On Friday, May 17th, the Home Builders Association of Delaware held the 21st annual Regal Awards ceremony to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of its builder and associate partners. The Regal Awards celebrate excellence in the home building industry honoring the best builders in Delaware.

Echelon Custom Homes took home an award for the Best Custom Home over $750,001 for the 5th year in a row. The winning Hawksnest residence features a luxurious master suite with a wet bar, three sided fireplace and seating area. Other features include a wrap around back porch that leads to an in-ground pool with a Jacuzzi accompanied with custom pool house with full bar. This residence is the ultimate entertainment home.

Other awards included Best Kitchen for Coco Bay residence, Best Bath for Hawksnest residence, Best Single Family Resort Home over $500,001 for Newcastle Street residence and Best Custom Home from $400,000 – $750,000 for Robinson Drive residence.

The Schell Brothers companies including Renew-Smart Renovations and Echelon Interiors – walked away with a total of 24 awards on the evening of the awards.

I spent my July 4th vacation in a convention center in Columbus, Ohio filled with whistles, the sound of volleyballs hitting skin and floor, and thousands of young girls between the ages of 13 and 17. Not exactly one’s idea of a peaceful and relaxing vacation let alone a place to reflect. But I found myself asking a lot of questions about what I really felt while I was there and as a result had a rather unexpected “vacation”.

First let me provide some background. My brother runs the Kaulukoa Volleyball Institute in Honolulu, HI. The Institute has 9 girls teams and 5 boys teams ranging in age from 12-17. My brother, Lee, coaches the girls 16 and under team. They earned the right to play in the USA Volleyball Junior Nationals. The Junior Nationals are essentially the Olympics or the NCAA championships for high school athletes. College coaches from around the country are there scouting and recruiting players. Each age group is broken into divisions depending upon the qualifying status of each team. There is an American, a National, and an Open Division each with 32 teams. The level of play increases as you move from American to Open. My brother’s team was playing in the Open Division against 31 of the best teams in the country and I had the opportunity to be on the bench as an assistant coach.
(Yes, if you are paying attention my brother lives in Hawaii and I went to Ohio to see him…I really need to plan better….)
As you can imagine the level of talent at this type of event is off the charts, the best of the best. Kids put in countless hours of training and travel to earn the right to play here. It is the fact that they are kids that really had me reflecting at the end of each day. First let me say that I am a fan of competition, I have never understood people who say “you are a very competitive person” with a tone that implies it is a negative personality trait! It has helped me accomplish many more good things in my life than bad. But man, the father in me struggled to watch girls on my team and other teams drown in the pressure of the moment and crack emotionally after losing. I wanted to hug them all, tell them in the big scheme of things it’s not that bad, but the competitor and the realist in me knows that in some ways this isn’t little in the scheme of things for these kids. Some of these kids may never have an opportunity to participate in something of this magnitude again. What college coaches see and hear during this tournament could impact the rest of their lives by directing them to one school or another or even whether they get any scholarship money at all.

So I get it. In the end this is a big moment, a necessary moment in the path these kids have chosen. If I had the chance to talk to all of them individually I think I would tell them the same thing I have been telling myself – focus on the good things that happened. So for my girls which, after five days I began to think of them as, I am proud of you and all you accomplished. I know a 14th place finish wasn’t what you hoped for and losing seven sets by a combined total of 23 points is a double heartbreaker, but find the positives. Each of you in my eyes had multiple moments of character and strength, places where you shined. Remember those, build on them, use them to be better going forward.
For me personally it was a privilege to see so much talent in one place and know the effort that was required to get there. It’s too early to be sure, but I think being a part of this will have changed my outlook on life slightly. Any time you are forced to examine your perspective and ask yourself tough questions about what you really believe is a tremendous opportunity to learn. This was a great trip for reasons I would have never guessed beforehand. I am glad to have been a part of it.

To see the girls click here
To see the results of the tournament click here and go to pool 4.

Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes following the rep scheme below:
100 pound Thruster, 3 reps
3 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 6 reps
6 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 9 reps
9 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 12 reps
12 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 18 reps
18 Chest to bar Pull-ups
100 pound Thruster, 21 reps
21 Chest to bar Pull-ups…
This is a timed workout. If you complete the round of 21, go on to 24. If you complete 24, go on to 27, etc.

A thruster is a front squat (Barbell high on your chest, full squat) then as you are returning to vertical pushing the weight directly over your head in a shoulder press. This exercise is an oxygen destroyer, it forces your body to use every big muscle group and as a result the oxygen gets depleted very quickly.

Normally this wouldn’t have been a terrible workout for me, but the culmination of the previous four weeks had definitely taken their toll. And I only managed to complete 68 reps, or in English I got through the round of 12 thrusters and pullups and then completed 8 more thrusters in seven minutes. This left me about middle of the pack for this workout.

I finished in 434th place out of 1,424 original entrants overall, my last workout did not make up any ground for me. That put me just outside the top 30% overall in the world. My goal was to be inside the top 25%, so I did not accomplish my goal, but at least I have established a new target to beat next year. I learned a lot and one of the things I really need to do is find a way to help speed my recovery between workouts. By the end of the five weeks I was very beat up.

In the end I am glad that I made myself do it, at my age (46) I find it to be altogether too easy to not push myself to the limit, to not try new things, and it is something I have grown to fear greatly. So beyond the physical benefits of Crossfit, for me there is also the mental benefit of having a great community of friends and athletes who help push me outside of my comfort zone on a regular basis. I plan to test myself yearly and hopefully I can blog about it again next year. If you have any questions about Crossfit or our companies please feel free to e-mail me at Dion@RENEWvation.com.

Thanks for reading and thanks to the Schell Brothers Family of Companies who promote physical fitness as an integral part of a healthy work life balance. And remember – Get outside of your comfort zone!

• 150 Wall Balls at 20lbs
• 90 Double Unders
• 30 Muscle Ups

This workout is listed with as many rounds as possible but in reality very, very few will complete one round. The wall ball exercise is as follows – take a 20lb medicine ball starting in a full squat, explode up and throw the ball to a ten foot target on the wall. The ball must hit at or above the target to count and must hit the wall, you then have to catch the 20lb med ball and return to a full squat for 1 rep. Easy, now just do it 150 times, after about 90 reps your shoulders are completely cooked and you are jumping out of your squat to try to get the ball to the target, now you only have 60 to go. Fun times.

Once you complete the 150 wall balls and you’re wondering who stole all of the oxygen, pick up a jump rope and do 90 double unders. A double under is simply jumping rope, you know except for the part where the rope has to pass under your feet twice on each jump. So the rope has to blur around and you have to jump higher, a very serious energy and oxygen destroyer. Especially if like me, you are not very strong at these. If you can get both of those done you get on the gymnastic rings and perform a muscle up. A muscle up is the Everest of CrossFit moves for any non-gymnasts. Essentially from a dead hang position on the rings you have to pull yourself up and over the rings into a dip position, than fully extend from there. Here is a link showing the progression http://breakingmuscle.com/video/breaking-muscle-video-muscle. I have been working on these for a year and haven’t gotten one yet, let alone 30.

My results were pretty average. I had hoped to get through the double unders in the 12 min period, but was only able to complete the 150 wall balls and 32 double unders. For a score of 182. This score didn’t drop me any further in the standings but it didn’t move me up either. I am 3 full days after the workout when writing this and my legs are still very sore, 150 wall balls definitely took their toll. Hoping for anything but dead lifts in the last workout, maybe I can get overhead squats and pull-ups, two exercises I am better at and make up some ground in the last week to get back to the top 25%. I’ll post the workout and my thoughts as soon as it is announced.

This was not a workout to do hungover, not that any are, but man did this one hurt. Felt ill from the second minute in and had to grind through for 16 more minutes. As you might imagine not my best showing. I managed 5 rounds plus 37 reps for a total of 207 reps. I have now dropped to 424th place overall, which has me outside my goal of the top 25%. I need to pick it up on the last two…

The week 3 workout has been announced and is as follows:

In 18 minutes perform as many rounds as possible of 15 box jumps to a 24″ box, 12 push press at 115 lbs, 9 toes to bar. Quick explanation of each:

• Box jumps – from a standing position jump on top of a 24″ box come to a full standing position, repeat 15 times

• Push press – bar starts on the ground, get the weight to your chest/shoulders then perform 12 reps from chest to locked out overhead in whatever manner is most efficient for you

• Toes to bar – hanging from a pull up bar bring your toes up to touch the pull up bar, heels must go behind the vertical bar plane at the bottom, repeat 9 times.

This is a very nicely thought out workout both in terms of muscle groups used and quantity of reps and time. The reps are all just outside of the comfort zone of a normal workout, i.e. you would normally do 10 push press at 95 lbs. This ought to be fun, and by fun I mean awful . Score update to follow on Sunday, I am hoping to get 7 rounds or 252 total reps, we’ll see…

In a previous life I played college volleyball and beach volleyball at a highly competitive level. Over the course of the years and one dislocated shoulder, I ended up with a SLAP lesion/tear in my shoulder. This was repaired via surgery almost ten years ago. And despite being a painful surgery and recovery I would do it again in a heartbeat because it gave me 95% of my original use back. However, every once in a while it gets aggravated (technical term J) and my range of motion disappears and my overhead strength essentially is wiped out. This occurred about 2/3 of the way through my workout and as a result I finished with 52 reps. I am pretty sure 60 was easily achievable and not being able to redo and get those eight extra reps may hurt my overall goal to finish in the top 25% of the Men’s 45-49 Masters division. Frustrating. As of right now I am still holding steady in the top 25% but a lot of scores still need to be posted. You can follow me at Crossfit Leaderboard; up in the top right is a search box where you can also search by name or affiliate. (My name is Dion Lamb my affiliate is Crossfit Lewes)

So overall a very disappointing round 2. And on top of that I am essentially not able to workout at all until I recover which makes me a little bit nutty. I need to burn off the stress and I’m not sure how to put it in words that don’t make me sound like a nut job, but I suppose if the shoe fits… When you invest so much time and mental energy into something and it changes your life for the better it becomes a part of your identity, and how you feel about yourself. When it is eliminated via injury (this is not my first) I tend to take it harder, it affects my mood, my self-esteem, my overall outlook.

Wow, that does sound crazy, seeing it on paper.

Ok blog followers, I am officially trying to focus on the positive while I heal, my life is very good and I am incredibly blessed. No more whiny pants.

Hopefully I’ll be ready by Thursday. I’ll update on Thursday with the week 3 workout and my health status.

hat if you were renovating a house and found a safe that had obviously been there for years? It’s been there so long, no one in the house knows who it belongs to. The safe is old, 30 years, 50 years, more? It’s hard to say, but the tumbler is broken and it hasn’t been opened in a long time…
Now suppose it was found inside of a house worth about $2,000,000, and that house had previously belonged to a wealthy family for multiple generations. Even the most innocent of folks find their minds wandering to the land of what if…. Wondering…. What Could Be In It? Diamonds, jewelry, stock certificates, wads of cash, a treasure map, an undamaged copy of the declaration of independence, a lost artifact???

WHAT IF ?
Now imagine you could buy one of a limited number of boxes, and one of those boxes is guaranteed to hold the key to opening that safe. How much would it be worth for the chance, $200, $500, $1000 a box?
What if I told you for $50 you could buy one box that will have the key to opening the safe. You can buy as many boxes as you want and all of the proceeds will go to a wonderful Meals on Wheels & Read Aloud Delaware event right before the holidays!
Oh, and did I mention you will also get a fantastic RENEW/Echelon party at the design center with cocktails and hors d’oeurves, and a unique setting for all of our clients to get together and catch up?

Welcome to the safe cracker party!
You are invited to a party, where someone will be opening that safe and will become the proud owner of whatever is inside. Will it be you?

When: Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Where: Echelon Design Center (20184 Phillips Street, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971)

Time: 6:30PM – 9PM

You may have seen the sign at the Echelon Design Center, or the job site signs in downtown Rehoboth, or maybe one of the Renew trucks driving down route 1 in a safe and courteous manner, and wondered what the company is all about. Well it is your lucky day, our marketing coordinator has pestered me relentlessly to write a blog about Renew so I am taking this opportunity to introduce the company.

A little over a year ago the team at Echelon decided it was time to take action on an idea they had been working on for many months. The idea was to create a company using the Echelon model of service, quality, and customer satisfaction ECSTATIC CUSTOMERS and have it focus on renovations, remodeling, and energy retrofits. With Renew you get the same great team of designers (Tim, Matty, Rebecca, Ivana, and Joni) and an experienced renovation team in John Coyle, Dion Lamb, and Chris Tull.

What’s interesting is that the Echelon approach to building a house – putting our customer’s happiness first, making all design decisions and selection upfront, and building a friendship with our clients as opposed to just a business relationship is even more important in the world of renovations. When your home is being torn apart and put back together you need people you trust to take care of you and your home, while moving with as much speed as possible. That is why our team is completely dedicated to renovations/additions/remodeling, because it is a very different animal than building a house from scratch. It requires expertise, experience, and major attention to detail.  This isn’t side work for us, this is our profession and we love what we do.

So if you have a basement that needs finishing, a neighbor who is looking to build an addition, or a friend who is finally ready to completely redo their beach house, you want Renew on your team. We would love to share our passion and experience to make the magic that is before and after pictures.

You can see our work, meet our team, and find out more about our process at www.RENEWvation.com, or you can give me, Dion Lamb, a call directly at 302-841-5660.