Your Best Will Never Let You Down

In a previous post I offered 3 principles that I live my life by. The first, and the topic of my previous post, is "do what you say you're going to do". The second one is "do your best". Your best will never let you down. It can't possibly let you down, because if your effort is truly your best effort, then, win, lose, pass or fail, you gave it your best shot, and that is something that will always make you better and it is something that you can always be proud of. Similar to "do what you say you're going to do", "do your best" also seems like a no-brainer, right? Why wouldn't you do your best? But in all honesty, do you always do your best? How often do your best intentions become just good enough? 

Your best effort is going to be doing the task at hand to the absolute best of your ability with the singular purpose of advancing closer to achievement of your goal. When it comes to training, don't make the mistake of equating "best" to "hardest". Granted, some days a max effort may be exactly what's required, but in most cases it is some other level of intensity that is going to best help you achieve your goals. Whatever the level of intensity that is prescribed by your program, the key is to do your best to meet the required level of intensity. Additionally, when talking about exercise, doing your best means achieving perfect form every rep for the prescribed number of reps, or the amount of time in a timed set. Every rep you cheat on your form is holding you back from achieving your goal. Here's a common example that I see almost every time we have pushups in our workouts at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning. I'll use a fictional character here as not to call anybody out specifically. I tell Conor Nordengren to keep a solid plank position during his pushups, elbows in, lower the chest to a couple inches from the ground and extend fully at the top. But Conor drops his head, flares his elbows out, sags at the lower back, and only gets halfway to the ground because his ego won't allow him to regress the exercise to a simpler modification that he can do with perfect form. I correct his form, offer him a simpler modification so that he can progress at the level he's at. Once I turn around Conor goes right back to the way he was doing it because, again, his ego won't let him do pushups from his knees. Does he really think cheating his form is going to get him closer to perfect form? Is it going to help him achieve his goal better than perfect reps at a slight regression of the same exercise? In reality, he is probably well on his way to requiring PT for a shoulder impingement. 

With perfect practice, Conor, someday you too will be able to pull off the headband and knee-high striped tube sock look.

I have coached hundreds of athletes and adults over the past 20 years and in every case, whether it's in the weight room or on the field, the person who checks their ego and practices perfect form achieves at the highest levels. The saying, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect" applies.

Consistently doing your best takes a lot of practice, concentration, and dedication. It is easy to not do your best. It is easy to settle for "good enough". For me, it is constantly at the front of my mind. I am always asking myself "are you doing your best". I am not lying when I say that I do this at least 10 times per day. When I am on my bike and my training session calls for hard efforts I continually ask myself if I can go harder. If the answer is yes, then I pedal harder. If the answer is no, then I keep going at the pace I'm going. The other day I had 13:00 threshold intervals and I asked myself this question at least a dozen times. It's easy to let yourself back off as the pain tends to take over and the brain is telling you to let up a little. Asking myself if I'm doing my best keeps me in the moment and keeps me focused on doing the task to the best of my ability. In the gym, when I'm doing pushups, pullups, squats, deadlifts, kettlebell swings, every one is perfect. I refuse to cheat a rep and it's because I always have the self-awareness of whether I am doing my best or not. I ask myself the question, and if the answer is no then I immediately make the adjustment. This is the only way that I will continue to improve.

But this goes well beyond what I do on the bike or in the gym. Doing my best is paramount to my success as a coach. When I am running sessions at the gym I am constantly aware of whether I could be doing a better job, providing better instruction and feedback, paying proper attention to form. When I'm designing programs I am always striving to put the best program in place to to give our clients the absolute best training experience possible. In my research I read the books and attend the seminars that I feel will help me become the best coach I can be. 

I find that how I approach training in the gym or on the bike translates very well to how I approach things in life. I believe this is probably true for most people. In training you are in the perfect environment to do your best and be rewarded with qualitative results. If you don't do your best, you don't get the results. Same in the gym as it is in the real world. When I coach soccer teams I have always told them that their goal for each time they step on the field is to step off a better player than they were when they stepped on. Each and every time. If you approach everything you do with this attitude there is no question that you will achieve at the highest levels. I approach everything in life on a personal and professional basis with this simple principle. Do your best. I have learned from years and years of experience that my best has never let me down.

Every once in a while your best may actually be THE best!

Do What You Say You're Going To Do

If you really want to make a better life for yourself then I believe there are 3 keys to achieving that. These are principles that I live my life by and they never let me down. I'll call them "The 3 Do's".

1. Do what you say you're going to do.

2. Do your best.

3. Do unto others as you would have done to you. Or in modern lingo, "don't be a douche". 

Not sure how much of this I'll get through in this entry, but I'll at least get through the first one.

Do what you say you're going to do. This isn't original. Google that exact phrase and it gets over 58 million hits. Sounds simple and common sensical, but take a deep look inside and ask yourself if you really do what you say you're going to do. If you say you're going to lose 20 pounds, do you? If you say you're going to get that promotion, do you do what it takes? How about taking that vacation, reading that book, taking that cooking class, spending more time with your kids? Every time you say you are going to do something, no matter how big or how small, you have made a commitment to yourself and others. But how many times do we not come through on what we said we were going to do? I know stuff happens and other, more important things can get in the way. If you tell your kids you're going to take them to Disney and then you lose your job, well, Disney has to wait, doesn't it? But a lot of times we say we're going to do something and then we just don't, maybe we just thought it wasn't that important. Like when somebody tells me they're going to come to all 3 of their workouts next week and they show up for 1 or 2. What's the big deal, right? Here's the deal. Every time we don't do what we said we were going to do it costs us self-respect, integrity, and the respect of others. From a purely psychological standpoint, not coming through on commitments can result in a defeatist, "can't do" attitude that pervades your entire life. And face it, if we don't come through on the small stuff we commit to then how are we ever going to have the guts to come through on the big stuff?

The reason I'm writing about this is because as a coach, my goal is to help people set goals and achieve them. My goal is to help people achieve a lifestyle where they are healthy and fit, confident and happy, and eager to take on new challenges. To be role models to their friends and family and to have a positive impact on the people they interact with and the environment they live in. To commit to making positive changes in their lives and the lives of others. In my experience, the people who do what they say they are going to do are far better off than those who don't. 

In my own personal experience I have also found that in 100% of the instances where I did what I said I would do, the affect was always profoundly more positive than if I had let myself and others down by not coming through. And every time I set another goal or make another commitment, it becomes that much easier for me to stay the course because I am more confident in my abilities and I am more driven to succeed. I'll give you a perfect example that literally changed my life and laid the foundation for who I am today. 

I've mentioned this in the past and many of those who have known me for a long time know that the worst time of my life was when my marriage exploded like that Mikey kid's head after he chased a handful of Pop Rocks with a Coke. I was out on my own in a shitty apartment feeling really sorry for myself, drinking too much and eating like crap. There were a few months where, emotionally and physically, I was a mess. I had recently bought a new carbon fiber Orbea Orca because I needed a light, fast bike to race up Mt Washington with my buddy Bill. Bill had talked me into doing it, he told me how setting an aggressive goal like that would keep me focused and positive. Looking back on it today it's a no brainer. It was brilliant. A couple months went by and Bill was training and I really wasn't. I was lucky if I was getting in 40 miles a week and he was getting in about 250! He'd call me to ask how my training was going, telling me I better get ready because it was really going to suck, even if I was in shape for it. This went on until we were 10 weeks out. This was a personal deadline I had set for myself. I either had to get my shit together 10 weeks out or I had to tell Bill I was out. I would have had to tell him I wasn't going to do what I said I would do. I decided that the last thing I was going to do was to let myself or Bill down. I started eating right, I stopped drinking, I trained like an animal. Actually, I overtrained and ended up losing 10 days to a nasty chest infection, but I meant well.. By the time the race came around I was as ready as I could have possibly been. Bill crushed it in 1:11 and I ended up at 1:24 which was 4 minutes slower than my goal. But I was there and I did what I said I was going to do. I often think of what might have happened if I had gone the other direction and had bailed on Bill and the Mt Washington race. It was definitely a crossroads for me and I went the right way. I can't think of a single instance since then that I haven't come through on my commitments and my life just keeps getting better. I set racing goals, I set professional goals, I set personal goals and I stick to every one of them. If I tell you I am going to do something you can take it to the bank. It sets me up for success in everything I do.

Doing what I said I was going to do.

At Dynamic we have created an atmosphere that is conducive to setting goals, training for them, and achieving them. There is a camaraderie, we are like family. We know what each other's goals are. We count on each other to show up, train hard, and support each other. If you tell us what you are going to do we completely expect you to do it, and if we think you need a push once in a while you're going to get it.

Everybody has a goal. Every goal starts with you saying what you're going to do. Now get out there and do it. I'm counting on you.

Where did you go, Bo?

Remember Bo Jackson? Easily the greatest multi-sport athlete of my generation, and if not for a career ending hip injury, may have become the greatest of all time. Jackson was running for touchdowns for the Raiders on Sunday and hitting home runs for the Royals on Monday. How about Jim Brown? Best multi-sport athlete of any generation? Brown is always brought up in the "who was the best football player of all time" argument, but he is also one of the top lacrosse players of all time. I only wish I could have been around to see him play. What about Jim Thorpe? In the 1912 Olympics he won gold in the pentathlon and decathlon, and then went on to play professional baseball, football and basketball! These days a multi-sport athlete is a kid who plays 11v11 soccer in the fall and spring, 4v4 tournaments in the Summer, and indoor soccer in the Winter. Every sport has year round access and the pressure from clubs is ridiculous to get the kids to specialize early. I wonder why that is..... Hmmm, let me think about that for a second as I watch this soccer academy director speed away in his Porsche GT3 RSR... 

I know he's 8, but this is the "window". He needs to specialize. That will be $1000 for the season, another $600 for tournaments, and $300 for uniforms. Thanks :)

Youth sport specialization is a major problem today for two reasons. The first is burnout. Studies have shown that by age 14, 70% of youth athletes have stopped playing competitive sports. This can be attributed to bad coaching, bad experiences, high pressure from coaches and parents, and a host of other reasons. Essentially the kid stops having fun and doesn't want to do it anymore. Is it any wonder that Johnny is pretty much sick of soccer by the time he's 13 when he's been through over a thousand organized practices, games and tournaments in soccer starting when he was 4 and that he's actually been playing year round since he was 8? 

The second problem I see, and the one that I think is even more damaging, is that when a kid specializes too early (like before they are in college), they never completely develop as an athlete. Every sport has different neurological and physical demands on the body and causes different adaptations. In order to completely develop as an athlete you have to be exposed to as many different sports and physical challenges as possible. With early sports specialization, you get a one dimensional athlete that is injury prone because the athlete's body has only adapted to the stressors of one particular sport.

If you think I'm being subjective, here's a little objectivity from my experience of coaching athletes for the last 20 years. My best player is always my best athlete and my best player always plays more than one sport. Key word here is "always".. It's not sometimes. Not mostly. ALWAYS. 

Here's more objectivity. When I was in high school, the best player on the football team also starred on the hockey team and played baseball in the Spring. The best player on the basketball team also played football and baseball. The best baseball player was a standout hockey player and also played on the football team. To be perfectly honest I can't remember a single varsity player that didn't play at least one other sport at the varsity level. And back in those days, which was only 25 years ago, nobody even knew what the hell an ACL was. What does that tell you about how multi-sport athletes are better conditioned, stronger, and less injury prone?

Let's look at it from another perspective. One of the best analogies I've ever heard on the topic was this. Your son, Brad, is 8. He gets all "A's" in math. He loves math. He knows his times tables and can even do a little long division and he's only in the second grade! You decide, "That's it. From now on it's only math for Brad! No more English, no more spelling, no more Social Studies. Just math.". 

You're chuckling because it's so ridiculous to even think it. As far as our education goes we don't specialize until we are in Grad school. Half our credits in a college undergrad program are liberal arts. Why? Because learning as much as you can about as many different topics as you can makes you smarter, teaches you to think critically in a number of different capacities, and could possibly qualify you as the most interesting man at the company Christmas party, especially if you were a multi-sport athlete, because you can do a handstand, carry on a conversation about Plato's Republic, and thank the hostess in Flemish.

When we were kids we played football in the Fall, basketball and hockey in the Winter, baseball in the Summer, none of it was organized. We played kill the man with the ball. We played 500 (guarantee you there isn't a single kid today that knows what that is). We rode our bikes EVERYWHERE. We climbed trees and fell out of them and didn't get hurt. We started playing organized baseball only when there were kids who could pitch a ball and we didn't have to hit it off a tee. Tee ball is an abomination and I can't believe there is a 5 year old alive who goes on to continue with baseball after being subjected to Tee Ball. As a 5 year old I would have rather gone to the dentist then to sit through a 2 hr tee ball game swatting mosquitos and playing in the infield sand waiting for everybody on the other team to hit the ball off a stick so that I could get up and have a chance to hit once every 45 minutes. Oh yeah, and the score always ended in a 36-36 tie!

Know what else we did? We lifted weights! But that is for another post....

We were multi sport athletes. We were good at everything. We didn't get injured. And in many cases we continued playing and enjoying competitive sports well into our older years. I still compete and I love it. If your argument is "but there's a window when a kid has to specialize" just remember who you're hearing that from as you're writing them the next $1000 check for the 2012 soccer season.. When it's time to specialize, a college scout will tell you. Until then, play everything, play hard, and have fun doing it.

It's Just a Drink Away...

I have written about recovery in the past, you can read that here. Right now I would like to talk about post workout recovery nutrition. I would argue that the most important meal of the day for everybody is breakfast. If you're not eating breakfast then you can forget about your performance gains, ability to perform at a high level, or even your fat loss goals. The second most important thing you eat (or drink) all day is going to be what you take in immediately after your workout. But when I ask most of the people I work with what they use for a recovery drink, from general fitness clients to elite level athletes, I get no answer. In many cases, though, that's because people just don't know what they should be doing.. So here's a quick tutorial......

"Eest good for recover, da?".... Umm, not really.

I have done tons of research on the topic and I have experimented with my own post workout nutrition a lot. I'm not going to go into the science behind it because, well, I'm not a scientist. I'm simply going to give you a summary of what's going on after a workout and what you need to do to recover as quickly as possible based on research I've done written by people much smarter than me.

Workouts beat you up and break you down. Whether they are long endurance sessions, interval sessions, or short, intense resistance sessions. Your muscle glycogen is depleted (glycogen is what your muscles use for energy) and your body is put in a catabolic state (muscle breaks down). If you do nothing to reverse this, the result is any or all of the following:

- prolonged muscle soreness and fatigue

- poor subsequent performance

- overtraining syndrome, or at the very least "over-reaching"

- minimal gains in muscle mass or even losses in muscle mass (especially in endurance athletes)

- a lowering of your metabolic rate (essentially the rate at which you burn calories)

Here's what the smart guys say:

"Failure to consume carbohydrates after exercise results in higher than necessary level of muscle breakdown, thereby reducing the benefit that might be derived from resistance training" - Dr. Dan Benardot

"Rapid replenishement of muscle glycogen stores has a favorable impact on the prevention of muscle protein catabolism, on cellular rehydration, and on subsequent exercise performances within the same day or on subsequent days. Basically, if you don't replenish glycogen rapidly, your performance will suffer next time you train and you may even lose some muscle along the way." Dr. John Berardi

Here's what I say.... To reverse this process, it is crucial that you take in the right balance of carbohydrates and protein post-workout. Not only that, but there is a window of opportunity following a workout when your muscles are super sensitive and receptive to these nutrients. The research shows that within 30 minutes of a workout, glycogen synthesis is 3x higher than just 2 hours later. What this means is faster recovery times. The key macronutrient is carbohydrates. You want between 0.8g -1.0g of carbs per kilogram of bodyweight. The longer and more intense the workout session, the closer to 1g/kg you would want to be.. For most people, the 0.8g/kg is a good target. So for a 150 lb person (68 kilos), that's 54g of carbs. The research shows that the optimum ratio of carbs to protein is anywhere from 2:1 to 4:1, trending towards the higher ratio of 4:1 for endurance athletes and 2:1 for strength/power athletes. Don't get caught up in the numbers here so much. Just make sure you're getting about 50-60g of carbs and about 15-25g of protein and you'll be fine. Liquid form is best since it gets into your system the quickest. You want a type of sugar that triggers the quickest insulin response and a type of protein that is absorbed the quickest. Maltodextrin or dextrose are the fastest sugars to be converted to glycogen, whey protein is absorbed the quickest. The protein source should also contain all the essential amino acids, particularly leucine, and studies have also shown that supplementing with the non-essential amino acid, Glutamine, also helps recovery and muscle protein synthesis.

OK, so now you're thinking, "thanks, Coach, can't wait to mix me up some of that dextrose and whey.". 

Can you say Mmmmmaltodextrin!

Here's a couple easy suggestions. You've heard before that chocolate milk is a good recovery drink, (or maybe you haven't..) Well, it's OK. Unless you're lactose intolerant. Mix the powder (not the high-fructose corn syrup!) with fat-free milk and you'll get a recovery drink with about a 3:1 CHO:PRO ratio. Milk also contains all the essential amino acids. Read labels and use the right amounts of milk and powder to get the right amount of carbs and proteins.. Carnation Instant Breakfast is another one. Again, use fat-free milk. Fat just slows down the whole process of getting the carbs working their magic with your insulin response and you don't want to do anything to slow that process down. 

Or you can do what I do. I drink Ultragen from First Endurance. It mixes great with water, it tastes good, they use the best ingredients for fast absorption into the system and it just flat out works. I've been using it for over a year now and it has been awesome for my recovery. Today I was out for 2 hours on the bike in the 90+ degree humid weather doing threshold intervals. Hammering out 3x9:00 intervals in this kind of heat at heart rates over 95% max were crushing. I was spent when I got home and I'm not kidding when I say that within a couple minutes of drinking the recovery drink I already started to feel better. There's no doubt in my mind that the stuff works. If it didn't I wouldn't recommend it. I also believe in it enough that it is the only recovery drink that I am selling at the gym. If you are interested in some, let me know. Read here if you're interested in the research behind the product.

If you're not doing the post-workout recovery nutrition right then you are wasting a huge opportunity to get the most out of your training. And you are literally one drink away from fixing it.

When Are We Going to Do Cardio?

I get this question on a fairly regular basis. Usually, I respond with a blank stare in anticipation of the punch line as if I'm being told a joke. You know, like, "How many strength coaches does it take to figure out what my 80% 1RM is?". Most people who ask this question are the ones who are most interested in weight loss. The reason this question is asked is because for some reason people have been led to believe that 30 minutes per day of "cardio" in the form of exercise that increases your heart rate into the "aerobic zone" (I think that's the green one on the treadmill chart) will keep you fit and healthy. Activities that qualify, according to these same experts, range from gardening to shooting a few baskets with your grandmother. If I had to bet, I would put my money on this info coming from the same people who came up with the food pyramid that had us eating 8-11 servings of bread and grains per day for "health". But here's the problem, once it's out there and people start believing it, it takes a lot to re-educate. For example, when the "food pyramid" came into play everybody started eating a high carb, low-fat diet. The result has been that our country has gotten fatter and died of more preventable diseases in the past 40 years than at any other time in history, most of which have been directly attributed to a "Western" diet. Now the research is everywhere showing the error in our ways and of course there is a knee-jerk reaction going the opposite direction. Carbs are evil! Eat like a caveman! Oh, and I'd like to just say this about the Paleo Diet and eating like a caveman, if you're not eating bugs and tree bark in the Winter while you're sleeping 16 hours a day because there's only 8 hours of sunlight, then please shut the fuck up about how Paleo you are. You're not. Have a bowl of oatmeal and get over yourself.

Oatmeal?

Weight loss is a tricky topic because at some level, something different will work for different people. But there's certain rules that apply to everybody. The most significant factor in weight loss is going to be what you're eating, when you're eating it, and how much of it you're eating. To steal lines from Michael Pollan, "eat real food", "if it wasn't food 100 years ago, it's not food today", "if it's handed to you in a bag through the window of your car, it's not food". Everybody reading this will be nodding their heads in agreement. So why does everybody spend so much time on the inner aisles of the supermarket? Because that's where all the quick-to-prepare, sugary, salty, yummy stuff is! You want to lose weight? Take a quick check of an obese person's shopping cart and don't buy any of that shit. If you are overweight and want to lose weight, but think adding three hours of exercise a week is going to fix it for you while you continue to eat the crap that made you overweight, you're mistaken. Here's what I know. Every weight loss client I have worked with that makes the change to getting most (at least 80%) of their carbs from fruits and vegetables; their proteins and fats from fish, meat and nuts; eats them in the right amounts at the right times of the day; loses weight. And here's the kicker, they will lose weight regardless of what they're doing for activities. You get the nutrition right and you will get lean. You get the exercise right and it will make you stronger, faster, more athletic, and like Dan John says, "you'll look good nekkid". But my blog on nutrition is coming later, this one is on "cardio".

Cardio. I hate the term because it doesn't mean anything. I need to do cardio. What the hell is that? It's like when I ask somebody what their goal is and they respond, "I want to be more fit". Great goal. Hmm, let's see, how about we have you do some cardio.. Like I mentioned before, for most people, (many of whom are interested in weight loss), cardio means long, slow, endurance type work. Here's a test for you. Go to your local Planet Fatness, walk in the door and be greeted by the plastic smile, "Hello, member 3758, welcome to the non-intimidation zone, where people who hate working out come to hang out and get a complimentary bagel on the way out the door so they can get closer to their 8-11 recommended servings of grains for the day". Then walk over to the row of treadmills and look at the people doing their 30 minutes of cardio. Now take a picture of each of those people that you want to look like. Hang those pictures on your fridge so that you can see them all the time as motivation towards achieving the body that you want. You won't need a very large space on the fridge, in fact, I'm guessing you won't even need a camera. Know why? Because it doesn't work. If you want to have an impact on your weight by jogging, then you will have to jog at least 12 hours a week just to burn enough calories to burn about a pound and a half of fat. But chances are you're going to eat a lot more than normal because you feel that since you ran 12 hours you deserve it and then you won't lose any weight, except for the muscle loss that comes from long slow endurance types of efforts as all your Type II fibers become Type I fibers (think of the difference between what a sprinter looks like vs a marathoner). Also, if you're overweight, and you're running 12 hours a week, I know a great physical therapist I will recommend to you for the damage you will do to your joints, tendons, and ligaments.

Sprinters are strong, lean, powerful and look it. The guy on the left just looks really, really hungry. 

Let's just bag the term cardio now, OK? If your goal is fat loss you need to work out in such a way that it will increase your metabolism. The best way towards an increased metabolism is increasing your muscle mass. Muscle burns calories. Additionally, high intensity anaerobic conditioning recruits more muscles, works the cardio-respiratory system harder than aerobic conditioning, and can take 24-48 hours to recover from, which puts your body in an elevated calorie-burning state. Strength and power work increase your metabolism. High intensity anaerobic intervals done at 85-100% intensity increase your metabolism. The training programs at Dynamic are structured around these principles. If you are working the program that I am giving you, and you set your nutrition according to your goal, you will achieve the body mass you desire, you will get stronger, more powerful, and faster, your energy levels will increase, and you will look good nekkid. But remember, if you don't do the nutrition part right, then you will not achieve the body mass you desire. (There's also a big post-workout recovery, sleep and stress management component to it, but that will also have to wait till I'm not writing about "cardio")

Work your muscles hard. Do strength work and lift heavy weights. Do conditioning at high intensity. Sprint... As for long, slow, endurance type running, I'll leave you with a comment from top trainer and strength coach Alwyn Cosgrove, and you need to read this with his Scottish accent and understand the sense of humor it is delivered with, "If you run because you love running, then by all means, run your bloody heart out. But if you're running to lose weight, then you're a fuckin idiot."

What Makes a Great Coach, Part 3: Ability to Inspire

In part 1 and part 2 of "What Makes a Great Coach" I talked about the importance of higher education and commitment to excellence. In Part 3 I want to cover what I consider the most important quality a coach can have, (unfortunately it's the one that most coaches lack).


When I was a kid I had a baseball coach named Kim Fors. He was a great guy. Just your regular guy who liked to play sports as a kid and decided to volunteer his time as a baseball coach when he was in his 20's. He was my coach for one season when I was 10 years old. Remember when kids only played baseball for about 8 weeks in the Spring and played a different sport as the seasons changed? That's a rant for another day...... I'm pretty short now at 5'6", (I try to make up for it with a lack of sensitivity). You think I'm short now, you should have seen me when I was 10. When I was 10 years old I was about 2' 8", 65 pounds. I was a pretty good baseball player, always made decent contact with the ball and started at all the infield positions except first base.. I remember getting up to bat one day and Coach says to me "Buck, you're gonna hit a home run". I was never even close to hitting a home run, and at my size, it wasn't even something I imagined myself doing. So of course I looked at him like he was out of his mind and said "I can't hit a home run". He said, "Of course you can, get up there and give it your best shot. I think you can do it!". So I get up to bat all fired up because Coach believes in me. The pitch comes in, I swing, and make the truest contact with the baseball I've ever had. The ball is sailing into the outfield, over the center fielder's head. Of course the center fielder is "playing in" because the little kid is up. Anyway, the ball is flying, and I'm running as hard as my little legs could carry me. I'm watching the ball.. Going, going.... Bam! It hits the top rail of the fence in the deepest part of center field and bounces back into play. (It only ends differently in movies, people. You didn't really think I was going to hit a homer, did you?). I end up with a triple. My first triple ever! Inches from a home run. I will never forget to this day how excited I was and how excited Coach was for me. He said "I told you you had it in you! That was inches from being out of here!". And I believed I had it in me from that day on. Kim wasn't certified. He didn't spend weekends away at baseball coaching camps. He didn't watch DVD's and read books about throwing mechanics. He didn't study the game. But he had the most important quality that a coach can have. Something that's not learned in a book, classroom, DVD, or the internet. He had the ability to get people to believe in themselves, to achieve at a level that they didn't previously think they were capable of. That's what separates a good coach from a great coach. I've had a ton of coaches over the years and Kim is the one I remember above all of them. I can't remember what I had for breakfast. But I will remember until the day I die that one hit and how Coach got me to believe in myself.

I can't remember the name of the catcher that I was having a couple pops with here after the game, but I will always remember the day Coach Fors got me to believe.

I have yet to train the person at Dynamic that I don't have higher expectations of than they have of themselves. My primary goal, and the goal of all of the trainers at Dynamic is to get people to achieve at levels that they didn't think were possible. Not just in the gym. Hell, that's the easy part. I'm talking about the real world. When I see one of our clients take on a challenge like the Tough Mudder, or start trail running, or take up Cyclocross, or make a plan to start tackling all the 4000 footers in the White Mts I take great pleasure and satisfaction in knowing that what we're doing at Dynamic is starting to catch on in their lives outside Dynamic. Massive lifestyle transformations, better eating habits, more activities, accepting challenges they never thought possible. On average we see people about 3 hours a week. It's easy to make an impact on a person for 3 hours a week. I want to make an impact on the other 165. Those are the ones that matter to me the most. And they're the ones that matter most to my trainers. 

In 40 years I'll still be telling that story to my grandkids about Coach Fors and how he got a little 10 year old to believe he could do something that seemed impossible. My mission and the mission of all of my trainers at Dynamic is to help all of you create the same kind of stories for your grandkids. That's what coaching is all about.

This is Why You Don't See Skinny Seals: Tough Mudder 2011

Most of the things I sign up for I have a pretty good idea what I'm getting myself into. And then there are days like Saturday......

People think I'm nuts so they always point these crazy events out to me.. "Here you go, Kev.. The Death Race.. Hahaha.. You could do that.". The Death Race is an event that I almost wanted to do, if for no other reason, they had a great website, "www.youmaydie.com".. The Death Race is at the height of this new trend of "adventure" events where people pay money to have other people abuse them for their own enjoyment. The Death Race is a 24hr event where you have to do stuff like dig a tunnel to China, cut off one of your own arms and battle a wild boar with it until one of you dies. I would have done it, except I've recently decided that I have to get at least 8 hours per night of sleep or I get cranky, and the Death Race wasn't going to allow me to sleep for 8 hours. So I opted for the next one on the list, the Tough Mudder.

The Tough Mudder was brought to me last Fall by Mark Wholey. "Hey Kev, we should put a team in for this.". I thought it was a great idea for two reasons. First, it was a legitimate challenge at what was originally 8 miles up and down the face of Mt Snow with 20 obstacles thrown in the way (turned into 10 miles with 28 obstacles). Other events out there, like the Warrior Dash and the Spartan Race would have been a walk in the park for most of the people at Dynamic and I wanted something that was at least a bit daunting. Secondly, I always try to get people at Dynamic to set specific goals so their training has a focus and purpose. I don't like "Oh, I just want to be fit and lose a couple pounds as a goal". I do like, "I'm going to get through the Tough Mudder even though it scares the living shit out of me!". So I threw it out there as a challenge for people at the gym to set as a goal for 2011. I figured maybe a dozen or so would sign up for it. By mid-Spring we were at 41 team members, the largest team in the event which had 7000 people sign up. Not bad for a small gym in Nashua! The people that come to Dynamic absolutely rock!

Leading up to the weekend, the team was getting together for training events, mostly led by Staci and Beth. As the event got nearer and nearer people were starting to freak out a little. What are you going to wear? What about shoes, should I wear these bloodzilla mocs, or these fuddmuckers? How far do we have to swim? Are they really going to electrocute us? Is there really cow shit in the turd's nest? It was awesome! As somebody who races, I know how worked up one can get leading up to an event, so I was really  psyched to see people getting all nervous. 

Personally, I'm an idiot. I didn't think it would be too bad so I didn't train for it. Plus I was there to do it as part of the team, I wasn't there to do it for time, and I knew I could get through it physically.. Leading up to the Mudder I kept right on going with my regular training on the bike and lifting a couple days a week in the gym. I added sprints once a week. I figured the obstacles would be easy to get through from a physical standpoint. I figured there would be some shock value to freak people out a bit but I don't scare easily so I wasn't real worried about that either. I knew there'd be some cold water. Whatever, I take ice baths for my legs and lower back 4 or 5 times a week after my rides...

Weather turned out to be about as good as we could have hoped for in early May in Vermont. We arrived at Mt Snow and I was expecting a logistical nightmare, but it was possibly the most organized, best run event I have ever been to that had that many competitors. We found the Tragically Fit team and everybody was hanging out, smiling, warm, dry.... Warm..... Dry...... We touched up our face paint, took some pictures and headed off to the start. The guy at the starting line got us completely fired up and sent us off whooping and hollering down the mountain.

First thing we had to deal with was "The Death March" straight up to the top of the mountain. The frenetic pace from the starting line lasted the 100 yards down the mountain, around the corner, and then about 50 feet up. People were already slogging with the hearts beating out of their chest. It was a long grind up. I had decided I was going to hang with Danny Locapo for the race. Danny and I go back about 25 years, he's one of my best friends ever, and I was psyched to be able to do this him. I lost him about 10 minutes into the climb... We re-united at the top and I was determined to do a better job of sticking together after that. 

Only a true friend would paint your nose red for you.

Once over the climb, the mud started coming... And coming.. And coming... And then the water started coming. I think the first water hazard was just getting sprayed with hoses or something annoying, but then we had to crawl through these plastic culverts that descended into this foul smelling muck. By the time you got out the other side of the culvert, there was just enough room to keep your nose out of the water, catch your breath, and then go through another one. It wasn't long after that we got to the "Ballshrinker".. Now, I'm used to having my balls shrunk. Like I said, I've been taking 4 or 5 ice baths a week now so I've been shrinking my balls on a regular basis. My balls were ready for this. The Ballshrinker was a wire traverse through a 35 degree pond that completely submerged your whole body. I was not prepared for this. I couldn't breathe, and it felt like my arms shattered. My balls were fine, they were trained for this. The rest of my body? Not so much. But, whatever, a one minute traverse in 35 degree water wasn't a big deal. Once I get out I'll be fine right? Ummm, no. I wore stuff that really held the water well, and at about 7% bodyfat I was freezing my ass off from this point forward and it only got worse. I couldn't warm up for the life of me, regardless of the effort I would put in on climbs. Teeth chattering, body shaking, looking at people without shirts on or in short sleeves and I couldn't imagine how they were even alive. After another climb or two Danny's knee was really starting to bother him and slow him down, so like any really good friend of 25 years I said, "Sorry, I'm fucking freezing, I gotta go". Brett and Mike came with me and we ended up catching up with another group from the Tragically Fit crew (Kerry, Staci, Beth, Lisa, Nancy, Kim) and stuck with them for most of the rest of the day. I finally started to warmup a little as the sun got stronger and I dried a little and then we got to the "Walk the Plank", a 15 foot drop into one of the snowmaking ponds. But this time I was smart. I took my shirts off so they wouldn't get soaked again. Brilliant! Jumping into the water bare chested hurt like hell, but I don't think it would have been any better with a shirt on, and it really helped to not have my shirts drenched again. 

after walking the plank and swimming in 35deg water with no shirt on, my balls shrunk so far into my body they ended up in my mouth

But it didn't matter for long, we soon got to a gauntlet that you had to pass through where a guy with a high pressure fire hose soaked everybody coming through. I have no idea how the guy lived through the day without somebody beating the crap out of him. Getting towards the end we had to go through more snow, mud and water. I loved the big dunking booths full of ice water and dye. The Tough Mudder crew was there dumping bag after bag of ice into the water. People were coming out of the dyed water with this stained skin the color of deathly pale easter eggs. I got to the final water obstacle (or I thought it was anyways). It was sloped, greased monkey bars over another pool of freezing water. Maybe 24 monkey bars.. 12 up and 12 back down. My fingers weren't working, my body was shaking uncontrollably, and my eyes were glazed over... But you would have had to shoot me dead to get me to fall off the bars and into another pool of water. I made it across.. The rest was blurry.. Berlin Walls, water slides, electric shocks (what a jolt! that felt like I got hit with a plank 3 or 4 times), a half mile epileptic stagger back to the car for a dry change of clothes...

I would've preferred flamethrowers at this point but 10000V will do.

After that it was back to see Michele, Dawn and Sandy come across. I was the one that talked Dawn into signing up. Dawn has been working out with us for about a year now and has completely transformed her life. The Tough Mudder was an incredibly aggressive goal for her and I really encouraged her to do it. After just coming through the course myself, I knew Dawn could do it, but I knew it was going to take absolutely everything she had. I was so thankful that Michele was with her, although to be honest, I was just as worried about her at this point because Michele, cold, and wet are a really, really bad mix.. If there is ever another ice age, Michele will go first, and I will be close behind. I was sitting and watching (and shaking) from the bottom, trying to see if I could see them coming into the water slide above. An hour went by and then another one. It was 6:00. They had been out there for over 6 hours, and I knew with the sun getting lower they had to be absolutely freezing. Then across the way I saw Vince and Jaime get up with their cameras. It had to be them. Michele, Dawn and Sandy came around the hay bales and ran through the electrocution maze. The whole group of them were really pretty overcome with emotion, I might even have had a couple man tears on my cheek. Or maybe it was just thawed ice, I don't know. Others from the Tragically Fit team were running out to hug them and congratulate them. It was really pretty incredible.

I can't even begin to tell you how happy I was to see these three come across :)

The whole thing was amazing. I was talking to Danny after and we decided that it was the stupidest thing we've ever done sober. But I will tell you what, anybody who got through it has a level of mental toughness that others could only dream about. To anybody out there who completed the Tough Mudder, you are definitely a badass in my book. I am honored and thankful to have been a part of the Tragically Fit team, you guys showed grit, tenacity, and unrivaled determination and you should all be incredibly proud of yourselves.