Mud Mania!

Pre race

Today was a momentous occasion for me.  As you know I've been training for a Spartan race in April but I knew I needed to do something before hand to ease my distaste of getting wet and dirty.  For the last two years, my hubby and friends have done a mud run in Auburn, AL.

Mud Mania!  The first year he did it, I watched it.  Yuck!  I didn't go the second year, cause it was not a great venue and the parking was a mile out.  The second year, the venue was changed and again this year.  Found out it was bought out by another entity.  Venue was nice as far as woods, but still lacked other things that I saw in Ga at the Spartan - like a nice hosing off area.

We got to move up our race time.  Clearly, this event was not full.  10:30 the horn sounded and off we went.  Hills and mud pit, running.  I embraced it and had a good time!  There were two obstacles similar to Spartan, the incline rope climb and 2 4ft. walls.  Did those with no problem.  They also had a water ice tank.  I was so pleased with myself that I got through that even going under the wooden bar.  I was soaked.  But the most gross or fun, depending on your pov, was all the mud that was there.  Holy Cowboy!!  Deep and sucking in places.  I don't even think I can describe it properly.  The last mud obstacle nearly did me in.  I got stuck and could not move, so I rolled off to the side and got out.  (One big difference between this and Spartan - No burpees)

I'm guessing that we finished in about 1:15.  Results aren't out yet.  I will do this again.  Super excited for Spartan in April.  AARROO!

Post Race

Less Than a Week

It's less than one week until I run my first OCR.  I'm thinking that it will be a good start to the adventure.  It's local, Mud Mania - Auburn, and if I can't do an obstacle, I don't have to do 30 burpee's.  This event is also for me to get over my aversion to getting wet and dirty unnecessarily. While I've never been a girly girl, I also don't like to to get wet and dirty for no reason.  LOL.

I've been hitting the WOD either at home or up at school regularly and feel like there is improvement.  I can actually hang on the pull up bar and do three knee lifts, run 2- 4 miles at 4mph or the treadmill and not be wiped.  I'm also really liking the trail runs.  Basically, I'm happy with where things are at the moment.  

Happy Monday and St. Patricks Day!

Absence

I've been absent from posting on this blog.  I know that, but it has not meant that I've been absent in getting on with becoming the athlete I'd like to be.

After the last post, my husband and I decided that once a weekend, we'd go running together.  The week after our trail experience, we went to the bamboo forest, better known in our area as, Wilderness Park.  I'd heard about it and passed it driving many times.  It is a very pretty place. It is fairly magical, if you don't look at the pond with all the dead bamboo in it.  There is lots of living bamboo around.  Note to self, call the mayors office and tell them to clean it up.

The funny thing about the park is that once you go down the path about 1/10 mile, then has a loop around this pond.  Again, it is about 1/10 mile.  So let's not count how many times I went around the loop to get in my miles.  

 Happy Trails!

Happy Trail Adventures

Last weekend hubby and I decided to do a trail hike.  I carried a backpack with about 15 lbs of weight.  There is an electric right of way to the side of the house.  We headed out downhill and then lots of uphill.  At the top of the hill was a natural gas pumping station.  We decided to turn and go to he left where there was a vista of wide trail for the gas right of way.  As we were walking, we saw a deer stand, and private property sign a little further on.  Cresting a hill we saw a house.  Two dogs came out and a guy said, Hey! You know this is private property?  Better to ask for forgiveness than permission as far as I'm concerned.  Turns out that he was a nice guy.  Gave us his number to call to tell him we'd be hiking again in the future and warned us about other property owners that hunt or shoot guns all the time out there.  So hikers be warned....  

Committed

I am now on my way to becoming a Spartan racer.  I signed up for the sprint in Laurel, IN for April 26th.  It will be one of the ways I celebrate the end of the semester.  Now my training is real for me.  Yesterday, I did the WOD.  It was 30 burpees and then run a mile, do 3x.  I have to say that I was not thrilled.  In the e-mail, it said something about, if you are able to finish this, then you are ready to be at the start line of a Spartan...  I bought into it.  Halfway through, admittedly, I wanted to quite but I also wanted to complete.  In the end, I did and was exhausted.  All I wanted to do is cry. The last song I listened to was from Passenger from their Wicked Man's Rest album.  It really spoke to me as I was struggling that last 1/4 mile to complete.  It is entitled, Things You've Never Done.  I've posted a animated version of the song with lyrics.

Passenger-Things you've never done (Animation)

Back on Track

It's been a successful 7 days.  I got prepared mentally and completed HIIT workouts on both Wed. and Thursday.  Friday I rested.  Went shopping and bought an awesome running gear so I can start running on real roads.  Picture later.  The weekend and now start of week have continued to be good routine days between Spartan WODs and HIIT workouts.

I think next, is to intensify my capacity for upper body work.  I'm looking at Spartan run videos and posts on FB and now know that it's just not the rope climb, that I'll be struggling with but a few others like an inverted wall climb.  I'm going to scout around the area for play grounds and such that I can use to train if I don't have the tools here at the house.

Have a great fitness week everyone and for all my Alabama peeps - stay safe in the snow and watch out for the people who don't know how to drive in it.

Complete fail

I meant to write this over the weekend but life got a bit much.  School started back with a full week.  I had such good intentions!  I took my gear up with me, and knew I could do a routine whether it be a HIIT or WOD but Nooooo... I got nadda in.  Blame it on a weak mindset, the cold or fairies.  It did not get done.  Even on Friday, when I was home I had failure to launch.  Poop! Fortunately, Saturday rolled around and I got two HIITs completed and the plank challenge. (can I say how tired I am of plank).

Sunday, was a success as was yesterday.  Now, call me crazy, but yesterday I decided that I'd rather do the Spartan WOD than the 12 minute HITT.  Therefore, I ran for 45 minutes.  Later, I went to Yoga to get my stretch on!  Felt to good.  Thanks Yoga Gem.

Once again, the week up at school has started and I will succeed this week and every week after. Pinky swear. There are only 9 weeks until my first mud run.

Running#$%^@&@?!!

I am NOT a runner but... it looks like that Spartan is turning me into a least a moderate one. Those of you who do the WOD know what I'm talking about.  So faithfully, when asked, I run.  I run at my speed, which according to the treadmill is about 3.8 mph.  (Sometimes I feel that I could almost walk faster.) Now that is all fine and good but what happens when you actually go outdoors?

Today, I saw the WOD.  Not bad.  But a friend had also invited me to go to a yoga class she was teaching.  We were meeting other friends for coffee after so I thought what the hey.  I can do the WOD in the pm when I get home.  Well, I live in the boonies, and I usually am good about accounting for time to get places but not today.  I also didn't know exactly where the studio was located.  Needless to say, I got lost and was running behind as it was.  I ended up getting there 10 minutes late.  Class was already in session, so I opted not to interrupt and headed to a lovely park in the area that I used to walk at.

I stretched, and did a few other pre-run things including starting my Runtastic app.  Then headed out.  Well, much to my amazement, I actually ran for 1.3 miles in 17:11 minutes!  I was so happy. I was also happy that the weather was overcast and no one else was out in the park.  After, I walked for almost another mile and stretched again.  Headed off to coffee and had a great time catching up!  Exercise is important but so are good friends.

Selfie

Getting those workouts in.

One last day of freedom before I go back to teaching.  I love to teach but it does put a cramp on how I like to run my day.  Since that I true, I am going to have to be more disciplined on getting my daily workout in.  Thankfully, I'm only gone from home Tuesday - Thursday. One idea I have is to have a rest day I travel up, no problem with Wed. and workout on Thursday night when I get home.  Anybody have any other strategies?

I do believe that warming-up/stretching before and after a routine is imperative.  I know that I can prevent injury in doing so.  Thankfully, at least the Spartan WOD gives you a built in warm-up. With others, I do a bit of yoga to get the blood flowing and yoga after to cool down and stretch.

I love yoga.  I go to a formal class every Monday afternoon.  I really like my instructor.  She is good at explaining moves, why and what they do.  I wish I could go more often but it is out of the budget.  I'll have to take a pic soon to post to the blog but, if you are looking for a great yoga studio in Montgomery, AL  you can go to Yoga Gem.  Liz is the owner and is wonderful too but Jen is my gal.  She is only going to be there until summer as she is a military spouse and they are moving this summer.

Getting the plank challenge done!  Day 7.  45 sec today.  It is getting easier... no really.

Did I do enough?

So day two of the plank challenge.  Let me just say 20 sec. is not easy.  But I will persist.  I've also embraced the Spartan WOD for this month to kick start me into a routine.  While I do not like to wait until morning to find out what it will be, I can appreciate the anticipation and also not being able to phyc one's self out of doing it.  

Can you not do enough?  I think about that quite a lot.  This is in context of when the WOD says do 1-4x for the circuit.  For instance, today the first circuit was 1 - 5x.  I did 2.  The second was 2 - 4x.  I did 2.  I could have done three for the first or perhaps even all 5 but then how much mental and physical energy would I have to do the second circuit?  Does anyone else have these kinds of thoughts?  I can tell you honestly that I was physically exhausted after doing 2 each.  

Thought you all would appreciate seeing one of my "coaches".  My male cat Ollie cheers me on while a run on the treadmill.  I think what he's really saying is, "Your making to much noise".

The Coach

Happy New Year!

The new year arrived!  Personally, I could not stay up for it and went to bed at 11 pm but it still arrived.  I was excited to see in my inbox the Spartan WOD of the day.  This month they decided to give us newbies a boost.  The intention is to get people ready for a sprint.  So here I go.  You too can get ready for any OCR using their daily WODs.  Just go to the website and sign up.  www.spartan.com

Warm-up: Jump rope 5 minutes Dynamic warm-up Skip, high knee jog, lateral lunge, back pedal Main set: .5 mi run, hard 10 push-ups 5 pull-ups 15 crunches Repeat 1-4 times, on 10 seconds to 1 minute rest Jog/walk until workout has reached the 50-minute mark. Stretch Editor’s Note: This January, the entire month of Spartan WODs have been designed as a 31-day workout plan to leave you feeling ripped, ready, and confident to conquer any Spartan Sprint race in 2014. Even if you selectively incorporate the next 31 workouts into your training, we hope they provide insight into how to structure preparation for a Spartan Sprint, and give clarity into building month-long workout programs for yourself, when you are ready for a 31-day boot camp. As always, adjust these workouts to your specific needs and goals by scaling them to your current ability. All workouts can be cut in half, or doubled – do what you can, as best as you can, given your ability and time constraints. For more information on the month-long program, swing by our blog.. You will find fundamental training principles for dominating a Spartan Sprint, as well as a calendar of the upcoming workout durations for the entire month, to best help you plan these Spartan WODs into your schedule. This program was adapted from a Spartan Sprint training plan found in our free eBook: You’ll Know at the Finish Line – A Spartan Guide to the Sport of Obstacle Racing. Download it for free.