A few weeks ago when I was doing one of my marathon Ren Faire workouts I happened up an interesting group of people. They are the New York Harry Potter Meetup Group taking their annual trip to Faire. True to my regular form I like to use my knowledge to make people laugh. So I took a rose out of my basket and went "Rosegardiam Leviosa." Which got a laugh and then I corrected myself and said "Sorry Rosegardiam Levio-SAH." Which got an even bigger laugh. To make a long story short after a day of mutual laughter they invited me to their first annual version of the Triwizard Tournament.

The tournament went down like this. The first round was Quidditch, the second round a Wizarding trivia duel and the third was secret and unveiled at the event. I too shall keep it secret for now.

The beginning of the tournament we were sorted into our schools. Like the book they were Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. Yours truly was sorted into Beauxbatons.

Round 1 - Quidditch
Now Quidditch is played minus brooms. The pitch has the same three ring goals as in the book and movies and all 7 positions are the same. 1 seeker, 2 beaters, 3 chasers and 1 keeper. Most of the rules are the same in the movies and books. So I will point out the differences. The Quaffle is a volleyball and it dribbled and passed like a basketball. The Beaters have bludgers which are gigantic kickballs that they can kick at the chasers and seekers. If you are hit by a bludgers you must freeze for 10 seconds. If you are carrying the quaffle you must drop it where you stand. The Golden Snitch is usually attached to the belt of a person who runs tries to outrun the chasing seekers. Play suspends after the seeker removes the Snitch much like flag football. If the Snitch is captured the team gets 150 points and they automatically win the game. We lost our first game to Hogwarts and beat Durmstrang. I had a blast playing this game. Hogwarts took this round.

Round 2 - Wizarding trivia duels. Basically this was a round robin matchup where the duelists were given a topic and they had to name as many things they could from that topic. If you didn't answer within 5 seconds you were out and it went to 2 duelists. They would then duel it out til one person was remaining. That person would get a point. Beauxbatons took Trivia challenge with 7 of 12 rounds won.

Round 3 - Harry Potter Theater. Each team was given improv devices we had 30 minutes to come up with a 5-15 minute play that was Harry Potter themed. Our devices were Snape's Amazing Discovery, dream, and the bat bogey hex. Now before I go into what our play is about there is an offshoot of fanfiction called Slash. Slash is usually fanfiction where two characters have a same sex romantic encounter. So the premise is simple Snape is aghast once he reads some of the slash fan fic written about him. He falls asleep and dreams that all his students are outing him and a few of them hit on him. Where he wakes up and realizes that he is truly gay. Twisted I know but you have to work with what you are given. I hate to say it but we took that round too. So Beauxbatons won the first ever Triwizard tournament, wizarding glory and all it's spoils. Which was $5 bucks and some candy. I pocketed the cash and gave the candy to Beauxbatons lovely cheerleader. I ended up leaving with one of the girls from Durmstrang. We took a long walk and had dinner together. This was truly a complete workout for my body, mind and creativity. I can't wait to hang with these people again.

First and foremost I would like to thank MSH258 for being my partner. I chose her because she trains as hard if not harder than I do. She is amazing and I hope to do City Chase in 2010 with her. Please if you haven't go to her blog and read her blog about the race.   (I posted it on LJ so you don't have to)

I would also like to thank Lauren at Crunch and Marcia at City Chase because without them we wouldn't have raced.

I would like to thank Woodchuck, Marion and Cat for their LUNGevity donations. Because of you and so many others I know that someone will be breathing a little easier.

I would like to thank Taj Harris for the warmup and the shout out.

I would also like to thank MSH258 again for the expired PBA card. The twofer on the tattoo and something written in a foreign language. I wonder how many frat boys and sorority girls who tattooed their letters on their body ran to the bodega for a Spanish newspaper not realizing they had a twofer just chilling?

I would like to thank my employers at Crunch for the internet access that we used to research clues.

I would like to thank the Church Street Boxing Gym for the boxing challenge and I would like to thank Aaron for making me do speed bag drills.

I would like to thank the following. The crazy dutch/Boston Guy for guiding us around the Hudson during my first ever ride in a kayak. The band at pier 40 for their rocking acoustic rendition of Billie Jean. The dude at the rock climbing wall who was cool when I accidently ripped the basket down. MSH258 who was awesome at all the challenges minus the bowling one. The guy who taunted me for covering my wedding tackle with my hat at naked bowling. I'm perplexed there was a just a naked girl to my right and he wanted to see my goods? Art Schouten who taught me that while you don't have to take your clothes off to have a good time it makes for a better story if you do. The guy at the archery challenge who took a raw talent like MSH258 and in moments turned her into f*cking Legolas. The people at the unicycle challenge for leaving the training wheels on.

A special thanks go out to Aaron for making me run in the first place. For pushing me to go past my limits. For introducing me to my first ever running partner the Dobbins. You created a monster. Also to Mike for introducing me to MSH258 and turning her into a monster. Mike thanks for changing every time I wanted to do something different when I trained with you as well. You guys rock.

*music begins playing*

I would thank all of you for reading this and last but not least I would like to thank god. I think every athlete regardless of belief system should thank god once. It was a blast thank you!

i'm gonna getcha, nyc, i'm gonna getcha! aka, city chase.

What a day! Fantastic! Unbelievable! SOOOOO much fun! Of course, I was pretty certain city chase would be fun but I had no idea! Killercadoogan and I met up early to register for the event and hand in our waiver and then just kinda hung out until the welcome at 9:30am. One of the Crunch instructors, Taj actually did a warm-up with all of us and us doing some steps and all kinds of stretches and what not to get us ready for the day. Some people were picked at random out of the crowd to do some "out of your comfort zone" things, like sing "New York, New York" (which we all joined in on and really I was gonna count this for my singing feat...but more on that later) or kissing your race partner. Silly stuff, but I guess they were getting the energy going.

Well, the race started at 10am, but surprise, surprise: in order to even get the clues for our scavenger hunt / race we had to first bring 8 out of 10 items to the check-in! The included things like a piece of U.S. currency with your team number on it, something used during sex, a live animal, etc. We got ours done fairly quickly and who knew that my "tramp stamp" would ever come in handy like it did today! It knocked out 2 of or required items 1) a tattoo and 2) something in a foreign language! Haha! Fantastic!

Anyways, finally we had our clues! We stared at them for a moment and immediately realized we needed to do some recon and research and decided to head to Crunch Union Square where killercadoogan works to use the computers and come up with a game plan. We spent about 30 minutes figuring out what the heck the clues meant (where we had to go, what we were doing, etc.) and then came up with a plan of attack: we were gonna hit all the downtown spots first, move over to the west by Battery Park and the Piers, head up to the Upper West Side, then cut over to the Upper East Side, down to midtown and finally back to the East Village / LES. PHEW it was gonna be a quite the trek!

Our first stop was Church Street Boxing! How handy that I'd been there before with the SW crew! This was actually the simplest and least exciting of the challenges as it turned out... I had to do 50 punches to the heavy bag within a specified time limit and killercadoogan had to do a punch combo on the speed bag. We were in and outta there in a flash! Then we ran over (yes, I mean we actually ran...we actually jogged the ENTIRE race from 11am to 4pm...RAN for FIVE HOURS...again, this is NOT an exaggeration!!! We RAN FOR FIVE HOURS!!! The only exception was when were were doing challenges or took the subway or bus)...anyways, we RAN to John Street Union Square where we were supposed to do a pole-dancing routine. Since this was one of the easier clues to figure out, it was not surprising that the line of contestants waiting to do the challenge was HUGE. So, we just decided to leave and move on to the next item. Well, that didn't quite go as planned and we ended up at a closed-down bar. Hmmmmm...this was not what we expected...we'd made a mistake figuring (well or NOT figuring out the clue...). Not much we could do, so we moved on.

The next stop was at Pier 40 (we took the subway, then jogged to the water) where we went kayaking in the Hudson! First of all, killercadoogan almost landed us in the water multiple times! Apparently, as I found out later, a bunch of teams did manage to fall in. --- I'm not sure if they survived and / or didn't mutate from special Hudson River water. Anyways, we kayaked around 3 buoys (turns out the water had been flat all day but the seond we got in there were HUGE waves...) and then ran off to the next stop: Pier 45. This was an awesome one! As we get to the check point, all of the sudden these people come running towards us with red and black feather boas, drape them around us, and lead us to the "stage." We're given the lyrics for MJ's "Billy Jean" and the rock band (yes, an ACTUAL rock band) began playing and we gave a performance to all the people on the pier. HAHA it was awesome! Killercadoogan definitely added a little flair to our performance! I should just say that the singing feat was not one of the feats that I was planning on doing, but hey: I did it! Yay!!!

From the piers we headed over to catch a bus up to midtown. It was so slow we ended up getting out and jogging to our next check point - the Manhattan Plaza Health Club. The challenge here was for one team member to take a protein bar up the 40 foot wall, drop it in a bag and the for the other team member to climb up and retrieve it. I'd rock climbed once before but I was definitely not in as good shape, I was heavier, and I was scared. This time I just did it! I was surprised by my upper body strength and, even more so, by the fact that I wasn't scared! I realized in what kind of different mental state I am now and that was very empowering! We were up and down in no time and jogged to our next challenge - Bowling at the Port Authority. Ok, so this was an "interesting" one! We get there and the first thing we notice is 4 cops. Then, we notice that there are screens dividing a bunch of lanes off from the rest of the place. Hmmmmm.... Then, we pass the screens and come face to ass with our first naked person. Ok, so this was the deal. One member of the team was the bowler and the other the stripper. Each time pins were left standing after a bowl, the stripper had to remove a piece of clothing. The challenge ended when the bowler either got a strike or spare, OR when the stripper ended up 100% naked. COMPLETELY naked. Well, since I'd kinda made my opinion known on this issue earlier, killercadoogan was the stripper. My bowling was horrendous and he was naked in no time! HAHA! On to the next challenge!

We took the subway up to the East 80s for our next check point where we would be performing some archery! Uhm...needless to say I've never shot a bow and arrow. And, these were pretty ginormous and hard-core. One instructor showed me how to use it and killercadoogan was doing it at the same time one target over. Basically, we had to hit the apple in the middle of the bullseye OR collect a certain number of points with the rings around the bullseye. Well, I shot the first arrow and was taken completely off-guard by how the force pushed my arm to the side. I tried again and the same thing happened. My instructor told me not to do that anymore...uhm...very helpful. So, I told him not to worry and that I'd make him proud with the next shot. I pull back and....BULLSEYE!!! It was awesome -- perfectly straight into the apple! Who knew archery was one of my skills! I feel like a bad-ass! At this point, we also handed over a printout for the donations killercadoogan and I collected for the charity Lungevity (not quite sure how much it was...but somewhere around $100).

Now, time was really starting to get tight - we'd finished 7 challenges and had 3 more to go. Next, we had to cut over to the Upper East Side. We got to the location and the feat was....each team member hopped on a unicycle (thank god it had "training wheels"), did a little course from opposite ends, then we both met in the middle and gave each other a high-five, and then we had to do the free throws and get one shot (out of five tries) into the basket. Well, apparently killercadoogan and I are AWESOME! We managed do it all perfectly synched AND we both got our first shots in! The judges said that we were the only team who did that! NICE! 8 challenges down.

We ran to the subway and it simply didn''t show up. As the minutes pass, killercadoogan and I had to admit to ourselves that we were running out of time and weren't gonna be able to finish. We were kinda sad about that, but at the same time we had such an awesome day that we didn't stew on it too long. So, we decided to head to the finish line with 8 challenges accomplished, checked in, hung out a bit at the after party and then, disgustingly soaked in sweat, smelly, with every part of my legs and feet aching, I limped home. The shower that followed was one of the best of my life and the meal was perfect. What an awesome day!

that I spent $100 on my dinner tonight.  Or was it crazier to give the bum who was asking for something to eat my take out container when a dollar would have bought me serious karma points...

Constant labor of one uniform kind destroys the intensity and flow of a man's animal spirits, which find recreation and delight in mere change of activity.

~Karl Marx

This is related to sales but I feel it's appropriate for everything...It was written by a sales guru named Jeffery Gitomer. 

Crisis is the best time to affect change. What’s your crisis?

Crisis is the best time to affect change. What’s your crisis?

So as I said before I started taking Creatine. The only negative side effects is that it can cause dehydration. So to counteract that I am drinking a ton of water. According to Mike the average athlete should drink 64oz of water daily. He suggested I bump it up to 80 oz. 5lbs of water daily. Yeah...Can you say sea sick from the inside.

Socialworkout.com is a great website to use.  Read below and see if you want to participate in this challenge. 

http://www.socialworkout.com/2009/06/15/your-summer-challenge

Simple fun stuff geared to help get you in shape!  You fuckers can blog now blog your workouts and win prizes. 


Summer Solstice to Labor Day:
77 Days. 50 Workouts. 20 Feats.

Welcome to camp! Swallow lump in your throat as you watch the bus that brought you here drive away. Disregard gloomy weather. Remember how eager you were to be here. Here's a promise: By Labor Day you won't remember the pale, worried city kid you are now. You'll be strong, and smiling, and full of enough summer to coast happily to Thanksgiving. It won't always be easy. In the next 11 weeks, some of you will struggle mightily, even cry. But, with a little effort, you can do it. Guaranteed....

Right! So, once you've unpacked your bathing suit and toothbrush, please see the list of Feats below. You will note that there are 27 feats listed. To successfully complete the Challenge, you must:

• Achieve the 50 Workout Feat
• Achieve a minimum of 19 additional Feats
  

Just as in past Social Workout Challenges, you will blog your experience, and, to keep you focused, we have rounded up our customary list of prizes, including another free year of gym membership at Crunch. And, if we really get our act together, we'll make up some cool achievement patches too. So, please check the Feats below, and then click through to sign up on the new challenge home page!

SIGN UP ON FEATS OF SUMMER HOME PAGE!

The Feats of Summer: Challengers Must Complete 20 of the Following
 

1. 50 WORKOUTS: Required by all. Over 11 weeks, you must complete and blog 50 workouts. or roughly five workouts a week.
2. THE MILE RUN: Run a mile -- on a track, in a park, or down city streets. Time yourself. Your targets: Men: 7:15, and Women: 8:15.
3. HALF MILE SWIM: This is an untimed feat. Must swim half a mile, without the help of flotation devices or swimming aids of any sort. You may complete the feat in a pool, or in the open water, with or without wetsuit. (In an Olympic sized pool with 25 meter lanes, complete 33 lengths. In a 25 yard pool, complete 36 lengths. In pond, lake, or ocean, please find a reliable way to verify the distance. Most important: Please be safe. Stay close to shore, and make sure you are not alone, and can get help if necessary.)
4. UNDERWATER SWIM: To complete this feat, you must swim 25 yards under water. This may be a full length of a 25 yard pool, or the equivalent in a larger pool, or in the open water. Again, please be safe.
5. FITNESS CLASS SAMPLER: To complete this feat, you must take three group fitness classes, as follows. Note: At least two of these must be live, physical classes. One may be taken at home, via DVD, streaming video or audio, or via Wii or other gaming console: Sampler: 1 Spin Class; 1 Yoga Cass; 1 Other Class of Your Choosing, (the nuttier or tougher, the better.)
6. CHINUPS: Proper form and procedure -- as best articulated by the Marines -- must be followed. Your targets: Men: 10; Women 1.
7. PUSHUPS: These are proper pushups, done consecutively without breaks. Your back must be straight, arms must bend to 90 degrees and then back to full extension. Knees may not touch the ground. Your targets: Men: 60; Women: 35.
8. SITUPS: Must do 75 consecutive situps. There are a wide variety of situp forms, we will again use the Marines Phsyical Fitness Test as our standard. (Note: Unlike the Marines, however, there is not a time limit for this feat.)
9. HEADSTAND: Hold a headstand, without support from wall or friend, for at least one minute. See here for guidlines on form and practice tips.
10. HANDSTAND: Hold a handstand for 20 seconds. You may do this against a wall to help with balance, but you can not have any assitance in holding up your weight. See here for guidelines on form and practice tips.
11. WHEEL POSE: Hold the classic wheel pose, unsupported, for one minute. See here for guidelines on form and practice tips.
12. PLANK PERSONAL: Inspired by SW reader body electric. The goal here is to hold a standard plank pose for an extended period. Unlike other feats, this feat will be personalized. If you wish to accomplish it, within the first week of the Challenge you must measure how long you can hold a plank to failure. By the end of the challenge, you then must beat your initial score by at least 50%. See here for guidelines on form and practice tips.
13. SLEEP DISCIPLINE SIX-BY-SIX-THIRTY: The bedrock of good health, is sleeping well and sufficiently. To complete this feat, you must get up -- and stay up -- by 6:30 A.M. six days in a row.
14. ONE DAY WATER FAST: To complete this feat, you must go for a 24 hour period without any food. You may drink water, and it is recommended that you drink plenty of it. Note: Please DO NOT attempt this feat, if you believe it could be remotely problematic for your health. There is a wealth of fasting-related information available online. Here is one reasonably good article on how to do a one day water fast.
15. ALT.HEALTHY.FAST: To complete this feat, you must give up caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and any other addictive, discretionary drugs for a period of one week.
16. GENERAL EATING: Cook (or otherwise prepare) and eat one healthy dinner per week, every week, for the duration of the challenge. "Healthy" is subjective in this case, but the meal should be nutritionally balanced, not excessive in volume, and include large quantities of fruit and vegetables. (Note: You must record these meals in your workout posts, or other blog entries.)
17. DAY OF SILENCE: Silence is a rarity in today's world, but it's a staple of virtually all monastic and meditative traditions. For many, going 24 hours without talking may be the most difficult feat to achieve. There can be no breaks of silence. Communication with others must be in written form, or via other non-verbal means. Ideally, the day of silence would also be a day of limited communication with others, as well as limited consumption of media, though these requirements are not strictly a part of the feat. Some inspiration here.
18. CARTWHEEL: To complete this feat, you must be able to execute a respectable cartwheel, with legs fully extended, and landing smoothly. For amusing explanations of the cartwheel, see here or here.
19. HULA HOOP: Must be able to hula hoop for one minute without dropping the hoop, or otherwise assisting with your hands. Check Hooping.org for instructions and examples.
20. JUMP ROPE: Must be able to jump rope for one minute, without mistakes, and, during this time, to execute at least five successful "criss cross" jumps. See here for good example of the criss cross jump.
21. SPOT TURN: The spot turn is central to virtually all forms of dancing. To complete this feat, you must be able to convincingly execute a spot turn, and, ideally, several in a row. See here for instructions and examples.
22. MOONWALK: Actually, it wasn't actually called the "Moonwalk" until Michael Jackson came along. (It seems the "Moonwalk" was a different dance, but MJ's label stuck.) Point is, if you can do this, you got moves. See here for instructions and inspiration.
23. SING: Singing, ideally with friends, is good for your health. Ask Brian Eno. To complete this feat, you must memorize and sing a song, in public or for a group of friends. Your performance can be a cappella, with accompaniment, or even via
    commercial karaoke, BUT you must know all the words and be able to carry the tune even without help.
24. JUGGLE: A classic and invaluable skill. To complete this feat, you must be able to juggle three items, continuously, without drops, for one minute. Instructions here, and inspiration here.
25. HALF CENTURY BIKE RIDE: Complete 50 Miles in five Hours or less. This is not a fast pace, and it even should allow for a break, like, say, lunch. The point is to get out and go for a long ride. If you want to go faster, please do. Regardless, please be safe.
26. BENCH YOUR WEIGHT: A timeless, macho measurement of basic upper body strength. It's not easy, but if you can do this, you can earn Big Respect in the free weights area of your local gym. A little training will go a long way here, but please be safe and work always with a spotter. For guidelines on form, see here.
27. FREE THROWS: To complete this feat, you must successfully complete five out of ten standard basketball free throws. A 50% free throw shooting percentage is solid for a non-player, and it would put you on a par with Shaquille O'Neal, who admittedly is one of the worst free thow shooters in the history of the NBA.