Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Endurance Matters Podcast, Hosted by Justin “BigMetz” Metzler, professional triathlete, is the ultimate destination for endurance enthusiasts. Join us as we dive deep into the world of endurance sports, from 5Ks to Ironman triathlons to Ultra Races, and everything in between. Each episode we'll bring you inspiring stories featuring athletes, trailblazers, and members of the endurance community. From the highs to the lows, this podcast will help us explore the limits of human physical and mental performance.
Whether you're a seasoned athlete or just starting your endurance journey, Endurance Matters is your go-to source for motivation, education, and entertainment. Tune in, lace up, and let's go the distance together!
Alright. Welcome to another episode of the Endurance Matters podcast. Today in studio, I have the pleasure of welcoming Eric Hinman. Eric truly lives at the intersection of movement mindset and mastery. For those that don't know Eric, he is a five time Ironman finisher, entrepreneur, brand builder and wellness enthusiast.
Justin Metzler:Eric, welcome to the show.
Eric Hinman:Thanks for having me, Justin. Awesome.
Justin Metzler:Well, I started off the podcast with like a ice break icebreaker hard hitting question. So my one for you today is you're a hybrid athlete. I'm pure endurance athlete. And so I'm curious to hear if you had to compete or play a sport for, like, eight to ten hours Mhmm. And it can't be a traditional endurance sport, swimming, cycling, running, what would you choose?
Eric Hinman:Oh, great question. Probably basketball Really? Of the major sports. Basketball was my favorite sport growing up. You know, I grew up in the eighties and nineties with Michael Jordan and the Bulls dynasty.
Eric Hinman:So basketball was my favorite thing in the world. So yeah, play basketball for eight hours.
Justin Metzler:You've to have pretty good endurance to be able to play basketball for eight Because to ten I thought about this. And I played basketball growing up as well. I grew up in Chicago, so I'd go to Bulls games all the time. My dad shared season tickets with his friends. So I would go there, I don't know, like eight, ten times a year and loved playing basketball growing up.
Justin Metzler:I was thinking maybe for me it'd have to be like F1 or NASCAR sitting in the car and using my brain a little bit more because maybe my body would give out playing basketball for ten hours, but that's a good one. Well, cool. So I wanna start off the podcast today by talking a little bit, rewinding. Just maybe you could start off by telling the audience about, yeah, where you grew up and sort of, yeah, your beginnings in in life. Yeah.
Justin Metzler:I grew up in
Eric Hinman:a small town in Upstate New York called Pulaski, New York on Lake Ontario, and played three sports. I played basketball. I ran cross country and ran track in high school. Also played little league and senior league baseball. Played one year football.
Eric Hinman:So love team sports. Grew up salmon fishing, snowmobiling with my dad. We got 200 plus inches of snow every single year. So, you know, winters were pretty harsh. And I went to college at SUNY Geneseo, a state school in Rochester, New York for business management.
Eric Hinman:Knew that I wanted to be a business owner and entrepreneur. So all through school, that's I knew I was probably gonna go into the same business that my father was in, which was property and casualty insurance. He was the CEO of a small mutual insurance company in Upstate New York. And right out of college, I went to work for him. And during college, I got into weight lifting, but very vanity based.
Eric Hinman:So bench press and bicep curls and just wanting to look good in spring break. So working for my my dad for a couple years and then started my own insurance agency, I was driving 50,000 miles a year, sitting in a car, eating McDonald's for breakfast, Subway for lunch, and as much pasta as I could possibly eat for dinner. Really had no education around, you know, a healthy lifestyle. I knew that exercise was good for you, but I I always thought it was just a look a certain way, not to feel a certain way. So, you know, all through my twenties, partying hard, drinking every weekend.
Eric Hinman:And by my late twenties, I was pretty out of shape. I weighed over two hundred pounds, you know, kind of flabby. I was going to the gym still two to three days a week, but just like twenty, thirty minute workouts. And I was wearing this tight button down shirt, and I had this fat roll that was just kind of hanging out from it. And that was my moment of like, shit, I'm really out of shape now.
Eric Hinman:I look horrible. So I hired a personal trainer in my late twenties and committed to six months, five days a week, training for thirty minutes with a personal trainer. And over that six month period, you know, I lost quite a bit of body fat. I lost weight. I started to gain strength.
Eric Hinman:And I really started to recognize the correlation between exercise and how I was feeling, you know, mentally, emotionally. I wasn't I didn't have a lull anymore in the afternoons. During that time period, I also started like learning a bit about diet and supplementation, And through all of that, I found triathlon and signed up for my first sprint distance triathlon in Casanovia, New York. I had no swimming background other than like doggy paddling to save my life in Lake Ontario. And I had the running background, but I had no biking background.
Eric Hinman:So bought one of the fancy triathlon bikes, which was honestly what got me into it. A bunch of my friends were doing the Syracuse Half Ironman, and they had these fancy bikes with four handlebars. And I'm like, do you do with those middle handlebars? And they showed me the arrow position. I'm like, that's cool.
Eric Hinman:So that's what got me into it, the cool bike. Did the sprint distance triathlon, had to side stroke and back stroke to get through the swim, which was only 800 meters. Passed a lot of people on the bike because I was doing these CrossFit type workouts with my personal trainer. So my legs and engine had gotten pretty fit, and then passed people on the run. And I think I ended up fourth place in my age group in the amateur division.
Eric Hinman:There are all these different divisions where you could potentially place. But it was encouraging enough that I'm like, I think I could be pretty good at this. So signed up for another sprint distance triathlon, then an Olympic distance triathlon, and then hired a coach, and committed to doing the Eagleman half Ironman in Cambridge, Maryland. That was June 2011. So, you know, this is over like a one and a half year period where I went from sprint distance to doing my first half Ironman.
Eric Hinman:And I had these ambitious goals at Eagleman to get one of the Kona qualifying slots. I don't know if they do that anymore or not, but, you know, I think they had a couple for each age group. And, you know, at that point, I was starting to look really fit because I was doing these CrossFit type workouts with a personal trainer. I was doing lots of cardio, but pretty much all of my workouts were at a high intensity because that's how I thought you got fitter. That was what my personal trainer was having me doing, you know, lifting heavier each week, and going a little harder on the rowing, and different conditioning intervals.
Eric Hinman:So that's how I was treating triathlon as well. It was just like I'd show up to this Wednesday night triathlon club and try to win it every single time. And I just was trying to go faster on the bike and faster on the run with each one. But because of that, I obviously wasn't able to put in the type of volume necessary to be fast at a half or a full. So Eagleman was a slap in the face.
Eric Hinman:Swim, I never really excelled at. So that was just kind of survival to get through the swim. And then on the bike, I had gotten decent at biking. I wanna say I biked maybe a two thirty, two forty bike split there. And on the run, I went out at a sub seven minute per mile pace, which I had no business doing.
Eric Hinman:I think by mile five, was at like a eight forty five pace, and by mile seven, was walking. End of the race, I had to stand under a fire hose for like thirty minutes to come back to life, and I told my friends and girlfriend at the time, I'm never doing that again. That was brutal. And then like forty minutes later, signing up for Ironman Lake Placid in the next year. Amazing.
Eric Hinman:Suck shit.
Justin Metzler:That's totally how it goes. And Maryland's one of those really tough it doesn't look that tough on paper because it's flat there, but it's got the chop in the river. It's always hot. It's always So yeah, they're actually I don't think they're doing the Ironman the Kona slots there at Eagleman anymore. But that was a cool time, and I definitely remember that.
Justin Metzler:We were talking a little bit before off air about how we probably just intersected slightly there as I got into triathlon, probably 2007, 2008. But yeah, that's definitely a really cool story. So I'm curious to hear a little bit more about you just getting into triathlon and getting into sports as an adult. Did you always have that competitive fire growing up competing in high school, and you sort of were missing that when you came out of high school and into college, and then you found it with this personal trainer and triathlon?
Eric Hinman:For sure. I mean, I love progress. I've always been competitive with myself, whether it was getting good grades in college, or, you know, building my insurance business, and just kinda seeing it grow over time. I like progress in whatever I'm doing, and I like having purpose. So I really found that in triathlon where, you know, every single day was a little more progress towards my goal of getting to Kona.
Eric Hinman:And when I hired the coach and he taught me the right way to train for triathlon versus just trying to go faster every single time, that's when it really started to click. And, you know, that was fun for me because, you know, then I started seeing major progress on race day. You know, in training, it was just, you know, pretty much going through the same motions every day, you know, same heart rate when I was running and same wattage biking, but it was amazing how that compounded over time and just got me, like, fast without having to go fast. Towards the end of triathlon, you know, I was definitely doing some track sessions and doing some higher intensity intervals on the bike. But what I really needed then, because I was coming into it with strength and some anaerobic conditioning from the personal trainer, what I really needed was volume just to create oxygen efficiency and build this big aerobic base and build muscle endurance.
Eric Hinman:So, yeah, slow down to speed up. That was the biggest lesson I learned in in triathlon, where I was just doing everything in the gray zone, and he's like, you either gotta go slower for your workouts, or you gotta go a lot harder for your workouts. That's where the magic is made.
Justin Metzler:Sure, 100%. I want to rewind a little bit and talk more about the business side of things and how that maybe paralleled this triathlon journey or the endurance sport journey that you've sort of landed at now. Can you elaborate a little bit on sort of that journey from starting to work with your dad, growing up the insurance business, and sort of how that evolved to the next steps after that and the businesses that you got into Yeah, from that point
Eric Hinman:you bet. So entrepreneur through and through. I love starting things, probably to a fault. I've started many things, and, you know, you see the successes, but you don't see the failures. And, you know, a lot of my business career was before social media.
Eric Hinman:So many people see me now as just, you know, a guy who works with brands and a content creator and works out all the time, but, you know, obviously don't see the the foundation that built all of that. So, the insurance business was 2002 to 2009 building that. And in 2009, I hired a secretary to manage my book of business. I still own that business. My father ironically runs that for me now and has for the last four or five years.
Eric Hinman:So, you know, that was my bread and butter for a long time, for fifteen plus years. That was my bread and butter income. And then I started a software company in 2009 called Rounded. It was a mobile app development company. We were doing business with mainly businesses, building mobile apps and mobile websites for them.
Eric Hinman:So that was 2009 until 2014. Sold my shares in that company in 2014. Late 2013, because I had really gotten into the fitness space, I started a CrossFit gym in Syracuse, New York. It was called Urban Life Athletics, CrossFit, indoor cycling studio, HIIT studio. And through the gym, I met my business partner in some restaurants that I co opened called Original Grain and XO Taco.
Eric Hinman:So, you know, hospitality, insurance, software, that was kind of all of the business stuff before getting into the world that I'm in now, which is working with brands in the wellness space, creating content for them. And I invest in many of the brands I work with. I help them build their ambassador program, so identifying other people that they should work with, you know, people like you, like getting products on the podcast where you can create awareness for the brands. And, you know, that's turned into an incredible business over the last seven years. But I would say my first piece of content I ever created on Instagram was back in, like, 2010, 2011, fairly soon after Instagram was launched.
Eric Hinman:And, you know, I had zero intention of that becoming a business or becoming a brand. And it wasn't until 2017 that I started to recognize the opportunity that we all have of a mobile device in our hands to be able to create content and build an audience and engage with them. And, you know, obviously, wherever there's eyeballs, marketing dollars are gonna go.
Justin Metzler:Yep. Can you talk to me a little bit about where the genesis for these business ideas come from? Is it something where you're sitting up at night and it sort of pops in your head? Or is it just a matter of being in the right place at the right time? How do these things come about?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. I think it's a combination of all of that. So I've always been a whore for good marketing. I'm the guy who goes to Air Juan in California and wants to buy every single product there because it all looks so awesome. So and I've always been an early adopter with technology.
Eric Hinman:I had a Tesla back in 2012 when they came out with the Model S. You know, had one of the first iPhones. I just I love early adopting in the tech space, the wellness space, the consumer packaged goods space. So I think that's a portion of it where I just love branding and identity, and I love seeing people, like, become friends with the brand. And the business side of it, I mean, I I think I picked up a lot of that through my dad, seeing him lead people, seeing him build a team, understanding, you know, just cash is king and how to, you know, run a business.
Eric Hinman:And I've only I've only really been involved in smaller businesses, and I recognize now that I'm really good at, like, the early stages of a business. And then once it's up and running, like, I don't really wanna be involved in the customer experience or, you know, customer, customer inquiries. I don't wanna be managing people, hiring and firing. You know, I'm not the systems guy putting all of that in place. I'm the creator.
Eric Hinman:I really like creating the brand, getting people excited about it, figuring out, like, what is the product market fit? Who's the audience that's gonna be receptive to this? You know, building the initial hype around it, the initial ambassador team, the marketing plan. And then, you know, once it's up and running and growing, you know, then I'm not as interested. So I think that's why I've fallen into the position that I am now as, you know, early stage wellness brands come to me and they're like, hey, you know, we're spinning this up or, you know, we're four months in.
Eric Hinman:We need help growing our community and growing the brand. Can you help us with that? And I'm like, yeah. That is my specialty. I love doing that.
Eric Hinman:And, you know, that's why many of the brands I work with, they're early stage wellness brands. That's where I know I can add the most value.
Justin Metzler:Sure. That totally makes sense. Sponsor of today's episode, Precision Fuel and Hydration. These guys have been an amazing partner for the show, and it's really a product that I use every single day of my training to help me go faster, feel better. So in today's day and age, we all know high carb is sort of the thing and so previously, I've spoken about how much I like the chews and I'm still munching on those pretty much every single day in training, but I've really been getting into the p f 90 gels.
Justin Metzler:That's That's been a really big value add for me to have three gels in one, and I feel like sometimes I'll just take that entire gel all at once or go half and half. It just allows me to get a little
Eric Hinman:bit more
Justin Metzler:carbohydrate and sort of just bump everything up and feel a little bit better in training. So if you want to try that for yourself, head on over to pfnh.com and use code BIGmets2025 for 15% off. I'm curious to hear about maybe, like, what it takes in terms of risk to get a business off the ground straight away. So maybe rather than now, when businesses are maybe approaching you or you're approaching businesses with, hey, I have a somewhat formula, and I feel confident in knowing how to do this. Maybe in the early stages, what differentiates you from actually going executing upon an idea and taking that risk financially with your time or whatever, and those who are maybe still sitting on the couch and just have the idea in their brain and don't ever take action upon it?
Eric Hinman:Yeah, for sure. It's not easy, you know. I mean, many of these fail, and I've had failures along the way. I've certainly invested in brands that have failed. So, you know, it's kind of a numbers game where you have to do it enough times, a, to find success, and then b, to develop a risk tolerance of like, okay, life's not over.
Eric Hinman:If it fails, I just move on to the next one. But, you know, you can definitely mitigate some of those risks by doing it time and time again. Like now, I I know what to look for in a founder. I know what to look for as far as, like, growth and customer acquisition costs. I know what to look for for product market fit.
Eric Hinman:I really just play in the wellness space where I have a really good understanding of what people are consuming in that space. So I think you can eliminate a lot of it, but it comes down to like, do you wanna pour your heart and soul into this for enough time that it becomes successful? And oftentimes, the case is you know, the answer is no. You know, people want immediate success because you see lots of success now on social media. And, you know, many of the businesses that I've started, they failed, a, or b, it took two or three years for them to start actually making some money.
Eric Hinman:And many of the companies I invest in, on paper they're doing well, but I haven't seen any kind of return. So you gotta be patient and willing to wait. And, you know, I've always had that foundation that I built early on, and that's my advice that I give young people is, you know, in your first career, don't just trade time for money. Try to build residual income or try and build some kind of asset, whether it's your business or, you know, buying a multifamily home and renting out three of the, you know, the the bedrooms to other people and that helps pay for your mortgage. Like, you gotta hustle early on and you gotta build that foundation.
Eric Hinman:You know, I'm 45 now and, know, as you age, you you you're able to compound things. Like, now money compounds for me, and my connections compound for me, and my knowledge compound for me. But early on, it's just like, you gotta hustle, and you gotta take risks. You gotta meet a lot of people. You gotta collect a lot of dots.
Eric Hinman:And, yeah, you gotta just, like, leverage time. That's your most valuable asset when you're young.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. That's good to hear because I feel like even in my generation, and especially the generations below me, feel like we want that immediate return. It feels like, oh, we're grinding so hard, we're working so hard, and we want that to happen right away. But I think I've been fortunate in my career being a professional athlete and understanding that that really takes a lot of time, and you need those compounding hours of training in order to ultimately reap the rewards and success. It just takes a level of persistence and commitment to the goal, and I think same goes for business.
Justin Metzler:I want to talk a little bit more about where you're at today in terms of you sort of calling yourself a brand builder. Can you explain to me and the audience like what you define that as?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. So helping brands grow with awareness. And you know, a lot of that is ROI, so providing return on their investment in me. And that could be, you know, content that performs well for them, you know, discount codes that they can directly track. But a lot of it is more behind the scenes of just putting all the pieces together.
Eric Hinman:So, you know, hey. You need someone who's really good at paid social to help you with meta and TikTok. You need ambassadors. You need people spreading awareness. You need community events.
Eric Hinman:You know? You should spin up a run club, or you should partner with run clubs. Here are some podcasters I know that you can get product on the table so that people are seeing it when they're watching the podcast. So I'm I'm really playing matchmaker for a lot of what I do, but my resume is certainly my audience on social media and creating content for brands I work with to generate awareness for them. And, you know, it's just amazing how much money is poured into that space over the last seven years because that's where people's eyeballs are.
Eric Hinman:You know, they're moving away from radio and TV and billboards and all of these other sources where marketing dollars traditionally went towards, and they're moving towards people who have these niche audiences and they've created an engaged community. And I feel like that is the key. It's not so much this number next to your name. It's, you know, do you have a community? Do you have people that really, you know, are intrigued with your lifestyle?
Eric Hinman:You've shared enough, you know, value with them that, you know, they won't they wanna buy things that you're you're involved in. So, you know, that that that's the biggest key because a lot of people can go viral now fairly fast just with one piece of content, but they haven't cultivated a community in doing that. So, you know, I I really feel like all good things in life, they come from compounding consistencies. And I've just done it a long time where I've just added incremental value every single day with feed posts and story posts and sharing my journey, whether it was Ironman or CrossFit or High Rocks or diet, or sleep, whatever it is. And then over time, you know, you have this really engaged audience that, you know, marketers are gonna want to spend marketing dollars on because your audience is really engaged.
Justin Metzler:Sure. What do you think differentiates you from the millions of other people out there trying to be social media influencers? Because I think especially now with the growth of it, people are understanding this. This is part of the game. This is how you can potentially make a living, and this is something that you need to be really attuned to.
Justin Metzler:But I think for every 1% of people that are successful on social media, there's 99% of people who are posting and getting 10 likes. 100%. What are you doing to be a difference maker?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. I mean, I would say my business background is one of my differentiating factors, in that I've started companies. I've invested in companies, so I I understand to be in their position what they want of me, and I know that I have to provide a return on their investment. So I come into this with that hat. You know, I know a lot of professional athletes historically.
Eric Hinman:I see it changing now, but, you know, with their sponsors, they would just, like, post a picture on a podium and then tag their sponsors in the bottom. You know, did they create a little bit of awareness? Yeah. But, you know, they didn't really sell anyone on why that product or why that formula. I'm certainly seeing more and more with podcasters like you or, you know, David Roche on YouTube explaining all of the things he's doing, explaining his fueling, explaining the heat training, all of that.
Eric Hinman:So, you know, that all that's gonna convert for brands. So I do that differently than many others. And then as far as, you know, growing a following and engaging with your following, it's really changed over time what works. Now what works, for me at least, is kinda being more relatable to the masses. So instead of just sharing, you know, tips on high rocks or something that's kinda niche, you know, I'm really sharing my journey.
Eric Hinman:I'm sharing, you know, in my twenties, the decisions I was making and what that led me to, and the decisions I make in my forties and what that has led me to. And I certainly use a comparison picture that's gonna get people's attention. You know? Ultimately, you need to figure out how do you stop people's thumbs with what you're posting, and then, you know, how can you be unique? Like, that is a very unique story to me, and that is a different story than most have.
Eric Hinman:Most people were more fit in their twenties than they were in their mid forties. So I run with that story. So I would say that's where I've really differentiated myself from other creators out there. There's a million ways to do that. You know, you can definitely, you know, share a journey.
Eric Hinman:There's this guy who goes into the woods every single day and tries to lift a stump over his head, hasn't been able to get it over his head for, three years, and he has half a million followers that, you know, watch him every day to see if he can get the stump above his head. So sharing a journey that you're on is definitely a great way to, you know, build an engaged audience. I mean, I really like to think of this as a TV show now. You know, the Kardashians. You know who the Kardashians are.
Eric Hinman:You know what they're gonna be doing each time, but there's this kind of element of surprise of who are they gonna be with, what car are they gonna be in, what obnoxious thing is gonna happen on the show. And, you know, that's kind of what social media is becoming. Like, it's your own little show that you get to broadcast.
Justin Metzler:Do you feel like it takes a certain personality to be able to do that? Because I think it takes a level of vulnerability to tell the whole story, the successes, the failures, those moments when you can't lift the stump over your head. Mhmm. And I've known that myself, especially with, you know, social media being a big part of my professional career. I think there were times in my career where I was very vulnerable on social media, and I felt like at times I was judged for that vulnerability.
Justin Metzler:And even if it's one comment or two comments in a sea of 200, those one or two comments can kind of hurt you a little bit more than the rest. So what does it say about your personality in terms of being able to absorb maybe some of the negativity that comes along with that vulnerability that you need to express?
Eric Hinman:Sure. Mean, certainly affects me too. And, you know, I think that you have to recognize that the more you put yourself out there, the more you're treated as a public figure than a human. You know, people are really nice to me in person. You know?
Eric Hinman:I've I can count on one hand the number of people that have been an asshole to me For sure. You know, in person. But on social media, you know, there's 20 assholes every day that comment on something. So, you know, I just separate the two of, like, I'm treated like a public public figure on social media. You know?
Eric Hinman:I I know my my close circle, my friends, the people who actually, you know, know who I am. Like, you know, they're not hating on me every single day. So you really need to separate the two. And, you know, any professional athlete, obviously, is scrutinized just like that too. They're treated as a public figure.
Eric Hinman:So you have to really separate it. And, you know, if you're just being true to yourself and sharing your journey and sharing things you're passionate about, then, you know, you're you feel good inside. And ultimately, that's what I care about most is feeling good inside. But, you know, don't let me you know, it definitely affects your mood when you get a bad comment. And it's just crazy how, like, one bad comment can negate 100 positive comments.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. It's yeah. It's an interesting one with that.
Justin Metzler:Do you ever get sucked into that Instagram trap hole that I think some people do of the, like, immediate gratification, the reactivity that comes with social media, some of like the yeah, getting sucked into some of those comments that aren't necessarily super positive. Does that stuff bother you? Have you just trained yourself to block those out and just do what you do?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. Over time, I've trained myself to block them out. But, yeah, I mean, those first few really heard, and those next 100 heard, and then the next 100 not so much. And, yeah, now for the most part, it's just kind of blocking it out.
Justin Metzler:Sure. When you're sitting down, you obviously come from an experienced business background, and you're thinking about this new ish journey on social media. How calculated and targeted are you with your content planning, the people that you're meeting up with, the collaborative posts that you're doing, a business plan in terms of an agenda? How structured is it?
Eric Hinman:It's not super structured. For me, I never wanted this to get in the way of how I live my life. So, you know, every single day, you'll find me at the gym training for the most part. Every afternoon, you'll find me in the mountains mountain biking. Every night at five p.
Eric Hinman:M. I have people over to the house to do contrast therapy. You know, most nights I'm having dinner, barbecue with my girlfriend and friends who stay over. So those things are super important to me and I wanna make sure that like work does not get in the way of those things and making money does not get in the way of those things. I, you know, I really learned that with the insurance business that, you know, the more I made, I didn't get happier.
Eric Hinman:You know, there was a certain point where I'm like, this is great. Like, I don't have to worry about bills anymore, and I don't you know, I can go out to restaurants and whatever. But it you know, the incremental increases didn't make me any happier. So I I've always wanted to be careful that this didn't get in the way of the freedom and flexibility that I have to do the things that I really, really enjoy. You know, with that said, I mean, I have contractual obligations, so I definitely keep track of my commitments to brands that I have.
Eric Hinman:And I am intentional with my day. I'm intentional with how we designed our home. Our home here is called Muscle Mountain, which you'll have to come over and a workout or
Justin Metzler:about Muscle Mountain.
Eric Hinman:Yeah. Gotta come. So, you know, the backyard is basically a production studio, and, you know, I moved to Colorado. And in moving to Colorado, it made for, like, the ability to easily take beautiful pictures and videos. So I am very cognizant of the environments I put myself in and removing friction from what I do.
Eric Hinman:I do have a photographer, videographer who comes over once a week. We shoot content together. So that is now structured where up until about a year ago, it was just all me shooting content for everything. And I time block. You know, I have blocks of time where I'm working out, blocks of time where I'm taking calls, blocks of time where I'm doing podcasts, blocks of time where I'm editing content.
Eric Hinman:So I've, just kind of structured my life in a way where I can do the things I need to do each day, but it doesn't get in the way again of that freedom and flexibility to do the things that I really enjoy.
Justin Metzler:Sure. Talk to me a little bit about in your daily routine, what are your non negotiables?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. So I have this list of tiny wins, and I can send it to you after if I miss any. But getting my heart rate above one fifty most days, so spiking my heart rate, doing something athletic, lifting something heavy, getting outside, planning an adventure. I love having things to look forward to, so I always have adventures that are lined up. Hug kiss, share love with people that you enjoy being around, eat wholesome food with positive people, meet at least one new person every single day.
Eric Hinman:What else is on there? Sleep at least I think I had eight hours on my tiny wins list. Usually now I'm at least seven. I try to get eight plus hours of sleep every single night. Try to make the perfect cup of espresso in the morning.
Eric Hinman:Pick something skill based. You know, I love progress, so just always having skill based activities in my day. Give with not expecting anything in return oftentimes, you know, that is non social media, just sharing input. Post a piece of content every single day. I just you know, my having a personal brand has brought me so many opportunities.
Eric Hinman:So, you know, just being consistent in in those things, you know, that ultimately I know leads me to what I call my perfect day, you know, rinse and repeat as many days as possible.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Is it hard to stick with that every single day? Because inherently, there are gonna be things that go wrong, right? You travel, you don't sleep, you miss your workout, you get injured. Like, what do the days look like where that doesn't necessarily go to plan?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. I mean, it's easier than you would think because, again, I've structured my day in in a way that, like, these things are all time blocked, and I've also removed a lot of friction. Like, it's not hard for me to just tie my shoes up and run one mile to the trailhead, and I can mountain bike right from the house, and our our backyard is a gym. We have saunas and cold plunges in the backyard. So many of these things, I just don't have any friction around, and I was intentional in, you know, designing my life in that way.
Eric Hinman:But, yeah, I mean, on days where that doesn't happen, I know that I can get back on track fairly fast the next day. And, you know, I don't book early flights. I usually book flights afternoon so I can at least get a morning workout in. Like, there's a lot of things where I kinda go out of my way to make sure I still can get a lot of those different things in. And even when I travel, you know, I I have kind of built in networks now in a lot of cities where I have access to the gym, I have access to a sauna or cold plunge.
Eric Hinman:So even in traveling, I'm still, like, really doing a lot of these things every single day.
Justin Metzler:Sure. So it seems like you've been able to carve out what it looks like to have a perfect day. And I think a lot of people out there, especially with social media, are just inundated with different content. Like, drink a cup of water in the morning. No, drink in the afternoon.
Justin Metzler:You need to go to bed by nine Or no, you need to stay up until twelve You need to
Eric Hinman:fast until twelve No,
Justin Metzler:you need to have breakfast with coffee. Like, all of these different competing sort of opinions. How did you formulate what your perfect day looks like, and come up with and stick to that?
Eric Hinman:Yeah, trial and error. And like, living a life where I didn't feel like I was thriving, and then finding a life where I thought I was thriving. And what I did is I made lists. I made a list of environments, conversations, activities, people where I was just completely in the moment. I felt like I was in flow state.
Eric Hinman:And I made another list of all of those times where my mind was wandering. The conversations I was having, the activities I was doing, the environments I was in, and slowly started to strip all of those things away and just build my life around all of those things. And a lot of them also are, like, in order. Like, I know if I get my morning workout in, that I'm gonna be really productive after that. I'm gonna have great conversations with people.
Eric Hinman:I'm gonna be creative. I'll create better content after a morning workout. And then I love doing the contrast therapy in the evening because that's generally when people can join me, and I really like community time, and I like meeting new people. So I have that as kind of the end of the day, and I also look at that as like blowing the dust off a Nintendo game. I'm dating myself here, but, you know, just like a reset to my nervous system of, you know, yeah, I just had a busy day, probably was pretty good, but if anything bad went wrong, you when I do that contrast therapy session, it's just like a reset button for my mind and my nervous system.
Eric Hinman:I always just feel like calm and clear afterwards.
Justin Metzler:Sure. I want to talk more about that specifically because Tim mentioned that to me when I spoke to Tim O'Donnell, who's a friend of the podcast had him on and obviously people know that he's a good buddy of mine. He was talking to me about these sort of like social community evenings that you have. So is that something you're actually doing every single evening having people over to your home and doing the contrast therapy?
Eric Hinman:90% of the time, yes. God bless my girlfriend that she allows But, yeah, I have a a guy coming over tonight who, he was a d one hockey player who I've never met before. He's moving back home from college to Boulder, and he DM me on Instagram and said, hey. You know, I see you have people over at your house all the time. Can I swing by?
Eric Hinman:Yeah, dude. 5PM on on Tuesday, Wednesday. Come over. So
Justin Metzler:And so are you having these people over just to chat? Like, is there I mean, you said you're trying to give, you know, without any expectation of return. But I guess there is a social like, there's a networking component. And I guess, like, question that I'm formulating here is, is that something that adds a lot of value versus the detraction of like because I think if I had people over to our house at 05:00 every evening, my wife would freak out. And how does that add so much value to your life that it's something that you wanna do all the time?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. So I grew up as an only child, so no brothers and sisters. And I used to have friends over to play basketball in my parents' backyard and play ping pong every single night. In college, I threw massive parties. I I love, like, having people over and leaving people with a memorable, like, experience.
Eric Hinman:And, you know, now, luckily, that's they usually leave feeling better than when they than when they came. Sure. But, yeah, I love meeting people. And, I mean, do opportunities come from that? Of course, they do.
Eric Hinman:And I've recognized that over time that, you know, having a large network and just, like, occupying a really, really small amount of a lot of people's minds through either, you know, social media posts or, you know, having people over, like opportunities come back to you. So, you know, does that happen? Yes. Definitely. But ultimately, I just enjoy being around other people and meeting new people and having conversations with people and, seeing if I can connect this person with people that'll add value for him.
Eric Hinman:And most nights, it's like three or four people who come over, and many times those people don't know each other, and they go off and they have these friendships.
Justin Metzler:And I think that's so cool. Yeah. That's that's really cool. How much of it is the actual environment of sauna and cold plunge? Because I spent sixteen weeks in Scandinavia 2017, and the sauna culture there is massive.
Justin Metzler:They have them on the fjords. So go sauna right into the fjord back and forth. And I feel like similarly, you have conversations in this shared experience that's very unique. It's not unique for you because you do it every night, but for someone else, it really is a sort of like a formulating moment. How much of that environment is important for those relationship starters?
Eric Hinman:It's super important. So a, I'm gonna do it every night anyways, and I would prefer to do it with others where, like, my mountain bike rides, I generally am doing that alone. Like, I'm not inviting people in for that. I'm not inviting people in throughout the day. I'm not taking coffee meetings.
Eric Hinman:I'm not, you know, for the most part, inviting people in for my workouts because those are all for me. Like, I wanna progress in those things and, you know, I have to get shit done. So but the sauna session, like, that's a time where my phone is away and we're in this captive environment that there's something to the heat where you just become vulnerable really quick with people. And I've had some of the best conversations of my life in a sauna, so I'm intentional with that of, like, this is my meeting place. Like, if you wanna link up, let's do it.
Eric Hinman:5PM next Wednesday, come to the sauna. There'll probably be three or four other people. We'll have an awesome conversation. So, yeah, there's huge importance around the sauna component of it because I do feel like, you know, I think it's a better environment than a bar to have amazing conversations with people.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. That's really, really cool. I want to talk more about your current athletic endeavors. Off podcast, we were talking about you were preparing for Leadville right now. But it seems like you're still really intentional about balancing strength training in the gym.
Justin Metzler:And I know you're doing a bit of high rock. So talk to me a little bit more about what you're focused on right now, and how you're balancing the training and the intentionality for each goal.
Eric Hinman:Yeah. So I used to be so scared about losing a certain form of fitness if I started doing something else. So for example, in the triathlon years, you know, if I won a day or two without running, felt like I'd lose all my run fitness, and same with biking in the pool. And then when I got heavy into CrossFit, I'm like, I run, I'm gonna lose all of that strength I've built in the CrossFit gym. I've now just ebbed and flowed through these different worlds enough to understand that, you know, once you build to a certain capacity in something, it's much easier to get it back.
Eric Hinman:So, you know, right now, I kinda focus on what I'm most interested in. So right now, Leadville. I have that coming up in early August. So I am that is my primary focus. I'm getting in at least ten to fifteen hours a week of mountain bike time, and I wanna be super fit so that like, I do want I have a time goal, but more importantly, it's I don't wanna feel like shit while I'm out there.
Eric Hinman:Because I've done it before where I only built to like a ninety minute ride and then did Leadville and it was like a lot of suffering hours. Yeah. You know, I don't want it to be a suffer fest. I want it to be fun. So a lot of my training for that is just to make it enjoyable.
Eric Hinman:Like I wanna go out there and race with a bunch of people and have a good time. So biking is the priority now. With that said, high rocks is kind of on what I'll call maintenance mode. So I'm in the gym four days per week doing strength training, complex lifts like squats and bench press and overhead press and and pulling movements like deadlift and then high rock specific movements that are in the race. And then I'm running right now about 15 miles a week.
Eric Hinman:After Leadville, I'll shift back into a high rocks focus mode. My first race of the season is Toronto in October, and I had the goal this year of winning my age group. I thought I was in a good place to do that. I unfortunately had a horrible time outcome at the Chicago race. But next year, I age up to 45, 49, so I would like to win my age group.
Eric Hinman:That will be my main goal for next year. And, you know, with that, then I have to shift my focus back to more high rocks training. So, you know, that's five days a week in the gym doing a bit of zone four workout with high rock specific movements and like in a time domain that is high rock. So the runs and the workout stations are generally around like the three to five minute range. So just spending three to five minutes for the various movements I'm doing to build that type of muscle endurance, you know, at a moderately high heart rate, and then running at least 30 miles a week.
Eric Hinman:Like running for me, I feel like is still where I can make up the most ground in in high rocks. And then I think 98% sure I'm gonna do Ledman next year, and that 100 mile run really scares me. So I will have to massively build my run fitness back up, but I'm really enjoying the running again. So rewind six, seven months ago, I did High Rocks Chicago with with my buddy Jack, and the last four or five years, I hadn't been running much. I was really focused on CrossFit.
Eric Hinman:You know, I was getting stronger, but I basically had to give up running to get strong enough to be competitive in CrossFit. But I've recognized that I enjoy training for CrossFit, but I don't really enjoy competing in CrossFit, especially coming from the Ironman background of, like, you know, I wanna do something for ten hours and, like, just be completely spent afterwards, and the next two days, I can't do anything. And CrossFit is not that. CrossFit is about, you know, short power output. You certainly have to be obscenely strong and obscenely powerful, but I I don't get that same fulfillment out of finishing a CrossFit workout or CrossFit competition that I do when I finish a four hour ride or a two hour run or an Ironman.
Eric Hinman:So, you know, getting back into high rocks and getting back into more of this endurance training, it it just feels more fulfilling for me to compete in those sports when I cross the finish line than it does competing in in CrossFit. But I I mean, I still enjoy CrossFit. CrossFit has been so hard for me to get good at because there's just so many complexities to it. You have to be so strong. You have to be so anaerobic.
Eric Hinman:And I do feel like I'm naturally much more gifted at slow twitch muscle and endurance and just kind of that, you know, mental toughness and grit than I am at, like, seven minutes of all out effort.
Justin Metzler:Sure. Yeah. So it sounds like you're training quite a bit right now and Yeah. You know, preparing for the lead man. You're going to be running, you know, many miles a week preparing for that.
Justin Metzler:How do you ensure that if you're training fifteen, twenty hours a week, even preparing for the Leadville mountain bike race, that it's not a detraction from your overall energy balance to attack the things that you want to do on social media, that you want to do business wise, that you're present for those sauna sessions in the evening. Because I know I probably take it to an extreme, doing twenty five hours of training a week for professional triathlon. And I know that that's a big suck from other areas of my life. So how are you maintaining that balance?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. I mean, ebb and flow out of it. So I'm not going to make Leadman an annual thing. This is a one and done. Yeah.
Eric Hinman:High rocks does not require the type of training that an Ironman does or a Leadman does. You know, High Rocks, I'm training fifteen hours a week, but it's a really good balance of strength, anaerobic, aerobic. I feel really good training for High Rocks. Ledman, I know I will not feel good for, but it's just something that I've always wanted to do. And I I I just did rim to rim to rim in the Grand Canyon a couple months ago.
Eric Hinman:And, like, towards the end of that, the last two or three hours, I was deep in the pain cave, like Ironman type feeling pain cave. And it was just a reminder of those years when I was competing in Ironman, how that massively built my resilience. So I wanna throw my hat in that ring again one more time, but I'm not gonna make it a lifestyle because you're so right. Like, there's so many repercussions that that come from that. You're tired in the evenings.
Eric Hinman:You might not be as creative. You're not as present with your family. So, you know, I I I have recognized that over all of the things I've done that like, here's healthy training. Here's okay. I just wanna, like, go above the ceiling for a bit and prove something to myself, but then I'm gonna come back below the ceiling and kinda, like, level everything out again.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Yeah, it's an interesting balance to find. So, yeah, really interesting there. I wanna talk more about your, maybe your audience on social media and what people gravitate towards. So as you're ebbing and flowing through high rocks, CrossFit, you know, mountain bike, are people being more receptive to certain types of content?
Justin Metzler:Like, do you have a bigger high rocks audience because that's blowing up right now? Are people getting really invested in, like, whatever you do?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. So, I mean, I've changed so much through the years where initially it was built very much on Ironman training. And then there was this period of time where it was just like I had a very unique lifestyle and I think people wondered how I supported my lifestyle of just exercising all the time because at that point I I really wasn't involved intimately in any of the businesses. This is kind of from like 2016 to 2019. And, you know, I wasn't working with a number of brands that I that I work with now.
Eric Hinman:And the last five or six years, I'd say it's a mix of lifestyle interesting lifestyle, you know, the freedom and flexibility to, you know, be out in the mountains quite a bit and be at a gym with interesting people. High rocks is definitely something people have taken interest in in the last, you know, more just six months because I did my first high rocks race in 2021. Maybe did a couple in 2022, and then hadn't done one again up until last November. So, you know, I was not immersed in that world like I have been this year. I did four races this year, and this year, I started sharing more content around how I was shifting my training from, you know, being more CrossFit focused to being more high rocks focused.
Eric Hinman:And I have a really low heart rate when I run. I'm sure you do too. I mean, many endurance athletes do. And also, you know, being 45, my heart rate has come down over time. So I know that captivates people's interest when I go out and run, you know, a low or mid seven minute per mile pace at a one twenty nine heart rate.
Eric Hinman:They're like, how is that possible? And I'm like, well, I mean, I used to do this all the time in, you know, my thirties when I was running, you know, 60 miles a week. So I definitely have some really good, audience engagement around running, heart rate training, high rocks training. But I would say what captivates people's interest the most, like just relatable, is, you know, I stopped drinking in my twenties, and here's where I am in my forties. I started getting into wellness in my late twenties.
Eric Hinman:Here's where I am in my forties. I think that story resonates with the most amount of people. And if I was smart and didn't have the ADD that I have of like, wanna post my mountain bike video today from Leadville, and I wanna post about this, you know, high rock stars. I wanna post about, you know, this cool person I was biking with today. I would just run with that because that is the most relatable.
Eric Hinman:Those posts tend to perform the best. But, you know, if I'm out in Leadville riding the course, like, wanna show people Leadville course. I think it's cool. You know? I'm doing something fun, and I think it's gonna inspire some people to sign up for Leadville.
Eric Hinman:So, you know, I probably am still a little too broad with what I share. But, yeah, I mean, I I think it's a combination of all of those things.
Justin Metzler:Sure. Yeah. You mentioned the perfect day, and I'm sure that's something that you're sharing quite a bit on social media. Can you walk me through in detail like a day in the life on a perfect day?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. Easy. So wake up, no alarm around 6AM most days. Varies, you know, when the sun's coming up. Our dog has been waking up at like 05:30 in the morning because the sun is up a little earlier right now, so we kind of usually wake up with her.
Eric Hinman:Go downstairs, drink some water, make a coffee, take supplements, and the first hour and a half, two hours of my day usually are spent doing something I know I won't get to later in the day. So, you know, that might be a thoughtful email I have to send. That might be, you know, creating a piece of content or brainstorming content for the week, getting some post done for the scheduling, some post for the week. And then around 09:00, I head to the gym. Most days, some days, especially this time of year, I'm biking first just because it's getting hotter in the afternoons.
Eric Hinman:But usually, gym is my first session. I try to prioritize what I know I won't get to later in the day, earlier in the day. So like a strength training session and anaerobic conditioning, you know, it's really easy to skip that and be like, I'm too tired from the bike ride. I'm not gonna go go to the gym this afternoon. Whereas like biking and running, I can usually do those much better after doing the strength training session.
Eric Hinman:So in the gym, I usually have five to 15 people that work out with me on a pretty regular basis. We have our little group chat where I'll throw the workout in there every single day and people can, you know, pick and choose what they wanna do of the of the workout. That session is usually about ninety minutes, and I really look at that as setting me up for the rest of the day to be like creative, energized, thoughtful. After the workout, usually by 10:45, eleven, I have calls scheduled through like 01:30. I use Calendly, so I just have time blocks of when people can book meetings with me.
Eric Hinman:Those are generally either brands I work with, brands that wanna work with me, young entrepreneurs that have reached out to me on social media that want advice, people building brands that that want advice, people interested in how I created my lifestyle. I mean, you know, I'll send my calendar link to to most people that send me a thoughtful message on Instagram. So usually on calls for a couple hours. And then, you know, I know after two and a half hours of communicating with people, my mind is gonna be a little fried, and I need to go off into the mountains and just kinda hit that reset button. So that's usually when I do my bike ride.
Eric Hinman:Most days, I'm only sixty to ninety minutes of either biking. Running is less volume, might be forty five to sixty minute runs. But most days, I'm doing two workouts a day. And then after that, I have another time block of when I'm taking calls with people. So that's usually from, like, three to five.
Eric Hinman:And then around five, people are showing up to hit the sauna with me. And, you know, all throughout the day, though, I'm creating content. I'm shooting stuff while I'm on the bike. I'm shooting stuff while I'm running. Thoughts are coming to me.
Eric Hinman:I mean, you know this doing endurance sports. Like, I feel like that's when I have my best ideas is when I'm out there exercising. So I kinda consider that to be a lot of my work time as well because that's when all the ideas are coming to me. And then it's like easy to post that really creative thing as soon as I get done from my run because I marinated on it for sixty minutes or so a lot of the work is done out there. And I'm just I'm creating content all throughout the day, some intentional, and some just not knowing when I might use it.
Eric Hinman:You know? Really cool shot in Leadville biking. You know, I might use that three months from now when something comes to me about heart rate training at Elevation. Oh, I have that clip from Leadville I can use. So I just have this massive database of content that I've shot over the years, and much of it is organized into, you know, running, biking, backyard, time with Sarah, cooking.
Eric Hinman:So I can easily just kinda pluck it whenever I need to create content for either a brand or just content that I think will resonate with people. After the sauna session, some people stay over for dinner, cook at the house almost every single night, And then, like, thirty, forty minutes in the evening, wind down time, hang with Sarah, walk Blaze, watch something on Netflix, hit the hay by 09:41, I think is what my aura says. My my bedtime is every single night. And then it says I wake up pretty much every single day at, you know, 06:01AM. Sure.
Justin Metzler:So I've got two follow ups. The first one, I'm curious, and I think the audience would be curious as well, to be walked through a little bit of, like, the fueling, the supplementation, what you're doing for intra workout fueling, and how you recover. I think because the demands of training for endurance sports and the fueling that's required for that are one thing, and then the same thing goes for something that's anaerobic in nature, like power lifting or whatever. So can you walk us through sort of your day in terms of supplementation and eating?
Eric Hinman:You bet. So I'm pretty simple. And I build calories throughout the day. I have my biggest meal in the evening at dinner. I've found that for me, having a lot of food and mental clarity, they don't go hand in hand.
Eric Hinman:If I have, you know, a giant steak and potatoes and rice, yeah, I'm really fulfilled, but I don't have much mental clarity after that. So I eat really light throughout the day. I wake up, have coffee, you know, I might put colostrum in it or some kind of creamer, Take supplements. Creatine is one of my foundation supplements that I've taken every single day for a very long time now. I'll take some type of either multivitamin or like a greens powder that's gonna check a lot of boxes, you know, whether that's AG1 or, a multivitamin based on my blood work from blokes.
Eric Hinman:I take timeline, Mitopure, mitochondrial health supplements. I feel like there's a lot of studies going into this space about, you know, supplements can that can help improve mitochondrial health. And, you know, I've been around enough, like, achieving 60 year olds and 70 year olds who, you know, basically tell me, like, mitochondria is key when you're our age. You know, if you still want a mountain bike in your seventies, you know, you gotta do everything for your mitochondrial possible right right now. What else?
Eric Hinman:I take a sleep supplement most nights. Lately, it's been Sherry Bundy, which has melatonin in it. Magnesium, I'll take in the evenings as well just to calm my mind before bed. I have access to tons of supplements, but those are the ones that I would travel with on a regular basis to make sure I'm getting in every single day. First meal is generally after the gym session.
Eric Hinman:So morning workout, I'm not having much. Maybe I'll have a bar. Maybe I'll have a banana if it's a longer workout. But for sixty to ninety minutes, you know, I generally don't need too much. Afterwards, I either do a smoothie, which is pretty basic, whey protein, a banana, some yogurt, milk, frozen berries, or I'll do eggs, fruit, and honey.
Eric Hinman:That's my first two meals of the day. So I'll do that after the morning workout, and then I'll also do that after my bike ride or run-in the afternoon. And then dinner is usually 16 ounces of some kind of meat, steak, burger, chicken, whatever it is I'm craving that night. Usually barbecue it on our smoker. And so I'll do some kind of carb, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and then some veggies, you know, a side salad or some, broccolini, just some kind of greens.
Eric Hinman:And then at night, I snack on fruit and honey and a little nut butter pretty much every single night. I at one point, was eating at least a jar of almond butter every single night when I was competing in triathlon.
Justin Metzler:That's kind of the thing with triathlon. I I had this as a comment in there, and I wanted to get your opinion on it. I don't think triathlon training is healthy for you. It seems like what your lifestyle is is sort of like what I would maybe achieve to get to in retirement, where I get my endurance hit. I'm in the gym getting that sort of explosive stuff in.
Justin Metzler:There's a lot of catabolic effects from triathlon training. Did you feel that when you were doing the 100%.
Eric Hinman:Definitely did, yeah. Because I was neglecting strength training, I was neglecting anaerobic conditioning, so I just felt weak, not powerful. And I mean, the workouts in triathlon are so long and you're feeling with so much sugar, you know, it definitely isn't healthy at a super high level for a lifetime. You know, I think it's I think it's an important journey for people to do like hard things for a period of time. But, you know, again, I think, like, being a little below the ceiling is is always gonna be better for overall longevity.
Eric Hinman:And, yeah, I just kinda had lulls throughout the day when I was training for triathlon. Like, I usually felt pretty tired in the evenings, didn't really wanna do much. You know, if you go on a five hour bike ride, you're spent. Whereas a sixty minute gym workout, I'm energized for the day. Thirty minute run, I'm energized for the day.
Eric Hinman:Hour bike ride, you know, at a 01:35, 01:40 heart rate, I'm energized for the day. So, you know, there's definitely overdoing it. And, I mean, this goes for anything, whether you're a top CrossFit athlete or, you know, Olympic athlete. Like, if you're the elitist at any level, it's generally, a, probably unhealthy, and b, you're just constantly playing with that that fine line of injured and peak fitness.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. Fit or fucked is kind of Yeah. The way that we call it in triathlon. The pros are definitely I've been treading that line very closely the last few years. As you're preparing for Leadville, I think that the demand of that race, and I think even the lead man running 100 miles, those are going to require a higher level of investment in the fueling and education So on the are you starting to experiment with what you're going to do for Leadville now and start to think what you're going to do for Leadman?
Justin Metzler:Because that is probably going to require, like, quite a bit of sugar during it, quite a bit of caffeine, fluid, sodium. Like, are those things that you're trying to experiment with now? And what are you finding working well?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. A 100%. So, you know, now as I build for Leadville, my rides are getting longer. Generally, if my ride is under two hours, I don't take much with me. I mean, most of my rides, I'm doing it at one twenty five heart rate.
Eric Hinman:You know, it's not a high effort. But, you know, in Leadville riding three plus hours, yes, I'm fueling. I'm trying to get about 60 to 80 grams of carbs per hour. That could be maple syrup packets, could be honey, could be gels, could be Morton bars. And then I usually have a thousand milligrams of element sodium, potassium, magnesium, or is it magnesium?
Eric Hinman:Yep. In my water bottle along with a shot of ketone IQ. That's what I'll have for my bottles. And I'm trying to do about a bottle per hour, anything over three hours. You know, could I benefit from higher carb in those workouts that are under two and two and a half hours?
Eric Hinman:I definitely could. I just have found that I don't feel great, you know, fueling with that much sugar. So and again, like, I'm not going to win Leadville. I'm I'm going for you know, I have my time goal. You know, it's not anywhere close to what a pro's time goal would be, and same with triathlon.
Eric Hinman:I was never a pro triathlete, so, you know, I I was doing a lot of this to compete against myself, and I know that to go to a higher level, you have to be more extreme with this stuff. But as I got more extreme with it, I just recognized that I didn't feel as good, and I'm doing all of this now much more to feel good day in and day out than I am to I'm not winning any money at any of these, and, you know, my following isn't based around me being in the podium. So, you know, I don't I have some ego wrapped into my results, but I have no ego wrapped into how I'm competing against others with it.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. That's a good great perspective, and one that I'm a little bit jealous of because a lot of mine is wrapped up in winning and losing. I get it. I want to talk a little bit more because I'm curious. Before I even got to research you for this podcast, I knew you as a Ketone IQ guy, you mentioned that here, and they have no affiliation to me or the podcast.
Justin Metzler:Although Charlie Lawrence, who you might know, sent me True. Ketone IQ, and he's an alum of the pod. He came on a couple weeks ago and a buddy of mine. And so I'm curious to hear about sort of why you like that, what it does for you, and sort of why you're an advocate for it.
Eric Hinman:Yeah. So it's the feeling of ketosis without having to be in ketosis. So during my Ironman years, was eating a really high fat, high veggie, low carb diet, and I wasn't ever testing, but I think many days I was in ketosis. I did have a lot of mental clarity throughout the day, and I like that feeling a lot. And ketone IQ gives me that similar feeling where I just feel really dropped in.
Eric Hinman:And, you know, I really feel like, you know, once you have the physical ability in any sport, so much of it is mental. And endurance sports, the mental component is how good are you at being in the moment? How good are you at flow state? How good are you at not thinking about how much time has elapsed and how much time is to go? You know, last year, I didn't look at my bike computer until I was six hours in, and my longest training ride leading up to Leadville last year was only two hours and forty five minutes.
Eric Hinman:So, you know, I was just dropped in. I was in flow with nature and the people out there. It was almost like a psychedelic experience. And, you know, it's a combination, obviously, of exerting yourself, being in nature, being around other people, having to be present so you don't crash, and having the ketone IQ. But that's what I like about it.
Eric Hinman:I just feel like it, you know, it fuels flow state for me. You know, I think they have a lot of studies out now about how it can, I think you need a lot of it, but it can boost EPO, you know, can help with recovery? They're coming out with lots of different, clinical trials around it, and obviously there's a lot of pro triathletes, and cyclists, and teams who are using it, but for me, I've always been very feeling based. I'll certainly read stuff and try to understand what it's doing, but I wanna feel it. I'm a one manning science experiment.
Eric Hinman:If I feel good doing it, then I'll keep doing it. If it doesn't do anything for me, then, you know, I'm not going to bother doing it.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. It's an interesting one, because I feel like, especially in triathlon, I think endurance sports in general, we go through these peaks and valleys of what's hot and what's not. So I think, like, one point, the ketones were getting so hot, and I think, like, Tim was sponsored by Delta G, which is a rival company to Ketone IQ. And he had me on Delta G, and he was saying, oh, this is the best. And then I think you transition a little bit further, then you get the lactate testing, and then you get the high carb fueling, and then you get the core sensor and the heat training that's happening now.
Justin Metzler:And so it almost feels like it's cyclical with what gets popularized or whatever. I think some of it's due to the science that comes out, some of it's due to the influence. So interesting to hear your perspective on that. I want to rewind to one thing you mentioned during your Perfect Day. And I'm just curious to hear more about, you you mentioned that the workouts, your 9AM strength session and your your one or 2PM bike ride, those are your sort of breaks and resets and and hit pause buttons from the work.
Justin Metzler:But at the same time, you are capturing the content throughout the day and during those sessions, because I know for myself, I find it really difficult when I'm out training to manage, like, capturing content. Like, I'm so immersed, and maybe this is my personality. Like, I wrap myself so much in the focus of the session, and maybe that's just my personal what I'm doing being a professional athlete. Like, I feel like I owe it that that time and that dedication to be a 100% present. Do you feel a detraction from the value of the workout when you are creating the content, or does it add value to the session, or is it neutral?
Eric Hinman:I would say it's neutral. You know, it doesn't add value, but for me, it doesn't take away. And again, because most of the aerobic stuff I'm doing, it's at a moderately low heart rate. I'm not massively exerting myself. I have my phone with me everywhere I go, and, you know, I'm not out there, like, creating skits.
Eric Hinman:I'm not, like, stopping and setting up my camera and riding by it. I mean, I'm literally just putting my phone on point five zoom, and if I have a thought that comes to me while I'm out there, I'll record that quick and then put my phone away. So, yeah, I'm not going out of my way with any of it. I do prioritize the workout over anything. Like, I wanna get a good workout in.
Eric Hinman:I wanna be present in the workout. I wanna enjoy nature. I wanna have a good bike ride. I wanna have a good run. But for me, it's not a hassle to take my phone out and film little bits and pieces of it.
Eric Hinman:But again, I'm not I'm not setting it up. It's not a production by any means. I'm not bringing a drone out there with me. I literally have my phone point five zoom, holding it up like this, and filming a little bit of my bike ride, maybe talking about something that I'm thinking about, and boom, it goes, you know, back in my shorts.
Justin Metzler:Sure. Are there points in the day where you're going, like, tech less? You mentioned in the sauna. That's a
Eric Hinman:moment where you put it away.
Justin Metzler:Mean, are there other points in the day where you're saying, Okay, I've been because similarly, I'm on my phone most of the day when I'm not training, whether I'm taking calls or talking with clients, you know, whatever, or on my computer preparing for the podcast. Are you putting the devices away at any other point in the day?
Eric Hinman:It's on airplane mode when I'm biking and running. I don't want to be distracted while I'm out there. I don't put it on airplane mode at the gym. I usually leave it on throughout the gym, but I'm not like messaging people and stuff when I'm in the gym session. But no, there's no times where I just am like, no phone right now other than the sauna because it's gonna overheat.
Eric Hinman:So, yeah, I'm not don't have my phone in with me at that point.
Justin Metzler:Cool. Yeah. No. Good to know. Alright.
Justin Metzler:Well, yeah, the majority of the of the questions that I have here before we get into a rapid fire to wrap up the Is podcast there anything that you wanna mention or that you wanna shout out before we get into rapid fire? No. Alright. Awesome. Well, appreciate you being so transparent in all your answers today.
Justin Metzler:So first rapid fire question that I have is what is the ideal number of coffees per day, and what's the maximum acceptable limit?
Eric Hinman:Yeah. Two for me. I like doing an espresso in the morning with a little cream. I have all sorts of coffee makers. You definitely gotta come over sometime if you like coffee.
Eric Hinman:I have a rocket appartimento
Justin Metzler:Yes.
Eric Hinman:Like espresso maker where, you know, that's a 100% art. I have a Terra Cafe science where you just, you know, hit a button and you get whatever you want. I I just got, like, two or three months ago this cold brew coffee machine where it's stainless steel pods. You can do a nitro cold brew, a regular cold brew, a cold espresso. Absolutely amazing.
Eric Hinman:And then I have like your typical, you know, coffee machine that's really pretty that doesn't get used much. So, yeah, two. I usually do one right when I wake up around 06:30 and then I'll usually do another one after my gym session with my my breakfast or lunch, whatever you wanna call it, that first meal I have with the day. And then what's the most I mean, if I'm in New York City or like a city that has awesome cafes, you know, sometimes I'll have upwards of three or four just bouncing around to different cafes. I would say four is my upper limit of, you know, then I'm just gonna crash.
Eric Hinman:I'm not gonna feel great after having four or more. In an Ironman, though, I mean, I'd bet I was upwards of eight hundred milligrams, maybe even a, you know, a thousand milligrams of caffeine during a race with all the gels and, you know, caffeine in the bottle. And, yeah, I do feel like you have to drug yourself in these endurance things to to just get through it and, you know, keep the stoke high.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. I'm with you. Triathlon ain't healthy. Just repeat repeat that here. I'm with you.
Justin Metzler:I think two is my optimal level as well. I've got a I'm a big coffee guy, so I'll definitely have to come over. I'm really looking forward to the sauna situation already, but I think the coffee's really going to put me into another another level. I've got a Breville Barista Express, so it's nothing But I just yeah. I'm two a day, and if I need a little single shot in the afternoon for some work, I'll get in there.
Justin Metzler:But yeah, no, I'm with you 100%.
Eric Hinman:Yeah. I usually cut it off by like twelve or one, though. I try not to do any caffeine after that, because sleep is so important
Justin Metzler:to me. Me too. Yeah. I mean, like, an ordering guy, and so that really has incentivized me to focus less on the coffee. And even if I got to power through work in the afternoon and not grab the one at the 2PM, you can see my coffee over there that I had.
Justin Metzler:Just a couple sips, you know? Just make sure we're locked in for the pod. Cool. All right. What is the latest that you're willing to stay up at night with a hard workout scheduled for the next morning?
Eric Hinman:Oh. Ten? 10PM? Yeah.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. I'm very similar.
Eric Hinman:I avoid late night activities. Red Rock's Amphitheater is eight minutes from our house. I might go to one show a year. You know, I've said no to big UFC fights because I don't wanna stay up late watching it in in person, you know, in Vegas. I really, really don't like staying up late at night.
Eric Hinman:I like sticking to my bedtime because my days are so important to me. Like, I love the day. I love 6AM until 8PM, and I don't want to affect those hours.
Justin Metzler:I'm with you 100%. All right. Number three, what is your go to gas station order if you're in the middle of a long ride?
Eric Hinman:Oh, a Snickers bar, and I'm probably getting a Gatorade.
Justin Metzler:Yep. Nice. All right. You're a Denver guy. Why not Boulder?
Eric Hinman:I like Boulder a lot, especially, you know, riding with Tim these last few weeks. And Alex, I mean, they brought me up to Gold Hill, and we did another ride up Sunshine Canyon over to Potasso. Boulder is massively growing on me. So I moved to Denver in 2017. And at the time, I was single and I had a loft in Rhino and I really enjoyed like city life.
Eric Hinman:I hadn't I lived in Syracuse, New York prior to that, so very small city. So living in a big city with access to so much, I just loved that because I had never had that, you know, that taste of life where I was just like in the mix with everything. And then so many of my friends are in in Denver. My Boulder network is definitely growing. I could honestly see Boulder as, you know, three to five years from now, you know, selling our house and getting something similar here with a beautiful view and turning it into kind of a wellness place here.
Eric Hinman:We're actually building a house in Austin right now that's gonna be done in like a week and a half. And, we're gonna be splitting time. We're gonna be doing the winters in Austin and then summer's back here. But I mean, people matter so much to me. Having community matters so much to me.
Eric Hinman:That's so much of the Austin move. Like, I love city life in Austin, but ultimately, the draw to Austin is I just have so many amazing friends there. The wellness scene is exploding. Wanna host tons of people at our at our house there. So, you know, I just didn't have that in in Boulder because I haven't spent enough time here to have that kind of network that I have in a place like Denver or Austin.
Justin Metzler:Yeah. I mean, here, the natural beauty of this place is really hard to beat. I think also you get somewhat of a city with Pearl Street where we are right here. And if you like cafe culture, you'll next time you come to Boulder, me know. I'll take you to some Great my
Eric Hinman:cafes here.
Justin Metzler:And I think the community of people is good, but I'm also very much in my endurance sport bubble, where I think people are less likely. I think if you ask the professional athletes in town to do a 5PM sauna session, like, I would go. But I don't know how many others you're going to get. So I feel like Denver's maybe a little bit more of like, Okay, working people looking to branch out, creative people, whatever. And I think there there is that here.
Justin Metzler:I just wouldn't be able to point you in their direction. Yeah. That's not my scene.
Eric Hinman:Yeah. I mean, our house is twenty minutes west of Denver, so I'm only in the city of Denver maybe once a month now. Sure. I really don't, you know, play in the city. But with that said, you know, like people are passing through Denver regularly, and, you know, Denver is a big city with lots of people.
Eric Hinman:So there's people in Denver coming to our house to sauna. So I do like having that, like, pocket and population to pull from.
Justin Metzler:Sure. Alright. Here's a two parter. So what is one company in the sports or sort of like wellness space that you think is doing everything right but you're not working with now? Then another company who you could really help?
Eric Hinman:Great questions. I would have said the feed but I just started working with them recently. I've always admired, you know, the company, bought products from them, you know, thought they did a great job at curating products. One I'm not working with now that like Morton. I really like Morton's products.
Eric Hinman:I don't work with Morton. I love their bars. You know, sodium bicarb has become incredibly popular, obviously, in the endurance world. I'd say that's one. Center, I would say, is another.
Eric Hinman:They're big in the high rocks world. They supply all of the gym equipment to the high rocks races, and we're gonna be, you know, outfitting our home in Austin with a full gym setup. So Center would be another one. What was the second component of that question?
Justin Metzler:Who's a company who you think you could really help?
Eric Hinman:A company I could really help. I mean, anyone at an early stage is my bread and butter. So, you know, any company in the wellness space that's just spinning up, better for you brands, you know, in the nutrition space, whether it's bars, chips, stuff like that, are ones where I definitely can add a lot of value. You know, I think one of the products that is, I'm pretty sure it's being worked on. I don't know if anything has launched yet, but like continuous biomarker trackers.
Eric Hinman:So continuously monitoring your testosterone levels, cortisol levels, cholesterol, all of that stuff. That's a company I would really like to work with in the future, and I think I could massively help them, especially, you know, where I am in my mid-40s, you know, longevity, all of that is just such a hot topic in my age bracket and older. Cool.
Justin Metzler:Alright. Final one here. What is something you're personally really excited about in the next twelve months that could be athletically, business wise, both?
Eric Hinman:The Austin House for sure. I mean, that's gonna be the biggest thing in the next twelve months is just outfitting that house, setting it up as this really cool community hub. And then I have another business called Founders Only that is growing tremendously right now. We host wellness retreats for founders of wellness companies, creators, investors, athletes, and we just had the last one in Denver. We had 35 people at it.
Eric Hinman:A lot of it was at our house, barbecue there, sauna, And the Austin house is gonna be used for that too. But, again, I really love curating people together and like minded people together. So I see founders only continuing to grow, and, you know, I wanna do it in cool locations like Moab or Bozeman or just, you know, places where I either have been and spent a lot of time or places where I wanna go and I want other people to experience it with me. And then we're building an online component to that as well that's gonna just have lots of resources for any of those pockets, founders, investors, creators.
Justin Metzler:Cool. Alright, man. Well, you're an absolute legend. I appreciate all the answers to you on the podcast. It's a pleasure getting to know you.
Justin Metzler:Thank you so much for coming on.
Eric Hinman:Thanks for having me, Justin.