This race was my first 5K of this season and my first since December 2010! I’ve been mainly focusing on half marathons this season and have thrown in the smaller distances when convenient. Now I wouldn’t exactly call the timing of this race convenient for me but since it was sponsored by FitCrew, I went ahead and did it (aka I had no choice but to run it)! You see, I signed up for the St Pete Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon back on 11-11-11 when they were having their $20 off promotion. Then just a couple weeks ago Niels (one of my CrossFit trainers) informed me that I would also be running the Saint Stephen’s Falcon Run 5K with the FitCrew team. The fact that I was running RNR the following day wasn’t a valid excuse since several of my fellow FitCrewers were as well!
So I adjusted my goals for the weekend and decided to go for a major PR in the 5K and offered to pace my friend Sherry to a sub-2 hour finish in the RNR Half Marathon. I’m so glad I did because I had a great time at both races! First let’s talk about the 5K!
The course was an out and back that started and ended at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School with a good portion of the race running along the water.
The course was beautiful but the pesky thing about running along the water is that there is often wind! Since a cold front was moving into the area it was especially windy that day and unfortunately it turned into a horrible head wind after the turn around.
Now my previous 5K PR was 25:55 back in December 2010 but since I’m much faster this season I really didn’t know what to pace. My overall goal was to keep my pace sub-8 but ultimately I wanted to break 24 minutes. A look at my splits confirms that I haven’t run a 5K in a loooong time!
Unsure of how to pace myself combined with the excitement of running a race, I went out way too fast on the first mile. Most of the second mile wasn’t horrible until we hit the turn around and obviously the third mile I was all but wishing for death.
My heart rate was pretty typical for a short race. High and continuously rising.
This was a super small race so I was pretty sure a lot of us FitCrewers would place in our age groups. I knew I was the third FitCrew girl to cross the finish line and that both the ladies before me weren’t in my age group. It turned out I was right! The large majority of us took home age group awards and I took home 1st place in my age group! Oh how I love small local races!
Me (pink) and Elisa (white), 1st and 2nd in our age group, both FitCrew girls! {photo courtesy of Calista Rutledge}
And of course a close-up of that sweet medal!
I wish I could have joined my FitCrew team for brunch but I had big plans to meet up with Jena and Sherry for the St Pete Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon Expo! Look out for that recap next!
It’s been a crazy two weeks with today being my first day off! I have 2 race recaps coming, a 5K and another half marathon. First though, I thought I’d share the WODs (workout of the day) from the last couple of weeks. I’ll even throw in a video of Mike from CrossFit the other day!
Unfortunately you won’t see much running this first week because I got another sinus infection. I was still doing well at CrossFit but dreaded the thought of going for a run.
1/30: CrossFit.
2/2: CrossFit
2/3: CrossFit
This second week I had two races over the coming weekend so I scheduled my FitCrew training sessions accordingly. I also did a new (to me) speed work out, mile repeats, to test out my intended pace for the 5K I had on my race schedule for Saturday.
2/6: CrossFit + 4.5 miles
I loved my pace for this run! It felt easy, but was pretty fast (for me).
2/7: CrossFit + 3 x 1 mile repeats (5 miles total)
As you can see in the above splits, I didn’t quite finish that last fast mile. I blame the little girl that hit me in the quad with a softball. (I was running at a park with a track.) While it didn’t really hurt, she was only ~7 years old, it completely threw off my mental game.
I was very surprised to see my heart rate so low for this. I really felt like I was working really hard but my heart rate didn’t get that high. I expected to see it well into the high 180s but it never got higher than 182bpm and that was at the very end. Stupid brain always getting in my way!
2/8: CrossFit
2/11: Saint Stephen’s Falcon Run 5K- recap coming soon!
2/12: St. Petersburg Rock n Roll Half Marathon- recap coming soon!
And I’ll leave you with this:
Mike doing a 25 pound weighted rope climb (one hand each rope)! I have to brag for him for a minute, this morning at CrossFit he did a 70 pound weighted pull-up (2 actually)! Sorry ya’ll, he’s taken!
I’ve mentioned before how I’m a planner, even though I don’t always stick 100% to my plan. I love me a to-do list mostly because of the satisfaction that comes from crossing off each item. So it would only make sense that I would own a day planner right? It turns out I’m incredibly picky and have never been able to find one that fit my criteria. Then shortly after the new year I read an article in the local paper comparing different day planners. One really stuck out to me, the Mini Smartdate Set from Russell and Hazel. [*Before I continue a quick note- I was not in any way compensated nor asked to do this review. I found the product on my own, purchased it on my own and decided to share it with all of you because I love it that much. This opinion is my own.*]
Of course when I went to the website it appeared that the set was sold out because I couldn’t find it on the site. After a little googling I found a website that carried the set- Paper Twist.
I was so excited when I received the box and the pretty pink poka dot packaging (say that 10x fast!) made me happy! Inside was my Regal Purple Mini Smartdate Set (click on any picture to see it larger):
The binder itself is 7″ x 9″ and is covered in linen fabric (mine is purple but there are several colors) with the inside of the cover being dry erase. The very first sheet in the book is a handy year-at-a-glance for both 2012 and 2013.
The set also came with monthly tabs and weekly/daily sheets. Each sheet has a notes side which is awesome! Also included are To-Do adhesive notes (no pics of that sorry!)
The monthly section
The monthly notes section
The weekly/daily sheet
The weekly/daily notes section
I absolutely adore this set and while I’ve only been using it a week, I’m much more organized and productive! Tasks don’t feel so overwhelming now that I can schedule them and there’s also no more forgetting since I have a space to write everything down. This set is a bit pricey at $65 but I found it to be comparable to other day planners at this size and level of personalization. I highly recommend both Russell and Hazel and Paper Twist!
On to this week’s workouts! I’ve decided to bring back the weekly recap.
Monday: CrossFit! The WOD (15 minute stations, how many rounds?):
Tuesday: 4 mile run
Wednesday: Rest. I had originally planned on running intervals but I was in a foul mood when I got home from work and it didn’t end up happening.
Thursday: CrossFit + 6 mile hill run. I did CrossFit in the morning and then ran at the Sunshine Skyway Trail. This course goes over 2 bridges in 3 miles. I did an out and back so I did each bridge twice.
The WOD (15 minute stations- how many rounds?):
The splits from my run (can you tell which 3 miles I had a tailwind and which I had a headwind?):
Friday: CrossFit!
Saturday: Rest. I really needed rest after the past 2 days of CrossFit. I’ve moved up in weight to 85lbs now for hang cleans, push press and overhead squat. The first 2 weeks or so after the initial moving up is painful and I tend to get grumpy when I’m sore. Mike has been a very tolerant husband and even gave me a massage!
Sunday: 14 mile run. It felt so good to go for a long run again! I kept the pace casual and just enjoyed being outside in the gorgeous weather. I was still incredibly sore from CrossFit and my quads hated every step but I pushed through, pretending it was the last 14 miles of a marathon.
The deets:
I fueled after 5 miles and 10 miles and the other dips in my heart rate early on in my run are from me taking off my long sleeved shirt and then ditching it back at the house.
I finally had a good running week after suffering from some burn out. I’ve rarely run this month and was starting to feel the mental effects of it. I need my endorphins! For now I’m just taking it week by week but my tentative plan is to rebuild my marathon miles. We’ll see how it goes!
Yet another half marathon is in the books with the completion of the Clearwater Halfathon last weekend. This was my 4th half for the season (or ever for that matter) and by far the toughest. The 3rd half marathon of 4 in this series had us running over both the Sand Key bridge and the Clearwater Memorial bridge, twice each. Evidence:
The crazy inclines combined with the unseasonable heat made this race brutal. Good thing Jena and I were running it for fun (aka the 5th medal for completing all races in this series) so time was not of the essence here.
So another race, another 6am meet up with Jena in a random parking lot before running our little hearts out for fun. No folks, we’re not normal. Jena even brought her camera so we could document the fun. (therefore all photographs are courtesy of Jena @ lifeisbeachykeen.com)
We started at 7:05am, just in time to see the sun rising. While I cursed each of the 4 bridge climbs we had to make, I have to admit that the views were amazing!
Clearwater Memorial bridge- the 1st and 4th climbs
Sand Key bridge- the 2nd and 3rd climbs
We settled into a moderate (conversational) pace and just cruised along. Occasionally we would make random observations and chit chat and of course we whined the whole way up every bridge. I hung out in my favorite spot when running with someone, just behind and to the right. I’m not sure why I like this spot so much but it’s my happy place. Maybe because I got to stare at Jena’s butt the whole time?
This is me, running behind Jena (and yes, I’m sticking my tongue out).
Jena offered to pause so that I could do burpees at the top of our third bridge climb but I respectfully declined. Mostly because I didn’t want to hold her up, partly because I hate burpees.
I was feeling good up until the last 2 miles or so. I started to struggle with heat, bridge climbs and digestive issues all being contributing factors. I’m so thankful that Jena was running with me because otherwise I probably would have walked the majority of the last 2 miles. Instead we rocked it out and ran up all 4 bridges, run being a relative term on the last one.
The official details:
We collected our awesome medals (they’re sparkly again yay!) and walked/stretched for a brief cool down under the shade of a tree.
Then we stuffed our faces with some post race goodies before watching part of the awards. We left a bit early so we could have brunch before heading over to Sports Authority to register for Gasparilla. I’ll be doing the 15K again this year and I plan to destroy it. Last year’s race didn’t go so well for me so I’m out for course revenge!
In summary- I had a great time with Jena at another great race put on by Chris Lauber at Florida Road Races. I can’t wait for the last one in March, mostly because I can’t wait to see our 5th medal. I sure hope it’s sparkly!
Last weekend I ran my first ‘short’ race of the season, the St Pete Beach Classic 10K. Thus far I’ve done 1 full marathon and 4 half marathons (the 4th half marathon recap is coming soon- promise!). I wasn’t planning on the 10K (originally wanted to do the 5K since I did the 10K in this series last year) and told Jena that I didn’t think I was going to participate at all. Then I decided to stop whining and just do it!
I met Jena pretty early at 6am in St Pete Beach to avoid the inevitable parking nightmare. We hung out in her warm car and I subjected her to this funny video:
Am I fat? Don’t lie to me.
Then we moseyed on over to the finish line to see the 5K winners and did our own warm-up. It was pretty darn cold so I changed from my FitCrew tank top (my not-so-official race top) to a long sleeved half zip. We met up with several of Jena’s running group friends at the start line and then were off. I had no idea what to pace for this race since I’m much faster than last season (thanks FitCrew!) so I went mostly by heart rate. <– this is an advantage to heart rate monitoring!
The splits:
The heart rate:
Official numbers: Chip Time- 52:05, Age Group- 7/40, Overall Female- 40/323
My goal was to keep my heart rate around 180bpm even though my racing heart rate is typically 185bpm. I haven’t been doing a ton of running the past couple of weeks so while I wanted to do well, I didn’t want to kill myself either. I had a really good time with this race and I PR’ed by 4:05! Fun fact: this season’s 10K pace = last season’s 5K pace. I can’t wait to see what I can do on a 5K, my goal is to keep the pace sub-8.
After Jena and I finally found each other (she was looking for me and I was stuffing my face with chocolate muffins- go figure) we went back to our cars to get warmer clothes and then headed to watch the awards. Jena rocked it and placed in our age group again this year (she placed last year when she ran the 5K), go read her recap!
Jena and I freezing our Florida butts off! {Let’s go Orange!}
This was a great race, very well run with excellent post race food. The course is ok, just fair warning- you run past the finish line around 4.5 miles in. Then you’re running away from the finish line until making a hair-pin turn to make your way back to the finish. The whole time you’re running away from the finish you’re seeing all the people running towards it, which really screws with you mentally. If you’re expecting it, it isn’t so bad. I even saw Jena at some point and we high-fived, which gave me a huge boost.
Overall I’m very proud of how I did and I’m excited to see how I do in the 5K distance.
Heeeyyyyy! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years and any other Holiday that you celebrate. I’ve been absent because I’ve been on vacation! We didn’t go anywhere, just stayed home and spent lots of quality time together which has been sooo nice.
The couple of weeks before Christmas were hectic and stressful for both of us. We didn’t start buying gifts until the Monday before! Luckily we got it done pretty quick (tip: sit down and make a list of who you’re buying for in one column then gift ideas in the next) and everything was wrapped and ready to go by Friday night. We had a nice quiet Christmas Eve, just the two of us (well 5 of us if you count the animals) and then drove through 5 counties to see all of our families on Christmas day. It was hectic but so much fun!
Stella with this year’s Christmas tree.
The husband gave me the Michael Kors watch I’ve been eyeballing for months.
Santa Paws came and brought the girls treats! Snuggles got some new treats too.
It’s a goose! (Liar, Liar anyone?) My in-laws made a goose for our Christmas feast and it was delicious!
Us ‘kids’ put together a gingerbread house in between dinner courses.
The time between Christmas and New Years was spent doing household chores and improvements, working out together (we hadn’t done CrossFit together in months, I go in the morning and he goes in the evening) and watching both The Pacific and Band of Brothers miniseries. The husband is working today so New Years Eve was pretty low key. I made some homemade sangria for our celebration and we turned in early at 1030pm.
The Sangria marinating!
This morning I set out for a long run and decided to do 12 miles as a nod to the new year.
Review of 2011:
I’ll make this short and sweet since I’ve only been blogging for 6 months. To start with, I decided to start this blog! Before that nothing earth shattering happened in the first 6 months of 2011. Just a few 5Ks and 10Ks, I started doing CrossFit and then made the decision to run my second marathon. I started training hard and found out I had a tumor in my left breast and had surgery 6 weeks before my marathon. The tumor was benign, I recovered quickly and ran my second marathon with a 33 minute PR. Then I ran my first half marathon in under 2 hours, ran 2 more and broke 1:55. I also did Tough Mudder and had a blast getting electrocuted! The latest CrossFit development, which I haven’t blogged about yet, is I can now do unassisted pull-ups! They are of the kipping variety and I still haven’t managed to string them together but it’s a step in the right direction! All in all a great year and I look forward to another.
2012 Resolutions:
As you all know, I’m big into goals.So here are some that I’ve been thinking about for 2012.
Health/Beauty
Continue my CrossFit/running/healthy eating while trying to remain injury-free.
Self breast examination every month.
Finally go back to the dermatologist and get my adult acne under control.
Running
5K PR, I haven’t run any 5Ks this season and I’m excited to see where I’m at now.
10K PR, same situation as 5K.
Sub 1:50 half marathon.
3rd full marathon.
Family and Friends
No computer after 8pm so that my attention is devoted to the husband every evening.
Unique (as in something different than the same 3 restaurants) date nights once a month with the husband.
Make time for friends at least once a month.
Walk the dogs 4x/week and take them to the dog park 1x/month.
Random
Actually grow something other than weeds in my Earth Box.
Blog at least 2x/week.
Replace the entry-way furniture and redo the office.
Get to church 2x/month.
Well there you have it! I’m very excited for what this year may bring and I wish everyone a healthy and happy 2012!
My fueling regimen for any race, from Marathon distance to 5K distance, is a bowl of oatmeal (with peanut butter and banana) and copious amounts of coffee and water precisely 3 hours before gun time. I stop all drinking 2 hours before gun time except for approximately 4oz of water 15 minutes beforehand to help aid digestion of the Gu I eat. The level of OCD of this routine has been fine tuned over the past couple of years and helps me get mentally prepared for any race.
So imagine my panic when I bolted out of bed at 5:30am for a 7:35am gun time. My original plan was to get up at 430am, immediately eat and caffeine up and then hydrate, get dressed and relax for an hour. Leaving the house at 530am would have given me ppplllleeennntttyyyy of time to meet up with Dave at chip pick-up at our planned time of 650am. Well, sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches my friends. I quickly jumped out of bed, got dressed and hit the road with some whole wheat cinnamon raison toast (peanut buttered), a banana, coffee and water. I knew the toast would settle faster than oatmeal and I prayed the coffee would do it’s *ahem* job in a timely fashion.
I still managed to get up to Madeira Beach, park, pick up our chips, use the port-o-potty (thank you coffee!!!) and meet up with Dave with time to spare. Then as it turned out we had even more time to kill, and another chance to use the potty, because of a snafu with the coast guard and the bridge that was on the race course (which turned out just fine, as it was down when we went to cross).
For my first half marathon my goal was to break 2 hours (achieved with a time of 1:58:11) and with my second I just wanted a sub-9 min/mile pace (achieved with a pace of 8:59 min/mile). So for this race the goal was to break 1:55. I knew this was a good chance to achieve that since the course was relatively flat (with the exception of two short overpasses and the bridge) and I had a pacer. Dave (my fellow co-worker and Tough Mudder) is training for his 3rd marathon and he had 15 miles on his schedule for Sunday, so he ran 2 miles before the race then paced me for 13.1 miles. We talked strategy beforehand and I told him I wanted to hold 8:45 for the first 10 miles then bring it down to 8:30 or lower for the last 3 miles.
Well take a look at these splits ya’ll:
Chip time: 1:53:39. 8:42 min/mile pace.
Dave has a fancy plug in on his Sport Tracks software (what he uses to upload his Garmin data) and told me that our very last mile from 12.1-13.1 was a 7:58 pace. The last mile of this race I held a sub-8 pace!!! That is just pure crazy!
The other deets:
I definitely worked for every second of this time, I never was comfortable even though my heart rate was low and I think a lot of that was mental. I told Dave afterwards as we munched on post-race cookies that I had already written off this race as a fail before we even started. Yet with his support and general Dave awesomeness I not only reached my goal, I blew it away and PR’ed by 4 minutes.
I know you want a close-up of that sweet medal (it’s sparkly and that makes me happy):
Plus I had a new race shirt to help boost my confidence (I promise my arms aren’t that fat, I was too fatigued to properly flex ):
Representing my CrossFit crew!
So the next planned half marathon is the Clearwater Half Marathon, which Jena and I logically decided we should do even though the course is horrendous. You see, the Clearwater half is part of a series of 4 half marathons, Halloween, Holiday, Clearwater and Florida Beach. Since we have already done Halloween and Holiday and are planning on doing Florida Beach, we might as well do Clearwater right? Right! Plus, this series thus far has been incredibly well run with awesome swag, t-shirts and medals (which let’s be honest- that’s what we really run for!). So we plan to run together and just have fun with it since it certainly isn’t PR material!
As far as goals for my remaining 3 half marathons of the season… I’ve altered my goals again to include a sub-1:50 half. My trainers think I can do it and I think that with some dedicated training it might be possible! I won’t be terribly disappointed if it doesn’t happen though since I’ve already exceeded my personal expectations for this season.
Many months ago I was peer pressured into signing up for Tough Mudder. I was particularly vulnerable at the time as I was finally getting the hang of CrossFit and had developed a bit of confidence. So I signed up for the challenge with my CrossFit team and then shared the peer pressure love with my runner coworker, aka Dave. He had been signed up for a similar type of mud run that was cancelled at the last minute so it wasn’t hard to talk him into it. The husband would have been dragged along but he was scheduled to work and the event sold out before he could request off.
So on Saturday morning Dave and I made the trek up to Dade City, signed death waivers in hand, to join the masses in pursuit of the title ‘Tough Mudder.’ For the Saturday event there was something like 60,000 people at Little Everglades Ranch and that doesn’t include spectators. Luckily we had a relatively early start time (10am) so we didn’t have to fight any traffic and parking was a breeze (though we should have paid more attention to where we parked since we had to wander a little bit afterwards).
Before
We were taken through a very motivational speech, recited the Tough Mudder oath, listened to the National Anthem and then took off. Dave and I knew we were going to stick together but had an understanding with our team that we might split off from them since they weren’t runners (Dave and I are both marathoners and weren’t planning to walk). We didn’t have any time goals but kept in mind that the average completion time for the 11.5 mile, 26 obstacle course was 3 hours. Our ultimate goal was to survive without injury and have fun in the process.
Obstacle 1: Steeple Chase- The first obstacle we encountered had us jumping over several low walls. What you didn’t know on the first one was that there was a ditch between each wall that you had to jump over. If you jumped too far without looking you would have jumped into the ditch. A kind volunteer was attempting to warn us but we didn’t hear. I remember Dave turning to me and saying, ‘I feel like she just said something very important.’
Obstacle 2: Chernobyl Jacuzzi – This obstacle was the most shocking to the system. You jumped into a giant tub of dyed ice water (ours was green, there was blue and pink also) and then had to bob under some barbed wire halfway through the tub, which forced you under the ice water, then jump out. Once I crossed under the barbed wire is when I panicked. It was so cold and I couldn’t process anything, including breathing, so I just scrambled for the other side. Luckily no one was in front of me or else I would have body checked them out of my way!
I had begged Dave to be my Gu mule since I was wearing old crappy shorts that didn’t have pockets and refused to wear and subsequently ruin my Spi-belt (it’s seen me through 2 marathons!). So he stuck our Gu in his (unzippered) pockets and unfortunately lost them on this obstacle when his pockets turned inside out. Of course I badgered him throughout the course whenever I saw an empty Gu packet on the ground.
Obstacle 3: Underwater Tunnels- The water on this obstacle wasn’t as cold as the ice bath, probably because it was a natural pond. You had to bob under several of those black plastic construction pipes. Only the first was a bit unnerving since it was difficult to judge how far to go underwater.
Obstacle 4: Kiss of Mud- Crawling on your belly through mud and under barbed wire. Not really horrible except it was hard to judge how big my butt was and thus how close to the ground I had to be. That and the girl next to Dave was flopping around like a fish and splashing mud everywhere.
Obstacle 5: Mystery Obstacle- The first mystery obstacle consisted of a bunch of tires hanging from a wooden structure at varying heights. You run through them hoping you don’t get slammed by a tire. This one wasn’t bad because the obstacle was basically empty, making it easier to navigate.
Obstacle 6: Spider’s Web- Climbing up and over a cargo net. Pretty easy, just don’t look down. And when it’s your turn to hold the net taught for your fellow Mudders, don’t look up. Mud flaking off their shoes will get in your eye.
Obstacle 7: Bale Bonds- This obstacle had hay bales on their side stacked 2 high that you had to go up and over. My first attempt at jumping on this obstacle was a fail and resulted in me face planting into the hay. Better than face planting in mud I suppose.
Obstacle 8: Ball Shrinker- Traverse a pit of coldish water by using a rope that was strung from one side to the other. I just jumped in and pulled myself across and the water wasn’t that cold.
Obstacle 9: Berlin Walls #1- Climbing up and over 12 foot walls. There was a little 2×4 attached at the bottom so you could get a step up. Dave helped me from below and some other guys helped me from above. Getting down was a straight drop. There was no step-down on the other side so take care when dropping from that height.
Obstacle 10: The Trenches- Probably the most hilarious obstacle of them all, there were man made pits of varying depths all throughout a mud pit. You had to go slow and feel your way along because at any moment you would find yourself chest deep in mud. We probably looked like a bunch of morons to spectators!
Obstacle 11: Twinkle Toes- A ’log bridge’ consisting of a very long board over a water pit. The board was only supported on either end so the middle was very wobbly. It was also on its side so you only had maybe 3″ of room for your feet. The strategy here is to keep moving! I managed to make it all the way across but Dave paused to regain balance half-way in and fell in.
Proper form
Not proper form
Obstacle 12: Devil’s Beard- This was a cargo net that you had to crawl under, through mud. The more people in it, the tighter it got. I put my hand down on something sharp (I’m not sure what since I was wrist-deep in mud) and had a little puncture wound just below my pinky. I definitely showed it off to all my coworkers on Monday.
Obstacle 13: Boa Constrictor- Two long black plastic construction tubes, one angled down and the other angled up. Where the two met was a muddy pit. Going down was easy, going back up was a little more difficult but since I’m smaller (you know, than the men) I was able to crawl.
Obstacle 14: Walk the Plank- Jump off a 15′ high platform into a pond then swim out. I was surprised at how hard I hit the water on this one!
Between obstacles 14 and 15 were a series of maybe 8 steep dirt hills. This was really challenging for me since I was already fatigued. Plus there was a pretty strong wind and with all the newly excavated dirt piles, we were practically running blind from the dirt storm.
Obstacle 15: Jumpin’ Bale- Several hay bales in a line that you had to jump from one to the other.
Obstacle 16: Gator Bait- This was just walking through a long stream. There may have been Gators in there at one point but they were long gone when we came through. I was never really worried about them, they most likely took off when the all the set up construction started.
Obstacle 17: Gauntlet- A high pressure hose spraying you down. Unfortunately (for the race organizers, good for us Mudders) the wind was blowing pretty strong in the wrong direction and we just got a light mist. Which actually felt pretty good.
Obstacle 18: Fire Walker- We were channeled in between two rows of straw that was burning. It was definitely hot in there but the worst was the smoke. I felt like I had just smoked a pack of cigs when I emerged.
Obstacle 19: Berlin Walls #2- Another set of 2 walls, but these were a tad higher and I think the step was a tad lower. I was sitting on the very top of the first one trying to swing one leg around when I had the first thought of ‘oh yeah, this could be very dangerous.’ When I dropped down the other side I banged both of my knees on the wall and now have some awkward bruises.
Obstacle 20: Hold Your Wood- (that’s what she said) Carry a log through a pond that got to about chest high. I carried it via the ‘baby holding’ method then threw it over one shoulder when the water got deeper. Some friends (that did the course the next day) told me they were yelled at to hold it up over their head but I wasn’t told that.
Obstacle 21: Funky Monkey- This was the obstacle I was dreading! Monkey Bars over a pit of water. I have a horrible grip so I was convinced I wouldn’t get very far but I actually made it all the way across! Whee!
Obstacle 22: Mystery Obstacle #2- This is what I called Gopher Holes. I had seen pictures of this obstacle in other Tough Mudder events and was really nervous about it. The holes looked so small and I was worried I might panic in them (though I don’t have claustrophobia). Fortunately the holes were actually pretty big and I wasn’t that worried with Dave right behind me. Though I bet he was worried I was going to fart. Trust me, if I had one in the que I would have!
Obstacle 23: Turd’s Nest- This obstacle had technical difficulty. The concept was that you were supposed to belly crawl under barbed wire then climb up a ramp and crawl across cargo netting that was strung above the barbed wire. Well apparently the cargo netting sagged too much and was touching the barbed wire so the officials removed that part of the obstacle. Instead we just climbed across the netting which was easier said than done with all the people making it bounce.
Obstacle 24: Hay Bale Pyramid- This was a pyramid made out of hay bales stacked 6 high. At the very top I again thought about how dangerous that could be.
Obstacle 25: Everest- A quarter pipe that you had to run up and jump with arms outstretched, hoping someone would catch you. Dave promised he would never let go but so did Kate Winslet and we all know how that movie ended!
Obstacle 26: Electroshock Therapy- Live wires hanging down that you had to run through. Some of the wires carried a 10,000 Volt shock but don’t worry, it’s the Amps that kill you. For added fun they hose you down halfway through and there are little hills you have to navigate.
‘Haha! Getting electrocuted is fun!’
Between all the obstacles was all trail running with varying levels of difficulty in the terrain. There were often mud pits to run through and streams to cross. We had so much fun and Dave had me laughing the whole time. The views were amazing and we really lucked out with the weather. Dave and I crossed the finish line together in 2:48:28 with all of our limbs in-tact and without significant injury. We both had our fair share of bumps and bruises and my knees were so stiff I could hardly bend them but we survived!
At the finish line we were provided with protein drinks, my favorite Cliff Builder Bars (in various flavors), Clif shot blox, bananas, water and Dos Equis beer. We were also given t-shirts and our orange headbands. Along the course there was 4 water stops and 2 of them had bananas (which kinda made up for the lost Gu… kinda).
After
Overall this was a really fun event and was so well organized. It was incredibly challenging and really taught you the meaning of teamwork. I give this event an A++++ and am definitely planning on doing it again in the future.
I am exhausted ya’ll! I’ve gotten about 5 hours of sleep a night the past two nights and I definitely felt the effects today. I tend to average 6.5hrs on nights where I do CrossFit or a long run in the morning and 8ish on the other nights. The lack of sleep so soon after Tough Mudder (I know, I know, recap coming soon I promise- I’m just waiting on pictures!) has made me more whiney than usual.
On Sunday night my Mom and I went to the Andrea Bocelli concert, the tickets were my birthday gift. First we stopped at the Columbia in Ybor City to stuff our faces (in a sophisticated manner of course- it is a fancy restaurant ya know) before heading downtown for the show. The concert started at 7:30pm and lasted until about 10pm.
Even though we scored an awesome parking spot right across the street from the St Pete Times Forum, I didn’t end up getting home and in bed until after 11. That’s pretty late considering I had a 4:20am wake-up call to go do CrossFit! I of course wore my Tough Mudder headband to the training session.
Monday’s WOD:
45 minutes- how many rounds? I did 5 + Bear of the 6th.
They told me yesterday that they’ll be taking away my blankie resistance band on January 1st. So I’ll be forced into doing unassisted pull-ups. Scary.
Last night we had a Christmas party to attend and ended up being out until after 10pm. I didn’t get into bed until around 11pm and again had a 4:20am wake-up call for CrossFit.
Tuesday’s WOD:
15 minute stations, how many rounds?
Station 1 (I did 6 rounds):
10 bench press (65lbs first and last round, 75lbs on the middle rounds)
20 GHD situps
100 speed rope
Station 2 (I did 5 rounds):
5 handstand pushups (nearly impossible after all the bench press)
20 wall ball (12lb ball)
10 toe to bar
Station 3 (I did 6 1/3 rounds):
250 meter row
20 TRX skull crushers
10 burpees
I felt like I was out of gas after the first station. The rest of today I was a whiney, cranky zombie. I’ll be going to bed immediately after hitting publish!
I have a bunch of pictures and a couple videos from Tough Mudder, including the video of the Electroshock Therapy obstacle. I know ya’ll are anxious to see me get electrocuted but you’re just going to have to settle for this picture for now:
My kinda muddy legs. Clean was a relative term by this point and this I considered clean.
A 20-something newleywed (can you say that after 2.5yrs?) who loves all things running, CrossFit and puppies. Currently trying to rationalize the amount of abuse I put my body through while I train for my second Marathon.
See? {photo courtesy of Calista Rutledge}
Me (pink) and Elisa (white), 1st and 2nd in our age group, both FitCrew girls! {photo courtesy of Calista Rutledge}
A 20-something newleywed (can you say that after 2.5yrs?) who loves all things running, CrossFit and puppies. Currently trying to rationalize the amount of abuse I put my body through while I train for my second Marathon.
