John Harbeck Memorial Triathlon: Women's results

          Competitor           5-K Run     Transition     4 1/2 mile Kayak      15 mile bike         Total

1. Suzie Walsh             23.22*           .53                   57.04*                       56.08*         2:17.21
2. Holly Hall                24.23            .64                   1:18.06                    1:07.11           2:50.44
3. Karen Broadbeck     26.22            .51*                1:15 20                    1:10.12           2:52.55
4. Ginny Phillips          30.58            2.45                 1:32.47                    1:04.07           3:10.41
5.  Liz Reynolds           30.04            4.13                 1:26.13                    1:15.08           3:15.38
6. Sarah Mustered        36.52              .59                 1:28.31                    1:25.31           3:31.55

These are some amazing times, especially since both the kayak and bicycling events required a great deal of endurance and physical strength. Suzie Walsh, using my boat and with only one kayak lesson from me, beat my personal record on this course by a minute and my record on the bicycle section by two minutes. There is probably a good reason why she is nationally ranked as a triathlete and her overall time was faster than all the men competitors but one. Karen Broadbeck had only kayaked once earlier using the same route and knocked 30 minutes off her time helping her to place 3rd overall in the event. 

John Harbeck Memorial Triathlon: Mens Results

          Competitor       Run       Transition       Kayak        Mountain Bike        Total

1. Alex Marsh      20.31          .47*             1:04.22        49.39*                   2:14:39
2. Joe Heart          21.20          .55               1:01.04        59.38                     2:22.49
3. Daryl Condon   23.51          1.00             1:02.56       1:05:45                   2:32.52
4. James Lippold  30.37          1.08              58.19*        1:05.09                  2:34.33
5. Rich Mangold  22:03          .54                1:10:36       1:03.37                   2:37.13
6. Matt Skelly      25.33          1.36              1:10.25        1:02.16                  2:39.50
7. Brian Donahue 30.50          1.05              1.08:32        59.49                     2:39.06
8. J. Mahoney       28.48          1.14               1:16:50        1:14.49                 3:01:41
9. Jake Lambert    19:25*        2.09               1:45.37        55.59                    3:03.37
10. T. Rustenburg   28.45          1.08               1:14.55        1:22.32                 3:06.40
11. Pat Campbell    22.46          11.00             1:07:08        1:14.09                 3:14.21

These are some excellent times on a course that demanded speed, power, endurance and in reference to kayaking, technique. Alex Marsh came in second in the run, 4th in the kayak but then had a blistering time on the mountain bike section to catapult himself to victory. Alex had a cross-bike with barely legal size tires (but they were!) but he better be looking for a mountain bike next year because the requirements will change. Jake asked if he could just keep running instead of kayaking since he was the first in the water following a sub 20 minute 5-K but then was last out of the water. Regardless of athletic ability, there is a knack to kayaking but all the competitors caught on since there was plenty of time to on the 4 1/2 mile course. The bicycle times on this route were excellent because although there are no hills, the constant friction of the gravel surface soon gets to your legs, especially as the time approaches an hour. Joe Heart, at age 59, had an excellent run as did Brian Donahue.

Playing the Life Guard card: Alcohol poisoning

I love kayaking weekends on the Fox River above Wedron. I kayak upriver against the current for a couple of hours and then turn around and drift back. I love the kibitzing with the dozens of canoeists that I meet going with almost half telling me, "You are going the wrong way."

The river has been very shallow this year because of the lack of rain so it was more difficult to get up through the rapids because I couldn't paddle deeply enough. Even boats coming with the current were hanging up in the very shallow water. I saw a quite overweight girl that was stranded on a rock so I got out of my boat, walked over and pulled her canoe into deeper water but was shocked by what I saw crumpled in the bottom of her boat.

"Is she OK?," I asked the canoeist because the girl's complexion was about the same shade as my rapidly graying hair and to be honest, my first impression was that the girl was dead.

"No, she just had too much to drink,"replied the paddler. "Way too much vodka."

I wasn't born old and remember those college days when my friends and I drank too much, but this young girl seemed well beyond this and I was more than a little concerned for her welfare. The girl paddling the canoe lacked skills and with her weight, found it difficult to get out of her boat for the frequent portages. It may well have taken her several more hours before she could get the girl back to their car. Dehydration, sun stroke and alcohol poisoning were all dangerous possibilities. It was time to play the Life Guard card.

"I'm a Life Guard," which is true by the way, I told the paddler, "and we need to find a way to get this girl back to her starting place and shade quickly."

Luckily there were two young guys in this girls group who came upon us and playing the Life Guard card again, I convinced them to switch boats and take the intoxicated girl back to the starting area as soon as possible. They obviously weren't happy about their passenger but they complied.  Blessedly, the girl that had consumed so much alcohol regained consciousness, so she obviously wasn't dead much to my relief, and she lay crumpled in the middle of the guy's canoe as they took her back.

I wish I knew how the rest of the story turned out but I don't. I had a family commitment later that day so I wasn't able to stay with the girl which obviously would have been the safest option, especially as I read about the dangers of alcohol poisoning the next day. When I last saw the two guys with the girl they were less than 15 minutes from their starting area. Hopefully the guys would have enough sense to get the girl out of the sun and give her some water to avoid dehydration. If I had it to do over again, and I knew what I know now, I definitely would have stayed with the girl and probably called 9-1-1 if she didn't improve rapidly. Alcohol consumption can get away from young people rapidly, especially young women who aren't very big, and even after passing out alcohol in their system can increase as it is absorbed. Throwing up is common and asphyxiation can occur if this is swallowed. The heart rate slows and can actually stop. Drinking until you pass out is way more dangerous than just having a good time.I learned a lot from my experience and I can only hope that the young intoxicated girl learned from hers.


 

An Ironman Triathlon; let's get real!

Even though I am an 'old dog' I consider myself an endurance athlete. I have climbed 40 plus mountains including Longs Peak in Colorado which was over 14,000 feet.  I swim several times a week and love to bicycle and have ridden across several states. Last winter I participated in a 13 mile cross-country ski race in Michigan so, to a degree, I know how to suffer.

I suspect that every endurance athlete, even the 'old dogs' like me look at a triathlon, even the full length ones and wonder if they could do that. Two of our outstanding athletes at our YMCA just did this very thing, Ginny Phillips finished her first Ironman triathlon and Suzie Walsh her fifth in Houston Texas recently.  So, in my attempt to 'get real!' I realistically looked at each event in the Ironman to see where I would possibly rank.

The 2.4 mile swim: Now in an Ironman competition the swimming is way tougher than in a pool. You are in open water so you need to look up frequently to keep your bearings and to keep from wandering left or right, after all 2.4 miles is long enough. This is not to mention the fact that you are side by side with other racers and this is similar to being in a washing machine. Ginny's time for this event was 1:26 and Suzie's time was 1:21. Where would I have finished?  While I almost swam a mile once but had to get out for a bathroom break, ordinarily I swim 1/3 of a mile in a tad less than 20 minutes and since I mix up my freestyle and breast stroke I feel that I can go quite a while at that pace.  Still, my fastest pace for that length of swim would be two and a half hours and I can tell you, "I don't want to swim that long!"

112 mile bicycle ride: Now here is an event that I can relate to. I have ridden 100 miles three times; once in my 40s, once in my 50s and even once last year at age 63. Now this was with lunch, breaks and friends and my average speed all three times was around 12 mph. In a true race I might be able to add one or two miles per hour to that but then without breaks my speed might go down, not up. Now to extrapolate that to 112 miles means that I would be on a bicycle nine hours; ouch! Oh yea, I forgot to mention that this would be without restful night's sleep but following a two and a half hour swim. What did our YMCA triathletes do in this event? Ginny did this in seven hours averaging 15 mph which is a speed that I can sometimes manage . I once did a 60 mile tour averaging 15 but ordinarily at that speed in an hour I'm toast. Suzie, who must have had a motor secretly hidden in her bike, averaged an amazing 18 mph taking a little over six hours. So, these girls are just flying along and if you are keeping track, I am at 11 1/2 hours now.

The 26 mile marathon run: I don't even want to think about this! I finished one of these when I was 22 years old and swore "Never again!" My wife Ann is an excellent runner but I simply am not built for this. I need wheels, skis or skates under my feet to really go fast. My finishing time at age 22 was five and a half hours and realistically I couldn't match that now. I might be able to do one is six hours, and that would be of course with nothing preceding this. Eight would probably be more like it. You total all this up and add in the transition times and I am up to 20 hours. It would be pitch dark, all the finish line signs would be down and the ambulance crew would be out looking for my body.  Ginny did the triathlon in my six hours bringing her total time to just under 15 hours. Suzie moved that motor from her bike to her shoes and ran a 4:12 marathon, honestly not a bad time even without the torture preceding in and finished the total marathon under 12 hours, just a few minutes actually behind many of the professional women.

 I might be able to do these three events individually, although I truly feel my legs, hips, feet and most everything else would probably give out if I tried to run a 26 mile marathon now. I could probably swim 2.4 miles, but I wouldn't want to. After being that long in the water I would probably develop gills like Kevin Costner in the movie Waterworld.  I wouldn't mind riding 100 miles again, but racing that far is a little intense and to do all of these events back-to-back in one day; "Let's get real!"

ABSolutely not!

Oh the never ending quest for abs! You can't run through the stations on TV without see totally ripped young men and women working on a gadget of some sort that guarantees that you will look like a men or women's model in weeks. Now granted, having your abs visible is pretty cool, and the only six pack that I will ever have is the kind you buy in a liquor store, but this issue does need some clarification.

First of all, everyone has abs; it is just that for most of us they are covered with a layer of fat, and sometimes sadly many layers. Working on your abs specifically with no other goal is often fruitless because although there are advantages to a strong core, the muscles from your chest to your thighs, it takes more that a TV special to get there. The key thing about getting your abs to show is to get your body fat down to a pretty extreme level. For me, that is around 18 percent and is typically something I only experience after I have ridden my bicycle for a week solid across a state or in the midst of cross-country ski season, and even then I never get the kind of definition that bodybuilders often have.

So there are actually two muscle thoughts that you really need to develop abdominal definition. The key one is table muscle, that being the muscles you use to push yourself away from the table. I am not real good at that one at all. While exercise is key, diet is probably even more key in reference to getting your body fat down. Second, don't specifically think about your abs so much as thinking total body exercise. The more of your body that you can engage in exercise, i.e. YMCA classes such as Power Hour, Zumba, Kickboxing, etc, the lower your body fat is going to become. Once you get these two issues licked, then you can do specific gym exercises to accent your abs or if you want, order that fancy machine which might do you some good then.

"Surfer Dude"

"You should ask John (the lifeguard) to show you how to breathe out underwater," I mentioned to the young man just coming out of the pool. The young guy with a tattoo that ran down his shoulder was a strong swimmer but swam with his head out of the water. That's not the easiest thing to do with a freestyle swimming stroke, something I knew because I used to swim the same way.

"Oh, I surf," he answered, and obviously you can't see the bottom of the ocean the way you can see the bottom of the pool and you need to see where you are going.  Naturally I felt about 100 years old after his answer, and I am closing in on that age, and about two inches tall, and I am closing in on that as well.  Jesse however was very cool about the whole thing and told me that he had lived for five years in Hawaii and had loved surfing there. My wife and I spent our 30th anniversary in Hawaii and of course had watched the surfers and I was 'big-time' jealous of them. In athletics, I have never heard of anything that is actually more fun and I could see why Jesse couldn't wait to return, something he noted he had been along time saving for.

You never know who you are going to meet at the YMCA or what their story might be. I knew that we had tri-athletes here, including two Ironman finishers, but I hadn't expected a surfer this far inland.

I'm a Life Guard now.

"I'm a Life Guard now," I said to myself after finishing both the written and pool section of the tests. Unlike my high school compatriots who took the class with me and still have to deal with the demands of a school day, I had all day to study and for several days I did. There is a lot to learn about this field, not only in terms of dealing with pool emergencies, but also with all the health issues that you might come into contact with. One of my friends who had done this in his youth described Life Guarding as "hours of boredom, punctuated by seconds of terror!" And, "seconds of terror" is a good explanation of what you experience when your skills are needed in a life saving situation. That is why the training is intensive and why even after you receive your certificate you continue to train so that things can come automatic in those situations.

I have been joking with my friends, especially the bigger guys, that if I see them in the bottom of the pool I will carefully access the situation, and laughingly note that I would let the next shift take care of it. For my part, I hope that I never have to use a single emergency procedure that I have learned because that would mean someone would be in trouble or hurt and I don't want that. It is a nice feeling however to have gained the knowledge that I have from the wonderful instruction we received. In many ways it is like a life insurance policy. You don't really want to have it to cash in, but it provides security for others and I'm good with that.

Lifeguarding lessons: First Aid plus

"Sara, I could have saved you and Matt a lot of money," I quipped, "We had a section on how to do childbirth in our Life Guard Manual. Of course, you would have had to come down to the pool."

I actually don't think Mom or Dad and especially Grandma would have been too happy with that idea, and I am more than glad that there was well-equipped hospital with trained doctors and nurses for the delivery of my new grandson. This does however give you an idea of the comprehensiveness of the First Aide training that we received as Life Guards. I joke that I can do anything short of a heart transplant, but the reality is that hopefully band-aids will be the extent of what I really need to do. Still, you never know what emergencies you face at a pool and beyond the obvious dangers related to water and kids getting in over their head, literally and figuratively, accidents and illness can happen. We studied issues such as burns, shock, heart attacks, diabetic reactions, abrasions, illnesses and more. So, while if you are pregnant you probably don't want the Life Guard to deliver your baby, they hopefully are ready meet most medical emergencies faced at a pool. For childbirth however, we will leave that to the hospital.

Lifeguarding lessons: Chasing the greased pig!

"It's like chasing a greased pig," I exclaimed to my wife Ann describing some of the water rescues that we were practicing in our Life Guarding class. In some of the rescues our instructor would trash in the water, keep turning, dunk us when we grabbed on and generally made our lives miserable. Of course, that is what a panicked drowning victim might do, so it is a rescue that we absolutely had to know. I think I went down twice in this rescue and took in enough water that I didn't have to drink anything the next day but I held on and got it done. Some of the skills that I have gained aren't even in the book. For example, now I realize that even if I take in a mouthful of water and get tossed about I don't panic. I may cough and sputter, but I can still function and so can my classmates.

As tough as this rescue was, there was one even tougher; the bottom of the pool rescue for a victim with a head or neck injury. This one takes wind, strength and finesse; the latter being something I don't have too much of. The victim Simone, one of the young Life Guards at the Y was on the bottom of the pool. Our job was to dive feet first which is always hard for me because I keep wanting to move my arms in the wrong direction and go up instead of down. Once at the bottom you grab the victim's arms and pull them forward clamping their head as in a vice. Then you need to be strong enough to pull you both to the surface and this needs to be at an angle or you both get a major mouthful of water. This Simone and I unfortunately and I found out the hard way. This is an old-fashioned rescue in a way because you don't use a floating device so your swimming stroke has to be really strong.. I don't know how many dives I made to get the hang of this, but my brain is now waterlogged.

My rescues aren't textbook and I sometimes use muscle where finesse and technique are called for, but I can confidently say if someone in the water is in trouble, I am going to get them out. Watching my classmates, they can say the same. I of course hope that I never actually have to save a person's life this way because I don't want any swimmer to be in danger of drowning but I wouldn't be on the side helplessly looking or attempting a fruitless rescue that could endanger both of us. And that is worth taking a whole lot of mouthfuls of water for.

Lifeguarding lessons: Who's the dummy?

The primary duty of a Life Guard is actually to avoid what they have been most trained to do. Now I know that this immediately may not make sense, but if a Life Guard is watching the patrons carefully, and keeping alert for dangerous situations. Then, hopefully they can interact before someone needs rescue or gets hurt. As an educator, I noted that the most effective teachers typically saw problems as they were developing and stopped them before they became major issues. Being an excellent Life Guard is basically the same idea. So when the Life Guard whistles for someone to stop running, it just isn't because they are a grouch. They want everyone to be safe and one of my favorite quotes, is "safety trumps everything."

Still, accidents do happen as do illnesses, and at least half of our Life Guard training was in preparation for these. To help in this we had dummies and we worked on a variety of scenarios. Life Guards don't want to have to pull unconscious people out of the water and that is why they are so vigilant in their observation of the pools and lakes, but it this is needed that are a whole bunch of things that they need to know. First, is the airway clear? If there is something blocking the victim's airway this has to be cleared or no resuscitation (rescue breathing) can take place. Then you have to check for a pulse. If there is no pulse CPR (one of the zillion) initials we learned has to be given. Then there is the AED, which is the really cool machine that not only gives the heart a shock but then tells you exactly what needs to be done next. If I were to list all the steps that have to be taken here it would take all day, but these steps have to be done in seconds and they have to be done in the right order because a person's life depends on it. We practiced these techniques repeatedly in the gym with plastic dummies and more than a few times I felt like the dummy when I put a step in the wrong order, but with practice I got it as did my classmates. While this was a fun class, there was no joking around here as we all realized what could be at stake.

Next: Catching the greased pig! The deep water rescue with safety board.

Lifeguarding lessons: Per-requisites

"If you come in the pool and see me in the Life Guard chair, run for your life!" I joke with my friends about my attempt at taking Life Guarding classes at age 64. The reality is however, that it is probably the Life Guard who needs to be the most anxious. It wasn't very long into the class that the seriousness of the responsibility of being a Life Guard made an impact. Our instructor Christy and staff member Kay, who is taking the class as well, have both rescued a drowning victim and both still have trouble talking about it even thought their rescues were blessedly successful. That person up in the tower has more to do than just look cool in their sunglasses and Life Guard shirt. It is their responsibility to keep the patrons of the pool safe from danger, and if a medical or swimming emergency occurs, to spring into action knowing what to do regardless of the situation. As one of my close friends who did this in his youth noted, "It is hours of boredom, sometimes punctuated by moments of sheer terror!"

To prepare for the class requires more than the average amount of fitness and comfort in the water. At the very first class as a per-requisite, we had to swim 1/4 mile, tread water for an eternity, or at least it seemed that long, and do the toughie; swim the length of the pool, dive to the bottom and pick up a 10 pound brick with both hands. Then you surface (hopefully) and swim back not taking either hand off the brick. Luckily I practiced this one before the first class because the first time I tried it I realized that I wasn't going to come back up unless I did something! Not wanting to drown, I kicked up to the surface coughing like the old man I was. Practice makes perfect however and I can now save the brick. People may be a little more difficult however so stay tuned.

Lifeguarding lessons: Learning to swim

Since I learned to swim at age 60, I guess I can learn to be a lifeguard at age 64. While I have swam for most of my life, and dearly love the activity, the harsh truth was that I only knew two strokes; the dog paddle/ breast stroke that was only so so and a strong sidestroke that I learned from my father's Navy Blue Jacket Manual. I had tried freestyle swimming, which used to be called the Australian Crawl, and my crawl was more like crawling on the bottom of the pool since I sank like a rock after a couple of strokes. I could see other people doing this stroke quite well and figured they knew something that I didn't.

I spent the last several years working part-time in Kewanee IL. I would often stay overnight there, typically on Wednesday, and I would fill my evenings at the YMCA lifting weights and shooting baskets. One afternoon I noted that they had swimming lessons so I signed up. I will have you know that I was the very best student in class since I was the only student in the class. The young college girl Brittany who taught it was good with me being the only student so I couldn't ask for more individualized instruction. I soon figured out what I had been missing and that was breathing. The secret is to take a breath when you raise your head and then breath out while you are under water. "So that's the trick!" I noted.

Knowing and doing are two different things however and it took me several weeks before I could actually go from one end of the pool to the other. Brittany also taught me how to do the breast stroke correctly using the same principle; breath in of the water and then breath out under water. Learning to swim is actually pretty cool because you can improve not only by upping your fitness but by improving your technique as well. From one length of the pool, I advanced to swimming down and back.

Now of course I am much better and can swim close to a mile in one setting if I set my mind to it. Usually I get bored long before this however so a third of a mile is my favorite distance. I remain very appreciative of a college student, younger than my daughter, who taught an "old dog" how to swim and I continue to refine my technique as both members and coaches at our YMCA provide me with tips.

Next: The prerequisites; I may drown before this class ever starts.

Lifeguarding lessons: Your'e going to do what!

I guess if I learned to swim at age 60 then I can learn to be a life guard at age 64. Actually I learned how to swim at age 22, but I only knew one stroke. One of my friends from high school called and said he had found an abandoned rock quarry. When you are 22 things like drowning don't really enter your thinking so I pulled out my father's WWII Navy Blue Jacket Manual, looked at the diagram of the side stroke and said, "I can do that."

The quarry was as beautiful as advertised. It was huge with high walls that we would later climb and dive off. The water was crystal clear, although a tad cold since it was spring fed. I jumped in and tried my new sidestroke, noted that it worked well and proceeded to swim all the way around the outside of the quarry. As I said, when you are 22 the concept of drowning doesn't really enter your mind. That quarry was summer fun for several years and I learned to relax so well that I would go to the middle and just tread water without a care in the world. One thing that I didn't learn however was actually how to swim much better. I could dog paddle, do my side stroke but I couldn't do a freestyle stroke more than a few yards before sinking like a rock. It would be almost 40 years later that a YMCA instructor who was younger than my daughter would teach me how to swim the right way.

Next: Learning to swim the right way

Training for Extremes: "Rocky Mountain High"

"If I am ever going to ski that, today is the day," I said to my brother-in-law Jim looking upward from where we were to the summit of the peak at Winter Park Ski Resort in Colorado. "Are you sure that it is a Blue?"

Now if you haven't downhill skied, you might not know the color code. Green runs are more gradual from very gentle slopes to slopes that will get you moving pretty good put don't have a lot of turns or bumps. Blue runs are definitely steeper and not for beginners and Black runs are definitely steep, often narrow with bumps and often turns. The color code also varies from area to area. For example the hills in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are longer and often steeper than those in Illinois so a Green run there might be a Blue run in Illinois. In Colorado everything jumps a notch and what is a Black in Illinois would be an easy Blue there. You don't even think about skiing a Black run in Colorado unless you want to end up being a decoration on a tree like the late Sonny Bono. Jim, answered, "I'm sure its a blue, but I don't know how tough?"

I have climbed over 40 mountains and never get over the thrill. Getting off the lift at the summit of the Winter Park peak was no disappointment either. Well above treeline at 12,000 feet, the view of the surrounding snow covered peaks in all directions was spectacular. It took every bit of skill that Jim and I could muster to ski the five miles down to the bottom of the mountain but even writing about it brings back the excitement. There is just something awesomely cool about being well above treeline cutting back and forth across the steep slope to keep control of the speed. The run was within my ability but I did things that I hadn't had to before such as skiing in and out of some good sized bumps and ridges in the snow (small moguls) and skiing solid for over a half hour. It was the most exciting and best-ever ski run of my life and I never could have done it had I not trained for extremes.

Now I am admitted "gym rat," and I love all the activities there but the reality is that I have different goals in mind. While it might look like I am "training to extreme," I am actually "training for extremes." There is Illinois fit and there is Colorado fit and these are definitely not the same. The demands of the activities that I have enjoyed in Colorado have required all the strength, agility and endurance that I can muster. Breathing at altitude a major issue there because my body hasn't had enough time to develop the red blood cells it needs. It often takes up to week to deal with this issue and generally up to a year to do it effectively. You really can't fool mother nature.

Now I am a true winter bear, or I guess I should say "snow dog," because this is my favorite season, especially in Colorado. In six days I cross-country skied three times, downhill skied, snowshoed to a high mountain lake, mountain biked to the top of a mesa and ice skated. I thought about how specific activities at the YMCA helped me. For example after skate-skiing up a half-mile mountain slope I went into a racers tuck and held it all the way back down hitting 23 mph. I couldn't do that without all the squats that I have done in Power Hour and Kickboxing. Endurance is always an issue in the thin air, but I managed to climb over 800 feet on my mountain bike although admittedly I did have to get off one an a while on the extremely steep parts. I don't know what made my heart go faster however, climbing or heading nose down a rocky trail that encircled the mountain with some major drop offs. Most of these activities involved a high degree of balance which is worked on in Yoga and other classes.

I have done some wonderful activities in Colorado and as usual, can't wait to return not only for the fun but to see my sister and her husband, and my niece and nephew and their families. I never know what to expect and the range of activities can be from gentle hiking to an insane 90 foot frozen waterfall that we ice climbed. It is always an adventure, but thanks to my Y training I feel that I am as ready as I can be for these. After all, I am training for extreme fun. 

Beginning Adult Exercise: Oops, I should have done this first!

The beginning adult exercise class taught by Kay meets right before lunch and is truly an introduction to many of the other activities available at the YMCA. Kay has taught about everything there during her career so she knows how to take activities from some of the more intensive exercise classes and tone them down just a degree for this class. Not that you don't get a workout however since I worked up a sweat doing the kickboxing routines that she introduced. I had attended a couple of kickboxing classes because of the carryover to my favorite sport of cross-country skiing but had some mistakes in technique. Because the pace of this class is somewhat slower, and because there are less participants, Kay was able to see these errors and correct them. This will make for a better and more effective workout the next time I am in the regular kickboxing class. Kay noted that she does the same thing for Zumba, introducing the moves at a pace that beginners can understand. All in all, this is a good class if you are beginning an exercise program and want to know what activities at the YMCA are available and also, if you are like me and love variety.

Intervals: I hate them but.........

If you have hit a plateau in your desire to lose weight or you would really like to step-up your fitness to the next level, intervals are a good way to do it. Now I must admit that I hate these because there is no getting around it, they are really hard! My favorite sports of bicycling and cross-country skiing require intervals naturally and they are called hills. You are riding or skiing at a moderate heart rate and then you have to push your heart rate up to climb the hill and then your heart rate comes back down as you descend.  In the gym however we need to manufacture these high intensity moments and this is where intervals come into play.

The idea behind intervals is simple and you can do these on the elliptical machines, the stepper, treadmill, in the pool, or my favorite, on the exercise bike. You exercise in your working zone (65 % to 85%) of your maximum heart rate, or at a level where you can still talk, but with some effort if the machine doesn't have a monitor. Now comes the hard part as you push your effort up into the upper limits of your heart rate. How long you keep it there depends on how fit you are and most people can only sustain a few minutes, then you back off and let your heart rate come down again. I use the five minute fit test for my interval period on the exercise bike and sometimes do an interval within an interval; driving the cadence up over 100 for 30 seconds and then dropping it back. After finishing the fit test and as soon as my heart rate drops to 120 (the bottom of my working zone) I do the same thing again. About three times is all that I can take, although sometimes I do four.

Why suffer like this? The answer is that you can gain more fitness faster from intervals than from almost any other method that I know. Instead of staying on a machine for a long time, you work for a shorter period but with much greater intensity. This method can also help you drop weight. No, not drop to the floor although you may feel like it, but to get past those plateaus where your weight has been holding even though you have been exercising steadily. Raising you effort and exertion a notch with intervals can get you past these plateaus.

I am training for a late spring trip to Colorado where we will downhill and cross-country ski, snowshoe and sometimes do some more extreme activities such as ice climbing. I tell people that there is "fit" and there is "Colorado fit," and the two are very different. Regardless of how much one trains at lower altitude you really can't replicate that altitude or the red blood cells that you need. Still, by the use of intervals you can push your fitness to that next level and prepare yourself in the best way possible for the challenges that lie ahead.

Zumba Toning: It's easier and harder........

Zumba has been my favorite of all the YMCA activities to participate in and I am not alone in this regard. Zumba is clearly the most popular single class that the Y has to offer. It is a comprehensive workout that is loads of fun and the music is infectious. You just want to move, and that is the whole idea of exercise!

Since I have been jumping in and out of classes however there is a problem with being a "newbie" in Zumba. The songs go awfully fast, especially those with the Latin rhythms, and it can be difficult to figure out what to do next. Not that anyone is taking notes however, and many participants just go where the music takes them and don't worry about it. The Zumba Cat gave me some good advice that I follow when jumping into a class. Watch the feet and follow those moves first, letting the arm motions follow.

If you would like to participate in Zumba at a slightly slower pace then Zumba Toning may be perfect for you. The music is a tad slower and there tends to be less motions to remember making it far easier to keep in rhythm with the group. There are also some different motions that regular Zumba doesn't utilize as much and this is the toning part. With the use of very light hand weights I could see how this class would certainly help in the toning of leg and arm muscles. All in all, Zumba Toning is a great way to get into the flow or Zumba and tone your muscles at the same time.

Setting goals: How about the Olympic team?

Rikki, our director at the YMCA, actually came close to making the Canadian Olympic team in swimming, but for most of us our fitness goals need to be more realistic. I see a lot of people exercising who of course have weight goals that they would like to reach but there is a real danger in having that as your only goal. There are several reasons for this. First, while weight might come off quickly at the beginning, especially if you pair exercise with diet often there is a plateau where your body tries to maintain its current weight and this can be demoralizing. Second, muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are replacing fat with muscle (a great thing by the way!) you might not see the results on the scales. Third, improving your fitness takes a while, actually longer than most people in our society with stresses immediate rewards are often ready for. I often say, that whether you are an Olympic athlete or a total couch potato, it is always tough to raise your fitness level a notch.

I deal with this issue by using smaller measurable goals and by changing my emphasis from month to month. For example; one month I may try and make my arms stronger with extra exercise there and then in another month I would work on my leg strength. When I am getting ready for a cross-country ski race then I increase the intensity of everything that I do. I keep track of weights that I lift, how many times I can do the fitness test on the exercise bike before I fall off or how fast I can swim. The variety of ways that I do this helps keep my exercise routine from getting stale and allows me to see progress in measurable segments. These little gains add up and almost imperceptibly you find yourself able to do things physically that you might not have been able to before. If you need help in this regard one of the fitness trainers can help you develop a specialized program that will meet your needs.

Rome wasn't built in a day, a month or even a year and neither is fitness. It is actually a life-long commitment that may result in that life being much longer and more vigorous. Research certainly supports this. So, while your goal might not be to be an Olympian, or in some cases it might be, stay with it and measurable goals can help in whatever your long-term fitness goal might be.

Water yoga: It's all wet.....

Water yoga is a weekly part of the water exercise class for seniors and as such, if you want to have an introduction to this activity this is a great time and place. I am slowly catching onto yoga since it is an acquired taste, much like coffee. And much like that morning cup of coffee, I usually feel invigorated after.

Karen, the instructor comes in for the yoga session after the class has already warmed up with about a half hour of fairly easy exercise in the pool. This session is perfect for seniors who might have weight concerns, balance concerns or even pain concerns because the water has a tendency to lessen each of these. Not only is exercise easier on your body in water, in many ways yoga is as well. Obviously we did the exercises standing, typically by the side of the pool. I didn't see any members with gills who could do these underwater. I found that balance was actually a little easier in water and that since we were already warmed up and in the water, I could actually stretch a tad further than if I was on the floor. Karen has done this for quite a while and ran us through several exercises including those that helped breathing. This latter area is one that I have really seen the benefit of yoga. To often, during intense exercise I would either pant like an 'old dog' or hold my breath and either caused me to run out of juice almost immediately. By concentrating on smooth breathing at all times more intense activities such as the exercise bike, the stepper or my beloved cross-country skiing has become easier and my performance has improved.

So yes, water yoga is all wet, but that's a good thing. If you have never experienced yoga this would be a good place to start and even if you are experienced, the water makes it enough different to be interesting.

Kick Boxing: You'll get a kick out of this......

"Wow, this is like Zumba with muscles!" I thought as we went through some of the routines in Kick Boxing. After you have visited as many classes at the YMCA as I have, which by the way is all of them now, comparisons become inevitable. I was the only guy unfortunately in this well-attended class with mostly younger women, and that is a shame since in many ways this seems like a guy's kind of class. There is the rhythmic music that gets you going of course and this punctuated by powerful punch and kick movements that I really liked. I had just came off a 13 mile cross-country ski race so I was about as fit as I can get and I was glad because this class, like several others I have attended, can really put you through the ringer. My heart was in the working zone (65-85%) of max for half of the time and above this for the other half.

While there aren't too many Olympic-style skate skiers this far south, this class more than any other I have attended seemed to match some of the demands of my favorite sport. The cardiovascular demands of this class is exactly what I need. I realized in the race that despite my efforts I hadn't done enough in this regard since in the race my heart rate was at 98% and above for over two and a half hours. Additionally, the powerful side kicks that we repetitively did in Kick Boxing are not that different from the powerful side thrust (much like ice skating) that I use in skate skiing. There is something really cool about the punching and kicking movements in this class. Maybe all these ladies in there have aggressive tendencies that they have been hiding otherwise because everyone was really getting into the activity.

Our instructor Karole was excellent at leading the movements and letting us know when there was going to be a change. This was particularly important to me, a first-time participant. We ended with some core-strengthening crunches, which I have learned to hate but know I need, and some stretching. Is it just me, or are women way more limber? All in all, this is a great class and anyone who joins will certainly get a kick out of it, particularly if they stand too close to the next participant!

Next: Final thoughts





 

SISU: the X-C ski race: The goal...........

"Great job Kent........hard training and a good luck charm from a dear friend.....what a great combination!"

A good friend from my bicycle club sent me the aforementioned e-mail message following my completion of SISU, the 13 mile cross-country ski race held in Ironwood Michigan. There are a multitude of good reasons for exercise; you feel better, you look better, you can eat better and still manage your weight, you may live longer and it can be fun, especially with the variety of activities available at the YMCA. For me however there is one overriding reason; I want to cross-country ski faster so that I can compete with the big dogs up north. Now I am 'old dog' obviously and have no pretenses of winning or actually even placing in my age group in a ski race, but I want to belong. SISU, which is a Scandinavian term for toughness without complaining, is where the best cross-country skiers in the midwest compete. Other than a tiny smattering of competitors from out of state, I was the skier from the farthest south. Unlike all those skiers from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, snow for me to train on is a precious - and this year unavailable - commodity. Except for one day at a downhill ski area when I went up and down one hill about two dozen times, all my training had to be at the YMCA.

My finishing position for the race was 153 out of 193 competitors and my time was 2 hours and 33 minutes. Given the lack of snow to train on here in Illinois I was very pleased and all my training paid off since my time was 11 minutes faster than the previous year, which actually is almost a minute a mile faster. My training for the race had encompassed a plethora of activities but swimming a third of a mile almost daily and lots of weight room lifting were key. Karen, through personal training helped me with specific exercises to strengthen the specific muscles needed for my sport, and Kay's yoga classes helped me with breathing. Zumba and other activities helped as well.

What I learned from this race was that I was strong enough, but sadly not fit enough. We skate ski (Olympic style) and the energy requirement go off the charts, especially when we are climbing hills and there were lots of hills. Using my heart monitor, my heart rate was at 98 percent after about a minute. We began with a hill, and my heart rate never really dropped below that level unless I stopped at a rest station. After about half the race of running my heart at redline, it became exceeding difficult to skate ski up hills or even maintain a smooth rhythm on the flats because of the exhaustion. I had the muscle, but not the wind. Still it was incredibly exciting and demanding, even the downhill parts as I once hit 26 mph on one of the steepest areas. I have a GPS that measures these things.

About the good luck charm; Dr. John Harbeck, who was tragically killed this fall in a bicycle accident, had skied a similar race in Wisconsin. John was a very dear friend and his wife Shirley kindly gave me his ski sweater and his medals for finishing his race. I wore the sweater several times in Michigan and next to my heart during my race was the medal from another guy who wouldn't quit and never complained. And that is what SISU stands for.

Next: Kicking it up a notch.

Discovery Preschool: The wonderful coincidence..........

I struggled and struggled! Nothing in my intense aerobic and weight training had prepared me for this! Here I was at a table with three and four year old children trying to color within the lines with water colors. Actually, this was an incredibly relaxing activity compared with my usual ones and the kids at the table were clearly having a ball. We were water painting Winnie the Pooh pictures of winter activities and the teacher Beverly had just finished a discussion with the children about their favorite winter activities. Much like me - a big kid at heart - they all loved winter and were jumping into the task. This Discovery Preschool class was definitely going to be fun.

"Winnie's sweater is red," said Lauren, who was way better versed on Winnie the Pooh than I am, although with a new grandchild coming I had better get up to speed on issues like this. The little boy across from me said something about his dad Chad and I looked at his name, Hudson.

"Is your mom Kinsey?" I asked, already knowing the answer. Wow, what an incredibly wonderful coincidence. Kinsey and our daughter Sara had met in this very room and, to use computer nomenclature, are BFF (best friends forever). Kinsey was in Sara's wedding and now the young mother and mother-to-be still talk all the time.

So what do you learn in Discovery Preschool? You learn to share, take turns, cooperate and solve problems. You learn to use different art skills and this is where Sara, our daughter who is now an art teacher, was first introduced to art activities. Age appropriate activities help promote creativity, discovery and understanding. Best of all, the children learn how to make friends and who knows, one of these friends may turn out to be the child's BFF.

Next: Kicking it up a notch with kickboxing

Final exam: The cross-country ski race

I have really enjoyed training at the YMCA this fall and winter and especially have enjoyed all the different activities that I have been doing for this blog. These however have all been means to an end and the end is the 13 mile cross-country ski race in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan called SISU. This race brings together the top cross-country skiers in the midwest so this "Old Dog" finishes well back in the pack, but still relishes the opportunity to run with the big dogs. Last year I finished 120th out of 143 with a time of 2 hours and 44 minutes, but I hope to do a lot better this time around. Last year's conditions were brutal to say the least. The half-marathon started in a heavy snow in 15 degree weather and dropped to 8 degrees by the end of the race. Using Olympic-style skate skiing, the glide of the snow is crucial and the heavy snow made for very slow going as did the temperature. Temperature surprisingly affects the glide on the snow a lot with ideal being around 28-30 degrees and then it gets slower either warmer or cooler than this.

While I obviously haven't been able to train by skiing the Y has been wonderful for providing a variety of activities that hopefully will carry over to my favorite sport. I have spent hours in the weight room building up the muscles in my shoulders and legs and the personal training I received Karen have given me some specific exercises in this regard. To build my endurance, I swim 1/3 of a mile almost every day, plus work on the stepper and exercise bicycle. It is all the other additional activities however that lead me to feel confident that I can give my best effort. Yoga has been instrumental in helping my balance and breathing. Zumba has been awesome fun, but also has helped in coordination, balance and endurance. Every time I visit a new class I test my body in new and unique ways. Not only is variety the spice of life, it is a true building block to fitness.

I have no illusions of winning, or even placing in my age group with the quality of skiers that are in this race but I do feel confident that I can do my best. As such I have already met one of my fitness goals. The others will be determined when I try to skate-ski up one of those long finishing hills in this race.

Gentle Yoga: Making peace with Yoga........

Boom - recover, boom - recover! This is one of the rhythmic devices I use when I pursue my favorite sport, cross-country skiing. We skate ski in races which is the style used by the Olympians, although am somewhat slower to say the least.  The "boom" is the explosive action where we drive the poles into the snow and push hard outward on one of our skis. The "recover" is just as important however, and when we move our weight to the other ski we need to relax our bodies completely, even if only for a second. This moment of relaxation allows us to maintain our endurance for long distances. I lift weights and do aerobics for the "boom," but I really need to work on the "recover" part of the ski stroke. I clearly needed to make peace with yoga.

Gentle yoga is the first and only class that I have visited twice during my blogging of YMCA activities. There are other YMCA yoga classes, but before I jumped into something more advanced I realized that I needed more help with the basics and our instructor Kay was perfect in this regard. The aspect of yoga that I really hadn't internalized very well was the relaxation part and we spent time just learning how to breathe correctly. Instead of fighting the moves - a typical guy reaction - I needed to ease into these with as little tension in my body as possible. This is obviously diametrically opposite to the lifting that I do in the weight room. While we had talked about this during the first session, I really wasn't able to internalize it until the second. Kay noted that yoga is a learning process and it often takes weeks or months to become proficient and that she continues to learn all the time about the activity.

The other aspect of yoga that is perfect for my sport - and any sport or activity for that matter - is balance. Now I fly around corners on one ski so I thought I had good balance. Balance in motion however isn't the same as static motion and just standing on one foot is not all that easy, especially if are not using your arms as outriggers to stabilize oneself. Better balance, posture and breathing are all benefits of yoga that not only will help my sport, but actually benefit every aspect of life.

So, although I tend to be more of a muscle guy, I am definitely "making peace with yoga," and hopefully that peace in my body will pay off during "boom-recover!"

Sliver Sneakers: Are they heavy?

"This class keeps me on my toes," noted Brianna, as she directed the senior group in the activities of the Silver Sneakers program. Brianna is also one of the Individual Trainers at the YMCA, but she dials the intensity of exercise down a few notches for this program. Still, the range of motion and activities mirrored those in many other classes, but at an intensity level individual for each participant.

The five members of the class all knew each other well and there was a lot of good-natured  banter between the members of the class and the teacher. In fact, Brianna laughingly noted that it is sometimes hard to keep the group on track. While the program is not intensive physically, it is very important. The activities provided help in  the maintenance of ADL (adaptive life skills) for some of the members. As such there are activities that you wouldn't ordinarily do in other programs, i.e. exercises to make the hands and fingers more flexible to ward off the effects of arthritis. Many of the activities are completed while sitting on a chair or standing beside it so issues of balance are dealt with safely and anyone with knee problems can participate without undue pain. The equipment included light weights, flexible straps and a small rubber ball and the weights and straps were of different weight and tension to account for individual differences. While it wasn't like Zumba, there was music and you could do exercises in rhythm if you liked.

The class may keep the instructor on her toes, but she also kept the members using theirs as while setting we did some foot rotation exercises to maintain and improve flexibility.  Many of the members of this class also attend one of the water exercise classes at the Y and the combination of the two programs is ideal. If you are a senior, or if you have a serious injury or pain issues, this class would be perfect for you. There is no impact on the joints, activities are adjusted for individual differences, the instructor is knowledgeable and really nice and the participants are friendly.  Sneak on in; you will be welcomed.

Wallyball with the girls:

This "Old Dog" was panting, and it wasn't just because the girls were cute! I had invited myself into a wallyball game with a group of young women who meet every Monday morning for this fast-paced activity that resembles volleyball.. Luckily, I hit a morning when Lisa, Patsy, Patti, Cathy and Julie were one person short for their three-on-three game, so as a male I got special dispensation since I evened the teams up. Lisa told me that the group had formed over a dozen years ago.  Although she noted the membership has sometimes changed, her group's enthusiasm for the sport hadn't.

While I had played basketball competitively until I was almost 35, I never was all that good at volleyball. 30 years later I was even less good at this similar, but in some unique ways very different sport. First, there is the ball, which is volleyball size but far more rubbery. This meant that for the first game or so I would knock it out of bounds, into the net, or on occasion all the way it up to the ceiling. The ball didn't sting like a volleyball however and I was good with that. Second, the walls, ceiling and back walls of the racquetball court come into play in this activity. More a than a few times I stood there like a big dummy trying to figure out what to do as the ball would come at me from unexpected angles. Third, although I am in my 60s and pride myself on still being able to jump, my jump doesn't get me off the floor! So much for my spiking ability.

We played four games in an hour rotating one person each game to the other team. Now for the first two games my team lost, but I figured that just had to be the side of the net I had been playing on. When I switched sides for the third game, I was actually on the winning team proving my theory right. This of course ignores the fact that I only returned a fraction of the balls hit to me and couldn't get to many of the others like I should have. I had forgotten how fast actual competition in a team sport can be and these girls were awfully at good getting to and hitting back shots that I could only wave at.

By the fourth game this "Old Dog" was really panting and my team got creamed, primarily because anything hit my way had as good of chance of going off my head as over the net. Still, I loved the experience. I really appreciated the camaraderie that the girls had with each other and the opportunity for me to experience a brand new sport. I would love to play again, but I suspect when teams were picked I would be chosen someplace well after last.

Next: Are those Silver Sneakers heavy?