Cold Remedy: 15 Real-World Lifestyle Design Case Studies (Now It

Cold Remedy: 15 Real-World Lifestyle Design Case Studies (Now It’s Your Turn)

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The Dash

What will they say about me when I die? That I lived? or existed?

Shane McConkey Lived.... Here's a tribute video

Cool Base Jumping Video

This looks like a ton of fun.

Cold Remedy: Free Flights Anywhere in the World (Plus: Live Q

Article Below is from the Blog of Tim Ferris, the author of "the 4-Hour Work Week".
Over the next few months, I will be looking to implement his ideas into my life.
Enjoy!

Cold Remedy: Free Flights Anywhere in the World (Plus: Live Q&A Tonight)


Where would you go if you had a free ticket anywhere? The island of Bohol in the Philippines? (source: WisDoc)



Not long ago, I received the following comment — edited for length — from Ryan N.:



I hate you Tim. I had a secure future ahead of me, and I left my job, my reasonably well paying professional career all because of your book. Best thing I’ve ever done!!



I was wondering if you might be able to put up a blog post where people could post their ideas or muses as case studies. I’m sure there are a lot of people like me who would like to share their stories and listen to others living the 4HWW.



Here’s to 2010 being the year everything changes.



Indeed. Here’s to 2010 being the year everything changes.



I decided to take Ryan’s advice. Below is a post of just a few select video case studies. This is also where you can win a round-trip ticket anywhere in the world.



That would be a nice way to start 2010 with a bang, right?…

I’m sure you’ve dreamed of taking that big trip, but it’s been put off due to the million things that interrupt and overload all of our lives. The fact is this: there is never a convenient time to do the most impactful things, whether having a baby, quitting your job, or taking a dream trip overseas. It’s something you pull the trigger for despite imperfect circumstances, not because of perfect circumstances.



Let’s end the wait.



Here’s how it works – simplicity itself:



1) Upload a video to YouTube of 5 minutes or less where you describe how you’ve most successfully applied techniques or tools from The 4-Hour Workweek to your life or business. Be sure to tag your video with “4hww success” in quotation marks. Click here to see what it should look like when you are uploading your video.



2) Leave a comment on this post with a link to your video and a brief description of what worked for you (no need for more than 1-2 short paragraphs). Do all of this no later than 5pm PT this Saturday, December 26th. Early responses get bonus points.



3) I and a few secret judges will select our top favorites, and then you all will vote for the winner.



4) I will then provide a roundtrip ticket anywhere in the world that the 25+ airlines in the Star Alliance fly.



In the meantime, find below some fun examples to get your juices flowing. Included are:



- Electra, a mother who uses batching to run her business while making time for the kids

- Michael, a father of two who’s lived in Argentina and explored both international and home schooling while earning full-time income.

- Harris, a father who can take his kids to the zoo on a Wednesday or take the entire family to Barcelona for a month.

- Jed and Chelsea, who quit their previous jobs, moved to another city, and are reinventing themselves one step at a time.



Last but not least, we have Aaron Carotta, who was diagnosed with cancer but still achieved the four-hour workweek in 60 days and documented it all on video. Here is the cliff notes version, in his words:



-Diagnosed with cancer

-Lost wages

-Accumulated medical bills

-Received the book as a gift

-Documented his interpretation of the book

-Achieved goals to free up his lifestyle

-Successfully opened and sold a business in another country

-Generated automated money

-Now successfully runs a company that allows his to travel for a living, The Seven Wonders Tour [with sponsors, Vibrams!].

-Continues to live healthy, travel the world, and be happy



I’ve included a 3-part video diary compilation of Aaron’s experience at the end of this post after the other case studies. Total viewing time is just around 20 minutes.



Enjoy these wonderful examples and don’t forget — your own video submission and comment on this post must be up no later than 5pm PT this Saturday!



Question of the day: where would you travel if you had a free round-trip anywhere in the world?

















###



Get the brand-new Expanded and Updated 4-Hour Workweek for the holidays, published 12/15, which includes more than 50 new case studies (including families) of luxury lifestyle design, muse creation, and world travel. Amazon can still make it in time, as can bookstores near you.



Odds and Ends – Live Q&A Tonight at 6pm PT (9pm ET)



6-8pm PST (9-11pm ET) tonight, I will be doing a 2-hour live question and answer session for readers. I’ll be using Ustream.tv here. This is the page you should visit tonight. If you can’t find it, search “tferriss” from the Ustream.tv homepage.



I also created a Google moderator page where people can submit and vote on their top-10 questions. This is important! I won’t be able to answer all questions from the chatroom firehose on Ustream, though I’ll answer a lot, so I want to get an idea of the most important questions people collectively vote for. Submit and vote here.



We’ll do our best to record the session, but there have been bugs in the past, so no guarantees.



Hope to see you there!

No More Excuses

Count me in on this one. I'll have my "muse" product up and running within the next 10 days. Read the post below for more details.
No More Excuses – How to Make an Extra $100,000 in the Next 6 Months

The Wilburns have created a multinational from their home.(Photo: Dana Smith)


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Winning has it's rewards. | TweetPhoto

Winning has it's rewards. | TweetPhoto
Bella won a gold medal 8-0 at her tournament this weekend. Great job girl.

12 weeks Post op and all is well

I just left my orthopedic surgeons office ( the best doctor in the area, in my opinion, Dr. Ted Gregorius www.empireortho.net ) for my 12 week post-op appointment and everything looks great. Physical therapy has been doing its job and I am healing on schedule.
Dr. Gregorius says that I can start in-line running on a treadmill next month and should be able to be back to full activity, including cutting sports ( read: Muay Thai Kickboxing ) at month 6. I'll get fitted for a custom brace that I'll have to wear for a year after that when exercising and we are trying to figure out a solution to what I will wear while rolling jiu jitsu as no one will roll with me with a fiberglass brace on my knee. We'll come up with something.
The best part of today's appointment is that I can start pushing a little harder know to work on growing the muscle mass back in my leg. Weeks 8-12 are precarious weeks with an allograph ( tendon harvested from a corpse)while it attached to my body, but know that week 12 is past us, I can start putting more strain on it. Yeah! I can really start working on getting the muscle mass back that I lost while being on crutches for 6 weeks.

So, things are going well and according to schedule and perhaps this blog will return to a blog of crazy athletic endeavors again, soon. Cheers!

A great video on Leadership

Here is a great video on Leadership featuring Mike Singletary, coach of the 49ers. Wow! Simple, straight forward and real.

10th Planet Jiu Jitsu

A great new video from Eddie Bravo.
10th Planet Jiu Jitsu

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Walking without crutches

Today I woke up and decided to ditch the crutches. The physical therapist said I could as long as I keep them around in the event that I have to do a lot of walking or prolonged standing. I am able to walk, albeit tentatively, pretty well. I have to fight the desire to limp and try to use the leg corrrectly, but all-in-all, it is going well and I am excited to be on the path to recovery.
Jiu Jitsu classes start back up next week. Not really. 5 more months until that is even possible, but at least I am able to start building back my legs for now.

I go for a walk ( sort of )

I had my 6-week post-op appointment today and am officially able to start weight bearing on my right leg. I get to start with my brace on and crutches wtih a goal to be crutchless and braceless in 7 days. My first steps were scary and painful. Every step burns my foot since it hasn't been stepped on in 6 weeks and after only a few hours, my leg is exhausted. I am heading to my first physical therapy session in my new status as soon as I finish typing this and will let you know how it went.

Chris

I think I like this guy!

I saw this Video Blog from the CEO of Go Daddy and thought the info it contains is really good. It is about being successful in business and since a secondary goal of this blog for me is to pass along things that I've learned about success, I thought that I'd post it.
For your viewing pleasure.......

Exactly how I blew my ACL

For those of you that have asked, I thought I'd post the video that shows exactly what I was doing when I blew my ACL. As you watcht this video, I would have been the guy in the red/black top. At 1:38 in the video he taps due to the pressure from the submission. Because I was pretty flexible, I did not tap. As soon as I realized that I didn't have to tap, I attempted to yank my right leg out of the lockdown that he had on it with his legs. Because my ACL was already torn pretty significantly ( a fact that I did not know at the time), and because he held the lockdown perfectly and straightened his legs to tighten it down even more when I tried to pull out ( the perfect response), my knee dislocated momentarily and blew the ACL. This would not normally have been the outcome and I beleive that if I had a proper knee at the time, it wouldn't have been the case. I thought this video would better illustrate what I've tried to explain to many of you.

Range of Motion Study*

An interesting study that I just saw on the Mona Vie site ( really, it was the first time that I had seen this study). If you think this would benefit you, let me know.


During a 12 week study on MonaVie Active, all participants showed a statistically significant improvement in range of motion with regard to the lumbar region and knees. In addition, participants noted a significant decrease in perceived generalized discomfort at weeks 8 and 12.

* This study was conducted in a relatively small number of healthy adults. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed before these results can be generalized to the population at large.

http://www.monavie.com/Web/US/en/monavie_active.dhtml

10 minutes on the bike trainer yesterday. How silly that 10 minutes would make me proud, but in my current state, it does.

Back on the bike! ( sort of )

Friday's physical therapy session put me back on the bike. Yep, I was able to jump on their recumbant bike and pedal with the following directions; only use your left leg for power, your right leg ( the repaired one) is just along for the ride and the range of motion. Easier said than done.

I have practiced one-legged pedaling drills for years to smooth out my pedal stroke and get the most out of every rotation, but I've always had clip on pedals and the right shoes. There at the PT office, I had neither, so it was an exercise in brain-to-foot communication to force it to pull up on the upstroke and push over the top of the stroke. I was able to do it, but I was sure that when I had the right shoes on at home.

So this morning I pumped up my bike, which is currently on a bike trainer device

and carefully got onto my bike, which was actually very tough with the use of only one leg. I strapped myself into my clip on shoes and almost immediately had a religious experience as I turned the first full rotation of the pedals. It turns out that my triathlon bike puts my knee to at least 120 degrees of reflexion as it comes around. Bear in mind, that I can get to 120 degrees with the help of my physical therapist pushing on it. And, I'm it hurts. So, repeatedly hitting that 120 degree mark as I pedaled involved cussing, sweating, and prayers to God for help- repeated over and again in various order. I was able to stay on the bike for 5 minutes and will make it a daily happening from now on, while trying to increase my time each day. What it did make me realize is how far I still have to go before I am "normal" again. I'll need to be able to pedal without pain in each stroke and I know it will happen, but getting from here to there seems like a long way off. Wish me luck.

Stir Freakin Crazy

As of tomorrow I will be 3 weeks post surgery and I'm going crazy. I know that patience is a virtue that I need to work on and maybe this is God's way of helping work on it, but I'm not sure I'm going to pass this test.

3 more weeks until I get to put my foot down. I'm watching my upper thigh atrophy and I haven't broken a real sweat in 2 months. I know it's only temporary, but I can't wait until this is behind me. I think the physical therapist said that I get to start soft pedaling a bike next week. If that is the case, I am going to type a huge "Yahoo!" when that happens. I have my bike on the trainer in the garage and the minute that I can start using it, I will. I'll never take working out for granted again.

Yesterday, I worked out in the garage. I did 3 sets of bench press and some crunches. Since, I haven't done any working out in the last couple of weeks, I stopped there knowing that I'd be sore. I was right. Sure enough, I woke up this morning hurting. That would normally be ok, but now that I am using my arms to walk around on crutches, it just plain stinks. And the best part, tomorrow should be more sore. I am considering working out tomorrow night again, but can't figure out which body part won't be too bothered by the crutches.

2 1/2 Weeks Post Surgery

Ok, so I am 2 and 1/2 weeks post surgery now, so I thought I'd give you an update.

Aside from the fact that I am on crutches for 3 1/2 more weeks and can't put any weight on my right leg until then, everything is going great. The reason that I am 6 weeks of no weight bearing is that the cartilage repair that they did with the microdrilling is the thickness of a postage stamp and they want to make sure it is healed properly.

The physical therapist is good and has my knee bending to about 120 degrees of motion. It hurts when he does it, but I can tell that everyday it is getting looser. It sucks to watch my, already skinny, quad muscles atrophy. But that is par for the course when you don't use them for 6 weeks. Our goal is to have them equal size again by month 6, then I have been instructed by the doctor that he wants 20 percent increase in both of them in the next year. Hah! I say. I've cycled thousands of miles trying to grow these legs and it doesn't happen. But I will give it a try anyhow.

All in all, things are going great. I am enjoying some time off from work. I still work from home, but I don't have to go in and deal with the day-to-day office crap that goes on in there. I've been able recently to focus in more on developing our Mona Vie distribution team, which is where I'd ultimately like to derive the majority of my income anyhow being that it is passive, residual allowing for a way more flexible schedule, and the top out income is significantly higher than the radio station. I have been drinking my two 2-ounce glasses daily knowing that good nutrition will be instrumental in the healing process.

My amazing wife has been lived up to her billing in all of this. She's a taxi driver, super helper, and listens to my whining like she cares. God bless her, she's had a whole bunch of extra duty added to her plate and hasn't skipped a beat. She rocks!

Well, that's it for now. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and will appreciate working out more than ever when I can get back to it. Tomorrow morning I'll head out to my gym in the garage for my first upper body workout since the surgery so I can start fulfilling my need to sweat.

Talk to you soon.

More post surgery comments

Today is the 5th day after my surgery and my first real day of physical therapy. I spent about 45 minutes with the therapist doing leglifts, stretches, toe raises with an elastic band and most importantly bending my knee to a 90 degree angle with his help. Thankfully someone gave me the advice to take my pain medication so that it was max effective during the PT session. All things considered, it went remarkably well. I've got really good extension on my knee and getting to 90 degrees didn't hurt too badly. I think that being in really good shape going into this surgery and a pretty nutritionally complete diet, complete with Mona Vie shots daily, is gong to really help me pull through this surgery well. Today, during the therapy session, I was picturing myself being back to running, cycling, exercising better than I ever have. If we are right, and this ACL has been broken for a number of years, then I should be a stronger and better athlete than I've ever been. If I've been in the best shape of my life in recent years, with only a partial right knee, I can only imagine what I can do with a uncompromised knee. I am actually very excited and that is what is fueling my therapy sessions right now.
Here's the other fun part. I am going to try to get off the perkoset today and go back to the lower level pain meds that I had the first day of my surgery. So, I am living on ice today and trying to make it to tonight so that I will have cleared out the oxycodone and can move to the lower level stuff. That is the plan and it would have been better to make this decision on a non-pt day because the therapy session is put some extra strain in today and I sure would like a pain pill right now. Hopefully, this will all be behind us by tomorrow and then hopefully they'll let me move to high strength Ibuprofen where I don't feel so loopy.
Here's to my new knee!

Post Surgery

Here is my disclaimer on this post- I am under the influence of some pretty strong narcotics in order to block the pain from the ACL surgery I had 2 days ago. So, if this post rambles, seems disjointed, offends, or just sounds plain dumb, it's the drugs talking.

Wednesday morning, Yvette took me in for surgery on my ACL. Dr. Gregorius tells us right before surgery that while he is in there replacing my blown ACL with one from a cadaver, he was going to check on the break and the patella. If he needed to he'd trim the patella and if necessary drill some holes by the break in order to help that heal better. Worst case scenario he said and if he had to take these measure, it would mean 6 weeks of no weight bearing on that leg.

So, I put on the sexy gown, get wheeled into the surgery room where the anaesthesiologist slips some drugs into my IV while asking some questions. That was about 7 am. At 11:30 am, I hear them say that Yvette is free to take me home and I hear Dr. Gregorius tell her that he had to trim the patella and drill the holes. Yikes! Worst case scenario realized.

I've had surgery 3 times now and each time I distinctly remember thinking that they should never send someone home in the shape that I am in when they discharge me.

Nonetheless, Yvette and some rookie nurse dump me into the front seat of the Honda for the ride home. I spent at least the next 10 hours somewhere between moaning and screaming outright because of the pain. Wow! This one hurt.

My follow up appointment with Dr. Gregorius was at 1:30 the next day and the first thing he said to me was "How was last night?" He really didn't even need to ask. He's had 3 of these surgeries and knows what he did, so it was more of a "welcome to the other side of surviving that hell." He immediately upped my prescription from Hydrocodone to Perkoset ( about 2 times the strength).

I went in to my first round of physical therapy right after that appointment, a mere 26 hours after surgery. The PT seems like he's going to be ok and he's been through this surgery too. That means a lot to me, because I know he understands the pain. We worked on a couple of exercises for about 30 minutes then he sent me on my way to fill my new prescription.

The new drugs helped but it was still a tough night on Thursday.

It has progressively been getting better although there are bursts of crazy pain. However, I can't help but be excited that now I get to start the recovery process and when it is done, I'll have a knee stronger than I've had in probably over a decade. Everyone tells me to make sure I do all of my physical therapy and the harder I work there, the better I'll be. Anyone who know me, would know that those words aren't even necessary. Nobody outworks me at anything and I am the king of following through on commitments, so by the end of all of this, I will be in great shape.

Tomorrow, I am going to attempt to dial back the medication and hopefully get off of it all together by Monday. I hate the feeling out of being out of control and this stuff certainly provides that sensation.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for me or sent well wishes. I really appreciate it.

I blog more later this week, but right now I am drifting off to sleep.

Torn ACL and a new direction

I haven't mentioned this on my blog ( mainly because I've been horrible about updating) but late in May I completely blew out my ACL. The easy story on it was that my right leg was locked down by a pretty good jiu jitsu practicioner and I made a stupid mistake. He did exactly what he was supposed to do and straightened out the lockdown. My knee came completely out of joint for a second, wobbled, then went back in to place. We both felt it. He let go immediately and I rolled out of it expecting a searing pain to hit. It didn't. In fact, it hurt a little, but felt more numb and swollen than anything else. Sadly, after two weeks of rest and recovery, it didn't improve. In fact, it got worse.

So, off to the doctor I went. Where he told me what I already knew. "You blew out your ACL and you'll need surgery". The MRI showed that I actually fractured my knee bone when it popped out of the socket and then slammed back in. More importantly, by studying the MRI, it looks like the ACL has been "broken" for years. We saw a picture that showed where the ACL actually hooks to the bone, it had torn away a piece of the bone. He said, "that is not from this event". Hmmm.... so I've had a torn ACL for a while? This could explain a lot. It seems my IT band has been trying to act as my ACL in some of my training and racing, so this explains my problems in the Northface race, my early cramping in my right quad in most of my 1/2 Ironman races. So I guess, I can look at this as a blessing. I get a new ACL and hopefully, a better working right leg at the end of this.

That is exactly what I keep trying to tell myself, because not being able to do any aerobic exercise makes me a little nuts. I am spending a lot of time working out with weights on my upper body, but I feel like I am losing a lot of what I've spent years to gain. I've heard that endurance ability comes back quickly. I guess I'll get to see for myself. I'll let you know.

So, August 19th at 7 am, I go in for surgery. The doctor, who seems like a really good one, is going to be inserting a cadaver tendon into my knee and anchoring it with 2 screws ( more screws in my body- yeah! I've already got some in my elbow). They say the recovery is 6 months to full lateral use sports. Which means I'll be able to go back to my jiu jitsu classes in February. Wish me luck.

Now, for the new direction part of this post. I am going to be using this blog, from now on, to not only post athletic endeavors, but also any and all self-improvement areas of my life. So, I'll be posting on books that I am reading, classes that I am attending, businesses endeavors, and family endeavors. My goal is to capture all parts of my life that I am trying to fine tune into this blog so that hopefully I can add some insight for my readers. It is said that the highest form of learning is the teaching of the subject matter, and this forum will provide that for me.

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Charleston, SC Hotel: The Sanctuary Hotel, Kiawah Island's Oceanfront Beach Hotel, South Carolina

Here's where we stayed for the last 9 days. Amazing. I would highly recommend it.Charleston, SC Hotel: The Sanctuary Hotel, Kiawah Island’s Oceanfront Beach Hotel, South Carolina

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Tour de France Stage 17: Lance Prepares for the Queen's Stage | LIVESTRONG.COM

As a rather huge Lance Armstrong/Tour De France fan, I've been loving this year's race. Welcome back to the peleton Mr. Armstrong. Technology has certainly added to this year's race with the Twitter comments, the blogs, and the behind the scene videos. It has been a real treat to follow. I thought you might enjoy this video as an example of what's going on. My family will sure be glad when the race is over so that they can have their TV back.

Chris

Tour de France Stage 17: Lance Prepares for the Queen's Stage | LIVESTRONG.COM

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Testing out new way to update my blog via my cell phone.Maybe I'll keep more current this way. Oh yeah, surgery on Aug 19th for a blown ACL. I'll say more later

Tour de France 2009: Lance Armstrong Chats With Robin Williams | LIVESTRONG.COM

Videos of Lance Armstrong from LIVESTRONG.com. Watch Tour de France 2009: Lance Armstrong Chats With Robin Williams and follow Lance on his journey of health, fitness and cancer awareness.

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I am not lazy

I am not lazy... horrible at keeping up this blog lately,yes, but lazy, no. I have been working out and am going to update you all soon. Sorry about that. I'll post within the next few days.

Shamed

Here's an article that just came in my email regarding running when you are sick. Is someone trying to tell me something?

Short run

I did get out and run on Saturday. That was good.
The bad was, it was only a 4 mile run and it felt horrible, but I think it is due to a cold that my boys have been trying to give me. I haven't had the full blown cold symptoms, but my lungs have been congested and I certainly wasn't breathing right on my run. My heart rate was running way higher than it should be, telling me that all was not well in my body.
I am going to try to get in 4 runs this week. Hopefully my lungs will cooperate.

Help Me! Help You

or better yet, just help me. And here's how. I am going to tell you that I am going to run tomorrow. You read this post. Then I run, because I hate to let people down. See how easy your job was. I'll report back tomorrow and let you know how it went, but the plan is a 10 mile run on trails tomorrow.

Damned our One TV Rule

I made a decision years ago that our house would only hav one TV. I did this because I've been in houses where each person goes and watches their own TV and no one talks. I figure, I'd rather fight about what we are going to watch as a family than not know eachother. Plus, it'll allow me to monitor what goes into my kids' heads as they get older.
There are times, like right now that I hate the rule. I ordered the DVD series Mastering The Rubber Guard by Eddie Bravo and it came in the mail this afternoon. Right now as I type this out, the kids are watching Tinkerbell and I am feigning to watch watch my new DVD. It's not really bothering me that much, cause I am thoroughly enjoying watching how entralled my children are with this Disney classic. Perhaps Tinkerbell will bust some Crack Head control on someone in this movie and we'll all be happy :)

I got in my first run in about a week today. I ran 8 miles today at an average pace of 8:12 min/ mile and a avg heart rate of 169. It was a fairly flat run and it felt great.

One disturbing thing did occur on my my run, though. The thought of running the 50 mile version of the Northface San Francisco Race in December jumped into my head and I couldn't shake it. In fact I was living the dream on my run and thinking about who I could enlist in order to help me accomplish my goal. One-Armed Willie definitely came to mind. I am afraid to call or email him though because once I do, the decision will be made. The thing that kept going through my head was how cool it would be to have done a 50 mile run in that extreme terrain and how it would totally up my mental resume of my abilities. I pictured myself on training runs after having completed the race and running by people on the trail or street and thinking "do they know that they are running in the midst of running royalty?". I know it seems cocky to think that way and perhaps it is, but I like being in a room of people that couldn't imagine neverthless accomplish a feat like that. Often times in my Muay Thai class when things get tough, I just look around and know that no one in that room is as fit as me. True or not, it helps me get through.

Just a note, this new TinkerBell movie is kind of cool.

Here's a video that I found featuring One-Armed Willie, one of my old coaches and one of the most amazing people I've known in my life.

One should always wonder about....

.... a girl that will show up at 5:30 in the morning on a dark winter day to run deserted trails with a guy that she doesn't know.
Vanessa and I belong to a club called Triathlon Connection and she posted on the calendar that she was looking to run 12 miles on Saturday at 5:30 in the morning in Marshall Canyon. She might as well have been sending smoke signals directly to my house. That is EXACTLY what I was looking to do this weekend. So I shot her an email saying that I'd love to join her.
Within a few minutes of running with her, I was made painfully aware as to why this 22 year old dental student did not consider the threat of running with an unknown person. And here it is, at any point she could have simply run away from me and I could not catch her. Suffice it to say, Vanessa is fast. She wasn't wearing black velvet tights, but don't think I didn't spend a few minutes wondering if they were one in the same.
We ran a 12 mile run on some of the prettiest trails in the area, just north of La Verne. It is hilly and the pace was pretty quick. I haven't downloaded the numbers yet, but I think we held high 8's for most of it. It was certainly a quicker pace than I would have run on my own. I appreciated her knowledge of the trails in the area ( she's been running there every weekend since she was 15) because my last run in this area I got lost and added 3 uphill miles to a 22 mile run. I will certainly look to run with her again.
All in all, my body is responding pretty well to longer runs. I have some aches and pains after that aren't all that fun to deal with, but I know that they will eventually become less and less as I add more miles to my training. The hip flexor is my biggest issue because it is not going away. I will figure out a way to stretch it out.
I ended the night by dousing my pain in a 32 ounce Newcastle Ale while watching UFC 94 with my friend and training partner from Muay Thai, James. It was a much hyped showdown between BJ Penn and George Sain Pierre. GSP dominated BJ in a fight that showcased GSP's amazing conditioning and BJ's lack of any such conditioning. Kinda a let down, although I was happy to see GSP win and won $1 on a bet with James. The other fights on the card similarly were lack luster, but it was a fun night anyhow and the beer did it's job.
One thing that I am becoming more and more assured of is the amazing benefits of Mona Vie for recovery. This is my first real season of training with the juice and I am seeing some amazing benefits. The one thing that I can really point to is how fast my body is healing itself. Good nutrition definitely has a big effect in allowing your body to do what God created it to do, heal itself and having spent some time with the scientists from Mona Vie recently, I am convicted that this juice with 19 fruits from around the world specifically chosen for their anti-inflammatory properties provides some really good nutrition for my body. For example, last night I had to ice the inside of my left ankle because it hurt so bad, and this morning there are hardly any signs of pain. Also, it has been a pattern that when I lift my training miles, I'll get a cold. This has not happened this year. In fact, I haven't been sick yet- and trust me, my kids have tried to get me sick- the little germ infested midgets :)

Is it an injury or just some overuse strain?

Sunday I decided to blow off my run because of Martin Luther King. His amazing life gave us many things including a day off. So I decided to give my legs one more day of rest and put in a long run on Monday.

Friday night's power lifting session put a lot more stress on my body than I could have imagined and my hip flexor muscles were still somewhat sore- more on this in a bit.

Instead, I decided to do a chest workout. It was a good workout, not much to write about though.

Monday morning, I got up to run at 7 and there was something missing, the sound of wind. Was I going to get a windless morning of running? Sure looked like it.

I took off and headed east towards Hunters Ridge with the intent of breaking up the 2 mile climb to the power line trail into segments. It worked well, except, as I climbed up the hill the wind started to turn from a slight breeze to what one would call a wind, at least I was calling it that as I cursed it.

About 4 miles into this run, I was starting to notice that my right hip flexor wasn't acting right. It hurt a bit, but that pain was being overridden by the blisters in both of my arches. Think about it, when you tickle someones feet, you tickle the arches because that is the most sensitive part of your foot. Now imagine having blisters there and having them be rubbed by a hard orthodic insert over and over and over and over. I can not wait until the callous builds up enough so that I don't have to deal with this anymore.

6 miles into this run is a very steep hill and I can usually run the entire thing, but on this run, I had to stop down and fast walk it. This hill is so steep that my heart rat stayed at 184 bpm while walking.

I noticed at this point that things weren't good with that hip flexor and it was effecting my endurance. However, I am in the middle of now where and so I have no choice but to run the rest of the run home. One thing that is helping is that it is a beautiful day. When I get to the top of the trail you can see all the entire valley and it was breathtaking. It was totally clear, which usually happens when it is windy outside. Oh yeah, the wind, as I climbed up towards the base of the foothills into the mouth of the canyon, the wind was blowing pretty hard. Not howling like last weekend, but certainly annoying and adding to the effort that I was having to put out on this run.

So, I get home after about 10.5 miles. I held a good pace but last night the pain started to really flare up in my right hip flexor. This morning I woke up in real pain. So now the question, is this an injury or not? I am going to rest it tonight, ice it down, and see if I can get it to go away. Let's hope.

150 Run and managed boredom

Today's Stats: (6.02 mi/ 57min 32 sec/ 9:34/mile/ Avg HR 149 bpm/ Max HR 170)

I have had two awesome coaches in my triathlon/ running career ( no, really I don't get paid to do it, but I can't think of a better word). Coach Tony Troccoli at Coachtony.com and Willie Stewart, aka One-Armed Willie, an Olympic Silver Medalist Cross Country Skier. A big Thank You goes out here to both of them. They both taught me a ton and I totally appreciate their willingness to do so.

Both Willie and Tony have taught me that I don't need to go out and run 100% effort on all my runs. This goes totally contrary to my personality that doesn't leave room for less than an all out effort. But, they've both taught me that training smart means some workouts should be less intense.

Here's the reasoning. Running is a violent sport on your joints, muscles, and connective tissue. So, when you are putting in base miles that toughen those joints and connective tissues up, it doesn't matter how hard your effort is, only that you log the miles. In fact running slower means more steps, which means more foot strikes, which actually strengthens those parts more.

But, it is boring. I mean really boring, like waiting for an airplane that's on a 3 hour delay in a super quiet airport boring.

So today, I set off on a 6 mile run with a goal of maintaining a 150 bpm heart rate. That means I get to run a 9:30/ mile pace. The reality is this workout should probably be done at 135 bpm, but I can't run that slow when people are around. My ego gets in the way cause I feel like they are saying "man that guy looks like he should be able to run faster than that". So I'll do the 135 workout late at night.

To show that my fitness is improving, I should be able to run a faster per mile pace at 150 bpm later in the season.

I've even had buddies do 150 races on bikes where they race up a long mountain road, GMR to those who would know the road, without letting their heart rate go over 150. Whoever gets to the top first is truly the fittest. I've tried to do 150 foot races with friends, but our egos always get in the way and it just turns into a speed race, totally disregarding heart rate after about a mile.

Tomorrow I've got a 14 mile run in the hills. Should be awesome. We are having spring like weather here in January in California and it is gorgeous outside.

Yahoo! The Weekend's Here

It's always good day when I drag myself out of bed to workout in the morning. Yvette has been shaming me all week by getting up and going to the gym at 5:30 while I beat the snooze bar on my alarm clock to death for the 1 hour that it will allow me to do so. In my defense, someone needs to snuggle up to the kids when they come to our be at 6 am and I just didn't want them to miss that fun.But, this morning I was able to get up and jump on my bike for a 45 minute session on the trainer. This morning, I made decision that I need to download another video from Train Right, because I can do the dialogue in the one I have word-for-word.Here's what the weekend has in store. A 8 mile run on Saturday morning and a 10-12 mile run on Sunday.I just signed up for a 15k called the XTERRA Black Mountain Trail Run . I have no idea what the course looks like, but it sounds like a great time. It takes place on March 22nd and I signed Yvette up too. My Muay Thai instructor, Master Kim, is going to run it with us as well. It's his first trail race. We are hoping to sucker a whole bunch of people into this with us, aided by the fact that there is a 5k race too. I'll keep you posted.

Maybe it's my fault, or maybe you're just making excuses

This video is as much for me as it is for those of you reading this blog. It is a reminder that success comes from hard work.

At some point running becomes mental....

...then it becomes physical again.. then mental again... then mental over physical... then physical over mental.... then tears.... then, well you get the point.

So, I am still going back and forth on whether to do that 30k in Calico next Sunday. So I decided last night that I'd go for a 12 mile hill run this morning to see where I am at physically.

When the alarm rang this morning at 6 am the winds outside were howling. For those of you that don't live in the Southern California area, there are these winds called Santa Anas that blow every fall and winter. They are incredibly dry and can blow up to 80 mph. Fortunately, this morning they were only a steady 10 mph with gust up to 40 mph ( my guess).

So when I got up, my 4 year old son, Diego, decided he wanted to run with me. I tried to talk him out of it because it was really windy outside. But he went to his room and changed into his "running clothes" so how could I say no. After all, one of my dreams for life is to be able to go on long runs with my boys when they are older, so we can talk and I can teach them life lessons. Long runs are great for talking with friends, how much better will they be with my boys? So, I had to say yes. He got dresses and we ran a slow, for me, but his little feet were moving fast, 1 mile run. He did great. Congratulations Diego on your first "endurance run".

So, once he was back home, now it was time for me to take off on my own. The first part of my run is a 2 mile sustained uphill run right up Etiwanda to the water tower and the trail that runs under the power lines in the foothills. It is a tough part of the run normally, mentally challenging you to not to stop to walk, especially in the top 1/3rd when it gets even steeper. Today, God wanted to strengthen me even more and convinced me once again that he has a sense of humor by having the wind blow directly into my face on that part of the run. Wow! That adds a new twist. 15-40 mph gusts into your face that almost blow you backwards and you've got to keep running up this hill! It felt like I had resistance bands on me and someone was holding me back the entire first 2 miles of the run.

One thing I've learned and use it if you feel it helps you is:

"When the pain comes, smile and chuckle a bit, for some reason it helps".

That is my mantra when I hit suffer points in my training

When I got to the top, I only had to add a 8 mile out and back on an up and down trail. Awesome. The one thing that I did have to look forward to was the last 2 miles which would be extremely downhill and with the wind at my back, but between here and there, a lot of interesting conversations took place in my head.

Here are my totals for this run - 12.3 miles, +1859' of climbing, average heart rate 162 bpm, max heart rate 186 bpm- I can't give you my time or average pace because I forgot to reset my watch after yesterday's bike trainer workout, so my time is all off.

Another note: I have terrible, with a capital T, cramping issues on longer runs. Recently, I have learned that Mona Vie can knock out cramps almost immediately after drinking it. I've used it during jiu jitsu practice but never on runs. So today I took one of the gel packs along just in case

I cramped to see if my stomach could handle it while on a run. I didn't have any issues on the run, but as soon as I stopped my calves started twinging. I downed a gel pack real quick and minutes later the cramps were gone. That part is a success. I still have to see if I can handle it in my stomach "at speed". I'll let you know when I am able to try it again.

Well, it's off to breakfast and play with the kids.

Oh, and to make matters worse in my Calico decision making process. Today's run proved to me that I am in shape to do it......

Gusty Santa Ana Winds Picture

Success and a glimpse into my warped decision making process

Thanks to the promise I made in this blog, I did get out of bed this morning and logged in 36 minutes on my bike trainer. I know I was supposed to put in an hour, but I laid in my bed for an extra 20 minutes trying to talk myself out of getting up. Seriously, the only reason that I did get up was that I didn't want to have to write a failure post in this blog.
Stephen Covey, in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People says that checking things off of your to-do list gives you a small endorphin rush each time that you do it. That leads you to want to check off more things. I can tell you that checking this one off my list was definitely accompanied by a smile and a feeling of accomplishment.
I did 36 minutes of a Chris Carmichael training video (http://www.trainright.com/) that actually lasts an hour. I had to cut it short in order to get to work on time. It is a great workout and always leaves a puddle of sweat under the bike.
Now, on another subject, my brain.
Yesterday, I got a comment on my blog on Facebook from one of my craziest friends, Suzy Degazon . She's an ultra athlete that has completes some of the most insane races on the planet, example: Ultraman, which is a 3x distance Ironman, here are the distances and yes they are staggering 7.2 miles swim, 336 mile bike, and a 78.6 mile run. She is amazing and also an example as to why you should be careful as to who you associate with.
Her comment was, "what are your ultra plans for 2009?"
Now, I had set a goal of completing a 50k this year, but I hadn't really considered getting serious about it until later in the spring. Suzy changed that. She called me out and made me announce my goal to someone other than my inner voice. So here it is. I am now in training to go back and slay the course that beat me in December of 2007, the Northface Endurance Championship race in San Francisco in December. It is a 50k race ( 31 miles) with about 7,000' of climbing in the run. It has some of the most beautiful scenery, and here's the kicker, there's a 50 mile option. So, don't be surprise if in my postings you start to hear me try to rationalize that I can finish that distance.
But here's a look into what goes on inside my head that disturbs even me. The next part of Suzy's reply was that she was doing the Calico50k next weekend as a training run. My response should have been something like "awesome, you go girl". Instead, I immediately start thinking, "I could do that and that would be fun". Then the rational part of my brain says, "You haven't run over 8 miles in the last few months and your still blistering on your instep from breaking in the orthodics that your physical therapist has you in after the last knee injury". Then the little devil on my shoulder says "yeah, but you didn't blister last run, you can do this. Go ahead check the site, see if there's a 30k (18 miles). You can run that in your sleep". The smart angel on the other shoulder says " Stop it, we're talking 18 miles of trail running, with elevation changes, and oh, by the way, we're not sure if the knee is going to hold up". "It hasn't hurt you lately, the doctor fixed it". "It's $80 and going to be super cold at 7 am in the high desert". "Cold is great for running, and you could walk 18 miles you wuss, do it".
See, that is what goes on in my head. You may be asking, are you going to do it? And as of last night I would have said no because I had talked myself out of it, but then I was telling my thoughtless wife about this whole thing and she acted like I should do it. Urgghhh....
Stay tuned, I am still not sure where this is headed. Perhaps some long runs this weekend with some time to think and suffer will help this play out.

I am a lazy bum

When I tell people that I get up early to run before work, they frequently give me some story about how they can't do that because they are not a morning person, or something like, I just can't get out of bed in the morning to work out. Well, I've got news for you, I don't like getting out of warm sheets, next to my favorite person in the world, to go out into the elements and run either. In fact, it is a HUGE battle to do so. Especially when I haven't been really consistent in my morning workouts. And this morning I lost the battle. I was even more upset when I rolled over and discovered that Yvette had won her battle and was off on a run with her friends. So now I feel like an even bigger failure.
The good news is I have been through this before and know some tricks to win this battle. I also know that after a few workouts, back-to-back, it becomes a whole lot easier.
Accountability is a big trick- it is actually how Yvette won this morning.
I won't stand someone up that I am supposed to meet and will force myself out of bed. Yvette had friends meeting her this morning.
Since I don't have any current training partners- I will find some really quickly- this blog is going to have to serve as my accountability partner. I will commit that tomorrow morning I am going to get up and train for an hour before work. I'll do it because I don't want to repeat the title of this post tomorrow. Hint: if I don't post tomorrow it means I didn't workout either. See how you are helping me out.
I'll either run for an hour or ride my bike on the trainer in the garage for an hour if Yvette has left with her friends to run because we can't leave the kids home alone.

My first Muy Thai posting

So, about 2 years ago when we were pregnant with Cruz, I decided to stop training for triathlons for a couple of years. Triathlon is an amazingly selfish sport and very time intensive. I tried my best to do most of my workouts before the kids were awake, but the addition of a third child led me to make the decision to forgo 5+ hour bike workouts in favor of not being served divorce papers- not that we've ever been even close, but I just thought it would be a good idea to do so while the kids were small.
I kept jogging, which eventually turned into, thanks to some strange thing in my head, ultra running and 4+ hour run workouts. Brilliant! The good part about ultra running is that I could do it really early in the morning or late at night after the kids had gone to bed. That was all well and good and probably could have been done without too much family dis-harmony ( is that even a word?)
So how does Muy Thai figure into this? Simple, when my daughter was born, I remembered how I was as a boy with girls and decided that she would be able to beat up any boy who she needed to. I knew that she would be involved with some sort of Martial Art. So a few years ago we started shopping studios and landed at a place we now call home a few nights a week called Performance Martial Arts http://performancemac.com/ run by an amazing couple Master Daniel Kim and his wife Jane Kim ( both black belts). Isabella started there 3 years ago and Diego first started on the mat at 2 years old. They've advanced well in class and really love it.
Master Kim would come out on some runs with me in October - December of 2007 and he let me know that he was going to be starting a Muy Thai Kickboxing class for the parents at the studio. He invited me to try it. Part of his reasoning was that I had been abusing him on runs and I think he wanted to return some of the pain I had been delivering. Needless to say, I said yes. And even with my significant endurance background ( I had run over 700 miles getting ready for the Ultra run that I ran in December) I found myself hammered in every class. And so begins the love affair. I have this strange affinity towards suffering, and this class provided it. It also allowed me to share a sport that the kids were involved in and hopefully set an example in work ethic and commitment for them. Oh, and did I mention that I lost 10 pounds and 2 inches on my waist within the first 60 days. And it's not like I was out of shape.
I haven't posted much about this even though I've been training now for over 14 months in both Muy Thai and Jiu Jitsu because I really think that a lot of people find Martial Arts strange, but since it has become a significant part of my training I thought I'd post some of the happenings that take place while training.
In my next post, I'll talk about the new studio that we moved into and my buddy James' first time rolling Jiu Jitsu with me last night. Hint.... He is REALLY sore this morning.

Holiday run and one fast girl

OK, so I got in a few good runs over the holidays. I will be posting them on MyMotionBased on my Facebook account as soon as I figure out how to use that application. Mostly some 5-8 mile runs without anything noteworthy having taken place, EXCEPT, and of course there's an except, my Saturday run.
Saturday I left the house with the intention of a short 3 mile run then hit the weights and work on my arms so that I can one day stretch out the sleeves on a t-shirt. I took a route that I have never run but I was fairly certain I'd end up at around 3 miles. I took off at a 7:30 pace and stayed there until I turned left on Day Creek and headed down. I lifted the pace to sub 6 and was holding a pretty steady 5:50 for about 3/4 of a mile. When I turned left onto Highland the road turns up just a bit. I dropped into the 7's again but it feels so slow when you are running in the 5's that I probably, no definitely, pushed harder than I was capable in order to finish strong. So, I decided to walk down my heart rate to 150 since it had been pinned at 196 for a while. I know, I just wussed out and gave in to that wimpy voice in my head. To make matters worse, about a minute after I began walking, a young lady in velvet running pants passed by me. Have I mentioned lately how much I wished that I could not be some competitive ?
I walk a few more steps, glance at my hrm and it reads 158. I say, "No Chris, you were walking down to 150" a few more steps, glance again and it says 155, I rationalize that 155 is in the 150's and set out to catch Velvet girl.
Crap, she's moving kinda quick. A glance at my wrist says I am back at 7:30 pace and she's not reeling in so quickly. So I lift into the 6's somewhere and pass her by with a quick flip of the hand to say hello.
Certainly she was running so fast thinking that I was chasing her with the intention of harm.
Bear in mind, I have headphones on so I have know way, short of looking back, if she is following me. So, imagine my shock when 1/2 mile later I turn up Etiwanda and she is right behind me.
Now it's on. I know that I only have about 1/4 of a mile to go uphill before I can turn right onto my street and cool down, so it's back to 196+ heart rate-land that I go. Certainly this girl can't keep up going uphill. She's on the west side of the street and I am on the east. And she won't go away.
As I turn onto my street, now praying that she doesn't chase me and cause me harm as I don't know if I can outrun her, I tip a hat to her and immediately drop to a jog to catch my breath. Wow! That was one really fast chick!

Thanks Velvet pants girl.