The Year Behind, The Year Ahead

The Year of the Van turned into the year of work. Whattayergonna do? Life happens. Instead of numerous van weekends and holidays exploring unknown lands of the USA I took a total of zero days off and flew 40-something times for my job. What this means, fair readers, is that the year's recap will be short and, in fact, so will the coming year's plans.

An entertaining upside is the I finally stopped yappin' about proper health and fitness topics and instead turned to the stylings of Stevie Haston. His site just kills me, for both it's training psyche and its audacity. And it's madness--ah, so much for "both". Anyway, I think even non-climbers would enjoy his work. It's crazy inspiring. Not one to mince words Stevie's year-end summary went like this:

Winter solstice today, I'm looking at the last 12 months and I had a great year, about 60 new routes in Gozo, all on interesting rock and of high quality....King of Kings is certainly my favorite roof....a project done in Ariège....a new kitten...lots of new projects....

I've lost a little bit of muscles and become more flexible which make me a better climber....and I will get stronger slowly but surely...

Climbing is getting more important to me as the world seems to implode with stupidity. Wars to bolster the economy of the West, make me ashamed. That's it, I'm going bouldering today, to lazy to go climbing.

Short and to the point. And before you blame such focus and carefree mindedness on youth, consider Stevie's in his mid-50s. So I will paraphrase inserting my own measely existence.

Though they didn't go as expected that last 12 months have been a full year of adventures of different sorts. I can't complain about work when I'm able to affect so many people. It's any educator's dream. At home we rescued another maniac. Cattle dogs are not for the faint of heart or those not committed to exercise, especially those who've already been rejected. Our dogs are a challenge but one I wouldn't trade, even when they're doing their best impression of Mitt Romney and absconding us for their own adventures.

Athletically, I never got injured and learned a lot. Not many notches on the old scorecard. Made my one race count, as it appears on many "hardest of" lists, ticked off a handful of epic rides and 11 new routes to boot. Became less ripped but hopefully more functional. Also have been dealing with an illness that's hung around since doing a long ride in smokey air. Don't try that at home--heed air pollution warnings. The upside, always, is that the trickier the illness the more there is to learn. I'm lucky enough to be in the position to pass on newfound knowledge.

For the coming year it's work and all things Yak Attack. After which, we'll see where my psyche takes me. There are new cliffs to be developed, and odd interest in off-widths, and many strange adventures to be concocted that push us into the realm of the unknown.

As for the blog, I'm going to attempt to bring it back towards cutting through the BS that is our health and fitness media. I have a stack of stories to deconstruct, which I'll pick on as time permits. And, of course, there are plenty of training and nutritional theories that bare testing. It shouldn't be boring.

This year's going to be the best one yet. Always.

The Year of the Van

“I have a van.”
-Steve’s reply in the film Slacker when asked if he had a car.

Happy New Year! This year’s goals are all over the board, sports wise. It was going to be the year of the jock or something silly. But then I got to thinking that it wasn’t very creative as I’ve been training concurrently for different sports for many years now. It would likely lead to a redundancy reaction as 2011’s “year of fitness”, which caused more than one friend to ask “isn’t that every year for you?” This year fitness be a given and we’ll focus on the means and the venue, because I have a van.

My 1985 Toyota was put out to pasture in 2009. Its engine (edging towards 400k) was still going strong but it was more or less falling off of the chassis. Sadly she wasn’t restored because she hadn’t been used properly in years as my travel had turned jet set-ish, meaning I’d done more climbing in Europe over the last decade than in adjacent states. When my Subi started showing her age I went into new car mode and was thinking along the same lines until Romney sent me an ad for an old Westy. Bingo.

The wheels started turning. Romney’s locked into an 8-5 gig for the foreseeable future. Weekend getaways are far more realistic than weeks abroad. And, as luck would have it, there’s a massive limestone belt ranging across the northern mountain states that weren’t developed back in my van years in the 90s (when I probably visited 99% of the established climbing areas in the Western US)—-a perfect distance away for short trips in a self-contained living space.

It’s no secret that the van years the pinnacle of my life in many respects. Even though nothing tangible to the Western mindset was accomplished (unless you count first ascents of obscure routes), those years were full of blissful, focused living. Every day had a purpose. Life was simple. It was good.

Things have drastically changed and there are merits. The upsides are easier to calculate as I, ya know, have a family and own an actual house and not just one the is mobile. The downside is that I’m also a cog in the machine. Daily activities acquiesce to others. To-do lists only gets longer.

The reality is that isn’t going to stop and I’m okay with that. I’m doing what I consider to be important work and am lucky to have the opportunity so I plan to ride it into the sunset. But the van will allow some respite. Even if it’s only for a couple of days here and there, this year there are going to be days with no cell reception, no computer, no outside influences at al. Just forests, deserts, mountains, trails, rock, and family and/or friends. And a van to call home.

pic: bob’s go westy calendar entry, featuring his gorgeous synchro and a eurovan that looks like ours.

Hope you all had a great holiday season. We will now get back to our regularly-scheduled programming...

Recaping The "Year of Fitness"

My theme at the start of the year was a Year of Fitness and, more or less, it was. I stayed mainly quite fit, trained and raced right through a few bad injuries, and find myself just as motivated as ever moving towards next year. Sure, some things could have gone better but I can honestly say that I hope a year never goes perfect. Then what would I shoot for? I presented the numbers earlier this week. Here are a few highlights in photos.

it all started with a party...

and a never-ending winter. would have been great for skiing but i had races to train for.

luckily finn prefers riding to skiing, though most early-season riding needed to be done in the desert.

and P90X2 development meant a lot of trips south

at duathlon nationals in tucson

two days after nats the first big day of the year: sedona's 'big friggin' loop'

romney on a load humping trip to a crag where the season would never start

post crash in ketchum, exploring trails instead of racing nats

with no option to climb training got a wee bit more focused.

oddly enough an article about my climbing life appeared in a year with little climbing.

overlooking the cote d'azur with friend (beachbody president) jon congdon.

on the iconic mt ventoux

gear ready for spain. body, not so much

tapering in france at 'fitness camp'. le bonne vie!

it hurts just looking at this pic

with climbing and racing plans derailled you might as well go local

mick on the final pitch of my only long climb of the year.

in the wee hours at frog hollow. helmet light obviously on a lookout for aliens.

an uninspired birthday challenge for everyone but finnegan, who clicked off 40k at over 10mph.

finishing the year like it started, training with mr. f

and enjoying the desert because now that i have time to ski there's no winter.

it seems appropriate to end with a sunset.

Happy New Year!

2011: Training by numbers

Notes – What's specifically done is listed elsewhere on the blog and can be found under "Labels". Most rehab work falls under Mobility. Cycling and climbing training means specific training. So a ride or climbing day might or might not be termed training. Indoor training doesn’t count as riding or climbing, only as training. All runs had a purpose. I don’t run for fun but do ruke on trails. A ruke is a hike/run, generally at ultra pace. Steep hike is generally fairly arduous, like hiking up a mountain. I don’t include hikes to climbing areas unless they are significant. Ski days all XC, classic or skate. Multi-sports days are two or more sports in a day, whereas multi-workouts are two different workouts done at different times (one is usually easy). A big day is something much longer than I’ve been doing in training.

Jan-Mar: Lots of travel or would have skied more. LA Feb-Mar for X2. Soleus work done early Mar, which is why there is a hole in the running days. Sick in mid-Mar. Hard to estimate recovery days because I often will use a different discipline to recover, like climb to recover from running and riding, which would be a training day.
April: First peak, Duathlon Nats on 26th.
May: A month “off”.
June: From mid-month real training began again after racing Mtb State Champs.
July: Injured hand in crash on 14th. Didn’t affect training, just climbing. By now, 2.5 hr ride considered recovery unless it’s hard. End of month S. France trip w/ 2 big days, Ventoux and run thru Maritime Alps.
Aug: Mainly specific training for World’s.
Sept: Injured soleus on 4th. “Training” became rehabbing through World’s on 25th.
Oct: The next goal for year was to test short training on some longer events.
Nov: All training focused around recovering from 3 12-hour days.
Dec: Play month but psyched and training a lot towards the end of the year. Used my scheduled workouts to fill in the last few days of the year.

Analysis – This may look crazy but look closely and it should be pretty easy to interpret. During the winter training was steady but volume low, hence there is less rest and more structure. Towards the two peaks (Ap and Sept), training became more sports specific. Intensity and volume increases dictating more recovery days. The months following each peak had little to no structure. Finally, during the epic fall marathons everything revolved around recovering between events as opposed to trying to get fitter. Moving into the off-season the winter pattern has re-emerged.

Only did four races but all were significant:

Duathlon Nationals 12th (though knocked to 25th w/ disputed penalties)
Utah State Mtn Bike Champs 7th
Duathlong World Championships 12th
Frog Hollow 25 Hour Race 3rd in duo division

Hardest climb: 12c (not impressive but at least it was on-sight)

Big Days include: The November Trifecta, Squawstruck, Ben's BD Challenge, Mt Ventoux and a long run in the Maritime Alps, and Sedona's Big Friggin' Loop.

A Year Of Fitness

My New Year’s Resolution is simple; to get into the best shape of my life. Since I’ve been living on a similar theme forever I suppose it could be termed a high minded objective. However, I do see this year as having an extra edge for a few distinct reasons.

First, a bunch of my friends have similar ideas. In fact, my friend Josh coined to title of this blog. Inspired by the massive group birthday challenge my wife concocted more of my friends than ever—and this is a very fit group—have decided to turn the screws a little this year.

Second, Romney is perhaps even more motivated than I am. She was training at Gym Jones, and very fit, when we met but the first time she supported one of my birthday challenges she said, “Never. I’m tired just following you around in a car.” Last year she invested and this year she wants to go bigger. Who am I to argue?

Finally, I spent the last few years learning about fitness in more of a spotlight and, thus, am more motivated than ever to put them to the test. P90X was pretty much stuff that we already knew worked. No one thought we’d ever sell it so its development was low pressure. We were really testing the market more than our knowledge about training. Since it hit we’ve hustling to raise our game; experimenting with new training modalities and figuring out how to bring them to the masses. Training individuals is a different ball game than training everyone at once. But since we’ve been given an incredible opportunity I’ll be dammed if I’m not going to make the best of it.

As I see it, 2011 has blown in a serendipitious perfect storm of motivation, support, and work projects. It’ll be an adventure to see how it plays out. Happy New Year everyone!

pic: the year of fitness starts… with a hangover.

Happy New Year!

With the new training facility functional the New Year is in full swing. Hope you’re resolutions are just getting warmed up and you meet all of your fitness goals—or at least enough to keep you motivated for your pie-in-the-sky ambitions—in 2010. We’re eating more sustainably, doing enough exercise to keep the dogs fit, getting better at our jobs, and, if there’s time, will tick some more off our life’s to-do list. Here are my climbing ambitions for the upcoming year.

1. Finish Black Dynamite (first ascent): did the moves before construction season/winter set in. Have linked the three segments on my board. As soon as I can do them back to back I’ll be ready.

2. Link my mega traverse: my pie in the sky goal.

3. Dogma, or something else on Mt Wilson: since I’ve never climbed it.

4. Sheer Lunacy, or something free in Zion: since I’ve never freed a wall there.

5. Notch Peak, via linking Western Hardman and Book of Saturdays: if it doesn’t fall apart, because it’s a big day on the largest limestone face in the US.

6. Sacred Ground or Excommunication: because they both look amazing.

7. Monkey’s Face: because it will get me out to see friends in Oregon and it’s one of the coolest formations in the US and I’ve never climbed it.

8. Evolution Traverse (car to car of course): because I love the Sierra and it’s one of the coolest lines ever, and a massive day.

9. Climb the three major lines on Mt Olympus in a day: because it’s a massive day in my backyard.

10. Find an amazing first ascent to do in the mountains: to keep me motivated.

Best Year Ever

My wife just wrote a blog called Best New Year's Ever. I felt I should one up her. I try to live life with the rationale that whatever I'm currently doing is the best thing I've ever done. I probably don't always believe it but it seems counterproductive to live any other way. This year, however, makes a case that could be argued in court.

I began the year at my brother's wedding in India.


I found a lot to like in India, though not all of it lived up up to the books I'd read in my youth. 2008 began with an attempt at a big party, which turned into wandering the streets of Calcutta, and celebrating with some random locals.

The next day I was headed for Nepal. After about 30 hours of rattling through India, consuming only street food and chai, I witnessed my first sunset of 2008 jammed into a mini-bus with about 25 people whilst fighting a bout of dysentary.

Nepal suited me,



but I was excited to get back home, where Romney and I were about to surprise a lot of people with our bipartisan campaign, which commenced with a surprise ceremony in Switzerland.

Back at home, work was going well as P90X and Ten Minute Trainer became the two most popular fitness programs in the USA. As one of these programs creators, I then embarked on a blogging throughout my next round of X to shed light on some of the main questions we get on the Message Boards. Between this post in March, and this one in July, you'll find a lot of info about 90X you won't hear elsewhere.
Next, we got Beata back.

Who not only became a great companion for Tuco, but a great training partner for me. We promptly went out and stompeed the competition in a duathlon.

Our campaign then bought a new headquarters and commenced a series of victory parties.



If you shoot enough, you never know what you'll catch:
romney girls with a slightly out-of-character mick in the background.
mom and lisa with a highly out-of-character bob in the background.
josh, completely in character, enjoying a party.
We then began zipping off from one adventure to the next.

The popularity of 90x took us from a how to look good in a bathing suit company to how to get ready for a professional athletics career. We continually find more and more athletes using it to enhance their sports performance, but it was still a surprise when X's popularity landed a trip for (Beachbody President) Jon and I to the Olympics.

The fall lasted just long enough for a family-themed birthday challenge.

Then the snows hit, making it time to strap on the skis, make some goals for 2009, and concoct a new training plan.
tuco transforms into a wolf each winter.
Instead of resting on a successful 2008, Beachbody's got big plans as well. We just launched ChaLEAN Extreme and will take an attempt to ante up on 90X with Shaun T's Insanity. Shaun and I promoted it and his other programs and went in depth into how we're going to cure our obesity epidemic on Blog Talk Radio. Our interview took so long it cut into my socializing at our holiday party.
with jonathan gelfand, esq., and slim in 6 creator debbie siebers at the beachbody bash.
As the holidays rolled around, Romney and I were completely traveled out. We spent some fantastic family quiet time skiing, lounging, and running in the New Year.


If it was her best New Year ever, it was certainly my best Christmas.

Happy New Year! Here's to 2009.