Phillip Kriss, Athlete & Chiropractor

About 30 years ago I rode with a guy named Mark D. Our speeds matched exactly making us great riding buddies. We rode a lot of miles together. And, I liked the guy! 30 years later, we bump into each other doing triathlons. The funny thing was in almost all the races, were were on the run course at almost the same time! The good news is I was able to out run him for the grudge match win. Agony for him. It was interesting after so many years we were still the same speed. Then one day he out ran me. Several times in fact. Not only was I shocked, but also in awe at the speed in which he pulled it off. He then revealed his secret. He said, “for every 5 pounds lost, you will run 20 seconds faster per mile with all other factors remaining the same” So, he dropped 30 pounds and is now wicked fast. Nobody likes to hear that. I think because if you are like me, you like beer and doughnuts (Not really). I had notice however, that in the time since we last rode, I did pork on about 20...

Champions are made, not born Chances are if you are reading this you are already interested in increasing your performance. It could be in preparation for a race or event. It could be raising a teenager. It could be starting a business. It could be staying alive! I have the opportunity to hang with and ponder the ways of some pretty successful people in my life. Some are Iron people. Some are business people. Some are kids. Most are those who overcame huge obstacles, took a beating, kept at it and came out on top! I also have read a few books and attempted to apply what others learned to increase my success and here is a summary of what I learned. Champions are: Resilient and resourceful: Life often throws us obstacles. I don’t know anybody who’s plan went off without a hitch. They are versatile enough to create a way around, over or through roadblocks and discouragement. They find a way to fit the necessary (training) into the crazy (everyday life). I know a guy wh...

Avoidance of pain can cause people to make poor choices. There are those who seem to thrive on pain as they grind out mile after mile day after day for years. Seems to me those that qualified for the Ironman in Kona must willingly embrace lots of pain (and pay a lot of money for the opportunity). To me that does not look like a comfortable event. I would be the first to take an Ironman slot if I did qualify, the other side of me sez “who would want to screw up a perfectly good week in Hawaii by doing an Ironman?” I fear I would be crying like a baby and they would capture it on national TV! Some people are stuck with pain due to chronic conditions, birth defects, accidents or the effects of aging. They don’t willingly put themselves into painful events. Having conversations with the seemingly imperviable to pain can lead to some clues to the high performance of some.   Comments like these are clues: ·          “It’...

When I got back into triathlons about 10 years ago, I met a guy that recruited me to go on a run around the “Orting Death Loop”. After I had committed, he informed me to arrive at his house at 3:15 AM. Not only was I nervous about a run and time like that, but when I got there there were about 10 very happy fit looking people warming up and chatting. They were bent on to go to the Ironman in Canada and qualify for Kona. I was outclassed and intimidated. In the meantime, I bought a new high efficiency washing machine. I did not know to use special soap and much less of it. As a result of too much soap my shorts began to foam starting at the crotch. At about mile 15 the soap foam was undeniable as it got larger and seemed like it encompassed most of my lower body. Further down the road the chaffing combined with grinding soap into the wounds altered my gait provoking comments like “Where did you get this guy?” If embarrassment killed, I would have certainly died that day. I did f...

Your body is smart enough to take care of itself if you listen to it The last few years on some days I have taken a beating on the race course. On a dreadful day, my heart rate will escalate to over extremely high with very painful, fearful, frightening consequence. Tunnel vision, dizziness, weaving around, fatigue, pain, cramping, nausea and a nasty pounding headache. Because of that, I have not signed up for any long-distance events for fear of another whipping with the possible outcome of death. I have seen dead people on the race course (in my age group probably) and it is not pretty…I was hoping this whole thing would go away, but it has not. So, off to (another) cardiologist. After a fact-finding question and answer period, the conversation goes something like this: ·          You are over 50 ·          You are a big guy (200 pounds with less than 15% body fat) ·    ...

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it” -W. Mitchell Last year I did not sign up for a long distance triathlon. At first I was upset about it, but got over it by watching others suffer on long rides and runs while sipping iced tea on the deck. On race day, I felt little remorse. This year I went to sign up for a race, and after looking at the price tag, lack of time and motivation and decided not to sign up. Call me lazy…go ahead…it’s OK… Now some of my buddies are in the thick of training. Many hours in the pool, on the saddle or on the road. Stress levels are climbing. I look at my weeks and ask myself “Self, how did you carve 20-25 hours out of each week?” Myself has no answers. Looking back, I don’t know how I did it. At one point, I had trained and completed 140.6 distance triathlons while opening new business’ and had a life. Kudo’s to me, because I did accomplish what seemed impossible at the time. But, I did what I had to do to get it all do...

Don't Do the Jumbo Shrimp Back 3 years in the cross-fit gym taught me a lot. One of the most interesting thing is how can those nice people put up so much weight and not get hurt? Several times I was instructed to do some High Intensity Activity, looked at the weight and activity and said to myself "WHAT?" But, with proper instruction and practice I found out you can lift way more than you think you can without hurting yourself. Not only that, but I had to fess up that for most of my chiropractic career I was teaching people how to lift incorrectly. Regrettable at least... Then I found out that proper lifting/activity techniques are applicable to swimming, biking and running. To maintain the "power posture" not only makes you more efficient and powerful, but more comfortable. Here is the simple list: Pinch your shoulders together a bit keep your head up and back, directly over your torso arch your low back, and/or stick your butt out as much as...

I just got done witnessing the famed Boston Marathon. Some did great! Some did as expected. Some (like me) did not qualify. There are great reasons some run and do great. Mostly because they had a perfect collision of desire, decision, health, time to train, age, opportunity and physical ability. The are other great reasons some people don’t show up. Lack of time, desire, health or physical ability or it is just not Their time in life to do that right now. However, one could make the case that there were a lot of people out there with some really great reasons not to run, yet were. I witnessed people without legs running. Some blind. Even some without legs at all! (Push rim). Several are very overweight and poorly conditioned. No doubt there were those with heart conditions and cancer survivors that were having the time of their life because they chose to do so. True to some extent life is what you make it! There are also some legit reasons to sit that one out. I su...

In the past Kriss Chiropractic sponsored a pretty good triathlon team. It was a great idea to have Kriss Chiropractic stamped on as many high performing athletes as we could find. Then I was humbled at the Coure d’ Alene Ironman trying to finish my run when Benny Swedburg said that I should join RTB. I told him he should join my team. We sparred back-and-forth a few times on the out and backs until at the end of the race a certain RTB athlete in my age group beat me on the run. I admitted Benny was right, we should join RTB. Combining forces with RTB enabled us to expand our sphere of influence to others to benefit us all.  Our Lake Tapps Morning Swimming group (find us on Facebook) suddenly expanded and our new buddies quickly adapted to arriving at dawn and in jumping in the cold lake. (It is really and excuse for a photo shoot). Little did we know that a little mini mastermind group had been created. RTB swimmers are usually fast swimmers and have made me increase my...

A few years ago I had a conversation with two people about the expense of my mountain bike. When I stated the cost of the bike, one of them had a total blowout and was upset because I robbed the family coffer of valuable resources. Noticing that he was already overweight and had several significant health conditions involving his heart and his pancreas I made the comment that the amount of money that I spent on my bicycle was very likely less than the co-pays on all the medications that he had been taking. As you can imagine, that went over really big. The other guy listening to the conversation knew the point that I was attempting to make and asked where he could go to buy such a fine machine, and what would it take to get into biking. To this day he still rides! He is a lot healthier for it and finds it fun and amusing for his body and soul. Well worth the investment. Probably nobody likes spending money on equipment for triathlons. It is an expensive sport. There is ...