and knew that that wasn't going to be a long term. Yeah, it wasn't gonna be a long term option for me. Julia Landauer 33:48 That's funny. Yeah. I really, you know, I've been talking about a couple of different guests. And we'll continue to talk about you know, kind of that whole physical mental interaction and it's just, I thought it was really cool. How much that became apparent during during training and even just like the sticking with it, like I as you know, I absolutely despise the ERG the rowing machine. I recognize it's a great tool. I actually have one in our garage now ask for one Christmas present. It's a great workout, but I absolutely hated it. I hated it when I saw it was on my on my workout plan. But it's also some of the most satisfied I have felt when done that mental hurdle of getting over that and doing it anyway, partially because I was forced to but Trey Shannon 34:29 there's something very powerful about knowing that you've accomplished something difficult. Yeah, and even that's even on small scales. Yeah, you know, just doing a you know, 10 by 500 meter you know, interval Yeah, row. Yes. It can be extremely gratifying to finish something like that and then realize that you're actually improving Yeah, with it as well. And eventually it will get easier. Yeah. Or not, I mean, no, it doesn't get easier you just get better. Julia Landauer 34:56 Yeah, you get better. I love that perspective ship This thing doesn't necessarily get easier, but you get better at it. That's very empowering. Trey Shannon 35:04 Because when you get better at it, what's your next move is to make it more difficult so you can get even better. Yeah, right. So yeah, it doesn't get it doesn't get easier. You just get better at it. Julia Landauer 35:14 I love that. Okay, cool. Well, we are coming in on time here. So I do want to end on a rapid fire if you are honest. So if you're ready to go, what is your favorite workout to do and your least favorite workout to do Trey Shannon 35:28 a favorite workout to do I love deadlifting? I don't know what it is. It's just one of the things that my body does well, and I enjoy it. Maybe it's because I'm short. I don't have to lift The lift the bar very far. So I love dead lifting. My least favorite is probably one I just did last week. It's called the Death ladder. Oh, yeah, I didn't want to where Yeah, where you start at 100 or 1000 meters on the ski. And then you go to 100 meters on the row and then 900 meters on the ski and then 200 meters on the row. And you just keep going down by increments of 100 on the ski and up by increments of 100 on the rower until you are back to 101,000. And you've eventually completed 11,000 meters in total. And it's absolutely brutal. Julia Landauer 36:15 That's gross. And yeah, it's it's pretty gross when it does feel satisfying and posted on the rowing machine is obviously like a rowing a boat and in the ski ERG is where you're standing up and you're pulling down to Yeah, it's like your cross country skier. So, ya know, those are awful. Um, all right, second rapid fire, do you have any daily or like weekly routines that are non negotiable? non negotiable. Trey Shannon 36:40 I have to have my fruit smoothie in the morning. Oh, I love that. I drink a smoothie every morning. And, you know, this might sound a little cheesy, but I don't care because it's amazing. And I love it. And it's part of our routine. Every day when whoever gets home second, ever and I have a 30 second Hug non negotiable not not doing it. Julia Landauer 37:02 I will say Ben and I cuddle every night and every morning and like when we don't have time or don't do that. Like we always make it even if it's like 15 seconds like exactly. It's so important. I love that. I didn't know that. So you're a racing fan. What's your favorite type of racing to watch? Trey Shannon 37:18 I'd say open wheel I grew up around IndyCar long leash was the first race everyone to see I definitely open wheel but for the most part now I just I love all kinds of racing. Oh watch whatever open wheel on road horses or ovals more or mostly on road courses, street street courses if you want to get really specific I just I think the the concept of racing insanely fast cars on city streets is just so cool with like barriers, right? They're so super narrow. And it's just it's a high risk ratio. All right, facts are high risk, but it's the highest risk, the highest risk. And it's the the now looking at it from the perspective that I have as a as coach, the cognitive load is so much higher on a street course than it is anywhere else with the exception of maybe like a you know, Indianapolis or something like that. Right? It is you have to be just so so perfect. I like I like seeing them be really challenged is absolute top shelf drivers at their limit. I love seeing that. Julia Landauer 38:15 Last, if you're honest. What are you grateful for right now? Trey Shannon 38:18 It's too much. It's not there's no, there's no there's no like rapid answer to this, but. But yeah, thankful for the opportunities I've had with picfair thankful for everything that that my wife does to support me and us. And so yeah, shout out to my wife, Amber, she's talked about her already a few times. But she's absolutely amazing. And it would, I find it very difficult to believe that I wouldn't be where I am in life without her with me thankful for our two jugs that we have back at home are awesome little dogs, they, they bring so much happiness. There's just their energy is insane. Sometimes it's too much. But yeah, and again, just thankful for the opportunities that have come my way in life. Because I know that a lot of them very easily could not have. And I'm just happy that I've been able to see them when they show up and been given the right kicks in the ass in the right direction to take advantage of them when they're when they are there. Julia Landauer 39:19 Yeah, so eloquently put. I love that. All right, where can people find you on social media if they want to see more of these fun videos. Trey Shannon 39:27 And if you want to see the fun gym videos, you're gonna want to go to @pitfitinc on Instagram, or you can navigate to it through our website pit fit.com I don't think anybody really needs to look at my personal page, you're just gonna see photos of me and my wife and our and our dogs. And you know, that's if anybody is interested in that then you can search for me and it's not that hard to find but challenging, but yeah, exactly. But at PitFit Inc is where you want to go to see all the fun training stuff. Julia Landauer 39:58 Well, Trey, thank you so much for joining me on if I'm honest and everyone that is our show. Thank you for letting me be honest with you, Trey, thank you for being honest with us. And if you liked this episode, please share it with a friend share it with another racing or athletic enthusiast person in your life because this was really fun, deep dive into kind of the science behind motorsports training. And I look forward to seeing you next week.