from Dad Bod to HOT ROD!

Fatness to Fitness Elite

60,000 people run the Peachtree Road Race. 99% line up in waves from A-Z. The top 1% start up front with Pro Runners. Cliffy ran a 18:48 5k to qualify as a seeded runner. He is the top 1%.

Cliffy's words:

I have always identified myself as an active person since I was a kid but the level of activity declined over the years as I became a young adult.  Starting a career, pursuing social interests, and getting married/starting a family took priority over my health and well-being.  It was not until the birth of my son in 2007 that I realized my life had to change if I was going to be around for my family for the long term.  At that time, I was drinking heavily to avoid coming to terms with being overweight and depressed.  It was a dangerous path I was on and the only thing I could think to do was literally start running away from it.  I started off running every couple of mornings out of necessity so that I would be less inclined to drink the night before.  The more I ran, the less I drank , the better I felt.  The weight started to come off from a high of roughly 230 pounds when I started (2008), down to 200 pounds by my 40th birthday (2015).  At 40, I thought this was the best I could be in terms of weight, strength, and fitness.  It wasn't until I received an invitation by a good friend, Jim Woodward (Woody), to join the Peachtree Road Boot Camp would I come to understand I was just scratching the surface.  Between the challenging workouts and the fellowship I was enjoying with others, it ignited my passion to show up every day and embrace a different approach to fitness.  I started to realize that I was capable of much more as fellow campers gave encouragement and challenged me in ways that I could not have experienced on my own.  Boot Camp offered an unique opportunity to share my goals with others and then celebrate when they were reached.  I lost another twenty three pounds over the past year and now weigh 177.  I also achieved another fitness goal that I never thought would be possible a couple of years ago.  I qualified for a seeded position at the Peachtree Road Race and will race with some of best runners in Atlanta and the US on July 4th.  Here I thought that 40 would be the peak and now who knows what it is.  It gets me excited to think what is possible over the next several years with showing up, putting my best effort forward, and being part of the Atlanta fitness community.

Phat Tuesday

Nobody likes a quitter. Quitting is for sissies. Why quit? Why give up? Why surrender?

In the recovery community, the hook is a "life that is Happy, Joyous & Free."

Conventional wisdom in America believes that happiness, joy and freedom come from a life filled with luxury, leisure and consumption. The catch with these pursuits/cravings in life is, they always require MOAR (more with a roar) to produce the same satisfaction. It is often suggested that any attachment to stuff is for pride and pleasure. Feeding pride & pleasure feels so good. It must be happiness & joy, right?

So it is suggested that a life of freedom, happiness and joy is devoid of attachments that seek to satisfy pride and pleasure.

Taking a day off feels so good. Being lazy, sleeping in is very pleasing. A glass of wine is nectar from the Gods. A cheese burger with french fries and a cold coke taste soo good. A bowl of chocolate ice cream is like sex. And sex...

On another religious holiday, The Grinch who stole Christmas took everything from the Who's. He found out that Day:

And the Grinch, with his grinch feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling. "How could it be so?

It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes, or bags!"

He puzzled and puzzed till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.

Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!

Giving up stuff IS freedom. Freedom from cravings, attachment & desire requires us to drop the bottle, the box or the bag. Living without stuff during Lent teaches us that a Happy, Joyous & Free life is really an inside job.

Also, if you want to rock the pool this summer, make the f-ing workouts and quit being a lazy, booze guzzling, sugar addicted fat bodied pig. If you can't be disciplined for 40/365 days a year, you have a problem.

Drinking

I successfully drank alcoholically for over 30 years. I won foot races drunk. I got high the night before running 14:56 in the Turkey Day 5K. I also hit the pipe 30 minutes after anchoring the DMR at The Florida Relays with a 4:10 mile. We hadn't even left the Gator's Track. No one on earth could have stopped me when I was partying. I thought I was winning in life. Running with the Devil was a Hell of a ride.

Every year I would dry out when I was training for a big race. Even as a high functioning alcoholic, I knew drinking wouldn't allow me to train at the level I needed to win.

I would have never believed I could live a life without alcohol. It was a ridiculous notion. What's the point?

I am nearly 8 years sober. I've lived two lives. The second one is better.

It doesn't take much to sabotage your fitness and beauty.

One third of the American population does not drink at all. Another third drinks less than one drink per week. 

Alcohol makes you fat, old and slow.

Alcohol will steal your good looks.

Elites don't drink

Our day On

“The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others.” ― Robert Baden-Powell

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”
― Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery

“Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion.” 
― Oswald Chambers

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peachtree Road Boot Camp - 

• Distributed over 2,000 race bibs, one at a time
• Distributed over 2,000 T shirts, one at a time
• Coned a complicated 5K race course at 5 am
• Mobilized 200 drummers with two U Hauls
• Mobilized 2,000 runners/walkers on bicycle
• set up/broke down an efficient and friendly place to greet participants in two separate locations in under 24 hours

Our fitness family enjoys a lifestyle of activity together. On MLK Day, we came together and gave it back to the community. In doing so, I believe we have grown closer. We put on a Hell of a Show! Thank you for your service.

Glamour

Glamour, a.k.a. Amy Glahn is the face of Boot Camp. She has appeared in almost all of our marketing for the last decade. We are blessed to have the most gorgeous fitness group in Atlanta. While all of our ladies represent Boot Camp with beauty and style, the camera is always super kind to Glams before, during and after the workout.

Glamour is the rare combination of runway model and elite athlete. While she takes pride in her appearance, she finds joy in the workout. She loves running and exercise. The benefits are nice, but the process is way more important to her. She hammers around town and is super strict with all of the exercise. Her discipline has given her the opportunity to race and win. As the years go by, she continues to get faster and set new personal records. She has even won money in a few foot races.

Glamour is one of 3 elite athletes in her home. Husband Brian can do just about anything with any kind of ball and is a perennial Champion Coaching Youth Sports. Caroline & Dad won Top Hat tournaments for years. Caroline has been recently crowned a State Champion as a freshman playing volleyball with Westminster. William and Dad led the Buckhead Baseball All Starts this summer deep into the Sate tournament with an impressive record. Glamour loves youth sports, is a great example to her children and takes pride in her family's accomplishments.

The most amazing thing about Glamour isn't her good looks or her athletic prowess. Amy is a genuinely nice person. She cares about people. We have been very fortunate to spend the last decade working out with this nice lady!

From the Mouths of Babes

Evan - "Dad, we are have-dones"

Boot Camp has nothing. No address, no walls, no ceiling, no floor. We barely have equipment. All we have is our experience together. For over a decade, we have developed and perfected an exercise routine that maximizes fitness while allowing folks to talk and enjoy each others company. Out of this simple daily routine, we age gracefully together while nurturing friendships.

Julia - "I like the action"

Home is where the heart is

For hundreds of years, platoon style Boot Camp basic training has worked out groups of people to elite level fitness. The combination of running and exercise allow folks to run to recover from exercise, then exercise to recover from running. Switching from running to exercise then back to running breaks up the workout. The workout becomes more interesting and more manageable.

Our heart rate during running typically averages 160 beats per minute. Our heart rate during exercise averages 120 beats per minute. Our average resting heart rate is 60 beats per minute. During Boot Camp, exercise after running is also called "active recovery." This is a time when we give our legs a rest but our hearts keep beating at an elevated rate. Keeping our heart rates up during exercise is key to developing overall fitness and burning fat. After 35 minutes of elevated heart rate, the body switches from burning sugar to burning fat. The final 25 minutes of Boot Camp are the fat burning minutes.

An elevated heart rate lifts our spirits as well. When we are scared or mad, our hearts race. When we are attracted to someone or something, our hearts race. We may say, "he/she takes my breath away." While exercise is a significantly less desirable stimulus, the effect is the same. During exercise our hearts race and we may feel good or even euphoric. This feeling is often shared with the folks in the workout. Our hearts race, our spirits our lifted and we share the experience.

Many of us have shared this experience with each other for a very long time. Others are newly enjoying the experience. The fellowship we have created in fitness is not for the faint of heart. We live and move at a rate that's elevated. We call it "Elite."

We live in the workout and visit the world the other 23 hours a day. We are grounded in the daily discipline. The other 23 hours can be quite variable, but the workout is a home we have come to depend on. It is the home where the heart is.