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!!!