Fitness February - Here's the Scoop

The resounding result of our non-scientific polling was that folks wanted Option C - the Killer Combo. Y'all are some motivated peeps! (Or crazy...as we repetitively prove, it's a very fine line....) 

So, here is Fitness February's Challenge:

* Move your body a minimum of 13.1 miles of human powered cardio motion PER WEEK (swimming, biking, running, walking, elliptical, unicycling...you human power it, you count it). (Note: if you want us to tweak your spreadsheet so that you're targeting 26.2 per week...we can do that.)

* Do a minimum of 2 of each of these strength-based sessions PER WEEK (so 2 each arms, 2 each legs, 2 each core):
        1.  Arms: 2x30 sec push-ups + 2x30 sec tricep dips + 2x30 sec pull-ups
        2.  Legs: 2x10 each leg lunges + 2x10 each leg step-ups + 2x10 each leg fire hydrants (oh yeah, we went there)
        3.  Core: 30 sec plank + 30 sec back bridge + 30 sec each side plank

For those of you who were curious about "authorized" variations -- here are our pre-approved variations. If you'd like others to be considered, drop us a note and we'll consider it. We'll keep the blog updated so you'll know what counts and what doesn't. 

* Push-Up: standard, close-hand, wide-hand, the one on your knees, and if you are really hurting -- get in a push-up position and push for all you're worth. You can split up the 30s intervals if you need to, but get 1 minute total of work done.
* Tricep dips: you can do it on the gym machine; you can find a sturdy surface in your house and do dips; you can do body-weight only; you can add weight plates to your legs. Same deal - if 30s at a pop crushes you, you can break it up, but get the total work done. 

* Pull-ups: any hand position is fine. Partner assisted is fine. If you can't pull yourself up (it's okay, these take practice), try! Hanging from a bar and tightening all your body muscles will do something for you even if you don't move that much. You can break these up...but do a minute's worth of work. If you don't have a pull-up bar -- a door frame can work (we haven't pulled molding off yet) although it will work your hands a bit more. Or, you could find a playground and use the monkey bars. We like monkey bars. We also have had some good success with the "as seen on tv" $20 gadget that fits in door frame.  

* Lunges: standard; side; with one leg resting on a bench; with weights; body-weight only; walking; stationary.  

* Step-ups: you set the step height, so we don't have any variations for this one. 

* Fire hydrants: if you'd like to substitute the kick-backs...we're okay with it 

* Plank: you may break up the time, but try to hold for the full 30s. 

* Back bridge: some folks like to hold "up" continuously, others prefer the "up, squeeze, down, repeat" cycle. Just don't cheat us out of the 30s! 

* Side planks: feet together, top foot lifted, top arm at side, top arm pointing to sky...lots of options. You may break up time, but give an honest 30s for each side.  

Thanks to everyone who voted -- we like you guys! (Even if we were slackers on email-ing back this past week.) 

Have fun psyching yourself up for Fitness February and keep in mind that March Abness is right around the corner!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of the Mortal Peeps!

As a quick recap - the Mad Elf Challenge participants racked up well over 10,000 holiday lights in 23 days worth of challenge time. Outstanding job! Toys for Tots was the charity selected by those who voted - so the Mortal Man staff sent a donation of $125 (1 cent per light rounded up a bit, because, well, it seemed the thing to do).

We've had some requests for another MMT Challenge and would like to get feedback. We've done a few different flavors / varieties and want to get some feedback. 

A quick summary to remind you of the different formats:

MMT 1) Complete an iron distance tri over the course of a month (2.4 swim / 112 bike / 26.2 run)

MMT 2) Complete a "session" per day for 31 days and 17 hours

MMT 3) We didn't publicize this one, but to focus on our bike endurance, during last year's Tour de France we matched the pro's ride-for-ride, except we only did 20% of their daily mileage.  In other words, when they rode hills, we rode hills.  When they time-trialed, we time trialed.  We just ratcheted the distances back to "mortal" levels.  

MMT 4 ) The Mad Elf Challenge -- earn lights and decorate your tree

There's some good variety there, but while the challenges certainly assist with *our* goals - we're not sure what your goals are or what types of challenges get you excited. 

So, if you're interested in a February challenge, please send us some feedback. Let us know what interests you -- tri focus, bike focus, run / walk focus, strength focus, "I just want to move every day" focus, general cardio focus, :I am training for a xx event and want something like that" focus, etc. 

Similarly, if you want off the mailing list, please let us know that too. 

Good luck in 2013!

The T-Shirts Are Here!

Hope you earned one! (and signed up...)

The youngest competitor (and finisher) models...

Last Day - 31 Aug

Last day to achieve your Mortal Man status!

Good luck and thanks for all the fish.

10 Days Remain - Week 4 Challenge

Only 10 days to go! Lots of mileage racked up so far (we're well past our NY to Norway goal) and lots more miles out there calling our names. Thanks to everyone who's participating and logging miles - you're all very inspiring.

Since there are only 10 days left in the month - there are only 10 days left to achieve your Mortal Man Tri goals. If you're over, awesome - keep it up! If you're under, there's still time to train smart and safe and get to the finish line!

The Week 4 challenge is forward looking...since you're all close to putting the wraps on the Mortal Man...leave a comment with your next event (walk, run, tri, swim, bowling league, bike commute, etc.).

Last Call - T-Shirts

Deadline extended to 6pm (eastern) on 20 August (Sat).

Yay. Thanks to the folks who have already signed up.

Keep training! We're getting to crunch time!

Heading into Week 3! and T-Shirts!

Some important news:

* Week 2's weekly challenge winner is Brandie! Congrats on communing with nature while training!

* Week 3's challenge: if you have done a tri, provide a good piece of advice for a newbie (something you wish you'd known before your first tri). If you have NOT done a tri, ask a question that you've been wondering about (and really, if you're wondering, so is someone else...).

* Almost halfway to the end of the month - lots of great training going on. By Sunday evening, ya'll had trained for over 2500 miles - roughly the distance to drive from Boston to Salt Lake City. If we can get to 3700 miles, we'll have travelled the distance to our farthest competitor who's all the way over in Oslo, Norway. Cool.

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* T-shirts. Yes. Here's the skinny: we have a design that we're putting the final touches on. The general concept is that it will be a Champion Performance Tee (translates: slicky fabric / technical fabric / not your standard cotton undershirt). Cost: less than $20 each - I won't know the actual cost until I place the order, but in no case will it be more than $20.

* Go here: http://www.customink.com/signup/6wpd2k2 and sign up. There's a sizing chart on the webpage. Note that the design might change slightly, but that's the concept.

* Sign up by Thursday, 18 August. That'll allow me to order them in time to get them in and send them out over Labor Day weekend. I'll need to get mailing addresses, but will deal with that later.

Week 1 Recap and Week 2 Weekly Challenge

Awesome first week. Collectively, the 30 folks tracking their progress on the spreadsheet logged well over 1300 miles. To put it in perspective, that's about the same as the driving distance from Washington DC to Dallas TX! Poly moly! Ya'll swam/biked/ran a long way!

For our Week 1 Challenge, Linda H won! Her recipe for a recovery drink is yummy and hits all the bases: protein, classic flavors (pb and banana), and COLD!

Our Week 2 Challenge: wildlife spotting! Leave a comment with the craziest critter you see while training. Animals, birds, insects, gym rats, pool sharks, etc. Only criteria is that you have to post the name of the critter (and if you're using a human animal - give him/her a nickname). Have fun with it. And yes, you can comment multiple entries if you see multiple cool critters.

Keep up the great training and don't forget - it's swim, bike, run, SMILE!

Game On! (and weekly challenge #1)

Woo Hoo! It's August and the Mortal Man Tri is going strong!

Weekly Challenge #1 (this one is the edible variety):

Post a comment with your favorite recovery beverage. You can only use items found in your house or that you typically have in your house.

Tracker Spreadsheet News

Woo hoo! More folks, more time zones! Add California time to the list (Pacific Coast Time?).

Two days to go!

This is also posted on the Tracker Instructions tab, but in case you don't check there:

***UPDATE: If you don't see your name on the bottom tabs...it's because we've got a great turnout and the list of folks exceeds the visible space! Yay! At the bottom right is a couple of left and right arrows, plus a little box with lines. If you try hard enough, you can imagine this box with lines as a box with all the tabs listed like a to-do list. If you click on the box, it'll open up a menu with the tabs listed vertically. This might help you find your name and tab faster.***

Wow! Just Wow!

Ok, MortalManTri-ers...here're the stats with just over a week to go.

We have folks from PA, FL, OH, VA, NC, and Norway. Yeah...Norway.

At least 12 folks have signed up...and we've got folks in their 20s, 30s, 50s, and 60s taking the challenge.

Ya'll impress me.

There's still time to join the fun!

We're now a Facebook Event!

Bear posted us on Facebook to lots of great feedback and a couple of sign-ups! Yay!

Sign-ups are still ongoing...we're at 8 and counting! You know you want a challenge....

Two Weeks to go!

Get fired up! Mortal Man Tri goes live in just two weeks! Yay!

There's still time to sign-up.

Mortal Man Tri has a home!

Here's the concept: complete an iron distance triathlon over the course of a month (August). Some places host this and call it "LazyMan"... in our version of the universe, there is nothing lazy about getting off the couch and swimming, biking, and running 140.6 miles. So, we're going to call our version the MortalMan.

Some disclaimers: we are not professionals, this is not sanctioned, you accept all risk and responsibility for participating. By sending us a note/comment saying, "I want to play!" -- you are saying that you have made the decision that you are capable of being physically active and that you realize that while funky trinkets are cool and motivational, they are not an excuse to do damage to your body (specific parts or in general).

With that out of the way...send us an email or post a comment saying, "I want to play!" and you're in. We'll post a link to the tracking spreadsheet. We're going to be posting some rules and the instructions for how to update the tracker.

The distances average out to less than 150 yards of swimming, about 3.6 miles of biking, and 0.85 miles of running per day since August has 31 days! Of course, we encourage you to structure your workouts so that you have rest days.

There will be weekly bonus challenges as well. They are unrelated to completing your distances (we won't add more miles to the challenge).

We're working on a graphic and some t-shirts. Stay tuned for more info! The challenge starts 01 August and ends 31 August. If you drag your feet and don't send the email until 10 August...the challenge still ends 31 August and totals the same distances!