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Success Stories [Inspiration/Experience]

Out & About An Early-morning Wake-up Call Pushed Mike Spiller out of his Hit-or-miss Workout Routine — And into the Best Shape of his Life.

By Laine Bergeson

June 2006

Mike Spiller had always been fairly athletic and in good shape. He ran cross-country and wrestled in high school and even attended college on a wrestling scholarship for a year. After transferring to the University of South Florida in Tampa Bay as a sophomore, he stayed active by wrestling in an intramural league, as well as playing sports like flag football and softball.
After graduation, however, Spiller discovered 9as so many recent grads do) that fitness pursuits and team sports aren’t nearly as organized and accessible as they are in school. “After college, I just went through the motions of exercising without really having a goal or reaching my full fitness potential,” says the now-41-year-old resident of northern Virginia. “I had a gym membership primarily to play racquetball in the winter and do a little bit of working out, but I had no regular routine.”
Before Spiller knew it, 15 years had passed. He’d launched a successful career as vice president of information technology at a large Washington, D.C.-based think tank, and he enjoyed family life as a husband and the father of two young kids. But Spiller was still spinning his wheels at the gym. He kept up with a softball league, played some beach volleyball and occasionally went water-skiing but he never set his sights on any specific fitness achievements.
His biggest obstacle? Not enough hours in a day. With a job that demanded many long hours, and a young family calling out for quality time, Spiller couldn’t carve out space in his schedule for the kind of workouts that would boost his physical fitness back to its college-era level. Another big obstacle: no overarching fitness goal. But when Spiller discovered adventure racing, he trumped both challenges.

BACK IN SHAPE
Spiller’s first steps toward getting back in shape were vicarious. In early 2003, his wife, Vanessa, made the commitment to get fit after the birth of their second child. She signed up for a five-day-a-week, early-morning general fitness class being offered at their health club. And Spiller encouraged her — from the comfort of bed. “She was getting up at 4:45 to make it to class,” he says. “I thought she was crazy!” But from Vanessa’s point of view, she was just being practical. “I’d seen the promotions for the general fitness class at life Time Fitness, “ she says, “And I thought, ‘I could do that.’” The early class was a good fit with her schedule: She could work out and still get home before the children (Cole and Courtney, now 6 and 4) woke up and before Spiller left for work.
Despite the early mornings and tight schedule, Vanessa’s new routine stuck, and soon Spiller was curious about what kept her getting up for more. “I wanted to try it, too,” he says.
When Vanessa’s class session came to an end, Spiller signed up. The class provided the routine he needed, and the mental and physical boost of getting back into shape soon whetted his appetite for greater fitness challenges and more success.
A class called LFT/X — Life Time Fitness Extreme — met at the same time as Spiller’s general fitness class. Taught by celebrated fitness expert Sean Burch, LTF/X was geared toward improving athletic performance. Spiller had found his next big fitness challenge.
“When Mike first joined my class, I think he just wanted to keep up with the rest of the group,” Burch says. “That’s usually a newbie’s first goal.” Motivated both by the challenges presented and the results he was seeing, Spiller stayed with the class for more than a year.

GOAL SETTING
Burch’s LTF/X class proved an ideal fit for Spiller’s needs. “My program is for people who were active when they were younger but who have since pushed exercise and fitness goals to the periphery of their lives,” Burch explains. “Most have not made fitness their priority for quite some time, and they think it’s too late, or too difficult, to get back in the kind of shape they were once in. I help them realize it’s never too late.” As part of the mental-training component, Burch emphasizes goal setting. “I teach students that any goal they set in their minds to, they can achieve,” he says. Spiller chose outdoor adventure racing as his goal — despite never having been on a mountain bike in his life. He began an extra training regimen with Burch, and he recruited a few classmates to join him on an adventure-racing team.
Spiller credits his committed classmates for helping him stay motivated. Burch noticed, too, how counting on and connecting with a group of people with a similar goal helped all the students reach a new fitness level.”Once Mike had a group of people to train with outside of the gym,” Burch says, “his sport-specific skill improved dramatically.” Spiller’s enthusiasm, in turn, motivated his classmates, so much so that nine of them participated in challenging adventure races that year.

OPPORTUNITY FOR ADVANCEMENT
Since joining Burch’s class a mere two years ago, Spiller has gone from novice fitness buff to adventure-racing champion. In his first-ever adventure race, 2004’s VentureQuest, Spiller and his team of three placed 17th out of 78 teams. Ranking that high in a multihour multisport event (canoeing, trekking, mountain biking) as a novice was an impressive feat. By 2005, Spiller and his team had claimed two first-place finished and two second-place finishes. And in late May, Spiller climbed Mount Kilimanjaro on a trip led by Burch.
To train for the trip, Spiller took Burch’s twice-weekly 5:30 a.m. class. He dedicated Monday afternoons to swimming and he ran daily over his lunch hour. He also went on day hikes locally and developed his cardio capacity by doing treadmill work at steep grades.
And then there was the straw technique: Spiller prepared himself for the intense effort he’s be making at Kilimanjaro’s high altitude and thinner air by using a training method that Burch developed for his own Everest-summit expedition in May 2003. It involves breathing through a straw while working out in order to restrict oxygen intake and build the lings’ respiratory capacity.

STILL CRANKING
On weekends, Spiller still takes long runs (five to 15 miles) and often mountain bikes for hours or more at a stretch, but he’s careful to schedule his training around time spent with his family. He generally hits the trails at the break of day so he’s home by 10 a.m. “Mike’s rigorous training schedule actually improved our time management as a family,” explains Vanessa, who also continues to work out regularly and competes in triathlons.
“My wife truly inspired me to take the plunge and get back into shape by getting up every day for class,” Spiller says. “Now we trade off two days a week for early-morning workouts.” The gains he’s made in the gym have paid off in other areas of his life, too, improving his confidence and his skills.
“It surprised Mike that he could do these amazing races and now he’s motivated to a whole new level,” Vanessa says. Indeed, Spiller’s 2006 adventure-race schedule is packed, and he has started a Web site for adventure racers in northern Virginia to share their stories (www.nvracing.org).
Outdoor adventure racing pushes a person’s physical endurance to the brink, and Spiller, who believes he’s in the best shape of his life, wouldn’t have it any other way. “After my first race I was crying and vowing I’d never do it again,” Spiller explains. “Then just 15 minutes later I was looking for another race for the following weekend.”

SUCCESS SUMMARY

MEET: Mike Spiller, a 41-year-old vice president of information technology; husband; and father of two.

BIG ACHIEVEMENTS: Becoming a champion adventure racer; climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

BIG INSPIRATION: His wife, Vanessa, whose early-morning workouts set an example; and his “extreme” trainer, Sean Burch.

WHAT WORKED: Setting goals, joining a challenging fitness class, forming a racing team, scheduling around family time.

WHAT DIDN’T: Ad-hoc, squeezed-in, no-goal workouts.

WORDS OF WISDOM: “Set a goal, have a dream, make it happen.”

 

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