MMT_Mad Elf Update

We're about one week into the Mad Elf Challenge and there are lots of elves out there training like mad -- how awesome is that?!

That's just nuts! And not "nuts" like in the Steve Martin movie "Mixed Nuts" - the good kind of "nuts!"

Back to the Challenge - a number of folks have already achieved their individual 500 points - very well done! We're slightly falling behind the Team Challenge pace, so please either keep pushing (in a smart and not a "bad nuts" sort of way) and make sure you're logging your lights...or recruit more peeps!

As always, thanks for playing!

Mad Elf Challenge!

It's December - Winter is Coming - AND it's time for a new challenge.

The MMT staffers realize that lots of folks (to include us) will spend part of their time this month being "Santa's Helpers" (aka elves) in preparation for the holiday festivities. There's lots to be done: decorating, cooking, baking, shopping, honoring religious traditions, dealing with the company office party.

It's important to take care of our own health during the craziness of the holidays - hence the Mad Elf Challenge. The rules are going to be crazy easy because no one needs more stress. The goal is simply to do something healthy in the middle of all the chaos to help maintain sanity. And, since everyone knows that there's a whole bunch of elves needed to make Santa's Workshop function - let's collectively  get Santa across the finish line.

So - two levels of goals here - individual and collective. The INDIVIDUAL challenge is to collect enough "lights" to decorate your own Mad Elf Tree. A going standard is 100 lights per foot of tree; the MMT Mad Elf Tree shall be 5 feet tall - hence, you need 500 "lights" to light up your individual tree. The MMT TEAM Challenge is to get enough "lights" to light up the National Christmas Tree. Different places list different numbers of lights, typically in the 25,000-50,000 range. Let's split the difference and call it 37,500 lights for the MMT TEAM goal.

The fine print...

When: the Challenge runs from 01 Dec to Festivus (23 Dec). Why Festivus - well, wrapping this up on the 23d means the MMT staffers can have a "peaceful" Christmas without checking in to keep tabs on things! Plus, Festivus just sounds like an event you'd want the Mad Elves to crash.

What: Post your "lights" to the tracking spreadsheet (link at right). Let us know if you want "in" and we'll set up a tab for you and the spreadsheet will do the math for you. You'll just have to go in and log your lights on your tab. You can add notes if you like.

Why: It's the holiday season; exercising reduces stress; everyone likes a challenge; why not. Oh, and to sweeten the deal -- if we achieve the MMT Mad Elf Challenge -- MMT will make a donation of 1 cent per "light" to either the Toys for Tots program or the American Red Cross. We'll take a poll later (and yes, we're willing to consider other charities that do good for folks struggling).

Lights: You light a light by doing an exercise. This is the holiday season and you've got enough stress, so the rules will be absurdly easy. 1 minute of cardio is 1 light. 1 rep of an exercise is 1 light. 5 second of a "hold" type exercise (like a plank) is 1 point. That's it - that's all. For the record, a "rep" should be a right-left pair (so if you're doing fire hydrants, you don't get to count 10 right + 10 left as 20 -- it's 10 pairs so 10 lights...) Oh yeah, 12 ounce curls don't count. Other than that -- be a good Mad Elf and count the legitimate stuff. No, you don't have to get all your "lights" in the same setting. You can walk in the morning, do something at lunch, do lunges while watching tv and you get to count all your "lights."

Example: A 20 minute walk with the dog, plus a 30 second plank, plus 10 push-ups  = 20+6+10 = 36 lights you can log.

How hard is this going to be: Individually, to hit 500 lights, you need to do 22 "lights" per day for the 23 days of the challenge or 44 "lights" every other day. That's pretty darn reasonable. The TEAM goal is going to be a bit harder - and yes, that's intentional.

So, yeah - get yourself some sanity - light up your tree - and let's get to the TEAM goal so that a charity gets a boost.

Too easy! We got this. Be a MAD ELF!

It's March! That means...

...it's time for March Abness.

The challenge is all yours this time. Think about your core and your posture and set a goal.

For example, last year, we challenged ourselves to hold a front plank for 3 minutes by the end of March Abness. We wanted to get a jump start on strengthening our core to help maintain an aero position on the bike. This is an old photo (position has changed to go lower in the front), but it'll give you a rough idea. Note: the cell phone is not recommended for outside rides!

To practice holding that position for 112 miles, we started with challenging ourselves to hold a plank for 3 minutes. Good stuff.

So, pick a challenge that is appropriate for you and your training buddies...and have at it. Lots of different possibilities with this one and we'd love to hear about your March Abness Challenge in the comments. We're still debating our version - so we'd love to steal a good idea or two!

We're trying to figure out the next version of MMT -- look for more info toward the end of March Abness. In the meantime, we wish you safe training with lots of endorphins.

Congratulations! You Survived!

This challenge was a bit different, and the results seem to show that it was a tougher challenge than the first one. We still had an absolutely great success rate - both in terms of people finishing the full challenge, as well as in terms of getting folks up and moving and starting out 2012 strongly.

It's interesting that more people found it harder to achieve the "sessions" part of the challenge than the "hours" portion. Consistency is a very tough thing to accomplish - any can do something a few times, but it is tough to stick with things, like exercise, that are hard. Take a few moments to pat yourselves on the back.

Now for the amazing stat the email hinted at: collectively, we accomplished over 28 days of continuous exercise/movement. Over 675 hours of exercise. Think about that for a moment -- you were part of a challenge that resulted in the equivalent of one person exercising every hour of every day for the entire month of February. Holy cow that's impressive!

If you accomplished the full MMT2 challenge - congrats. If you didn't make the milestones, but still participated and moved more than you otherwise would have - congrats.

We hope you've enjoyed the challenge. We hope that the MMT2 challenge helped you kick off the calendar year (and possibly your training year) in a positive way. We've heard from several folks who have 5k's, tri's, and even
longer distance events planned - best of luck as you continue your training path.

And yes, there will be an MMT3. We're still pondering events and distances (have to have something to do while staring at the black lap lane marker at the bottom of the pool...), but expect an update soon. If you have any crazy
ideas, we'd love to hear about them. In the meantime, work on finding a "battle buddy" to do the next challenge with - it's always fun to share the madness with others!

7 Days to go!!!

Ok all you mere mortals, time to HTHU (harden the heck up!) as we enter the final week of our challenge. Including today, you’ve got one week to get out there and “git ‘er done!” A few folks are at the finish line, or very nearly so, but some of you are going to have to find some afterburners to kick it in this last week in order to meet either the session requirement, time requirement, or both. Don’t give up and be satisfied with “I almost made it.” With a little extra effort you can put this well within your reach. We ALL know how to rationalize failure – “I couldn’t find the time;” “I’ve been busy at work;” “we’ve had some crappy weather…” Trust me, we’ve heard and used ‘em all ourselves. With a little extra gumption and “stick-to-itiveness” you can find the time and energy for your final push to put you over the top. You would not have signed up to do this if you did NOT want to accomplish something, so we would love it if everyone gave it that last kick to the finish line.

That said – a word of caution: we don’t want to see anyone injured, so you should stick to activities and durations that your body can handle. If you’ve been running, then don’t all-of-a-sudden double your weekly running mileage to do this. You greatly increase your risk of pulling or tearing something. On the other hand, you could consider walking as a viable alternative to get in that extra time/session you need.

Instead of t-shirts, we’re working on a sock design to commemorate the event and reward your efforts. We’re hoping to keep the cost very low (under $10) so everyone will be tempted to pat themselves on the back with something fun, and while understated compared to a t-shirt, it will at least remind you that you can achieve a goal when you set your sights on it, make a plan, and go for it. More to follow on the socks. In the meantime, keep swimming, biking, running, hiking, lifting, playing…

Your friendly MMT staff

MMT2 - Halfway there!

Halfway there ... time to stay steady and keep up the good work. But first, a short detour for a public safety announcement (PSA).

This PSA has two parts - national news and the 4 Farm madness.

In case you didn't hear, Gene Hackman was hit by a car while riding a bike. First, anyone who is 82 and is riding a bike gets awesome points. And this next sentence in no way excuses the actions of the driver, nor does it blame GH in any way for the accident. But, if you're on a bike and you are outside - wear a helmet. Yeah, yeah, it messes up your hair -- shut up and wear a helmet. Rant complete. First part of the safety PSA - wear a helmet and be aware of your surrounding while biking, running, AND driving a car.

The second half of the PSA: check your equipment. One half of the MMT Staff got onto the bike trainer (the kind that lets you attach your own bike) without checking everything. Tires pumped, check. Front wheel block in place, check. Rear resistance unit in place and tightened, check. Skewer locked into place, not checked (note: this is the part that actually holds your bike in place - it "locks in" your rear wheel by the skewer (think axle)). Short version, 82 seconds into the ride, the rear wheel crashes to the floor and the whole bike attempts to lurch forward like it would outside when you're pedaling with both wheels on the ground. Luckily, the front wheel was somewhat trapped by a very stable block so instead of riding through the tv and causing catastrophic levels of damage, said MMT Staffer fell over sideways. Crashing noggin and shoulder first into a wall and using those parts to stabilize yourself until you can get un-clipped from the pedals and let go of the handlebars and brakes are NOT the approved solution for an indoor training ride. Apparently, the PSA part 1 helmet rant also applies if you are dumb enough to not properly check your equipment before an indoor ride. Be safe, peeps...this one could've been a lot worse than it was. Don't rely on luck. We all like to watch the "stupid human tricks" videos - but trust me, you don't want to be the starring crash test dummy.

Back to the regularly scheduled "halfway there!" portion. Hopefully, you're maintaining the pace and still enjoying the challenge. But here's where it gets hard. You've done a solid two weeks, your body possibly hurts in new and previously unknown places and there's a part of your brain that's going to try to tell you, "you've worked hard for two weeks, it's time for a break." If there's something that hurts (different from the good kind of ache) - absolutely. If it's the "but I don't wanna" or the "it's January and it's cold and dark and I'll start up again when it's warmer" voice -- be strong. You signed up for this challenge. This is YOUR choice. You want this! Own it. You are in charge.

Some tips that seem to work for either/both of us:

* Commit to 5 minutes. Get moving for those first 5 minutes and the odds are great that you'll finish the rest.

* Train with a buddy. Meeting up with someone or arranging plans to walk/hike with someone makes a difference.

* Mix up your workout music. Find an old CD or find a new artist - listen to something different.

* Mix up your training. Instead of turning right out your door, turn left.

* Leave a comment / send an email with your particular brand of demotivational woe and let the MMT staff heckle it out of you! (Yes, we practice this on one another...)

* OR: leave a comment with your tip(s) on how to beat the workout "blues" and keep your training momentum.

MMT2 - Week 1 Complete!

One week in to the Challenge! Woo hoo! Most of the folks in MMT2-land are logging their exercise sessions and time and are *crushing* the challenge. Only a few are having a bit of trouble finding their mojo - it's in you somewhere...really…you can do this.

Then there are some folks who had their mojo flowing for a few days and then got side-lined. Perhaps it was work-related, an illness, owwies, the blahs...there are lots of reasons we fall off our exercise plan. But, if we're going to make this MMT2 Challenge work - they have to stay valid "reasons" and not become "excuses." Overcome the setback and get back on track with accomplishing the goal.

There's a common phrase/quote that we like: "Failing to plan is planning to fail." The MMT2 staff is currently hanging up a door-sized year-long planning calendar. We'll mark out the events we want to do this year and backwards plan to figure out some intermediate goals and milestones. Every time we walk between the kitchen and living room we'll see the goals and reasons we're getting out there and getting it done - even on dreary days when we'd really rather grow roots in the couch.

Yes, it's a bit intimidating to write down your goals and display them - putting yourself out there is tough. But it's a great way to focus and to hold yourself accountable. It's also a great way for other folks to help with your goals -- anyone who comes over to the house notices the calendar and inevitably offers support (and the obligatory "you're nuts!"). I also have an index card with a few priorities/goals sitting visible at my desk at work. Looking at the card and the calendar every day helps make the things on them real. It's as if writing down or displaying the event moves it from the "it would be good to ..." into the "I am going to ..." world. "I will" and "I can" are powerful phrases.

Lao Tzu said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Pick your destination, write it down, and take that step. It won't be easy, but choices rarely are.

Now that you have your goals displayed and a weekly/monthly plan, it is also important to write down what you have accomplished. Keep an exercise diary and log your workouts! We have our primitive version on the MMT blog, but that is really just designed for the challenge. We also use a free online exercise log at trainingpeaks.com to keep track of our training. I'm sure there are others - and you can always resort to using a primitive word-processor (a pencil). The most important thing is to keep track of what you are doing. It will give you a sense of accomplishment and you can see the progress you are making! By keeping a record of your exercise it also helps to hold you to your plan.

For the record, ya'll have logged over 145 hours -- if we were a relay team, that's more than 6 days of continuous exercise!

Keep up the great work!

Great start to the new year!

Wow, the MMT staff are very impressed with the enthusiasm exhibited so far with the workouts and time logged! At the rate some of you are going, you'll be done in about 5 days! If that's the case, just keep going till the end of January! We'll be very curious to find out what our top mortals can achieve! If you have not started yet, no worries - you will still get there, but find your mojo soon. You do NOT want to wait much longer to start. This challenge is the kind of elephant that mere mortals have to eat one bite at a time.

Many of our motley crew of mere mortals head back to work after a great couple of holidays with our family and friends. Share your goals, if you dare, with those folks. You're likely to enjoy a little encouragement along the way, and you're more likely to achieve your goals if you let others know. And who knows, perhaps they'll want to join you! We've had several folks join us today. The more the merrier! Good luck fitting your workouts into your busy schedules. One tip: set up a plan about a week in advance. Schedule your exercise sessions on whatever sort of calendar you use, and if you don't have one, then jot down the planned times and activities and stick them in a visible place, such as the fridge. You're much more likely to meet your own expectations if you are willing to write out a plan, and much less likely to shrug off a scheduled exercise activity.

Keep up the good work and remember: "Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right." (Henry Ford)

Your MMT staff