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Adventures In Wadi Rum

October 20, 2012 By 3 Comments

Wadi Rum ATVOne of the major goals of this blog is to live a story worth writing about. That involves quite a few different adventures and experiences. A few months ago I spent 8 days in the country of Jordan – here’s one of the adventures I had there.

—-

Wadi Rum might be one of my favorite places on earth. Over the course of 24 hours, we went on a jeep tour throughout the desert, went skydiving on mars. On our way back to the desert waiting tent where we waited for our skydiving videos to be processed, we passed about 20 atvs parked next to the side of the building.

They piqued my curiousity and considering we had some time to kill, I started poking around trying to find more information about the atvs at the various buildings and tents in the area.

Then I did something really radical: I asked. 

As it turned out, the atvs only cost $35/hour and conveniently, we had just about that much time before our skydiving videos were ready.

Sean and I looked at each other and nodded.

“Lets do it.”

Another good choice. A few minutes later we jumped on the atvs, strapped on our helmets and went after it.

The next hour we spent cruising through rock formations and bombing down sand dunes. It was amazing – I could spend a few thousand words talking about the entire experience, but instead I strapped a GoPro to my chest to give you a first-hand look of what it was like.

 

[click here to watch the video in email] 

The ATV adventure was the biggest surprise of the trip. And yes, it was as awesome as it looked (probably even more so).  Between skydiving on the moon and ATVing across the desert, Wadi Rum might be my favorite adventure destination on earth.

I can’t wait to go back.

Filed Under: Adventures, Good Stories, Travel, Video Posts Tagged With: , , , , , ,

30 Questions About Six Pack Abs

September 2, 2012 By 13 Comments

Questions

Impossible Abs is coming out in just a few days. Whew.

After working to create a library of 25+ video tutorials for Impossible Abs, I decided that I’m going to be incorporating more video throughout the blog as we move forward. So, when I got a bunch of questions via emails, comments and facebook, I decided to bust out the video camera and answer them all at once. 30 questions total – dang!

You can watch each of the videos or click on the questions that you’re most interested in. Let me know what you think of these videos. Here we go!

  1. Introduction & Is This Diet Safe For The Long Term?
  2. How Did You Get Six Pack Abs?
  3. What’s The Secret to Impossible Abs?
  4. How Do You Maintain A Six Pack?
  5. What Are The Food Costs Associated With Impossible Abs?
  6. Why Torture Yourself For A Six Pack? Why Are You So Vain?
  7. How Did The Six Pack Challenge, Challenge You Mentally?
  8. How Do You Create A Meal Plan & Stick To It?
  9. What Is The Impossible Abs Challenge? Does It Have A Set Start Date?
  10. What Types of Results Are Possible With Impossible Abs?
  11. How Long Do You Expect To See Results On a Low-Carb/Paleo Diet?
  12. Did You Really Get Six Pack Abs Or Did You Follow Some YouTuBe Tutorial To Fake It?
  13. Are You Supposed To See Your Six Pack All The Time Or Only When You Flex?
  14. Can Vegetarians/Vegans Do The Paleo Diet Too?
  15. How Tall Are You? Did You Really Get That Light?
  16. How Did You Cut Out Carbs From Your Diet? I Could Never Do That…
  17. How Much Alcohol Did You Consume Throughout The Impossible Abs Program?
  18. How Did You Count Calories Throughout Impossible Abs?
  19. Can I Drink Coffee & Tea On the Paleo Diet?
  20. Can I Run 20 Miles A Day and Still Get A Six Pack?
  21. A Doctor Told Me I Could Never Get Six Pack Abs…Are They Right?
  22. Do I Need A Gym To Get Six Pack Abs?
  23. How Do You Deal With Sugar Cravings While Getting A Six Pack?
  24. Did You Flex Throughout The Photoshoot or is it all Lighting Tricks & Photoshop?
  25. How Do I Make A Bunch of Changes At Once?
  26. Can Women Get Six Pack Abs Too? I Hear It’s Unhealthy For Women To Be Under 25% Body Fat.
  27. Can I still eat dairy? Will that slow down my weight loss? Are eggs still okay? How much fruit/vegetables/meat do you eat per day?
  28. What’s The Best Exercise For Six Pack Abs?
  29. What Are Some Quick & Easy To Make Foods That Won’t Compromise Fat Loss?
  30. How Do You Stay Motivated Throughout The Impossible Abs Program?

You can also watch all the video straight through right here


Introduction & Is This Diet Safe For The Long Term?

 


How Did You Get Six Pack Abs?

 


What’s The Secret to Impossible Abs?

 


How Do You Maintain A Six Pack?

 


What Are The Food Costs Associated With Impossible Abs?

 


Why Torture Yourself For A Six Pack? Why Are You So Vain?

 


How Did The Six Pack Challenge, Challenge You Mentally?

 


How Do You Create A Meal Plan & Stick To It?

 


What Is The Impossible Abs Challenge? Does It Have A Set Start Date?

 


What Types of Results Are Possible With Impossible Abs?

 


How Long Do You Expect To See Results On a Low-Carb/Paleo Diet?

 


Did You Really Get Six Pack Abs Or Did You Follow Some YouTube Tutorial To Fake It?

 


Are You Supposed To See Your Six Pack All The Time Or Only When You Flex?

 


Can Vegetarians/Vegans Do The Paleo Diet Too?

 


How Tall Are You? Did You Really Get That Light?

 


How Did You Cut Out Carbs From Your Diet? I Could Never Do That…

 


How Much Alcohol Did You Consume Throughout The Impossible Abs Program?

 


How Did You Count Calories Throughout Impossible Abs?

 


Can I Drink Coffee & Tea On the Paleo Diet?

 


Can I Run 20 Miles A Day and Still Get A Six Pack?

 


A Doctor Told Me I Could Never Get Six Pack Abs…Are They Right?

 


Do I Need A Gym To Get Six Pack Abs?

 


How Do You Deal With Sugar Cravings While Getting A Six Pack?

 


Did You Flex Throughout The Photoshoot or is it All Lighting Tricks & Photoshop?

 


How Do I Make A Bunch of Changes At Once?

 


Can Women Get Six Pack Abs Too? I Hear It’s Unhealthy For Women To Be Under 25% Body Fat.

 


Can I still eat dairy? Will that slow down my weight loss? Are eggs still okay? How much fruit/vegetables/meat do you eat per day?

 


What’s The Best Exercise For Six Pack Abs?

 


What Are Some Quick & Easy To Make Foods That Won’t Compromise Fat Loss?

 


How Do You Stay Motivated Throughout The Impossible Abs Program?

 

***

#BOOM.

Thanks for all of the questions. Hopefully they helped clear up something you’ve been wondering about.

Now I gotta get back to work! Just a couple more days until Impossible Abs is Live.

photo credit: Oberazzi

Filed Under: Fitness, Impossible Things, Kicking A**, Nutrition, Six Pack Abs, The Impossible, Video Posts, Weight Loss Tagged With: , ,

How Bad Do You Want It?

August 6, 2012 By 36 Comments

For you new visitors, welcome! Check out what the sites about and subscribe via email here.

————–

Cause sometimes you just feel tired…you feel weak

And when you feel weak you feel like you wanna just give up.

But you gotta search within you…you gotta find that inner strength

And just pull that sh*t out of you and get that motivation to not give up

And not be a quitter…no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse.

‘Till I Collapse – Eminem

How Bad Do You Want It?

Everyone wants to do stuff. Lots of people want to get in shape, do great things, travel the world, live an adventure and tell a good story with their life, but there’s a big difference between saying you want something and wanting something bad enough to do something about it.

I got a ton of emails after posting last week’s case study on my six pack experiment on people wanting private coaching to do what I did. Almost every conversation went something like this:

When do you want to start? 

Well, this week would work, but I’m not quite ready.

Okay, well how bout next week?

Well, I have a party coming up that week…so that wouldn’t work, maybe the week after – or the week after that.

The problem is lots of people want to lose weight, get ripped and look good naked, but they don’t want to have to work. They “want it bad”, but they don’t want it bad enough to start immediately and make the changes they need to in order to succeed. They don’t really want it…they just kinda want it.

A few months ago, a two-part video titled, “How Bad Do You Want It?” made the rounds on the internet. Take 5 minutes to watch the most inspirational thing you’ll see all day.

How Bad Do You Want It? Pt. 1

[click to watch video in email]

How bad do you want it?

You don’t want it badder than you want to party.

You don’t want it as bad as you want to be cool.

Most of you don’t want success as much as you want to sleep!

“When you want to succeed as bad as you wanna breathe then you will be successful.”

How Bad Do You Want It? Pt. 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpFroMCKiuM

[click to watch video in email]

This is the time to test your heart – to test your limits! This is the PART where you reinvent yourself. It’s about pushing yourself beyond the limits…it’s about perfecting the you – not just doing more, not just being better, but finding your best.

Do you really want it or do you just kinda want it?

How To Know If You Just Kinda Want It:

You might say you want it, but you just kinda want it. You can tell because

  • When it’s time to cheat, you give in.
  • When it stops being easy, you give up.
  • As soon as things get uncomfortable, you go searching for something easier.

If there’s an acceptable excuse, you take it. The easy way – you find it. You stop at good enough and level off when it seems “reasonable.” You get suckered into cheats, hacks  and “shortcuts” when the biggest shortcut of all is hours and hours of unnoticed, unsexy and unappreciated work.

That’s what most people do and when you do what most people do, you get what most people get. But, that’s the moment you get the chance for separation. That’s the moment when, if you decide to keep going, not give up and seek out perfection, you create distance between yourself and “average.” But how bad do you really want it?

You say you want it, but you really only kinda want it.

You say you want to get in shape, but not as bad as you want to

  • party with your friends
  • eat whatever it is your co-workers brought in for a snack
  • drag your butt out of bed and run sprints

You say you want to start your own business, but not as bad as you want to

  • read one more business book about it
  • waste time on twitter
  • stay up late and wake up early to work on it

You say you want to do something impossible, but not as much as you want to

  • wait to find the “perfect” thing to start on
  • watch one more episode of that funny tv show
  • live vicariously through others and watch someone else do it

Stop it. Live vicariously through yourself.

If you want to do something, just freaking do it already.

How to Know If You Really Want It:

You decide to do something and don’t let anything stop you. Period. You start now, because you don’t know if you’ve got tomorrow.

In other words:

When you want to succeed as much as you want to breathe.

That is when you’ll succeed.

When do you want to start?

When the answer changes from “next week” to “yesterday”: that’s when you know you’re on your way.

It’s not easy to do the impossible (that’s why it’s impossible). When you do something that’s never been done before, it will be hard. But if you conceive it, you can do it. It all comes down to one question:

How bad do you want it?

If you’re interested in getting in incredible shape are willing to put in work, sign up here for more information about Imposible Abs.

Filed Under: Fitness, Hustling, Impossible Things, Kicking A**, Six Pack Abs, The Impossible, Video Posts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Skydiving on Mars (And How To Look Less Stupid)

August 4, 2012 By 14 Comments

Over the next month, I’ll be posting several articles on my recent trip to Jordan. These will be posting on Saturday’s in addition to all of our regularly scheduled content and will be focused on travel, adventure and living a better story. Enjoy.

Tomorrow, NASA’s rocket, the Curiosity rover is landing on Mars. People are quite excited about it, as it’s quite the scientific accomplishment, but I’m a little but I’m a little over it. After all, I landed on Mars a month ago….or at least skydived on to it. Here’s what happened:

—-

Sean and I were hanging out in Jordan, and we find out that we’re scheduled to jump out of a plane in Wadi Rum (The Valley of the Moon) named because it’s essentially a desert valley that looks like the moon or mars.

As soon as I heard about the opportunity, I was pumped. Sure, I’ve gone skydiving before, but last time I looked like an idiot – this was my chance for redemption!

I’ve consistently said that becoming okay with looking stupid is one of the most important things you can learn to do. The first time you try anything, you’re bound to screw up, do something stupid and look dumb. And that’s why lots of people don’t do cool things – they’re simply scared they’re going to look stupid. I used to let this paralyze me all the time, but over the past two years, I’ve gotten over this fear. Because just like you have to suck a lot in order to suck less, sometimes you have to look really stupid at first in order to look less stupid over time. But that doesn’t mean you want to look stupid all the time either! I was determined to look definitively less stupid this time through.

———–

A Brief Guide On Looking Less Stupid

Like I said, for my last skydive adventure I looked really stupid. Almost immediately after exiting the plane, I lost my goggles, lost a contact, made a bunch of really dumb faces and generally looked very, very stupid (all photographic and video evidence is available for your enjoyment here). I wasn’t going to let that happen this time. Here’s how I fixed it:

Take Inventory of What Went Wrong.

Last jump, I lost my goggles, a contact and my dignity. I wanted to hold on to at least one of those things this time.

Learn Something

I learned 3 things last time I jumped:

  1. Don’t lose your goggles
  2. Keep your mouth shut or you’re going to look stupid while your cheeks flap in the wind.
  3. Seriously, keep the goggles on.

That was it. If I could master those, I figured I’d be golden.

Upgrade Your Equipment

The operation at Skydive Jordan was top-notch. Skydiving in Oregon was fun, but there’s a reason Skydive Dubai (the organization that organized the Skydive Jordan operation) is ranked one of the best skydive operations in the world.

Everything from registration, to the waiting experience, to the actual jump and the turnaround time for the photos was incredible. I’ve mentioned before how getting great photographers to help you document whatever you want to do is a massive advantage. The results are apparent: you can literally see the difference in the photos below.

Get a Good Background

If nothing else, make sure you’ve got a great background. Real estate people say location, location, location, but for adventures it’s true to. I could have forgotten my pants and the photos would still look awesome thanks to the location.

Have Fun

If you have a good time, looking stupid doesn’t matter. Who cares if you look stupid while skydiving on Mars? YOU STILL SKYDIVED ON MARS! Have fun and nothing else matters.

————

I could explain step by step how the jump went, but the video does a much, much better job at capturing it all. Simply put: it was a BLAST.

[click to view in email]

The video turned out great (I didn’t lose my goggles – so I was already ecstatic), but then I got the photos and just about lost it at how great they turned out (did I mention I was skydiving on Mars?).

SUCCESS! I jumped out of a plane in Wadi Rum (one of the coolest places on earth and my new favorite adventure location), I didn’t die AND I didn’t look like completely stupid. Triple boom.

But, if I hadn’t been willing to look really stupid last year, step out of my comfort zone and take a bunch of people I didn’t know adventuring, I probably wouldn’t have been ready for this one. So go adventure and don’t be afraid to look stupid along the way (don’t worry, you’ll get better over time)

While the entire trip was sponsored by the Jordan Tourism Board, but sponsored or not, this experience was freaking awesome (and unlike Reine, I wasn’t nervous at all). Did I mention this was on Mars…er…Wadi Rum? I cannot wait to get back there.

Filed Under: Adventures, Good Stories, Life, Travel, Video Posts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Finding The Door: The Secret To Never Ever Stopping – Ever

September 23, 2011 By 21 Comments

If you can see yourself doing something, you can do it. If you can’t see yourself doing it, usually you can’t achieve it. – David Goggins

David Goggins is a Navy Seal, endurance athlete and all around hardcore dude you probably dont want to mess with. I could talk about him all day, but this video does a much better job with a lot less words. Take just 6 minutes and watch this video. We’ll be talking about it the rest of the post.

David Goggins – Human 2.0: The Long Run

There’s not much I don’t like about David Goggins. He’s doing impossible things, shattering expectations, pushing his limits and doing it for a great reason (raise scholarship money for children of fallen soldiers). However, the greatest takeaway I got from David was this quote about how he manages to keep going, despite the mental and physical walls that crop up during something as tasking as his ultra-endurance events:

In a race, you hit several walls. Every time you hit a wall, it’s a big deciding factor in that race, or in life, if you’re not running. You have a big decision to make.  You can either stop at that wall and go parallel left or parallel right. You are looking for that door.  When you get to that door you have another decision to make.  Should I open it or should I keep it closed.  If you keep it closed you made the decision to quit.  If you open that door you made the decision  to carry on, to continue on your journey or mission, whatever you’re on.  I always open that door!  Once you open that door, and you go through it, your mind resets and it gives you a few more miles.

I love it.

Your limits don’t exist. They’re just a wall…with a door in it. Keep moving until you find the door. You might go left for a while, you might go right for a while, but if you keep going, you will find that door. And then you get to choose…

I know times where I’ve hit a wall, found the door and kept going. There’s also a few times that I can point to where I’ve hit the wall and found the door and called it quits. I didn’t go through that door.

Those memories suck. Because I know you missed an opportunity. To push my limits even further. To see what I was really made of. To see if what I was doing was really literally impossible.

Don’t miss an opportunity.

WHEN YOU THINK YOU ARE DONE YOU’RE ONLY 40% OF WHAT YOUR BODY IS CAPABLE OF DOING. THAT’S JUST THE LIMIT THAT WE PUT ON OURSELVES. – David Goggins

When you hit a wall. Keep going, even if you can’t go forward anymore. Go to the right. Go to the left. But keep going. Eventually you’ll find a door. And when you do find it. Go through it. And don’t stop. Ever.

***

NerveRush

The David Goggins video featured in this post is one of many like it that you can find at NerveRush. NerveRush is a joint side project I created with Alan Perlman (also known as the worlds most mysterious man) focused on compiling the most gut-wrenching and thrill-seeking video clips into a collective mishmash of adrenaline. If you love adventure, adrenaline and endurance, you’ll love NerveRush. If you’re interested, take a shot of adrenaline and let us know what you think. If adrenaline isn’t your thing, no worries, there are a lot more projects in the works.

Impossible League Community
Speaking of projects, we have over 120+ people in the Impossible League community. We’ll be talking about challenges next week and we’ll start our first 30 day challenge at the beginning of October. It’s gonna be awesome. Join in the league and don’t miss out.

Impossible T-Shirts
Also, a lot of people have been asking me about Impossible t-shirts. They should be in by next week. I’m probably mord excited to unveil them than most things in recent memory, so give me a few days to wrap things up and I’ll have them ready to go. And they’ll be awesome. Like really awesome. Promise

Filed Under: Adventures, Good Stories, Life, The Impossible, Video Posts Tagged With: , , , , ,

100 Pushups

April 14, 2011 By 70 Comments

3 months after this spectacular failure.

[Click here to watch video]

I’m not always the fastest…but I always finish.

A more in depth post on this whole endeavor (including form critique, why it took me so long, etc) is coming next week, but before I write it, I need to go rest my arms….

Filed Under: The Impossible, Video Posts Tagged With: , ,

Tsunami Scares, Hawaii, And More

March 11, 2011 By 47 Comments

Greetings from Hawaii!

I landed last night and about 15 minutes after I stepped off the plane, Hawaii announced a Tsunami warning. I’m staying in Kaneohe, on the island of Oahu, way above sea level so we’re totally safe, but I decided to shoot a video for you guys to prove it.

[Can't see the video? Click Here]
I’m planning on shooting lots more videos while I’m here in Hawaii for a few reasons.

  1. It’s beautiful
  2. It’s freaking beautiful

Don’t believe me? Here are some photos I snapped this morning out my front door.

Kaneohe

I’m tired of shooting/seeing/watching videos of people against a white wall as a background so instead of complaining about it, I’m switching things up and am going to shoot a bunch of videos with much, much better scenery as a backdrop. I figure the natural landscape of Hawaii should do the trick. If you have a suggestion for your favorite place on the islands, let me know and I’ll see if I can’t find it. Otherwise, I’ll have to settle for…well…anywhere on the island chain (have I mentioned it’s freaking beautiful here?).

Why My Hawaiian Local Friends Hate Me

If you remember back about a year ago, there was an earthquake in Chile in late February. That earthquake triggered a Tsunami warning in Hawaii and on that day last year, I was flying in to Honolulu. We spent the whole first day I was there watching the TV about Tsunami Scare 2010. Now, fast forward a little more than a year to yesterday, the exact same thing happens and we have another Tsunami warning and we stayed up last night watching Tsunami Scare 2011. So I’m 2 for 2 in predicting Tsunamis with my physical presence. If this keeps up, I need to look out because my friends are starting to look at me funny and tell me never to come back, because apparently I bring tsunamis with me. And they’re sort of right. I’m 2 for 2 in predicting Tsunamis in Hawai’i just by being here (although I’m not sure that’s something I should brag about).

Video Postcards

Long time readers know I really enjoy the opportunity to travel. While I’m really grateful for it, I know lots of people don’t get the same opportunity that I do, so I’ve started to do video postcards on a lot of my trips for readers. Basically it’s a personal video shout out of wherever I am. You can see examples from previous trips I’ve done below:

>> London Postcards

>> Texas Road Trip Postcards

They are a lot of fun, and people seem to enjoy them so I’m going to do them again. The site has grown a lot in the last few months and my schedule is pretty full so I can’t promise that I’ll be able to fulfill requests for location shots like before. Also, I want to be able to get everyone a postcard who really wants one, but I know I can’t do this for absolutely everyone so I’m going to put a limit on this to the first 25 people who leave a comment.

If you’re not one of the first 25, don’t worry. I’ll be doing another sort of promotion/giveaway on my facebook page this week so head over there and like the page if that sounds like something you’re interested in.

Also, if you’re a reader and live or are in Maui/Oahu/Big Island areas, let me know and we’ll see if we can’t find the time to meet up.

I hope you’re safe wherever you are and keep Japan in your prayers.
-Joel

Filed Under: Life, Meetups, Video Posts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Uncommon Start To A New Year: Spectacular Failure

January 4, 2011 By 79 Comments
100 Pushups Failure

This is me in a lot of pain & very angry.

UPDATE: 100 Pushups Video Update

I’m starting the year off a bit differently than a lot of people in blog-land.

I failed.

I’ve been saying for a while that I was going to do 100 pushups.

Well, I didn’t do 100.

I WASN’T EVEN CLOSE.

In fact, I didn’t just fail – I failed spectacularly.

It’s a little humbling to write this actually. I’m a big advocate of telling other people your goals in an effort to hold yourself accountable. That strategy feels great when it works [Remember, when I told you I was going to do that? I actually did that! = great feeling]. But when it doesn’t and you fail, it kind of sucks [Remember when I told you I was going to do that? I didn't actually do that = terrible feeling]. It makes me want to keep some goals to myself, but considering I have a very public impossible list, you can guess that that’s not really how I do things.

The Back Story

I announced the 100 pushup challenge along with my 200 squat challenge all the way back in August and I did a terrible job of keeping myself on track. The terrible excuse I have was that I was too busy getting ready for the olympic triathlon, so I didn’t finish either by the end of the month. 2 months later, I finally knocked out the squats in November, but the pushups were still kicking my butt [and still are].

I tried to do 100 a couple nights before the New Year and didn’t get close. I tried it again Jan 1st and hit the same wall. Then Jan 3rd [yesterday] came and I gave it one last shot. I tried 3 times in a row:

  • First attempt: 59
  • Second attempt: 39
  • Third attempt: 69

Done Laughing? Look at that for a second. Besides, none of those numbers being even close to 100, what looks “off?”

<<– Feel free to scroll down when you answer that question –>>

 

 

 

 

Here’s the stupid thing: I did more in the last set than I did in the first two! After kicking myself for about an hour, I figured out why I sucked so much.

  • The first set I honestly really didn’t think I could do it so I gave up when things got hard and I quit at 59.
  • For my second attempt, the idea that I couldn’t do it was even more ingrained in my mind after topping out at only 59 the first time, so I quit even sooner at 39.

Then I got mad. I knew I had cheated myself earlier by quitting so easily and was mad I had wasted so much energy on doing something half-assed.

  • The third attempt I didn’t even count the pushups myself. I was pissed and I was going to do as many as I could even if my arms gave out and they almost did. This set was ugly, really ugly. Complete with lots of cheating by doing my downward dog impressions [I'm not even sure that's what they call it] to try and take a break without really “stopping.” The whole thing ended with my arms physically shaking as I tried to keep going. Even so, I still managed to do even more than I did earlier [more confirmation that it's all mental].

A Confession [and a laugh for you]

I actually video taped this and was going to show it as the sequel to the very popular squat video. I was going to show everyone how awesome it was that I had actually done 100 pushups. It was going to be awesome. Instead, I ended up with something very different. It’s embarrassing, but I decided to share it anyways. Feel free to watch if you want to be amused [and hear my very encouraging sister cheer me on :) ].

[If you're reading this in an email, click here to watch it. I promise you'll at least get a laugh]

Lots of people talk about failure and write inspirational crap about it while avoiding the messy act of failure as much as they can. They simply gloss over the bad parts: missed goals, bad launches, poorly written posts.

I was tempted to do that too and skirt over the subject and write something else. It’d be easy, I’d maintain a nice streak of success after success after success, and save face, but I knew if I did, I’d be full of crap.

Good stories don’t happen in a vacuum and the best stories have a lot of ups and downs. Not everything is happy-happy-joy-joy all the time and the people you read about, look up to and do amazing things aren’t some other type of entity that are incapable of failing. They’re not superhuman and neither am I. Sorry to disappoint, but I’m very much human [which is total crap, because I'm even wearing my Nerd Fitness shirt in the video].

So here it is:

I failed. I missed a goal and to be honest, it wasn’t even close! It sucks. The closest I got was 69 and I’ll be the first to admit that these were ugly, terrible pushups that should barely be counted – please laugh at them, I already am.

BUT

I’m also more motivated than ever to make 100 pushups. I’m over 2/3 the way there and I know my quitting threshold has just been raised a whole lot higher than I had ever thought before. I know I’m not done until my body is completely shaking from trying to hold me up.

Screwing Up And Bouncing Back

I’m 4 days into the new year and I’ve already screwed up. Good. I got it out of the way. Better to screw up now and not have to worry about it the rest of the year than hoping that one day I’ll be “perfect”. I’m not going to be perfect–it’s just not going to happen. I can either accept that or live in la-la land where unicorns play with rainbows, and Joel is perfect.

100 pushups is really freakin’ hard. There’s no doubt about that, but I’m not quite sold yet that it’s impossible. Of course there is only one way to really find out…

I’m not done yet. I’ll be gearing up, working out and coming back for a round 2. There’s a sequel coming…You w0n’t want to miss it.

 

If you know of someone who would like to laugh at me doing pushups, go ahead and share this with them. I won’t be mad. In fact, you’ll actually be creating more motivation for me to get my butt in gear and make something impossible happen. Thanks.

 

 

If you sat and counted and you number varies, I took the number from my official “counter”, I didn’t actually check myself. Please correct me if I’m off.

Filed Under: Kicking A**, Life, The Impossible, Video Posts Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Indy Monumental Half Marathon: Half as hard, Twice as Painful

November 9, 2010 By 41 Comments

The Race

I woke up at 4:30am the day of and got down to Indy. It had snowed Friday night and Saturday morning was not warm. I tried to warm up by jogging around, but my knee was sore the whole time and I could barely eek out a jog.

How am I gonna run a half-marathon with this?

I hate drugs, but I downed a few [more] ibuprofen to try and dull the pain in my knee and kept stretching as we waited for the starting line to start to fill up. I wasn’t seeded so I squeezed in where I could by the 9 and 10 mile pacers. As the race started, it took a few minutes to get to the starting line, but once I did, I set off. Immediately, my leg starting hurting. Every time my left foot hit the ground, I felt a pain shoot up through my knee. Not good. About a quarter-mile in I tried to convince myself that the pain wouldn’t last that long. After realizing that 13 x (however many steps are in a mile) is a much more discouraging number than I thought, I gave up my math efforts.

My knee kept hurting the entire time, but I tried my best to stop focusing on the pain and just focus on the mileage. It helped that I had some distractions. For the first 10 miles, I was literally asked about my shoe, at least once a mile. As people ran up next to me to ask, I riddled off the canned responses:

I’m usually more gracious when people ask me about Vibrams. I get that people are intrigued and want to ask questions, but I was so focused on not dying during the race, that I was probably not the best conversationalist. If you saw me during the race and asked questions and I was jerk, I’m sorry. Next time ask me when I’m not in the mood for amputation my own leg.

As we passed, the 10 mile marker, the questions stopped. I think everybody started to focus more on running than spotting the the latest fashion trends from their fellow runners. I tried to convince myself that I only had a 5k left. Simple. The mile markers seems to get farther apart [a direct result of my pace slowing], but I kept going.

11th mile…

12th mile…

13th mile…

As I passed the 13 mile marker, I began to round the corner of the block for the last 1/10th mile. As I did, I noticed the crowd started to roar:

Wow these people are really encouraging.

My time was slower than most and I was pushing the 2 hour mark. I know people are awesome, but I was really becoming impressed that people were cheering so loudly for someone so far back in the pack. As I began to enjoy the roar of the crowd, I started to look around. As I glanced to my right I notice a Kenyan [Leonard Muchero] sprinting past me with an vehicle escort. It was then I realized the crowd was cheering for the first finisher of the full marathon, and not me.

*cue sadness*

I tried to kick a little more so I could finish up before him, but he was moving way too fast. He finished to a round of cheers and I finished a few seconds behind him.

Technical note:

I still “beat him” since I started a few minutes after he did:

My Time: 2:14:18.2

His Time: 2:17:58.4

You can see the full results here. Feel free to disregard the fact that he ran a full 13.1 miles farther than me =)

Overall, The race wasn’t “hard’ in the typical sense. My slower pace allowed me to run all 13 without getting overtly tired, but my knee hurt a lot more than I expected. Bum knees and extremely fast Kenyans aside, I’m very happy with the race. I ran it for me. Even though I didn’t train for this half marathon like I should have, I still was able to do it, bum knee and all. I wasn’t FAST, and my time isn’t a PR I want to keep for a long time, but I’m happy with it. There were lots of times I wanted to just stop running, give up and go home, but I kept going.

===

A Short Video

Thank you guys for your encouragement. I got lots of messages and emails about the race and I really appreciate all of them so I shot a video right after the race for you guys. Sorry if I sound a little incoherent, I was a little tired.

[Click here to watch the video]

===

A Small Milestone

This weekend, last year, I ran my first race ever. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve always been an athlete, but I’ve never have been a runner. If you’re a non-athlete, that might sound odd, but it’s very possible. I played basketball for 10 years and the majority of our running was spent doing suicide sprints. Even when I competed in Track & Field in College, I purposely threw javelin in order to avoid running events.

So November 1st last year, was my first race ever. A friend asked me to do it, so I signed up. It was a simple 5k and the first time I ever ran farther than 2 miles. This weekend I ran 13. There have been faster progressions, no doubt, but last year I would have never imagined being able to run 13 miles in a month…much less consecutively.

Sometimes, it’s amazing how your perspective can change in a year…Where are you going to be in a year?

Filed Under: Good Stories, Races, The Impossible, Video Posts Tagged With: , , , ,

[Video Post] Structure vs. Specifics [London Edition]

September 14, 2010 By 19 Comments

This is official the first international post at BIT. You may or may not know, but traveling is a HUGE part of my life. I’ve written for some other sites about it, but I love traveling and am working on structuring my life to include a lot more of it.

Since I’m out of the country, I figured I’d do another video post since you guys didn’t seem to mind the last one so I gave it another shot. Also, I have a little something for those of you that comment early [Be sure to watch all the way through the video].

[If you're reading this in email, click here to watch the video.]

Here are some of the highlights:

  • 0:08 – Twitter shoutouts
  • 0:37 – How I plan my trips
  • 1:02 – My London Schedule
  • 1:54 – Why I avoid planning specifics
  • 2:10 – I forget how to talk
  • 2: 19 – What’s your strategy for planning trips?
  • 2:35 – A video offer for those of you that read this & comment ASAP*

People Mentioned

  • @lachlancotter [Actual suggester of Trafalgar Square]
  • @samedelstein [I went to London Bridge, Tower Bridge, & walked by the London Eye before the video, sorry].

People I Should Have Been Mentioned

Question #1: How do you plan out your travels?

Question #2: London Experts: Any other places in London I should hit up before I come on back?

**If you’d like to take me up on the video offer, please comment before 10am BST [5pm EST] tonight. I’m heading out around noon on Wednesday, so I do have time restrictions.

Some of My Panoramic Photos of London [Check 'em out]

Filed Under: Life, Travel, Video Posts Tagged With: , , , ,
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