Keeping Hands and Feet Warm For a Winter OCR

 

With the Abominable Snow Race fast approaching, I review my foolproof strategy for keeping hands and feet warm during a winter obstacle race! Good advice that will apply to all your winter workouts.

Physical Advantages/Disadvantages In OCR

 Obstacle racing is fabulous because there are so many different markers for success. One person might be slow, but very obstacle proficient. Another might be worse on obstacles but a fast runner. Obviously, speed and obstacle proficiency is always an advantage, particularly if you are competitive. But what about other, less controllable physical attributes? 

As a tall woman, I have heard many times "oh, you're so lucky, you have a natural advantage" when it comes to OCR or road races. But do tall people really have an advantage? Are there obstacles where height matters? Or weight? The answer is YES. Here we will break it down into Broke (meaning "this will work against you") and Woke ("you hit the genetic lottery").

Caveat: this is more of an "all else being equal" analysis. Anyone can train to overcome ANY natural "deficit" or disadvantage. Being tall or short or heavy or light by no means signifies an inability to do any of these obstacles. Technique matters, even on non-"technique" obstacles.

***

Wall Obstacles (ex: overwalls, tall walls, The Box, Stairway to Sparta)

Broke: Short people do have a natural disadvantage when it comes to getting over tall structures. They have to have more explosive power to even grab the top of an 8' wall, and may use a larger range of motion (ROM) than tall folks. If you are short and heavy, you have two things working against you.

Woke: Height is a good thing here. You can use your strongest ROM for maximum efficiency. With good technique being tall AND heavy isn't as big a hinderance, but being tall and light helps.

***

Grip Obstacles (ex: multi-rig, monkey bars)

Broke: With hanging obstacles, weight matters more than height. Being heavy means your grip has to be that much stronger to overcome it, and you have to have good technique to capitalize on your momentum.

Woke: Being tall is good because you have a longer reach (using less ROM), but it adds weight. Whether you're tall or short, if you can use your momentum to swing through the obstacle, you're golden.

***

Technique Obstacles (ex: spear throw, rope climb, tyro traverse)

Broke/Woke: There are no advantages here. Practice, practice, practice. Some folks want to think that a rope climb is all about upper body strength, but those folks are wasting a LOT of energy. With good technique, weight and height do not matter at all.

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Heavy Obstacles (ex: herc hoist, bucket/sandbag carry, tire flip)

Broke: Being short and light are massive disadvantages in heavy obstacles. It takes mass to move mass, as any powerlifter will tell you. If you are tall, and especially tall and heavy, it will require much less of your energy to move this stuff around.

Woke: This is the only obstacle category where being all-around large is an advantage. Enjoy it!

***

Crawl Obstacles (ex: Pipe Lair, barbed wire/paracord crawl)

Broke: Tall people are screwed here. Our center of gravity is higher, and our longer limbs mean that we are way taller even on our hands and knees than a shorter person. 

Woke: Short folks, these obstacles are your moment. And the good news is, being fast through these obstacles can give you a big time advantage over a lumbering giant.

***

Stadion Calisthenics Obstacles (ex: weighted burpees, box jump, ball slam, rolling epic, etc)

Broke: In these sorts of things it comes down less to natural physical gifts and more to general training and fitness. If you do a lot of calisthenics, you'll be better at these, whether you're tall or short, or thin or fat. If your workouts are just about cardio, you will probably have a bad time.

Woke: In some ways, the Stadion is perfectly calibrated for the tall and buff athlete. This is why Ryan Kent wins so damn many of them. 

Goodbye to 2021

 I feel the need to post a Year In Memorium for 2021. It's been a truly astonishing year in a lot of ways. But I'll focus on the fitness-related ways.

Running/Walking/Hiking

Garmin Data

My Garmin mileage was surging in the spring, dropped sharply in the summer after my Trifecta weekend and sprains, then picked back up along with my motivation in the fall. My averages are decent considering all these issues. These workouts are mostly outdoors, with the (very) occasional treadmill thrown in. It's not the total extent of my cardio.

Other Workouts 

As you can see, this increased dramatically and massively starting in August. This coincides with the addition of key pieces of my indoor cardio nook, namely the stepper and the climber. The rower addition in December kicked it up another notch. I have been CRUSHING the indoor workouts this fall/winter. Also included in this number are my gym workouts, when I started teaching my circuit weight class again in July. This might be the first winter ever where I get in BETTER shape.

Weight 

I mean, this is just epic. You can see the moments in time where I was like "to hell with THIS" and buckled down to lose weight. At no point was I overweight, but every endurance athlete has a weight at which they get minimal injuries, few aches and pains, better recovery, and generally feel much faster and like the cardio becomes easier. My "ideal race weight" is around 150 so that's the goal I put in. I end 2021 just four pounds north of that. Not shabby.

2022 Goals

1) PR in every distance I attempt. Obviously this will depend on conditions on the day, but I'd love to just get personal bests in all my races, both road and OCRs. 

2) Get to and maintain an ideal race weight. Maintenance is tricky (see: above graph), but I feel much more attuned to what I need to do at this point. Getting an ADD diagnosis has helped me immensely in realizing WHAT was compelling me to fall off the wagon all the time.

3) Actually compete in the Notre Dame Stadion race. I'm running age group and I want to kick ass. Ideally I'd be up there with the lead pack, or at least keeping them somewhat in my sights. 

4) Keep stress levels down. High volumes of exercise massively help my stress levels. No matter how big my problems, they seem much smaller at the end of a 3-hour hike. I need to do whatever I must to keep my mental health solid.

5) Try something new. I just want to try something that I haven't tried before. Maybe a new kind of race, or at least a new brand. Maybe a new activity. I'll be sure to post about it if I do.

Race Recap: Cedar Falls Turkey Trot

Cedar Falls Turkey Trot, 11/25/21 Cedar Falls, IA

Weather: 20 degrees, windy (windchill around 0 degrees)

Terrain: Recreation trails and grass

Distance: 3.1 miles

Course map

When you have a small child, you have to modify your Thanksgiving day workout routine. Gone are the days when I would potentially travel to another area to do a half marathon. No, when you have a six-year-old, you go to the Basic White People Thanksgiving mainstay: the local 5K turkey trot. Fortunately, we have a fun one (fun run?) right here in town! I picked up our packets the day before at the running store. T-shirts are cute and heather-red, bibs have chip timing. We have three cheap turkey hats from Amazon from the race two years ago. Team Gobble Gobble was ready to rock.

Woke up to freezing cold weather. The day before it was in the 50s, but this is Iowa, so it was 20 degrees with a 0 windchill at 8 AM. We drove to the venue and Husband dropped us off and drove 1/3 mile to park and run back to us. Parking for this race can be iffy but fortunately they have satellite lots and even a shuttle from the farthest one. Child was already sort of cranky (possibly from the cold, but more likely because his Mood Switch seems to have been set to Total Butt this week) and he got even crankier during the very short interval between our arrival and the race start, which was promptly at 8:30 as advertised!

Nobody wearing a turkey hat should look that distraught.

We took off through the grassy field, letting Child set the pace, obviously. And his pace was faster than I expected. Child took off at a sprint. Husband easily jogged beside him. I trailed behind slightly gasping for air and semi-hoping Child would trip over a stick or something and I'd have a second to catch my breath. We wound through the grassy trails near the start before rejoining the paved trail and hitting the one-mile mark near the campground (in 11 minutes). Child's mood was oscillating wildly between "yay exercise" and "I don't like that I'm not in first place." My mood was oscillating between "too winded to think" and "I should have eaten more carbs this morning." 

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I was grateful that Child took more walk breaks at this point as we made our way around Big Woods Lake on trails that I've traversed hundreds of times. We hit the mile 2 mark just before the bridge and that mile was in about 12 minutes. Holy smokes, this kid was gonna set a new personal best by a lot. His average 5K pace in his previous attempts was over 17 minutes. We went back near the start and Child was quite upset that we still needed to loop around the frisbee-golf course before finishing. "I'm tired!" Join the club, kid. 

The frisbee-golf course had some hay bale hurdles that I managed to jump over in one bound. Shockingly, Child did as well, despite being approximately 4'4". The walk breaks were becoming even more frequent now and I was almost starting to acclimate to the intense cold that was making my lungs feel like a shattered glass bottle. We looped through the entire park and when he saw the finish line, Child took off at a totally unreasonable pace, insisting that he would at the very least beat his parents in this race. Our finish time: 36:45, which is a new Child PR by 18 minutes. Awesome.

We immediately got in the long line for mini pies, which were our "finisher medals" (medals are temporary, pies last forever). Flavors available were apple, pumpkin, peach blackberry, and raspberry. We got the latter two, since I'd already made the former two at home. A nice cool-down walk to the car and we were out of there.

And I was mildly hypothermic. Happy Thanksgiving!

Pros:

-Logistics. The first year for this race was two years ago, and last year was cancelled due to COVID. They really cleaned up the logistics this time - no more confusion about when/where to start, or the parking situation. 

-Early packet pickup. Nice to have this year.

-Pies. I mean come on. That's awesome.

Cons:

-Terrain. I didn't mind a combination of grass and trails, but it was fairly ankle-breaking grass if you aren't an experienced trail runner (which there are not many of at a turkey trot).

-Iowa. The weather sucked. Not the race director's fault.

-Venue's lack of on-site parking is a bit annoying.

Race Grade: A-. A great local race option that gets the job done, as far as turkey trotting.

Video I took during the race

At-Home Cardio For A Super-Fit Winter

 It's that time of year again. The leaves are changing and falling. The air is crisp. My allergies are going so bonkers that my nose is essentially a faucet. In the words of...someone on Game of Thrones, I dunno, I never watched it: winter is coming. Which means your workouts will be making their way indoors, at least some of the time.

If you are a snow bunny, you may already own a pair of snowshoes or cross-country skis, or a fat-tire bike. You may already know that waterproof socks are Jesus's single greatest invention, after skin lubricant. But if your idea of a good time does not include frozen hydration-backpack tubing, you might want to bring your workouts indoors. Fortunately, you can create a comprehensive home gym of cardio equipment for yourself for a relatively small financial investment.

There are three main pieces of equipment that I will detail here, but first I will list some bigger-ticket items that you may be interested in: a stationary bike or a bike trainer (which allows you to turn your bike into a stationary bike); a treadmill; a rowing machine; an elliptical. These are the main pieces of cardio equipment that are available at most gyms. If you absolutely LOVE using one or more of these, consider buying one for your home. A treadmill is probably the most versatile, but the machine you should get is the machine you *want to use.*

Now for my aforementioned three, listed in order from least intense to most intense.

1) Mini Bike

I bought my husband this under-desk bike for Father's Day and he is enjoying it. It gives him something to do while sitting on phone meetings at his home office. Because it's not electrically powered, he is able to bring it in to work when he goes back to the office full-time. The links I'm providing in this section are all the exact equipment that I bought. I purchased this one in particular even though there are cheaper versions available because I wanted to buy a heavier one on purpose. A heavier one is more sturdy and less likely to move. Despite this, be advised that you will ideally want to use a non-moving chair and put the mini bike so that it backs up against something solid. Otherwise you may have to readjust very frequently to keep the fit perfect, especially if you crank the resistance up and are pushing harder against it.

2) Mini Stepper

Not gonna lie, I've wanted one of these for a long time, so I took the opportunity to get one. It has been an absolute joy to use. It's not really like climbing stairs, but rather like running in place. The range of motion is very small, but it gets/keeps the heart rate up and is extremely portable. I keep mine under the coffee table unless I'm using it. There's nothing like throwing a movie on HBO Max and getting on this bad boy for 90 minutes. 

But if you want to take your workouts up several notches...

3) Climber

BOY HOWDY. This machine packs a punch. It is the single best piece of equipment you can purchase for your home, as far as efficiency. This machine uses your entire body. Not kidding. Your lower back will be sore. Your legs, your arms, your abs. Big range of motion with all of them. It is such a phenomenal workout that I can really only do it for a few minutes at a time, so I'll generally do 2 minutes on the climber, move to the mini stepper for 8 minutes, and go back and forth like that for an interval workout. I swear I am not being compensated by Big Climber for this endorsement, but it is just a great machine. Takes up a bit of room in the house, but it's well worth it.

I've also been pleased by how much my combination stepper/climber workouts have translated to run fitness. I haven't been running much but I've been doing plenty of this style of home workout, and I am able to perform really well when I DO have to run. The fitness translates in a way that an elliptical machine (for example) doesn't. And with similarly low impact. 

So consider getting something fun for yourself for your winter training, whether you want to enjoy the snow or are more "indoorsy."

Race Recap: Beat the Blerch Virtual Half Marathon

Beat the Blerch Virtual Half Marathon 10/19/21 Cedar Falls, IA

Weather: 70 degrees, sunny

Terrain: Recreation trails and some sidewalks

Distance: 13.1 miles

Course map

It's been a long time (a year!) since I was a regular runner. I've done plenty of hiking and OCR stuff, but running, not so much. But having always been the type of person to say "why not" to a ridiculous physical challenge, I set out on a gorgeous autumn Tuesday to complete this year's Beat the Blerch virtual race. This time I would do a half marathon, using the same course that I ran last year for my Des Moines virtual half, only backwards (the course being reversed, not me literally running BACKWARDS).

I started heading east from Gateway Park, unsure of what my pacing would be. I decided to jog until I thought I should walk, and I made it 90 seconds. Then I decided to walk 90 seconds, then jog again. I kept up this totally impromptu pacing strategy until, I figured, I would grow too exhausted to continue. I felt unstoppable as I weaved my way through George Wyth state park's hard trails. Dropped by the campground to use the bathroom only to discover that it had closed for the winter the day before. Off to another bathroom. I was basically improvising at this point but it didn't take me too far off course. Continued east all the way to the creepy neighborhood in Waterloo, which was far less creepy today. Turns out sunny weather really helps the "yikes" factor. Plus my pace was fantastic - sub-12-minute miles, and feeling easy. I could possibly PR today!

Although the sun was beating down, I wasn't feeling terribly overheated, since there was a lovely breeze. Headed past the Cattle Congress fairgrounds, then made my way downhill into Hartman Reserve county park on the south side of the river. At this point I was around mile 9 and was starting to feel pretty tired. I had just run out of Gatorade Zero and had to switch to water. I think that's where the trouble began. Tried to maintain my 90/90 ratio but my runs started getting shorter. Down to 60/120. I hit Pfeiffer Park at around mile 11 and felt so tired. I was in survival mode and just trying to jog as much as possible. My PR dreams were absolutely dead but I wanted to see if I could get a sub-2:40 half marathon through pure, unfiltered GRIT. 

Looped through Washington Park and was basically the walking dead, but still gave ugly jogging a good go every few minutes. I realized I could cut through downtown and stop by the running store to pick up my CVAST member t-shirt, which I'd not picked up for 8 months (oops). So I continued my walking/hideous jogging until I got to the running store at mile 12.9. Stopped in and got my shirt. I did stop my watch at this point, full disclosure. But I resumed the workout and continued the few blocks back to Gateway for exactly 13.11 miles on my Garmin. And my time? 2:39:40. My third best half marathon time EVER. With no run training. Main takeaway: my indoor training on the mini stepper and climber lately must have MAJOR cross-training value. This is a great omen for my at-home winter training!

Legend in my own living room

Pros:

-Virtual kit. The shirt and medal are amazing (go to my Instagram to see pictures of the swag included).

-Weather. I picked the last gorgeous day of the year, I think.

-Course. I just really enjoy having such a flawless loop. Mostly flat, perfect distance, a couple bathrooms along the way. Who could ask for more?

Cons:

-Fueling. Next time I will bring TWO bottles of Gatorade Zero, instead of one plus water.

-Man, if I hadn't bonked so hard, I could have PRed, LOL.

Race Grade: A. An amazing effort. The kind of workout that takes you to another level.

Jumping to Age Group

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. My buddy Wes has talked me into attempting...AGE GROUP. This is a competitive division with strict rules. Racers must complete all obstacles without assistance and perfectly according to the rules for each obstacle, or do all penalty burpees. Normally, I would avoid Age Group like the plague, since I prefer to have the option to get a boost on certain things, or if I'm in dire straights to modify the burpees or do a different penalty entirely. 

But Wes made the excellent point that, in a Stadion race, there are only 15 penalty burpees per failure. I am also capable of running a clean Stadion, and did so at Wrigley in 2019. The obstacles are within my comfort zone and I don't require boosts. Hence, I have signed up for the Age Group division at the Notre Dame Stadion on July 9, 2022.

Before that day, I have some work to do. I refuse to show up and just wing it. I want to actually do something decent out there. I don't want to embarrass myself. Back in 2012 I did a competitive walking division wherein I came in second place, missing out on winning by less than one second, because of an amazing finishing kick on my part. So I know that I have a competitive side that can come out. My goal for this race is to finish in the middle of the pack for my age group. 

Since every Stadion race is different, I analyzed the data from the last one I did (Wrigley). My fastest lap there was 1:03:51. This was by far my Stadion PR, and I failed one obstacle (spear throw) on that lap (it was my second lap, run more slowly and with a friend, that I ran clean). I completed in that time with minimal jogging, but a general effort to "hustle" a bit more than I usually do. I also had done very little stair training in advance of it. All this to say, there is a LOT of room to make gains in my time.

Which is good, because I looked up the results for the Female 35-39 Age Group for that same race. Podium spots were run in 41:09 to 42:44 (yes, fat chance of that, but it's good to know what winning times are). Middle of the 19-person division would require a time of about 50:30. Which means I have to shave about 23 minutes off my Stadion PR to make that goal happen.

With this information, I can begin to look at individual areas of improvement. I have pinpointed several, and estimated very approximately how much time I could save with each one.

1) Clean race OR fast burpees - 2 minutes

2) Great stair training/climbing - 5 minutes

3) Jogging (or god forbid RUNNING) the whole thing - 10 minutes

4) Improved flow in/out of obstacles - 3 minutes

5) Speed on obstacles themselves - 3 minutes

6) Skip aid stations entirely - 1 minute

7) Improve low crawl (flats AND stairs) - 2 minutes

So if I manage to optimize every single area, I could conceivably "run Wrigley" in 38 minutes. That would have absolutely destroyed my age group, so this is all highly optimistic and approximate, but it lays out a solid 7-point plan for training for Notre Dame. I will be training stairs on a weekly basis. I will be getting my running back to where it was in the summer of 2020 when I was jogging a lot. I will get my obstacle proficiency even better and improve my cardio so that I can enter and exit obstacles at a run without a problem. I'll get my weight down to my absolute ideal.

I have plenty of time and lots of motivation. This is happening, dammit. This Is Stadion Age Group. (New vlog series coming soon, LOL)