Switch

I'm starting a program called Switch.  I will now explain the name and why we finally decided on that name rather than others.  The secret to life is simple, when thinking negatively...switch your attitude and choose to be optimistic/positive.  The theory behind the name "switch", is that all you need for a better quality life is to turn on the switch to positive/optimistic mode.  I promise that life will be much more fruitful as you strive to always see the glass half full.  It's an empowering theory.  As you grasp this theory you'll become more assertive, productive, healthy, active, friendly, likable and much more.  I have a friend that always chooses to look at the positive even through some of life's most difficult challenges.  He's a great example to me and makes me want to be a more positive person. "The only disability in life is a bad attitude" (Scott Hamilton).  He's proven that despite life's unexpected turns/detours, you're still the one in control of what you do.
According to fitness guru and GPP fitness founder Neil Anderson, there are six aspects of health: emotional, financial, mental, physical, social, and spiritual health.  "Optimal health is only acquired by gaining perfect balance of the six aspects of health" (Neil Anderson).  Therefore, if a person becomes fixated or obsessed with one aspect they will soon be out of balance and remember, the goal is optimal health.  Right?  Right.  The Switch program will change lives.  I know, bc it has changed mine.  My goal is to help you to help yourself increase the physical aspect of health and therefore, become closer to optimal health.  The awesome thing about physical health is that by being physically healthy/balanced you'll see an immediate enhancement on the other five aspects.  After graduating from the Switch program you'll be ready to be the trainer.  My goal is for you to become your own coach so you can accomplish your bucket-lists (B-L).  Whether you've written a bucket-list or not, you have one.  It's your deepest desires and I know that you can accomplish your B-L items.  I'm convinced that the Switch program will help all people take hold of there physical health and therefore balance out their health for a more fruitful life.

The journey to checking off a bucket-list item

Everyone's journey is unique.  Everyone's bucket-list (B-L) is different.   But the important part is to choose a B-L that you're passionate about and have fun with.  Whether its sky-diving, traveling the globe or running with the bulls through the streets of spain.  Go for your B-L, aspire to it, fight for it & always remember...peacebethejourney.

Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run

Dean Karnazes aka the UltraMarathon Man is one inspiring man.  He pushes the limits & knows what it truly means to go after your goals passionately.  He's accomplished some amazing/incredible physical feats: running for 350 miles straight (without sleeping), 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states, & many more.  His most recent bucket-list item is still in the works.  He's talking to forrest services across the country to put together a trail that starts at the Pacific & ends at the Atlantic.  He says that it'll take him 100 days, running about 42 miles/day.  He claims that this will encourage others to jump on the train of a healthy life style.
Needless to say,... he's passionate about running, being healthy, creating bucket-lists, aspiring to bucket-list items & of course, accomplishing challenges.  While doing all this he is a full-time Husband & Father.
After reading his book I added several more goals to challenge my limits & grow in character.  For example: running 47 miles within 24 hrs (check), finishing a 100 miles ultra endurance run (which will be checked off my list on Sept 11, 2011)
The Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run is one of the most uniquely challenging ultrarunning events in the world.  "It is a study in contrasts: peaks and valleys, trails and scree, heat and cold, wet and dry, summer and winter, day and night, "I can't" and "I will!".
"The Wasatch 100 is a point-to-point race that traverses the heart of the central Wasatch Mountains.  The course begins in east Kaysville, Utah at the foot of Francis Peak, and the ascent begins with a climb of nearly 5000 feet in 9 miles to the crest of the Wasatch Mountains,, The trail then turns south along the Francis Peak ridge, through Farmingon Flats and Arthur's Fork, along Sessions ridge, over City Creek Pass, Big Mt. Pass, Bald Mountain, through, Parley's Canyon, Lambs Canyon, Millcreek Canyon, around Desolation Lake, along the Wasatch Crest trail, through Big Cottonwood and American Fork Canyon, over Pole Line Pass, around Mill Canyon Peak, down Pot Hollow Canyon, up to Crest Road in Wasatch Mountain State Park, down Lime Canyon to Snake Creek Road and to the finish at the Homestead in Midway."
Needless to say,... I've been training.

BUCKET-list item.... check it off

The great Liz Bennett asked me to share my IRONMAN story. Therefore, I will do just that.  My journey to finishing an Ironman starts back in 2005.  I was eight-teen years old at the time & high school athletics were finished.  I was a washed up senior, yet, still had much desire to push myself to the limits & to find new limits.  So, I wrote a bucket-list & number one on the list was PEACEBETHEJOURNEY, my theory was that whatever: task, activity, goal, work, play time, challenge, trial, etc. etc. that I was working toward or participating in…I was going to let PEACEBETHEJOURNEY (LIFE is too short to live any other way.  Don’t you agree?).  The rest of MY bucket-list items were varied between exploring physical limits, like running a marathon to getting married to the most awesome/perfect girl for me. 

            I started to train for a marathon.  Like most of you, I had to pass through the “I hate running” phase, to the … “this is alright” phase.  I finished 26.2 miles despite the many doubters. Yet, I was still in the “this is alright” phase.  From there I continued to aspire to bucket-list items.  Crossing one item off from time to time (isn’t that the best feeling?).  Like I said, I had a well-diversified bucket-list, yet, several items led me to try new things & had a chain affect that led me to the IRONMAN.  I’ll explain.

             After a few years of this & a few attempts at that, I bought a bike.  I didn’t go with a light weight, skinny tired trek.  I went with a heavy-duty steel touring bike (retro style) & named her ROXY.  I put many miles on her & saw some awesome sights while in the saddle.  All of these experiences added a lot of fun to my life & as of right now I could participate in a bizarre biathlon.  I say bizarre biathlon because of my attitude toward running & my heavy retro-d–out bike, therefore, I had two of the three events for a tri. However, that changed soon after.  My friend invited me to try swimming.  She was all decked-out with all the swim gear, she even had an ipod cover that allowed her to jam out to Jack Johnson under the water.  Despite feeling a little unprepared, I took her up on the challenge.  I showed up with some swim trunks.  I didn’t have goggles or a cap.  I jumped in and followed her lead.  We swam for about forty-five minutes straight. She didn’t stop to see how I was doing or give me any tips.  Therefore, I just tried to keep my head above water (since I didn’t have goggles).  I then had the three activities that made up an IRONMAN.

            SWIM 2.4 miles, BIKE 112 miles, RUN 26.2 miles, “brag for the rest of your life”.  The Ironman is known as one of the harder endurance events.  Most endurance athletes throw-in-the-towel even before considering to attempt the 140.6 miles.  I’m here to tell you that YOU CAN finish a FULL IRONMAN whether you have 14 hours per week to dedicate toward training or if you only have 7.  Whether you’ve done 10 sprints, 5 olympics & a half IRONMAN or if you’re getting into the pool for the first time with no goggles & swim trunks. Whether you’ve ran 50 consecutive miles or only 6.5 miles in one sitting.  “Competition is won or lost on the six-inch playing field between the ears”.  Most of us wont be looking to win the competition, rather, to accomplish the feat of crossing the line after 140.6 miles within the 17 hour time limit. 

            If I can do it, then YOU CAN do it.  Here are some reasons why:

1.      I didn’t have money to sign up for a full IRONMAN.  I also didn’t have extra money laying around to travel across the US to Kentucky.  So, I found a non-profit organization that would fund me, while I raised money for their cause. 

2.      I didn’t have an expensive TRIbike or even a road bike.  I would’ve road my freakin mountain bike if I had to.  But, while my Dad was talking to someone about the race he mentioned that I needed a bike…it turns out that guy’s wife’s X-husband is the same size as me (6 ft. 2” 195 lbs) & was willing to lend me his bike.

3.      While working 40 hrs a week & being in love with my wife & other things in life I didn’t have 14 hrs per week for training.  So, I focused on GPP style workouts & near perfect nutrition.

4.     The farthest I ran at one time before my IRONMAN was 6.5 miles (once or twice a week).

5.     The longest amount of time that I swam before the race was 45 min (about twice a week).

6.     The longest ride I had was 35 miles (& that only happened twice before my race).

7.       I didn’t have any nutritionist. But, I did need to pay attention to the food I consumed. I ate often.  I always tried to intake ten certain foods during each day: spinach & other green leaf vegetables, all natural peanut butter, dairy, eggs, almonds & other nuts, whey protein, blueberries, whole grains, turkey, chicken, sardines & fish, & healthy fats such as: olive oil, canola oil & Flaxseed oil.  (I would have a cheat day once every 14 days).

8.        I put the goal to finish the IRONMAN in 12 hours & be able to go run the day after.

9.      With a month left until the race I still didn’t know if I was going to strap my bike to the back of my car & drive to Kentucky or fly…we ended up purchases plain tickets so that we’d arrive on the Friday before the race (race day was on Sunday the 29^th of Aug. 2010).

10. When we arrived in Kentucky (with my Wife, Mom & Dad) we were laughing & taking our time.  I was waiting for my luggage & bike with a group of tired travelers.  While I was standing there a woman asked me if I was going to participate in the IRONMAN.  I said “Yeah”.  She said “Well, you need to be registered by 5:00 pm or else you can’t race on Sunday”.  I looked down at my watch & realized it was 4:25 pm.  We had 35 min to get there. This woman demanded that we (Arial & I) ride with her to the spot of registration.  Because she was a local she had a family member waiting for her in a mini van.  While my Mom & Dad waited for my things, Arial & I ran to the van & were on our way.  We made it to registration at 4:55 pm & they were literally closing it down when we arrived.  I registered with 2 min to spare.  (Moral of the story….freakin read & reread the athlete guide.  I read the athlete guide at the time when I registered 5 months prior, which told me about this 5:00 pm deadline for athlete-registration.  But, I put the athlete’s guide away soon thereafter & never opened it again, therefore, forgetting about some important rules).

11. On race day I jumped in the water with a small dried branch planning on doing the “catch-up drill” for the entire swim.  Most tri-athletes would disagree with this, yet, sometimes I do the opposite of the crowds.

12. Many first-time-IRONMANERS are concerned about being able to breath on both sides while swimming.  I only breath on one side during the 2.4 mile swim. 

13. The heat & humidity was killer in the southern state…& the last 22 miles of the bike I went without H2O, Gatorade or any other type of liquid.

14. Starting the run, I decided that I was going to go shirtless (which later came back to ALMOST haunt me).  So, I took off with a good pace (8min mile pace).  However, about 4 miles into the run I had some adversity… I was fatigued.  The dehydration set in & every step was accompanied by pain. 

15. As I was running over-heard some  people commenting about my shirtless back…I didn’t think much of it until a fellow athlete warned me that a man was DQ’d for running shirtless in the IRONMAN Arizona.  I was about 5 miles from the start & my family was no-where in sight.  So, I approached a boy that was about 11 yrs old & asked him for the shirt off his back.  I finished the 26.2 miles in a shirt sized for an 11 yr old (it was super tight) ha….but, PEACEBETHEJOURNEY…right?!                                                                                                

            So, I continued a slow-paced run for the next 13 miles.  When I hit mile marker 18 I had a burst of energy & finished out the last 8 miles with 8 ½ min miles.  With about 2 miles left I could hear the deep roar of the crowd.  The sound became louder & louder as I continued through downtown Louisville.  I had the chills & had an unexplainable excitement/joy inside.  I continued with that same pace & when I finally was able to see the finish line I dropped it down to first gear.  I wanted to soak in this amazing feeling…I skipped to the finish-line (like Party boy from Jackass) with the crowd roaring, bright lights in my eyes & a voice in the back ground saying “YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!” After 14 hr & 45 min journey I was an official finisher of an IRONMAN.  I was able to celebrate with some of the most important people in my life: Arial Larsen (my beautiful wife), mom, papa muntz & Kim Jarvis (an amazing aunt of mine). I probably made many rookie mistakes, but, most importantly I was willing to push my limits, try something new & enjoy every min…. 

             Now I’m on to finding new limits, learning more about myself when times get difficult & crossing off more bucket-list items.  Hope to hear your success stories….