Boot Camp Work-Out #1

Here it is: the first boot camp style work-out I'm posting on this blog in its entirety. This is one we've done before, so give it a go today. This is one you can do anywhere, and you don't need any equipment! Here are the 8 exercises to do:

1. Burpees (everyone's favorite!)
2. Push-Ups
3. Squat Jumps
4. Crab Dips (don't forget to bend your elbows)
5. Single-Leg Hip Raises
6. Fire Hydrants (do assigned reps per each leg)
7. Coffins (straight-leg sit-ups with arms crossed)
8. Leg Lifts

And here are the instructions/assigned reps:

Do 10 reps of each exercise, and follow that with 30 seconds of either Mountain Climbers, Jumping Jacks,  or High Knees.
Start back up at the first exercise, this time doing 9 reps of each exercise, and then the 30 seconds of Mountain Climbers, Jumping Jacks, or High Knees.
Repeat the same thing with 8 reps, 7 reps, 6 reps, all the way down to one rep of each, each time doing 30 seconds of Mountain Climbers, Jumping Jacks, or High Knees after exercise #8.

Just for clarification, you don't need to do the Mountain Climbers, Jumping Jacks, or High Knees after every exercise... do them after every set: do all the exercises, and then do the 30 seconds before starting over.

There's more to come, but enjoy this one!!!

Provo and Echo: That's how you do it... and "What was that?"

Again, I'm a little late writing about my last two races.  It's been a busy summer, what with working, training, racing, and everything else.  I feel like I've probably said that before.  But with that, here it is:

I competed in the Provo Tri on Saturday, June 23rd.  I told you it was a little late to write about this, so I think this race can easily be summed up with two pictures:

Second out of the water!

1st place in my age group (6th overall)!!!

Three weeks later, on July 14th, I competed in my next race: the Echo Tri in--of course--Echo Reservoir at Coalville, UT.  This race didn't turn out quite so well, but it didn't start out quite so well, either. 

Driving up to Echo Reservoir, everything seemed fine.  Once we got there, though, we were told that our campsite, which we reserved through the race organizer's website, was not close to the race start or transition area (the website gave me the impression that it would be, and there were a lot of open campsites close by).  We drove up to where the campsites were, talked with the camp host, and were able to change our site to one close to where we wanted to be.

Once we had set up camp, we decided to walk around, check out the water and transition area.  The lake was very low; I overheard someone saying that water levels had dropped 35 feet in the previous five days!  That meant a very long, steep, rocky run between getting out of the water and getting into transition.  One of the other athletes who was walking around near us found a few shards of glass on the beach.  That was scary!  Luckily, the race organizers had decided to set up a "shoe transition" area just by the water line.  Instead of driving in to Park City (only about 15 miles away), I decided I would use my Altras.

There was also supposed to be a race "walk-through" by the race directors.  That never happened, and because I waited around so long for that, dinner ended up being quite late.  The weather forecast had been showing rain all week long, and I didn't feel like racing in rain.  Needless to say, I was feeling very nervous about this race, and it was still the night before.

When I finally got to sleep, I didn't rest the best, either.  I have become accustomed to weird dreams the night before a race.  Usually, those dreams revolve around forgetting something: running shoes, bike helmet, wetsuit, etc.  The weirdest dream I remember was one where I forgot my bike, so I had to ride a horse.  This time, however, the dream revolved around the weather.  In my dream, which repeated itself two or three times, lightning struck the water and killed everyone who was in the lake.  This scared me, and I almost withdrew from the race because of it.

Due to a number of the things from the evening before and the night, I then woke up late.  The race started at 7:00, and I didn't wake up until 6:00.  Luckily, we were right next to transition, but I still felt rushed.  Each person was assigned a transition spot, and mine was a great spot.  However, I was late setting everything up, and my breakfast ended up being a pack and a half of Clif Shot Bloks.  That makes for a good energy boost half an hour before race start, but it doesn't make for a very good breakfast.

Once everything was set up, I pulled on my wetsuit and headed down the lake for the start.  This is when I realized that I had left my bike pump in the car and had never fully inflated my bike tires, and I didn't have time to fix that now.  Instead of riding on 120 psi, I would be riding on 75-80 psi. 

It seemed that everything that could go wrong was going wrong, so I shouldn't have been surprised when we waited around in the water for an extra 10 or 15 minutes before a late race start.  Once we started going, I still didn't feel ready to go.  I decided today would be a race that I would be happy with just finishing.  The swim went rather well, but I can do rather well in the swim without really trying too hard.  At the Provo Tri, I had a great swim; today's wasn't anywhere close.  I got out of the water, pulled on my Altras, and made the long, hard trek up to transition and my bike.

The bike was about the same... it turned out well, but wasn't great.  The first half, I felt very slow and week.  About two miles before the turn-around, a group of 5 racers passed me, and I watched them drafting off each other until we turned around and after.  Drafting on the bike is illegal in triathlon, so this made me mad!  I never caught back up to them, but the second half of my bike was much better!

Once I got back to transition, I pulled my Altras back on and took off on the run.  I was feeling great by now!  My run pace was a blistering pace for me, and I thought I might actually break my race split personal best.  And then I got to the turn-around for the run.  I had put in a great 5K (3.1 miles), and only had that much left to go, and I could keep this pace for the rest.  That was until I actually turned around and hit the proverbial wall.  My run pace dropped by almost 2 minutes per mile, and my run split ended up being one of my slowest. But I finished!  I was happy and still alive; my dream had not come true.  In fact, the weather held out and was perfect through the whole race!

So there it was, race 5 of 8 this season was in the books.  It wasn't the best, but it was over.  I didn't place, and--in fact--I'm not even sure what my time was.  According to my pledge, I donated $25 to Special Olympics Utah for Provo and $10 for Echo.  And now I had a six-week race break before my next.  I have been training hard and getting ready for this next one, and now I have just over two weeks.  I'll be heading up to Heyburn, ID, for my second go at VikingMan.  It looks like it's going to be a great event; two of my brothers-in-law (Dave and Jared) might do this race, too, as well as Dave's girlfriend, Janette.   This was a fun but hard one last year, and I'm looking forward to the same this year!  And then it's Yuba in September and PumpkinMan in October.  This has been a fun season so far, and I'm glad it's not over yet!

3 weeks late (SG Tri)...and right on time (Daybreak)

So, I've been needing to write about my experience at St. George, but--between work, family, work, training for the next race, and working some more--life has been crazy, and here it is three weeks and one race later.  Needless to say, my wrap-up of St. George is going to have to be shorter than I had planned. 

The SG Tri was on Saturday, May 19th.  We showed up in St. George the Friday afternoon before the race and went immediately to check-in.  Because of when I signed up for the race, I ended up getting a free run hat!  That's pretty cool of the race directors, and might have almost taken away the bitterness for them cancelling my favorite race. Anyway, we ended up eating dinner at Iggy's Sports Grill (because Olive Garden had, like, a 15 day wait...), and then we went back to where we were staying.  Rachel has some friends who live in Hurricane (right next to St. George, and closer to the race venue), and we were going to stay with them.  But they ended up putting us up in their parents' house, as their parents were out of town that weekend.  It was extremely nice to have a real bed!

Saturday morning came early. I had been nursing a minor case of plantar fasciitis, so I had some ibuprofen along with my oatmeal and banana breakfast, and then we headed over to the race.

It was a perfect morning: temperatures (air and water) were great, winds felt non-existent, and I ran into a lot of people I have met over the years of racing.  And then it was time to race.  My new wetsuit was great, except that I didn't realize how high the neck was until I could feel the chaffing half way through the swim.  I made a mental note to put more anti-chafe balm on my neck for the next race.  It was an easy out-and-back swim, and then on to the bike.  I felt nice and strong on the bike, even up the nice, long hill we had to climb (on the flip-side, it felt great to FLY down that hill on the way back). 

And then came the run.  As always, the run is my hardest event, but this time, I knew it was slower than usual. Probably because of my foot "issue."  I was still able to finish strong and hold off some stiff competition at the end.  And what's even better, my foot felt better after the run than it did all week long.  That in and of itself was a victory for me. 

Overall, it was a great race! I finished 7th in my age group, which means another $10 goes from my bank account to Special Olympics Utah.  And since we were so close to Vegas, we finished that drive to spend the rest of the weekend with my family and have a great recovery meal at the Hofbrauhaus! 

Next up was Daybreak.  This one was just this last weekend, the 9th of June.  That Saturday morning came early, too.  We were up before the sun to make sure everything was ready and there on time.  We got up to Daybreak a little after 6:00 a.m., which is when transition opened.  I have done this race before, but transition was set up on the opposite side of the lake from previous years, so we had a little bit of a hard time finding it.  But we finally found it, picked up my timing chip and swim cap, got body marked (they were using some pretty cool rubber stamps), and got my transition set up.

After a few words from the race director and a USA Triathlon referee, we made the walk to the swim start.  This one was a point-to-point swim, basically meaning we swam a partial length of the lake.  They were also doing an accelerated time trial start, meaning they sent one person off every 5 seconds.  That was a little different for an open water swim, but it was fun.  I was the about the 14th or 15th person to start, and I immediately started passing people.  Rachel said she was quite surprised with how quickly I took off; I ended up being the 4th or 5th person out of the water.  It was interesting, also, looking for red siting buoys against the green and brown background of the shore (I'm slightly red/green colorblind), but I guess I can't complain too much, seeing as how I had the fastest swim in my age group and the 9th fastest swim overall.

I felt very strong on the bike again at this race. There were some long, steady climbs that really taxed my legs, but there were also some great, fast downhills.  My max speed on this course was 46 mph.  There were also a couple of guys that I kept battling it out with on the bike.  They would pass me on a downhill, and then I would fly past them on the uphill.  On the final uphill, I got a good enough jump on them that they didn't catch me again until after the last downhill and just before the finish, about 5 miles later.  I still finished the bike just before one of them.  It turned out, Rachel had befriended his wife just before the start of the race, and so I had a chance to have a great, if short, talk with him after the race (I couldn't hang with him during the run).

And then there was the run again. If I could run as well as I can swim, I might have a chance of racing in the elite category.  As I mentioned, I wasn't able to hang with my biker buddy during the run.  I tried, but I'm just not as strong on the run.  It ended up being a long run, too.  It was billed as a 6.2 miler, but upon some research spurred on by my time (slower than at SG), it seems the run was actually a little over 6.5 miles.  I want to take my bike up there and clock it with my odometer.  Despite the extra distance, I still finished strong. My fast swim and decent bike allowed me to still take a 3rd place age group finish (18th overall, out of 101 men).  That means I earned a podium spot!  My first of the season!  And that means Special Olympics Utah gets $25 from this race!!!

It has been a great start to the season!  My next race is in two weeks: Provo Tri.  It's another Olympic distance, and I will be going for another podium spot!  I'm also going to be aiming for a PR in the run.  Let's see what I can do.  

How are you enjoying your summer?

Two more days...

...until race #2 in this 2012 benefit season!  I am getting very excited.  I cleaned and lubed my bike this morning.  I also finally mounted my speedometer so I can better gauge how I'm doing.  I added a pair of Yanks ("tie-less" shoe laces) to my Altra Instinct running shoes.  Now I just have to wash my tri suit and get everything packed, and then I am ready to go!

This race is down in St. George, UT, which is about a 4-hour drive from my place.  We are planning on leaving tomorrow around noon.  My wife has some friends who live very close to the race venue, and we will be staying with them Friday night.  I have maps printed off so we know where we're going, and all that fun stuff.

There is one little part to this race that is kind of a bummer, though. Apparently part of the bike course that was supposed to be paved this week never got paved, and the race directors have decided just to cut that portion of the bike leg.  It's for the best, and for the safety of the participants, but it also drops the bike leg from 25 miles to 20 miles.  No big deal, though... maybe my legs will be stronger on the run, which is my weakest of the three, anyway.  Also, I still get to use my new goggles, wet suit, tri suit, compression calf sleeves (maybe), and bike computer (the aforementioned speedometer) all for the first time! And we're also planning on heading down to Las Vegas after the race to visit family for the rest of the weekend!  This should be a great race, and--as always--I'm hoping for at least a top-three age group finish, which will help out Special Olympics Utah a little bit more!

Weekend Warrior #1 Wrap-Up

Well, my first attempt at Weekend Warrior is in the books, and I think it was a great success! I may have had a smaller turn-out than I hoped for, but it was bigger than I expected.  Luckily, I planned for what I hoped for, so I wasn't short-handed with supplies.  Nine people showed up!!! And we had fun... well, at least I did.  The other nine people worked hard.

We started warming-up just running a little through the park, tossing in some high knees and butt-kickers.  We then did a push-ups/squats set, where everybody did 20 of each, then 15 of each, followed by 10 of each, and then finished with 5 of each.  And then we got into the proverbial meat and potatoes of the work-out.

I set up 8 cones in a row, about 3 feet apart.  With small, fast steps, the campers ran in and out of the cones, first forward, then backward.  Then they jumped over the cones, doing squat jumps up and over.  Then it was back to running in and out of the cones.  This time--since the cones were lined up east to west--they started running through the cones facing south (leading with their right side), and then the boot campers ran facing north (leading with their left side).  Finally, they jumped over the cones again, but this time they jumped on only one leg!  The kicker with this one is that they were not allowed to touch my cones!!!  If someone touched one of the cones, they did 3 Burpees (look it up on youtube).  If they knocked over one of my cones, it was 5 Burpees.  There were also some push-ups and squats in there again for everyone, but the fun part was the Burpees! (I just like the name Burpees, and so I keep saying it in work-outs and typing it in blog posts...)

After this set was over, I split the group up into two teams, one team of four and one team of five.  While one team ran what I call Double-8's, the other team played Ultimate Tag (again, my own name for this "game").  When the one team was done with Ultimate Tag, the teams switched and did the other activity.  What are Double-8's and Ultimate Tag?  Well, come to the next Weekend Warrior Boot Camp, and maybe you'll find out!

At the end, we had time for one more activity.  I asked people afterward what they're favorite part of the boot camp was, and almost everybody (if not everybody) said this last activity.  We ran what's called an "Endless Relay" race.  This time, I chose three team captains and then let those captains choose their teams.  We had three teams, and so we ran until there was a first place, a second place, and a third place.  It worked out perfectly, because everybody earned a podium spot!  And they earned their chance to relax and stretch out, drink some Gatorade and... see if they won anything in my drawing!

That's right, at the last minute, I pulled together some great give-away prizes for anyone who donated a minimum of $5 to Special Olympics Utah!  Everybody who came also donated, so not only did I raise $45 for Special Olympics Utah today, but everybody was entered into the drawing.  There were four prizes, so their chances were very good.  One person won a Blender Bottle, two people won a coupon for 50% OFF an hour massage, and one person won a FREE half hour massage!  Everybody who donated also received a card good for $5 off a full-hour massage. 

I plan to do this again, but I'm not sure when.  I will announce it here as well as creating an event on facebook, so look for my page: www.facebook.com/swiftri

I will have some of these same great prizes at the next one, so come, help a great cause, meet some new friends, get a good work-out, and have some fun!!!

Also, a huge thank you to everyone who came!!! It wouldn't have been so successful without you!

Announcing...

Weekend Warrior: Spring Series!!!

What is Weekend Warrior?  It is a fun and FREE fitness boot camp to benefit Special Olympics Utah! Anyone is welcome to join in the fun! Come get a fun work-out, meet new friends, and help a great cause!

Spring is finally here (though it almost feels like winter never came), so let's get outdoors.  The first of hopefully many in this Spring Series will be held Saturday, April 7th at the Orem City Center Park, located in Orem (obviously) on Center Street, between State Street and 400 East.  Adequate parking is located on the north end of the park.

Check-in will start at 10:30 a.m. under the south pavilion, and I will start the boot camp no later than 11:00 a.m.  This will be an hour long boot camp, so come prepared (bring water; dress appropriately).

The best part about it?  That it's FREE!  But even better, is that it is in conjunction with my effort to raise funds and awareness for Special Olympics Utah.  Again, it is free, and nobody will be turned away from attending, but I do ask that participants make a minimum $5 donation to Special Olympics Utah.  Just use the link to the right! Bring your donation receipt (please, black out any personal/financial information) to check-in.

Again, Weekend Warrior: Spring Series #1:

Date: Saturday, April 7th

Time: 10:30 a.m. (check-in) with boot camp starting no later than 11:00 a.m.

Place:  City Center Park, approximately 385 E. Center Street, Orem, Utah

Cost: FREE, but please make at least a $5 donation to Special Olympics Utah (link found right here on my blog)

Reason: To have fun, meet new friends, get a good work-out, and to benefit:

*This is not an official Special Olympics Utah event.

*This event is not put on by, sanctioned by, sponsored by, or affiliated with Special Olympics Utah, or Special Olympics.

*All donations will be made directly to Special Olympics Utah; I will not see a penny of any donation.

Please come... and bring your friends!!!

A smashing success

One down, seven to go! Saturday was my first race of the season, the Elevate Indoor Triathlon.  It was awesome, and I did great!  I was also pretty exhausted afterward, but that's to be expected. Here are some pictures from the race, as well as a run-down about how I performed compared to the goals I had set for myself:

 Swim Goal: 20 minutes @ 1200 psi

Swim Performance: 20 minutes @ 1300 psi 

(and I probably could have done 1400)

 Bike Goal: 25 miles in 1 hour and 20 minutes

Bike Performance: 26 miles in 1 hour, 15 minutes, and 33 seconds

 Run Goal: 10K (6.2 miles) in 45 minutes

Run Performance: 10K in 44 minutes and 21 seconds

That's right; I did my first sub-45 minute 10K!!!  I'm pretty excited about that!  I'm also pretty excited about how I did on the rest of the race, too.  I kind of took my time in transition, which slowed my over-all race time a little bit, but my goal for the race was under two and a half hours.  My final time was 2 hours, 20 minutes, and 23 seconds! I am very happy with this time, but also know that I want to work on getting faster, especially on the bike.  My next race is the St. George Tri in two months (May 19th), and this one is outside where the conditions won't be quite so perfect. However, I feel like I'm at a good place to start and can only get faster from here!

Oh, and take a look at this last picture: 

Check out how fast my legs seem to be going!!!

Special thanks to the guys at Elevate, Greg (Triathlon coach) and Rich (owner), for letting me do this!  While everyone else did a Sprint distance, I did an Olympic distance, which is twice as long as a Sprint.  And because I went last (so I wouldn't hog a pool spot, CompuTrainer, or treadmill), they were there longer than usual for one of these races.  This was an awesome race, and these guys are awesome for letting me do this! Thanks!!!

It's finally time!

Race season is finally here!  My first race is this Saturday, March 17th!  This is the Indoor Tri at Elevate in Orem.  I will be doing twice the distance/time as everyone else: 20 minutes in the endless pool, 25 miles on the CompuTrainer (bike), and 6.2 miles on the treadmill.  Because of this, I am going very last, and so my tentative start time is 10:30 a.m.

My goal for this is to finish in less than two and a half hours.  I have 20 minutes in the pool, and I'm hoping to get the run done in 45 minutes or less.  That means I have to do the bike in an hour and 20 minutes, which leaves 5 minutes for transitions.  That's the breakdown of how I will reach my goal.

Luckily, conditions will be perfect: no bad weather, no choppy water.  The really tough thing about this race is that it's a mental game.  I will be racing for two and a half hours, covering all this mileage, but going nowhere!  I have done the shorter distance of this race a few times, and it is always harder mentally than it is physically.  I have to assume this longer race will be the same, only magnified.

But I have to finish!  This is for Special Olympics Utah!  As long as I finish, there's my first $10 donation to SOUT!  Who's with me?  Make a pledge, check out my fundraising page, and come cheer me on this Saturday morning!  10:30 a.m. at Elevate (147 W. 400 N., Orem, UT... right behind SBR Sports).  It should be a fun time; I hope to see somebody (or somebodies) there!

Thirty-Threes: A Boot Camp birthday celebration

So, my birthday was a couple days ago, and it was good.  I went out to a great lunch with my wonderful wife, and mainly just enjoyed the day with her.  I also ran my boot camp, and we did a fun birthday celebration work-out.  Here are the exercises we did:

Squat Thrusts
Sit-Ups
Bridge Burners
Mountain Climbers
Push-Ups
Full Curl
Ins-N-Outs
Squats (w/ Forward Shoulder Raise)
Reverse Fly
Tricep Kick-back
Burpee

And here is how I had them do it.  First, I had them run a certain distance (it was a little different for each class, depending on the room we were in; for our purposes here, let's call it a quarter mile).  Then, it was into the exercises done as follows:

10 reps of each
1/4 mile run
8 reps of each
1/4 mile run
6 reps of each
1/4 mile run
4 reps of each
1/4 mile run
3 reps of each
1/4 mile run
2 reps of each
1/4 mile run

The trick is to get the whole work-out done as fast as possible.

So, how does this celebrate my birthday?  Well, count up all the reps for each exercise. If you do the whole work-out, you will do 33 reps of each exercise.  And how old did I turn on my birthday?

That's right!  See how that works?  It's a great work-out! Everybody loved it.  The fastest finishing time was about 28 minutes, but the run in that class was closer to 1/6th of a mile... a little shorter than in this outline. 

How fast can you do it?

E-mail me at swiftri@live.com if you have any questions on how to do any of the exercises.

Thirty-Three

33 years ago today; that is the day I was born.  Yes, I am turning 33 years old today, and I am not embarrassed to share that.  This is a birthday I have been excited for.  As I scoured the internet for significance of the number 33, I came across some interesting facts.  One fact is that one "blog" I came across explaining the significance of this number was just a complete copy and paste of Wikipedia. I don't want to be that lame, so if you want to know all of that, you know where to find it.  A couple of the things that I did find interesting is that 33 is considered a power number, and one of the "Master numbers."  I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds cool! The number 33 also "symbolizes truth" and "has the meaning that good will always triumph over evil."

For these new-found reasons, and for my own reasons, 33 is just a cool number.  I don't know exactly why, but it's cool.  It's the number I wore on the high school men's volleyball team.  "33" is also a song by the Smashing Pumpkins (one of the facts you'll see on Wikipedia) and has been tied with "1979" for my favorite Smashing Pumpkins song since I heard both of these songs.  For many people, 29 is the "eternal birthday;" once they turn 29, they "turn 29" on every birthday after that.  For me, it will be 33.  

The most exciting thing for me is that I will be wearing number 33 at each and every race I compete in this year.  In triathlon, there are body markings for the competitors.  Typically, an age grouper is marked with their race number on one calf and age on the other. This is partially so that other age groupers can see who their competition is.  Though I may be at the top end of what many people consider the most competitive age group in triathlon (Men's 30-34), and I will have to try to fend off those "youngsters" coming up from the lower age groups, I am excited to wear #33--a master power number--at each and every race this year! Luckily, 33 is also considered "the fastest number on planet earth!" 

A Boot Camp Success Story

I have been teaching the boot camp at the Orem Fitness Center since Thanksgiving.  It has been a lot of fun, but can--at times--also be a stretch to come up with a new work out (or even just a new way to do the work-out) that will be fun, exciting, and beneficial for all of my boot campers.  A couple weeks ago, I a lady started coming to my tuesday/Thursday morning camp. Just like everyone else in the class, she is very dedicated and works hard.  She informed me today that she was the 2nd place winner in the Orem Fitness Center's weight loss challenge!

This challenge started at the beginning of the year and was a competition based on percentage of total body weight lost.  The final weigh-in was this past Saturday, after seven weeks, and she won second place!  I didn't ask how much total weight she lost during this challenge, but she did say that she dropped 6% body fat in those seven weeks.  The cool thing--at least as I saw it--is that she said she didn't drop ANY of that body fat until the last two weeks of the challenge... when she started coming to boot camp!!! She credited me and my boot camp with helping her do so well.

I don't know if I deserve that credit, though.  She was the one doing the work.  I may have been showing up there at 6 a.m. to tell people what to do, but she was showing up at 6 a.m. to do whatever I told her to do for an hour.  It's a big class, usually at least 20 people; she could have easily slept in. Instead, she showed up every Tuesday and Thursday morning and worked hard. And it shows! She is a winner, and she deserves it!

Getting closer...

This has been a very busy winter for me so far.  I got married, continue to work and try to build my business, have been working on home improvement projects, planned my race season, and have been coordinating that race season to be a fundraiser for Special Olympics Utah.  If this hasn't been enough, I have also been training for my races.

Just a couple weeks ago, it felt like my very first race was so far off.  Just today, however, I realized that my first race is only a month away.  It's a good thing I've been training the way I have.  And it's also turned out to be a good thing that my car broke down a couple days ago.  Because of that, I've used getting to and from work as a chance to get in either a good bike or run work-out.  It's been a good way to jump start an already busy work-out schedule.

I hope to do very well this season, and my first race will tell me where I am at, how I'm doing, this early in the year.  After that first race, I have almost two months till my second, and so I will have a good chance to get ready to dominate!  I have pledged to donate a certain amount of money--depending on race results--to Special Olympics Utah.  To see that goal and pledge, and for directions on how to make your own pledge or one-time tax-deductible donation (should you feel so inclined and have the financial means), please click on the "Fundraising: Special Olympics Utah" tab at the top (under the header).

Special Olympics Utah has been very gracious and helpful so far, and I haven't even done anything yet!  I think that's pretty indicative of how the athlete's compete and live.  It's all about pushing themselves  to reach the best of what they can be, and helping their friends and fellow athlete's to do the same.  We could learn a lot from these amazing athlete's, and I hope to be able to share some of their stories here alongside my own. Until then, remember that life is to be joyful: find the best in yourself, your family, your friends, and in life!

A second very Special announcement: It's official!!!

Yes, three exclamation marks!!!  And that isn't enough!!!  Over the past few weeks, I have been in contact with Special Olympics Utah about my benefit race season, and today I received the link to the site they created for me!  

SwifTri for Special Olympics Utah

I think it looks great, and I'm very excited to see what we can generate this year. This link also appears under "Links" at the right-hand column of this blog.

As I'm sure everyone knows, Special Olympics Utah creates a fun atmosphere for their athletes to compete and share experiences with their friends.  It does take money to do this, and every little bit helps.  I know that finances are tight for everyone right now, and "everyone" includes non-profit organizations that strive to make a difference in people's lives.  My site is set up to take one-time donations of any size; please help how you can!

I have made a pledge to donate $25 for every race in which I earn a podium spot.  That is, take 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place either overall or in my age group.  I have also pledged to donate an additional $100 for ever race I win (1st place overall).  I will be posting the results of my races throughout the season; please check back for those.  If you want to make a similar pledge based on my race results, please "friend" me on facebook at www.facebook.com/swiftri and then e-mail me there.  Or simply comment below with your pledge and include your e-mail. (I moderate ALL comments before they are published and viewable by anyone besides myself.  Any comments including a pledge and/or an e-mail address will NOT be published unless you specifically ask me to publish it.) If you make a pledge, I will e-mail you the link to the race director's results page so that you can verify my results before completing your pledge and making your donation.

All donations should be made through this site designed by Special Olympics Utah. This way, your donation will go directly to Special Olympics Utah--I will not handle any money--and will be tax deductible for you.

Thank you for all your support and interest so far.  We are just getting started; let's make this a wonderful and special year for Special Olympics Utah and their athletes!!!

Pinochle

Yes, you read that right: I said, "Pinochle."  

So, what does that have to do with triathlons or fitness? Well, I'll tell you.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I instruct a boot camp at the Orem Fitness Center. For today's work-out, we played Pinochle!  I wasn't quite sure how it would work out, but this is how I set it up:

I started by splitting the class up into four groups.  I then dealt each group twelve random cards from a Pinochle deck.  They were to keep them face down and flip over one card at a time; the cards told them what to do.  Each suit represented a different amount of reps, and each face value represented a different exercise.  Each group was to do whatever exercise the card said for as many reps as the card dictated.

I also designated a trump suit.  If any group drew a trump suit, the entire class would run (after performing the resistance exercise designated by their own group's card).  The face value of the trump card showed whether they were running up and down the hall, up and down the stairs, or around the track.

Like I said, I wasn't quite sure how it would work out, so at the end of the class, I asked what people thought.  This Pinochle work-out got rave reviews from everyone!!!  They all worked hard and said that it was a lot of fun (though being extremely difficult with all the running they ended up doing).  I had some first-timers there today who said it was "awesome" (returning boot campers said the same) and that they would definitely be back for more!  That's what I like to hear!

I'm glad I decided to do something different and try this out.  An exercise program isn't just about killing yourself every time, but it's also about having fun!  That's why I do triathlon; I think it's a lot of fun!

Guest Appearances

This year is starting out at full speed.  Things are coming along with my race/benefit season, I have a cool new logo, and my site with the Special Olympics should be up by the end of this week (I'll post that here as soon as it happens).  But I have had some other cool things happen, as well.

One of the first posts I blogged told about a photo shoot I did for the internal magazine of the largest retail company in the world.  Well, January's issue of that magazine came out last week, complete with my picture and a brief article about me.  As I walked into work there yesterday, my manager cornered me and told me I had to be on a regional conference call.  I was surprised, but even more surprised when I found out the reason:  the Regional Manager had requested my presence as a guest speaker, and wanted me to talk about my exercise/training/racing experiences.  Needless to say, I was quite nervous, but I tried to hide that well. I had the opportunity to share my story as well as my goals.  I made sure to tell everyone on there that I was racing this year to benefit Special Olympics Utah, and I shared my blog address.  I had fun with it.

And then I got another surprise.  One of my client's dad's contacted me and asked me to be a guest speaker at a group he is a part of.  The group is made up of highly financially successful men who, as far as I was able to tell, talk about ways to take care of their investments.  I was invited to talk on the investment of health.  Again, I shared my story, as well as a little bit about Linda and Tina. As I started out, I was a little nervous again, but as I went on, I really got going.  It was again a lot of fun, and I think it went pretty well, too.

With these two guest speaking opportunities, I have learned a couple things.  First of all, when I present on this topic, I like to talk about myself.  Not because I am self-centered or like the recognition.  I feel like I have had and am continuing my own success story, and I am just a normal person... nothing super-extra special about me.  So if I can have this success, I know that anybody can. And I love to help share that inspiration.

The second thing I have learned is that I am actually pretty good speaking in front of a group without a word-for-word script.  I learned to write decently well in a number of college courses (hopefully that comes through on my blog posts).  I also think I am pretty decent presenting something that is laid out in front of me.  However, I have never been extremely comfortable just talking about something in front of a group unless I have it written out word-for-word so that I can simply present it. For these two guest speaking appearances, I did not write out my presentation.  I kind of knew what I wanted to present, and just went from there.  And I feel really good about both of these opportunities.  Again, not to brag, but I just wanted to share that sense of accomplishment, and remind everyone that if I can do this, anyone can do whatever they put their mind, heart, and muscle (hard work) to!

2012 Race Schedule

So, along with spending the last couple of weeks working tirelessly (or I should say tiredly) on the fundraising aspect of this race season, designing a logo, renovating a house, and planning a wedding, I have also been trying to figure out my race schedule for this year.  I am excited this morning to announce my plans:

1. Sat., March 17th: Elevate Indoor Triathlon (Orem, UT)

2. Sat., May 19th: St. George Triathlon (St. George, UT)

3. Sat., June 9th: Daybreak Triathlon (South Jordan, UT)

4. Sat., June 23rd: Provo Triathlon (Provo, UT)

5. Sat., July 14th: TriUtah Echo Triathlon (Echo Reservoir, Coalville, UT)

6. Sat., August 25th: VikingMan (Heyburn/Burley, ID)

7. Sat., September 8th: Camp Yuba Triathlon (Yuba Lake, UT)

8. Sat., October 20th: PumpkinMan (Las Vegas/Boulder City, NV)

These will all be Olympic distance races.

I would also like to announce what I am going to do along with racing, and besides asking for donations to benefit the Special Olympics.  I will also be asking for pledges, and I would like to make the first:
I pledge to donate at least $25 to Special Olympics Utah for every race in which I take a podium spot (which is 1st, 2nd, or 3rd... overall, or in my age group).  I also pledge to donate an additional $100 to Special Olympics Utah for any race in which I win 1st place overall! (The Elevate Indoor Tri is the exception, as I am the only one racing the Olympic distance that day.) Please join me in my efforts, whether it is donating to this cause, supporting and cheering for me on race day, or even racing alongside me.  Let's make this a great race season!

It's here!

Here it is, my new logo!  I love how it turned out and am very excited about it!  I actually have three logos to choose from, two that will be used most often.  So, what do they look like?  Check these out:

Ok, so if you've been following my blog through facebook, you may have already seen the first one. I love the look; I love the colors!  But what do you think?

Special thanks again to Rickey Nielsen of R.Nielsen Designs for creating these for me!  I hope to be able to use these on business cards, fliers, even a banner... anything I can do to advertise why I am racing this year. I am even going to submit these to Special Olympics Utah so that they can put them on the web page they're creating for me.

My First Sponsor!

Shortly after I made my very Special announcement last week, a friend who also works as a graphic designer approached me about designing a logo for me.  I told him I would love to get one.  We got together the other day and discussed some ideas.  I told him what my time frame was, and that he didn't need to be in a huge hurry, as long as I had it ready in time for my first race (I'll have more about that at a later date).  Well, only a few hours later, he e-mailed me a couple ideas.  Over the next couple of days, we e-mailed and texted back and forth until he had something that I really liked.

And then I threw him a curve ball. I told him that I really liked what he had come up with, but that I wanted to simplify it a little bit.  Mainly, I decided to simplify the color scheme.  Instead of using three different colors, I wanted to just go with two.  I mentioned this to him last night, and by this afternoon, he had e-mailed me those revisions.

I love what it looks like, and I am very excited to get the finalized product.  I will be unveiling that here in the next day or two.

To thank him for all of his hard work, for doing more than just putting up with my constant request for changes, and for getting things done much quicker than I expected, I am proud to announce that he is also my first sponsor for this year's exciting race season!  If you are in need of any design, or photography (as he is also does some), please visit his blog:

http://rnielsendesigns.blogspot.com/

And if you mention me (or my blog), he will give you 10% off your order!

A very Special announcement

As my 2011 triathlon season came to an end, I decided I wanted to focus on the Olympic distance races for my next season.  In my very first post of this blog (Trying this again...), I mentioned that I was also hoping to plan something special for my 2012 triathlon season.  In a post just before New Year's (Happy New Year!!!), I mentioned that one of my goals for 2012 was to raise funds for a local charitable organization.  Well, I would like to announce what I am going to do.

In 2012, I will be racing to raise funds for Special Olympics Utah!

My dad is an Adaptive Physical Education teacher, and I remember him occasionally doing things with the Special Olympics down in Las Vegas.  I remember helping him out with it occasionally, but I probably didn't appreciate it then as much as I would now.  It is something I wish I would have done more of while I was growing up, but instead of regretting not doing more in the past, I have decided to focus on doing what I can now!  

The decision to focus on Olympic distance triathlons came at the end of the VikingMan race in Burley, Idaho, ( Sept. 10, 2011) where I took 2nd place in my age group.  Over the next month, I developed the idea to not only race, but to do a fundraiser while I train and race.  The idea to raise funds for Special Olympics came from my memories (vague as they may be) of the past, and in thinking that it would be cool to tie the Olympic theme between my races and the organization I was going to raise funds for.  I haven't come up with an official name for the next season, but it will be a special olympic triathlon season: racing the Olympic distance to raise funds for the Special Olympics!  

Like any catchy name, plans for the year and fund raising effort are not final yet.  I have been in contact with the Special Olympics Utah organization, and they are being extremely helpful in figuring out how I am going to do this.  We are working together to set up an internet page where anyone can go to donate money for this cause.  When that is final, I will post a link here on my blog so anyone can easily access that page.  I also have to finalize my race season.  I have looked at race calendars, and there are a number of races that I would love to do.  I hope to be able to find a person or business (or two) who may be interested in sponsoring me.  My hope is that these sponsors will be willing and able to pay for at least a couple of my races so that I can do more than I could pay for out of my own pocket, and therefore be able to raise more money for the Special Olympics. As plans start coming together, I will keep everyone updated right here! And as the race season develops, I will update experiences from training and racing, as well.  I hope everyone will enjoy what I hope to be able to share over the next year!

Your New Year's Fitness Resolution: The Fat-Burning Zone

As the holidays have wrapped up and the new year has begun, gyms and fitness centers will be packed.  Local and on-line retailers will be pushing a number of fitness items.  Most people will set some type of fitness goal again this year.  What makes the difference between actually sticking to (and reaching) that goal or falling off and forgetting it after February?  That will be different for different people.  One thing that will help, though, is actually knowing how to use some of the equipment you will either be purchasing for your home or using at the gym.  One feature almost every piece of cardio equipment will have is a "fat loss zone."  What is this, and how can you best use this to your advantage?


The "fat loss zone" simply refers to a heart rate zone where you are burning a higher percentage of fat as fuel.  One thing we have to understand is that our bodies are constantly burning calories; this is the basic meaning of metabolism.  At rest, our bodies burn more fat than carbohydrates as fuel.  As we begin to move, the percentage of fat decreases and the percentage of carbs increases.  The purpose of the "fat burning zone" is to keep the percentage of fat being burned greater than or equal to the percentage of carbs being burned.


So, knowing a little better what the "fat burning zone" is, how can you best use this to your advantage?  This is a trick question.  The correct answer is: you can't.  The misinterpretation of the "fat burning zone" has led to "one of the biggest misconceptions in the exercise and weight-loss world" (The Myth of the Fat Burning Zone; Rachel Cosgrove, USAT Level 1, CSCS; for Active.com). If you notice in the preceding paragraph, I mentioned percentages of fat or carbohydrates burned.  The word percentages, however, in this case has been misinterpreted to mean amount. Below is one way I have seen it explained:


"Suppose you are standing next to Warren Buffet.  Would you rather have ALL of the money in your bank account, or 3% of the money in Warren Buffet's bank account?"


For me, and probably for most people, Warren Buffet's 3% is much more desirable than my 100%.  Why?  Because it is a much greater total amount.  So, let's compare that to exercise:  


Let's take an hour of exercise.  To keep the math simple, let's say you burn 200 calories in this hour, and you do it in the "fat burning zone," where 50% of your energy comes from burning fat and 50% comes from burning carbs.  You have just burned 100 fat calories. 


Now, let's take the same exercise but increase the intensity; now, instead of burning 200 calories in an hour, you have burned 600! But because your intensity is so much higher, only 30% of your calories burned were fat calories, and the other 70% were carbs.  Big problem, right?  Well, let's do the math.  30% of 600 equals 180.  So, you may have not been in the fat burning zone, but in the same amount of time, you burned almost twice as many fat calories!  Amazing, isn't it?  Yes, but it's also just basic math.    Not only that, but you have also burned 3 times as many calories in the same amount of time!  You have created a greater caloric deficit (given that you don't "reward" yourself after such a hard work-out by eating half of a 9-inch round, triple layer Death By Chocolate cake), and this is what weight loss--or, more appropriately, fat loss--is all about. 


So, how can you better improve your work-outs to reach your weight loss or other fitness goals?  Let me know what those fitness goals are, and I would love to help you out!  Check out my "Personal Training" link on the right side of this blog, and send me an e-mail.  


Good luck with everything this year!