Like a Bigfoot

Motivation, Mindset, Positivity, Endurance, Adventure, Perseverance, and Possibility

Category: Optimal Human Training (page 3 of 3)

Why You Should Go Climb a Mountain

Everyone should climb a mountain at some point in their life.  Something amazing happens as you are huffing and puffing your way up over boulders. Through your oxygen deprived brain a realization dawns upon you”Holy crap I’m climbing a mountain…I CAN CLIMB A FREAKING MOUNTAIN!!”  All of a sudden a brand new world of possibilities opens before you.  You have achieved something out of the ordinary, something you may have believed to be impossible.  You have accomplished something EXTRAORDINARY.

“Ordinary people do extraordinary things.”- Jim Valvano (Coach of the NC State Wolfpack) Continue reading

Advice for Trail Running Newbies (Part 2)

So I promised this article a while back and waited all this time in order to build months and months of anticipation!  (Alright I’ll be honest, it took this long due to extreme lazyassness).  Here’s a link to my first “Advice for Trail Running Newbies” article.  If you haven’t attempted the almighty trail run yet, then I would seriously recommendfinding a trail close to you, lacing up the running shoes, and start pounding.

To those newbies starting off, here’s some advice (unwarranted or otherwise): Continue reading

Be Authentic

How can I elevate people while doing what I love?

This question has been my main self reflection as I prepare to begin a new school year with a brand new batch of smiling 8th graders (ok…being honest mostly-eye-rolling-but-occasionally-you-can-get-a-smile 8th graders).  I’m going to be perfectly transparent while writing this: Last year I was not happy with how I taught.  I came into last year on Cloud Nine after an amazing experience the year before, optimistic that the ball of awesomeness was going to just keep rolling for me.  Then throughout the year, my spirit was methodically beaten down.  The students were pushing my patience and classroom management skills, I was not able to teach the science concepts in ways that I wanted to (ways that deep down were honest to my philosophy of learning), and, the “apex of craptitude” for teaching: I felt major pressure from the end of the year standardized test.

I spent the majority of the summer (and running meditations, so this relates to working out) contemplating the post-mortem of “what went wrong” while also considering a pre-mortem of “how do I prevent this from happening again?”

I narrowed this down to one thing…I lost track of the “love”.  By that I mean, I lost my truth.  Through the year, I stopped teaching in a way that was authentic to who I am and as a side effect I was not able to elevate my students to success.  The guilt of feeling like I did them a disservice is still very painful.

Here’s the lesson: If you do what you love in an authentic way, people will naturally be elevated.  You can inspire people just by being a complete and honest you.   Continue reading

Dad Workouts (Part 1)

This summer has been a huge blessing for me.  During my time off from teaching I have spent most waking hours in the presence of the most beautiful lady in the whole world – my 5 month old daughter Harper.  My days have become jam packed with raising and entertaining this tiny human (via poor attempts at guitar playing, silly dancing, and my new specialty- impressions of Arnold Schwarzenegger…his voice not the whole nanny thing).

One could say that my main objective of my time off is introducing my daughter to this crazy world.  This is true.  She’s seen some weird stuff (the aforementioned terrible dancing), been some weird places (from tops of mountains all the way to the Atlantic Ocean and the craziest place of all….Kansas City), and has accomplished some of her own athletic goals (mostly taking a giant crap while simultaneously sneezing and spitting up).  And I have been there every step of her journey.  Hours spent helping this little amazing creature along. Continue reading

Advice for Trail Running Newbies (Part 1)

I started trail running in June of 2013 when my wife and I moved to southern Virginia. I left behind a town that I loved (Des Moines, Iowa), a job that I loved, and many friends whom I loved. The saving grace behind this move was that our new town had 25 miles of mountain bike single track course! I made learning how to trail run my main objective (behind finding a job, renting a nice house, and meeting nice people…you know all that boring adult crap).

Up until that point, I had known trails only through hiking; the lone time I had run on one was to escape sudden death at the end of a 17 mile hike through the mountains of Colorado. I had researched the benefits of trail running and had read Born to Run (the book that apparently every ultrarunner everywhere has read…for good reason. The book kicks major ass!) and the idea of trail running very much intrigued me.

A few days after settling into Virginia I tied up my shoes and headed out to Angler’s Park our local mountain bike course.  Continue reading

A Month of Yoga

My journey with yoga began in middle school with a gym teacher making our class watch and practice with a yoga DVD.  My conclusions: I sucked at balancing, couldn’t touch my toes, and thought shavasana was just an excuse to lay around (the meditating pose at the end of a practice).  My confusion continued in high school when my best friend, Travis, started doing “Yoga for Athletes” CD.  After making fun of him nonstop, he convinced me to try it and it completely kicked my ass! I had never been so physically exhausted before in my life. My ignorant belief that yoga was “non-manly” was instantly transformed.

A few years later while in college I signed up for a hothouse yoga class.  It was killer, but I was instantly hooked.  For the first month $35 gave you access to as many classes as you want.  Not being a man to turn down a deal like that, I went to a class every single day (sometimes I would combo pilates and yoga…hothouse pilates is still the toughest athletic thing I have ever done).  Quickly I saw benefits: I was relaxed during conversations, focused in class, became less uptight and shy, I could finally touch my toes, my core felt amazing, I just felt like a more optimum human.   Continue reading

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