UNBROKEN [17.17]

August 4, 2017

W680 race 2412 photo 37664285 Market:  New York
Athlete:  Travis Melvin, Hudson Advisors


I’ve participated in The D10 for the past 3-years and continue to enjoy the competitive environment, new friendships and overall opportunity to support a great cause. I guarantee that if you ask any athlete, their purpose for competing is about supporting the cause rather than trying to go home with a trophy. Once the competition is over everyone feels like a winner no matter what place they come in. 

The D10 is the primary fitness competition I train for each year and every D10 is different -- and better -- than the previous one.  Best of all, every D10 brings with it new lessons.  A few that I’ve learned are: 1) Be well-rounded in your athleticism, 2) Set challenging, but achievable targets and 3) Be resourceful.  

Well-Rounded
The D10 is 10 unique events meant to exploit strengths and weaknesses of all athletes in order to crown one athlete that is consistently competitive across all events. I’ve always done dynamic workouts to train for The D10 because I believe full body workouts are an advantage. For example, if all you do is bench, maybe that 1000 points will cover you for having a 5 second shuttle time, but what about the 40yd dash and the other 7 events?

Set Challenging, but achievable goals
My target was 70 dips and I completed 46.  My first year I completed 45 and last year I completed 56. Oddly enough, I trained for dips more than my previous two years and still fell short. I inaccurately projected that training more would easily lead to another 14reps. As a result, I lost a lot of fundraising dollars. Sometimes you can get caught in your own self confidence and forget that the purpose of competing is to help others, not acquire bragging rights. 

Be resourceful
This year was by far the hottest year in which I’ve competed. By the time I finished the 400 it had to already be 90 degrees and I was exhausted. Heat is not my friend. I also had my normal asthma attack after the 500m row and had another small one after the 800m. These issues didn’t stop me because at The D10 you are truly treated like a pro athlete. There’s full paramedic staff on site, all the water and snacks you could want, massages, chiropractors and more. I’ve seen athletes catch cramps and drop out each year for various avoidable reason. Use the resources…all of them. 

Next year will be here before you know it so start planning today.

Bring it,
Travis