by Dan | Aug 12, 2018 | Exercise, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
There are always things to do to keep you busy on the weekends…especially when it comes to exercise opportunities! Sarah went with a bunch of the girls on our Run Club to Fargo for an all women’s half marathon this weekend, and I went to Parker SD where my twin brother lives and was involved in a triathlon they were having. Both were a lot of fun, and we got to spend time with a bunch of people, and be active. It was a hot and humid weekend, and as always, need to keep staying hydrated. It was also a good time to get away from things for awhile as well.
I have to admit, I was a little surprised when the triathlon started that I found myself out in the lead. I cam through the 5k in 22:03, and then took off on the bike, and never really looked back!
It was a 10 mile bike ride after the run, and then the swim was last. 200 meters in the pool. Nothing like still being in the lead and having 30 people around the pool watch you when you are a terrible swimmer! Biking and running no problem, but I do not swim! My sister-in-law managed to take one picture of me where I actually was at least attempting to swim!
I ended up winning overall! First time ever winning a triathlon! The Kampeska one in the Summer we have close to a hundred people at. There were six of us in this one in Parker! I told my brother Don before hand I hoping for a “top ten finish”, and then when I found out there were only 6 of us, I was hoping for a “top 5 finish”. Don asked me how many times I have won these types of events! I just laughed! “This is my first time ever winning one!” I may have to make this an annual trip!
Sarah also had a great weekend in Fargo! Here are the girls from our Run Club who were able to make it. Amanda set a personal record by coming in 1:37! The biggest part of this race was for them to get away and have a good weekend. Sarah and Jill ran together, and Jill was not happy because she did not have one of her better days! We all get them. The point is not having a faster time every time. It is more important to get out and try, and if it happens to be there that day, then so be it. If not, then it was not meant to be! We learn something from every race we are in. Keep making adjustments, try a different strategy. Chalk it up to experience, and learn something from each one! This weekend was more for them to get away and have fun, and hopefully that goal was fulfilled for all of them this weekend.
Here they all are showing off their best side! Just kidding! The logo for the Watertown Area Run Club was on the back, and they had their shirts made just for this event! Now that is what it is all about. Being together, having fun, and do some running as well. Congratulations to all of you and we all hope you had a great weekend. I hope all of you had a great weekend as well. Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3959
by Dan | Aug 5, 2018 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
It has been quite the week! I had all 3 of my kids home this week beginning on Wednesday. Megan has not been home from Virginia in over a year! We had a great week. We spent time together, ran together, raced together, and just hung out together. We need to have more weeks like this. This is what it is all about. We all need to spend more time together as a family, but we can also spend time working out and exercising together as well.
We all started out with the Hump Day 5k run on Wednesday this week. My girls fiancée/boyfriend also came and ran. We got everybody together before the event started. The girls really had a good time. They had not seen each other for awhile. We had all met out at Disney in January for their first half marathon together.
It makes me feel good when they get together again too! They had a good time running the event, doing the whole 5k together…and having fun!
Nick ended up winning the event, so did not get as many pictures of him. I was leading the race in a camel costume, and I was the one taking pictures after.
We also spent time staying active the rest of the week as well. Megan and her boyfriend Nate went running with us several times as well.
I think my exercise streak has influenced Megan. She wants to exercise everyday too! A chip off the ol’ block!
On Saturday, Sarah and I participated in the 10 mile Race for Chase. It is a team event of 2 people. One person has to run, and one has to ride a bike, and you can switch off as often as you want, but you have to start together, and you have to cross the finish line together. There were a lot of teams which were made up of one of the parents, with one of their kids. It was great to see parents out helping to get their kids active and moving. Sarah and I won our age group. Of course, we were the oldest combined age team there also! The kids took Zeus for a walk while we were doing this. The Hump Day 5k was enough competition for them this week!
The greatest part of is all was getting to spend time with them, and having them all home again…together. This has not happened for a year where we could be with them all at the same time. The family that exercises/works out together, stays together…longer!
They are all growing up so fast! It really does go by quickly. It is awesome to see how they are all growing up, and deciding what they want to do for the future. I look back at time, and see them now, and it makes me feel good that we instilled some good values in them. They also know the importance of staying active, and trying to take care of themselves. Nobody is perfect. We all need encouragement and help along the way. If you can’t depend on your family for support, than who can you depend on? Enjoy your time with your families, and make it a priority to stay active…together! Hopefully you will get to spend a lot of years enjoying each other’s company! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3952
by Dan | Jul 29, 2018 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
It takes a lot of work, and continued determination to get out there every day, or at least most days of the week, and exercise. There are definitely some days that are easier than others, and then other days, you wonder how you ever got it done. Thankfully, those really tough days are less than the good days. The same goes for the weather conditions. Some days are good, some days are bad! You need to pick and choose, and may need to alter what your initial plan was, or where you were planning to exercise, but it does not need to be avoided. Just altered!
Some days start out sunny, and then we get caught in the rain. Or even other days, it is raining from the start. I don’t mind a light rain, but not heavy rain. We certainly should not be outside exercising if it is lightening out. You make the best of it, and try to keep smiling. Think of it as a new adventure. Most people are not going to be tough enough to go exercise under adverse conditions. These moments only strengthen your drive, your determination…your passion!
There is always a bright side. Is it always easy to see? No! Do you have to work at trying to find it sometimes? Yes! It is there…just keep looking.
Your attitude is the driving force. This picture is a good example. We are outside running, and some of us had gotten done already, and waiting for the rest of our group to get in. Here comes Jill, Patricia, and Amanda, running together in the rain, smiling and laughing! They were making the most of that particular situation. Either find the good in it, and enjoy, and be continuously miserable, and wallow in our own self pity. You decide. Your attitude decides!
Here we were out running on of our Wednesday evening runs, and the rain quit, and out came the rainbow. Talk about a boost of motivation with this. We were following the rainbow, and looking to have a good run. Look for the good in everything. I know, there are days when you wonder how. We all have stress in our lives, deadlines, pressures, stress…but again, our attitude decides on how we will handle it. Will we handle it, or will it handle us? Some days it can go both ways. We are still human. We make mistakes. We get angry, frustrated, and depressed. You keep pushing. You keep working. You keep striving. Never give up! There will be good days and bad days, but we decide which days are what.
Sometimes the calm after a storm allows us to reflect on this. We then can see better with those reflections on how things really are. Yes, there are demands, but if you concentrate, take it on full force, you can get through them. Just like exercise. Take if on full force, and you will get through them, and you will be able to reap the rewards that come with it. Confidence! Stamina! Stress Relief! Courage! Fortitude! All of these then can contribute to our passion in life. We need to find our passion, and to live our life. By finding our passion we can then feel good at the end of the day, and also look forward to the next day.
You need to work at it. You need to want it. You have to earn it! It is there just waiting for us to take on. Be determined! What is your purpose in this life? What are your desires? Only you can answer that. We all have a passion. Now go get it! Take it on, and don’t hold back. And remember, there will be good days, and bad days…but the good days will far outweigh the bad! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3945
by Dan | Jul 22, 2018 | Exercise, Goals, Motivation, Weather, Wellness/Health
Don’t you wish everything in life was great, exciting, and worth jumping up and down about? Unfortunately, that may not always be the case. It doesn’t mean you sit and dwell on some of those bad circumstances. What are you going to do about them? They are part of your life. Are you just going to try and ignore them, or will you learn from them? The choice is yours. You can either be crabby and angry, and figure out how you can improve from them. We all have days when nothing seems to go right. But, we also have those days when nothing can go wrong! What was the reason for this? I would venture to say our attitude had a lot to do with our interpretation of that day. We decide how we are going to cope with it.
Last week, many of us here in Watertown did the Kampeska Mini Triathlon. Here we all are getting our instructions before the event was to start. Wouldn’t it be great if we had instructions on what was all going to happen in our lives that day? On one hand, our lives would be a lot more structured, planned, and maybe even boring. But life does not come with an instruction manual. Most of the time we are flying by the seat of our pants. There may be things that come up during the day we were not planning on, and we have to adapt to it, and figure out how we are going to handle it. Life is an adventure. This is also what makes life exciting. We don’t know what the future holds. It is a continuous adventure.
Granted, there are times when the days can be stormy. We don’t know what is going to blow our way. Thankfully, many of those times “go past us quickly”. Who knows, that same storm may look terrible one minute, and then next minute, have a totally different outlook.
The stormy looking clouds, and this picture were both while I was on the same walk. One minute I am thinking I better be turning around, and the next minute, they drift apart, and have a whole different look. This cluster of black clouds developed after those other “marshmallow” ones disappeared. To me, it looks like a group of birds with their wings spread out taking flight…taking flight on a new adventure. That is what can happen for us. Ride the storm out, and see what comes behind it, giving us a brighter outlook.
We all have those moments when we wonder why we do certain things. Why do we try to take care of ourselves, and try to work on doing more exercise? It is work! Are the rewards what we want them to be? I say yes! But, sometimes that realization may take a little longer to come to some days!
All of a sudden, things start clicking! We are in a groove, feeling good, doing things we enjoy to do. We are enjoying life! We start to see things differently. We appreciate things, and people, more!
Here is this same area of the lake the following morning after the above storm. Things are clearing up, we may even see reflections of where our life is going. We see things in a totally different way! These are the times that life rewards us. This is why we want to be around longer. This is why we need to take care of ourselves. This is why we need to strive to survive!
We need to be ready for anything. The Kampeska Half Marathon was yesterday. The finish line was at City Park, and the start was at Lunkers. We had to get that 3/4 mile to the start. People were piling into a few cars to get there. Keven drove us, but the car was packed. Sarah sat on my lap, and Amanda was crammed into the far back. We needed to adjust to the situation, and get to the point where the race was going to begin. Where today was going to begin for us. We laughed and joked on the way over. Now we will have another moment to laugh about later. Memories! Life! I can’t wait for the next moment! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3938
by Dan | Jul 15, 2018 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
The 34th Annual Hyvee mini Triathlon (“Tri”) at Lake Kampeska took place yesterday. It starts off as a 1/4 mile swim along the shore, then biking 14 miles around the lake, and finishing with a 5k run. It is a fun time, and a lot of people, friends, from the run club were there. Many other friends were also there. You are all there for the same reason: to challenge yourself, see what you can do, and then also to support and cheer each other on! You truly never know what you are capable of doing in life until you give it a “Tri”!
Here Sarah is getting her station ready prior to the race. There is a central station where you have to enter and get ready to take off for the next portion of the race. You have to plan this as well as the clock is still going the whole time during these transitions stations as well.
The girls, and guys, were showing off prior to the race. A lot of us do our training together, and our competing together. But it really is not about the competition. It is about the time you spend together getting ready, encouraging each other, laughing with each other…just spending time together!
Steve and Sally were coming out of the water at the same time. This was the first time for Sally doing this event. They basically did the triathlon together. No worries about time, just about the challenge of being involved, and doing it, and getting in some exercise. Everybody thinks that they cannot do this, until they give it a “tri”. What are you waiting for? You have no idea what you are capable of until you “tri”. Our biggest obstacle with exercise, and with things in life in general, tends to be affected more by what is between our ears than any physical limitation we may have. That is why the support from your friends is so important!
Exactly! Support your friends, and they will support you! The same goes for your spouse. Always be there for them as well!
In the process, you can also show off what you got, flex that power, pride! You spent time training, and getting ready. More important though, a lot of discussions and laughing has occurred during this process as well. Keep this going the day of the event also! If you are too serious with it, you will do worse because you are missing the whole point of being involved in the first place! Work on becoming great!
Set your sights high and reach for the sky! Don’t let your own doubts get in the way. Rely on your friends, and give it a “tri”! The finish line for that particular day will be in your sights. But, it is only the finish for that day. It truly can become the start for many more adventures and events in the future. Enjoy the ride! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3931
