"It's about the mission"-- by Erin Lewison, a 7th grader student of Maple Grove Junior High and winner of Team Strong Heart mission contest

"The winner of the inaugual Team Strong Heart mission contest is the 7th grader student, Erin Lewison", announced by the mission contest director Bill Beckman, a social science teacher at Maple Grove Junior High, who was also the crew chief for 2008 Race Across America 4-member Team Strong Heart. The 7th grader's parents told us that Erin gave a lot of thoughts, spent many evenings and weekends of research time, "she learned a lot about Team Strong Heart, Camp Odayin, Race Across American, and many things that we do not know about". After Erin explained to us how she heard about the Team Strong Heart's mission, SILENT SPORTS FOUNDATION proudly presented Erin an award sponsored by the FOUNDATION.

Mr. Beckman applauded Erin's dedication, research skills, and depth of understanding of the ultimate Team Strong Heart's mission in the Race Across America, "Erin did a very good job presenting her a tri-fold poster to all of us, including her classmates and the Team Strong Heart supporters."

Erin, her parents, and Mr. Beckman have been invited to visit Camp Odayin on August 12, 1010. Mr. Beckman is planning to direct this mission contest again next year. If you are interested in being a part of it, please contact Mr. Beckman at: BeckmanB@district279.org.

Tenacious race and race preparation (3/13/2010)

Living in Minnesota for almost 20 years (after moving from Shanghai, China during my college), I met many people with tenacious characters. One of many evidence is at a glance of last Sat.'s annual winter triathlon, 21st Pole Pedal Pant winter triathlon (xc ski, bike, run) held at Elm Creek Park Reserve in Minnesota (3/13/2010). If RAAM has its fame of being the toughest bike race in the world, the 2010 version of the Pole Pedal Pant winter triathlon is the toughest winter triathlon in its 21 years of history. As one once said, it is not about a race, it is about tenacity, a focused mission, and preparation. I learned a lot from those who participated in this year's winter triathlon race (http://www.youtube.com/user/neil55008#p/a/u/0/zo23Q9905W0 and www.rainbowresort.com/ppp )
(Picture: 2009 American Birkebiner xc ski champion Matt Liebsch on his bike segment of the 2010 Pole Pedal Pant winter triathlon race, 3/13/2010)

2010 RAAM preparation is going into the stage of 80+ days-to-start. Training in all aspects has become a norm. More testing has showed that my power outage/HR zones are on course.

Thanks for your continous support and encouragement by showing me your tenacity, passion, and vision.

Training progress -- 99 Days to Start (3-1-2010)

It seems harder to describe my training progress than understanding one's invention and then writing a patent for it -- my "day" job. To write a patent on an invention, one needs to describe the "state of the art", existing problems, and the solutions one came up that are novel and not obvious to the others so that one is rewarded with 20 years of exclusive rights to what one describes in the patent.

Well, enough of that -- let me begin describing what are those progress factors -- LT, PE, HR, PW: LT - lactate threshold; PE - perceived exertion; HR - Heart Rate; PW - power wattage.

After about 3 months of training, data has showed improvement of 20%. I was told it was good -- drop me a note if you can -- love to hear your encouraging words.

Indeed it is less than 99 days to start, and I'll find out how hard is hard if I have not yet.