Travelling and such

It's been awhile since I've update this blog - i've had a few ideas in the past couple of weeks, just haven't been disciplined to put thoughts into writting.

I've been traveling once or twice a month with Crossfit Endurance to put on the certifications all over the country and I absolutely love it - getting a chance to meet people in the Crossfit & Endurance community is a blessing.  I get to do what i love and travel while i am at it and get to make friends all over :)  Could it get any better?  I sort had this lifestyle vision in my mind about a year ago, and its funny how its come true.

I thought I would share some travel tips that I've learned...

• Pack lightly - i used to think that I didn't want to be without something, but now i realize that less is more, and if i really need something, i can always pick it up at the destination.  Nowadays i pack so i don't check luggage in, and makes the in and out of airports much quicker
• Eat well - i typically always eat a big meal before i leave, this way i know I won't be starving.  I typically always pack a few snacks - most of the time i take some sort of jerky with me, nuts and fruits - these are always a great healthy snack.
• It seems that most places i travel to have a layover somewhere - i typically find my way to a sports bar and order a salad with chicken, and always ask for extra meat if possible.  
• Water - take a water bottle with you, even if its empty - this will save you $3-$4 at the airport, if you bring your own water, you can then fill it up at the water fountains, and every airport has them...Make sure you stay super hydrated, if you are traveling a long ways it will make the jet lag pass sooner
• Bring entertainment - wether its a book, magazine, computer - make sure you take this opportunity to catch up on things you don't do.  When i travel, it gives me an opportunity to get caught up on email - i don't like to sit at my computer for long periods of time, and i coach full time and still get tons of email questions and can't always get around to responding to them right away - so i take this opportunity to do so.  I always travel with at least one book - i love reading!!!  My dad has taught me some great lessons and one that sticks out is to always strive to continue to learn and educate yourself - evolve!!!!
• If the airport doesn't have free wifi - see if you can spot up next to a president's club, or frequent flyer clubs - those typically offer free wifi and you can usually snag it for free!
• Be nice and appreciative to the people that work in the industry- they probably get barked at all the time, make sure you thank them and always be corteous, even if your flight is delayed or something happens - more than likely its not their fault, and you being angry and taking it out on them will not make the situation any better.

Ok - i think that about does it - safe travels, enjoy this little video from my luxury travel to Europe this summer - mucho thanks to Michele Muzio from Air New Zealand

12 Months of Racing

Time to Re-Define What's Possible....

After my recent triathlon I was completely inspired to get back into triathlons and actually train for them in the future.   I surprised myself on how well I did, maybe my age group wasn't as competitive as before, maybe I was fast, maybe it was a combination - either way I was stoked with a 5th place finish in a field of close to 150.  It led me to think that I could really compete at triathlons, even if just for fun - it fueled me so much that I decided I want to do an Ironman - why the heck not?  It's official, last week I registered for Ironman St. George in Utah on May 7th - super excited about it.  An Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run - a full marathon at the end - saving the best for last.  why the heck not - i've heard its beautiful in Utah and this is one of the toughest IM events - BRING IT!

For the next couple of months I will continue to crossfit 4-6 x week, and 1 CFE run workout, 1 CFE Bike workout and 1 CFE swim per week.  I'll bump it up to 2 per sport per week when the new year rolls around.  I am also in the process of purchasing a tri bike - it's one of the things that was on my 100 things I want to do before passing on, so I figured this would be perfect timing.

In the course of all this madness I decided to put together a full 12 month race schedule - here's what it looks like:
November - Turkey Trot 5k
December - last year I did Bumble Bee 5k on the 30th and love the race course although I am considering going up to SF for new years, so this is undecided for now
January - nothing planned yet :)
February 13th - San Dieguito 1/2 Marathon
March 6th - Palm Springs Triathlon (International Distance)
April 3rd - Carlsbad 5000 - one of my favorite races, home course :)
May 7th - Ironman St. George, Utah
May 28th - Tough Mudder - http://toughmudder.com/events
June 5th -11th - AIDS LifeCycle - 545 miles - 7 days from SF to LA
July - Crossfit Games?
possibly will do Solana Beach Tri - i've done it in the past and its super fun, although I am not super motivated and dying to do it...
October - Los Angeles Triathlon (Olympic distance)
November - NY Marathon - because it sounds awesome!!!!!

Its a pretty jam packed year up ahead - I picked races that were going to be fun and were going to be challenging - let's make 2011 even more unbelievable than 2010!

Goals for this week

I love to travel, whether its for work or for fun because it typically gives me a time to reflect about what's going on in my life, read lots, and write out some goals.  Here's what I came up with from this weekends trip to Florida.

Personal Goals -

• Read a book in the next week: form a book club....I already have a few people in mind that I am going to email this week, but if you are interested please let me know.  
• Costco shopping trip?

Career Goals - Empower, Encourage, Elevate

1. Close out business account - done tuesday :)
2. Email Eli about CFE - done tuesday :)
3. Program clients training for the week - done monday night :)
4. Ask about investing - in the process of gathering information about this, asked my bank about opening a brokerage account - any suggestions?  Etrade?  Scottrade?

Heal Goals -

• Medidate for 10 minutes every morning - missed tuesday, got it done today :)
• 4 Crossfit workouts + 1 Bike, 1 Run and 1 Swim
• Share my goals on my blog :)

I am seriously considering doing Ironman St. George - I will most likely sign up for it before the end of this month.  I'm excited about the challenge, doing something new and completely different.  I know this will test me beyond anything that I have done before and just waiting for a few things to fall in place before committing.

Reducing carbon footprint

It wasn't long ago that I was driving around town in my Toyota Yaris - i do miss it at times, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be.  I had it for a little over a year and then someone decided to run a stop sign without looking to the right and this was the result.

Luckily I wasn't seriously hurt - I did get some whiplash, but fortunately that went away pretty quickly.  The first few days I wanted nothing to do with cars, and saw it as an opportunity to get my bike out of the closet.  I ended up getting a rental for a few weeks, while the insurance settlement was taking place and before the end of the June I found myself without a car. 

I decided not to get a car before i left on my trip to Europe - it made no sense, i was going to be gone for 6 weeks.   Once I got back from my trip, I decided I could live without a car for awhile - so nowadays you will catch me riding my bike around town mostly, walking from time to time, and you may even see me running as well.

San Diego is not an ideal city to not have a car, but its totally doable!  The only minor challenge is getting groceries - i don't live close enough to be able to talk, but luckily I know enough people that it has been pretty easy to ask someone for help going to the store or picking up a few items for me.

The winter will be interesting without a car - i think I can do it, my goal is to go a full year without one, which means till next summer.  The accident happened right after I began my 101 things I wanted to do before i move on....little did I know I'd have an opportunity to scratch this off the list right away.

I really enjoy not having a car payment, insurance, having to pay for gas, etc...In that regard I am totally stoked to be able to allocated my money in different directions for this next year.  I am super lucky to be able to ride my bike to Crossfit Invictus which is where I coach.  Aside from that I travel quite a bit for Crossfit Endurance, so I can really justify not having a car.  It would make things easier from time to time, but this sacrifice I think is worth making and I am confident I will truly reap from the benefits of not having a car for a year - not only that but I am also reducing the carbon footprint on this wonderful universe  of ours :)

What are you doing nowadays to reduce the carbon footprint - you sharing rides to work?  Riding your bike one day a week?  I want to know how you are making a difference in creating a healthy environment for all :)

101 Things to do before i move on...

In no particular order of priority....

1. Live in Miami
2. Live in Portugal
3. Be completely debt free
4. Have kids - i am thinking 3 at least :)
5. Teach PE
6. Write a book
7. Go to Italy & Greece - this will most likely happen next year!
8. Fall in love again
9. Speak to my family on the phone every week
10. Live for a year without a car (currently doing so - see if i can hold out till June next year)
11. Brazil - need i say more here?
12. Take care of my brother
13. Own a temperpeudic bed
14. Tri Bike
15. Read 1,000 books

That's as far as I've gotten - I had this list in a past journal and thought I would put it out there into the universe

Weekend of Challenges

This past weekend was a once in a lifetime type of weekend - some of you might think I am slightly crazy for what I was up to this past weekend, some of you might just chalk it up to me being me, and some of you might be somewhat taken back by the amount of activity that I was able to endure this past weekend.

Let's recap the events and performances:  I wanted to compete in several things this past weekend, and instead of choosing one or the other - i did all of them.  First up Saturday morning 9am- MCRD Boot Camp Challenge.  I train full time at CF Invictus and I absolutely love it there - super lucky to have such a great group to be on this journey with,.  Anyways, we had a contingency out there on the course and a few weeks before I decided I wanted to take part in this event.

It was a super fun 3 mile course that we did as a 3 person team.   I knew Joerg and Matt (from CF Invictus) were interested in doing this event as well, so I figured we'd make a great team.  It was a blast, we went out there in a super hot day and were able to complete the course in 21:40 which was good for a 2nd place finish among the 3 person teams :)

Shortly after this event finished Joerg and I headed to CF Invictus to get ready for the OPT Big Dawg Challenge.  I am a big fan of OPT - I have learned a lot from his training methodology, website and from the trickle down effect since it is one of CJs mentor.

When I heard about this event I was super excited about it - I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  We didn't find out what the workout was going to be until that morning - I LOVE the element of surprise and it really speaks volumes to the efficiency of Crossfit training that no matter what comes out in the workout I look forward to attacking it and doing my best on it!  

When I saw the workout that morning I was excited about it and started to strategize in my head where I would push and how I would approach it.

For the full workout and the results check out the Invictus blog from last week - link below

http://www.crossfitinvictus.com/blog/2010/09/saturday-september-25-2010/

The event started at 11:30 and I was in one of the later heats which gave me a chance to recover, fuel and warm up accordingly after the Boot Camp Challenge.  I was able to watch some of the earlier heats and see how they were performing and modified my approach slightly.  On the Snatch portion I chose a weight I knew I could do and utilized the rest of the time to do as many burpees as possible.  I went into a trance during the burpees - it was an outer body experience, it was quite something and hard to describe.  I went into this zone that I pushed through some fatigue and was able to keep a consistent pace and rhythym going throughout. 

I knew I had 3 minutes of rest coming to me after which I knew I'd fully recover before getting on the rower for phase 2 of the workout.  At that point it was about maximizing my reps at the stations.    I pushed and pushed and pushed everything I had in me - I felt pretty good about it, and when I found out I finished 2nd I was somewhat surprised.  I thought I had done well, but wasn't expecting to have done that well - I was STOKED!!!!  To finish ahead of guru OPT (CF Games champion 2007) will be something memorable!

One would think this is a lot to do in one weekend already - but I did not rest there, i had one more event to compete in.   I signed up to do the AIDS 10K Run in Balboa park on Sunday morning.  I have been wanting to do this event in the past and haven't been able to.

I was looking forward to running this event, my friend Christopher Walden has done this event in the past and we were going to line up together and see who is fastest.  I know I'd have to run really fast in order to have a chance - he's fast.  Just this past year he ran a 3:13 Rock N Roll Marathon that qualified him for Boston Marathon!!!  What was incredible about his accomplishment is that he never ran more than 7 miles and no more that 3 x week, which speaks volumes to the type of training that he's been doing.  (Oh yeah - he's been coming to track workouts regularly all year long)  Interesting what a little speed work can do....

We lined up at the start and it was a beautiful day - super warm, Heidi (accupuncturist) came out with Koda to cheer us on, Joerg with Jackie (his awesome dog) and a few other friends and people we knew.  Before you know it the gun went off.  I hung with Chris for about the first mile and kept him within sight the entire race, but could not keep up with him.   My legs were feeling tight and so was my upper body - i did my best to stay relaxed and kept a good pace throughout.

All in all, i finished the race in 39:37 - my goal was to come in under 40 minutes, i was super pleased with this time which comes out to 6:22 per mile.  8th place overall and 4th in my age group.   My entire body was feeling wrecked after though, i could feel the soreness coming on, the adrenaline of the competing wearing down, and knowing I'd have to take some rest this week to let my body recover.

It was a great weekend - i love competing, not for the sake of winning, but for the sake of being active, sharing great experiences with friends and pushing my body to the limits.  I know this past weekend I pushed my body beyond what I thought was possible.  My goals were not to win or place in my age group - it was to do my best in all the events, and mission accomplished here.   I feel super lucky that I was able to share in these experiences with friends over the weekend, and been recovering all week from it - but it was totally worth it.  I haven't worked out since the weekend, but been honoring my body and the rest its been asking for as i get ready to do the Mission Bay Triathlon this weekend :)

The Three Laws of Performance

I absolutely love to travel - it gives me an opportunity to read.  I've gotten to be a huge nerd in the past few years in regards to learning and reading.  I don't always remember having such a huge passion/drive for reading but nowadays I am always reading 2-3 books at a time.

I went to Houston this past weekend to coach a Crossfit Endurance certification, which went really well.  I took 3 books with me, normal right???  Probably not so, but that's how I roll!

First on the agenda was "The Three Laws of Performance"  a book that was recommended to me by some friends that I have done Landmark courses with.  I've been reading this book since the spring, and only tid bits here and there whenever I have felt inspired to get into it.  I was on my last chapter - I knew I was going to finish it and I was looking forward to it.

The book itself was really easy to read, although I stopped several times so that I could think about some of the questions posed and how they impacted me, my life and the situations in my present.  One of the main reasons I love reading is because it makes me think - in a productive sense, it stimulates my brain and makes me question things that are going on in my life and how I look at the world.  It helps me see different perspectives and learn from others.

Here are the three laws of performance:

1.  How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.
2.  How a situation occurs arises in language
3. Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people

Its hard to sum up in a few sentences what these sentences mean to me, and all the impact they've had in my life, and I probably won't know immediately either..,. What I can say is that they made a lot of sense when reading in the context of the book - I would highly recommend anyone looking for a good book to pick this up and reading it.  Personally, I know that by adding this to my reading material its kept me thinking how situations occur to other people. 

I really enjoyed the leadership corrollaries, milestones on the road to mastery and commitments they explained in the book - this really resonated it and the question that really hit home:  Who or What is leading your life?


What is it that I want to create for my future?  I want a future that is going to inspire action, and addresses the concerns of those involved, I want it to be vibrant and compelling!!!!