The winner for the Gracie Bra is number 14 (Stephanie V)!  Congratulations!!  I read each motivating response and I loved them all.  There wasn’t a bad one in 169 comments!  You are all awesome, funny, inspiring and creative!  I will be contacting the winner via email but if YOU are the winner, please feel free to email me at pmickelson (at) verizon (.) net.  Don’t forget to include your size, color, style and address!

Also, I would just like to add that is an awesome jog bra that will hold you firm, but also provide the much needed coverage across your tummy IN ADDITON to the awesome pocket with the loop hole for your IPOD.  On Sale right now for $39!

Photo Credit: Kenny BZ

The goal of the season was to finish in the top 10 of the Masters age category (40+).  The competition at this level includes some former Olympians and Pros.  Between a loss of 20 pounds by commuting to work at least three days a week (20 miles each way), eating clean, as well as some nifty, super expensive carbon tubular wheels (ZIPP 404s, Oh Yeah!), Paul was able to snag a 9th place at the Ontario Summers End Criterium.  Mission accomplished, but wait until next year!  Special thanks to John Howard, Graeme Street, and Al Lyman.

How do we motivate and teach our children how to motivate themselves?

I want a bikini body! ( Extrinsic)

Can’t wait till my next race so that I can track my improvement. (Intrinsic)

I made a Poopy on the potty! (Extrinsic)

My buddies are inviting me to be a part of a team time trial and I’m thrilled that they are considering me for their team. (Extrinsic)

Look, you can see my abs, there is almost see a six pack! (hubby) {Extrinsic}

I got it! (Intrinsic)

Something I learned this week that I found incredibly interesting.

YOU ALL who read this every day (thank you- btw) are already intrinsically motivated to become better runners, better athletes, eat healthier, etc. We are all already motivated to be the best we can be and in a previous post, I examined the “Driven to compete” aspect in some of our natures but I wanted to switch gears today and examine the lives of children. (I have gone back to my previous profession- Physical Education Teacher- except this time I will be in a private school where both my kids will go.) How/why did we learn to be self motivated now? Have we always been that way?

In public school, everything was about PRAISE. Positive, praise all day long ad nauseum. Even if the kid wasn’t doing their work, we were supposed to praise them on holding their pencil correctly or making eye contact with you or anything where a PRAISE could be done. (disclaimer, I was teaching in the ghetto) Well, it turns out, that if you PRAISE too much, then maybe the praise becomes a distraction and then the student will NOT learn how to motivate themselves internally. This seems to be the case in the workforce as well- at least for my the young hires who NEED to be praised just for showing up. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but how else do kids learn to think for themselves? When and how will they learn to concentrate deeply on a task so that when they do achieve the task they can actually have confidence in themselves and feel good about the skill they just mastered?

Motivating children is a HUGE part of teaching and I was always the one throwing my hands in the air, “I don’t know”. Particularly inside the classroom, when the demands placed on teachers and test scores became impossible to for learning to be about the ACTUAL student. In the private school test scores are not of primary importance. It’s more about the journey and how to get the child to master the skill on their own. In the end, some importance should be placed on praise but maybe there is a POINT to– the too much praise will TURN THE KID OFF– to motivating themselves to learn something.

What do you all think? Are your children intrinsically motivated to learn new things?

Guys, you might find something for your wife in this post, or you can click away today, I won’t know! Will be back to discussions of sweat tomorrow.

Milano, Italia

Every new season, there are multiple catalogs (Athleta, TitleNine, Terry Bicycles) that land in my mail box which I proceed to DEVOUR from cover to cover. As always when the new catalogs hit the counter, I dream of Italian vacations. Before kids, we traveled every year. Shopping in Italy is amazing. I have leather bags and shoes that still smell of Italy. Italian women are gorgeous, stylish, and modern. This (me) athlete could not possibly be as stylish and as made up as them, but, I can make a humble attempt to by stylish in clothes designed for us athletes.

Now, I dream of returning and shop with my eyes. When this athlete returns, she will look the part with one pair of fantastic shoes!

Two flirty, comfortable skirts that would go anywhere, be scrunched and unscrunched and still look great on.

Tuscan countryside on rented bikes would require padded capri pants and a super cool tank top.

One running outfit to run off all that pasta and show the Italians that women can look HOT when they run.

Cool tops for those cool days.

So, what did I forget? If you have a favorite brand of clothes, drop a comment! I need to expand my catalog collection. A Dress!!??

ITALIAN RECIPE FAVORITE

SInce I’m on the topic of Italy, one of the best things I ever learned how to do was to make PESTO. Fantastic, easy sauce for pasta.

1 large bundle of basil

4-6 gloves of garlic

1/2 ++ Parmesean Cheese

Olive Oil

Salt

1/4 pine nuts

Mix in food processor until smooth. Taste with your finger every few minutes and add either cheese or oil to make it perfect. Pour over boiling hot pasta and enjoy.

A perfect race? Is there such a thing?

A few months back, I participated in the all women’s Montrail Trail Race. This was a 5 mile trail race and since it was only women and there were only 786 of us we didn’t need to “bump elbows with anybody” for the coveted center line position on the trail. We could see where our competition was and how far apart we were. We each got a semi- well fitting technical tee. The winners in each category (3 deep) won new Montrail shoes.

For a lot of women, running is our only outlet. Particularly for us moms, who spend 90% of our days taking care of our wonderful children, running is our time. It is my girl time, my getting physically fit time, my chance to just be Rachel the athlete, my time to sweat, my chance to get lean, all of it. A running event, cycling event, or a triathlon event are the icing on the cake- party time! Which races should we do next? What is our next challenge? What is the next event we should do and how can we train for it? I really enjoy all the female bonding and the encouragement I get from my running buddies, it is also fun to pick and plan future events with them. For some people, maybe, they love to go to bars and go dancing, for others, drinking, for me, it’s a race event that gets me excited.

So, here is my dream event described in detail:

1. A participation token. This could be a bracelet, necklace, pair of shoes, socks, visor, skirt, shirt, anything- as long as it is a QUALITY item. I’d even race for a jog bra! If a shirt is the item, get a women’s size technical tee with stylish graphics that is CUT to fit. No boxy, loose fitting clothes, please.

2. SWAG bag. A swag bag that has usable items in the bag. Organic chapstick, sunscreen, Hammer Gel, socks, magazines, coupons for books that are relevant to an athletes life, coupons for $5 OFF entry fees, hair products. Things that women are interested in! If it’s a men’s and women’s race, then make two different swag bags. Men like freebies too! But they are more interested in the technical sides of things such as Garmins, Power Meters, HR monitors..

3. Designate an area for the athlete’s family to spectate the course and to reconvene after the event. Give the family some form of pass so that they can have access to the post race party. Make it easy for the family members to park and to pick up the athlete.

3. Have a fabulous EXPO. Half the fun of attending an event is to SHOP at the expo. Try new products, see new products, featured products by smart, creative women who had enough passion in their product to turn it into a business, organic food items, shoes, anything under the sun. Make the EXPO a reasonable cost to the prospective business owner so that YOU get more sponsors! One of the best EXPOS I’ve been to in the last few years is the Sea Otter Classic, but still there are very few products specifically for women.

4. Be a tour guide. Make it easy to find someone to show an interested athlete “their town”. An interested athlete would be more willing to come back and be loyal if they’ve been shown around by a local. Whenever we travel to a new town, we make a point of seeking out the locals to find out their favorite eateries, beaches, fun spots, it makes it that much easier for us!

5. Keep the number of participants to a manageable level. Too many runners is more like Disneyland in the hot summer than an actual event. Make sure you can adequately take care of each runner’s/cyclists needs during the actual event.

6. Make it a PARTY!! If we can only do 4-5 events a year, make them GREAT instead of just ok. Ideally, it’d be great if the sponsors of the after party actually had a RECOVERY product that might help an athlete recover better from their efforts- such as whey protein, recovery drinks, etc..

What did I forget? Race promoters, I know you work your butts off and I truly appreciate it! I know what I’m asking is probably unrealistic, so, pick the best things you can do and focus on those!