Chin-up Progression Episode 2

 

One month in and I've made some progress!

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/fgnm1IfdaL8

Chin-up Progression Episode 1

 As part of my effort to put in a competitive showing in the Age Group category at Notre Dame Stadion, I've started a chin-up progression program! I will be documenting my progress on YouTube. Here is episode 1.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRAktEq-zds

Race Recap: Abominable Snow Race

Abominable Snow Race, 1/29/22, Lake Geneva, WI

Weather: 10 degrees, cloudy

Terrain: Snowy, hilly forest

Distance: 5.65 miles (per lap)

Elevation Gain: approx. 760 feet (per lap)

 Course map

Quarantine began with the 2020 Abominable Snow Race. Meaning, I was five miles away from the venue when I got the email saying it was cancelled due to new COVID restrictions, so I turned around, drove the 3.5 hours home, and didn't leave my house for over a year. But we're vaxxed and back, baby. Once again I would be attempting Yeti's Challenge, and if I could actually do the two laps I paid for it would be the first time out of three signups. The first was 2019, where I skipped lap 2 but did the insane boot camp the following day. The second was the aforementioned 2020. This was my year at last. And Wes was coming along, despite, as he says, "HATING the cold." He brought his friend Lara as well, with whom I quickly bonded over frigid extremities and "that's what she said" jokes.

Packet pickup on Friday evening was very chaotic, basically in a narrow hallway with zero social distancing, and we were forced to put on our wristbands to wear until the following day. Not ideal, but I guess I get it. On race day we carpooled to the preferred parking area which was directly across from the race venue (a zipline park). Port-a-potties were easy to find; garbage cans were not. I ended up having to give my garbage to someone in a tent and watch them wander off with it to parts unknown. Always have garbage cans, folks! Where are we supposed to put our last-minute breakfast wrappers?!

There was a dedicated area for Yeti's Challenge participants, so we put our bags there and started the race with the 8 AM wave. For the first lap, at least, we would each be running our own race. Wes took off ahead. I was in the middle. Lara was somewhere behind me. Course started up a hill to a tall ladder wall, which was easy enough. A bit further down were a few 5' hurdles, which had wooden supports that made them easy to get over. I could have gotten over without the supports, but the way it was designed it would actually have been hard to AVOID the crossbeams. Off through the snowy and hilly woods. Basically no part of this course is flat. You are either going uphill or downhill the entire time. The snow was fairly soft so it wasn't ankle-breaking, at least.

We came out to an open area for the sled pull. Each sled had four concrete blocks in it and a loop attached. Put the loop around your hips and go. Not difficult but naturally some folks were just not doing it correctly. When they give you a loop for your hips, put it around your hips! Don't walk in front of the loop and drag it with your hands! Heavens to Betsy! So yes, I walked past several sleds that had been abandoned early by their nonsensical drivers' poor strategy and went to the inverted ladder. This was at a severe angle and actually took me a bit of time to figure out. Throwing my upper body over the top rung was not an option. I ended up hooking the top rung under my armpits and using hip flexibility to get my left foot hooked over. From there it was easy peasy.

I am so smart, S-M-R-T

More snowy woods, then we got to a Z-wall. This one had blind corners and much more randomly-placed foot- and handholds than a Spartan Z-wall. But after much drama, I did manage to make it through and ring the bell, somehow pulling my quad in the process. It took about five minutes of walking to loosen up to normal. Just in time for the next obstacle, which was brand new: a rig of ropes all in a row. The ropes were a few feet apart and you were meant to lock in on each one and traverse across. Let me tell you, if these ropes hadn't been brand-new slick nylon, I might have pulled this off. But they were so slippery I had no chance, and neither did about 85% of the folks I saw on it. I let the volunteer cut off my obstacle band (I don't know why they gave me one, as I was clearly NOT competitive) and continued to an obstacle that looked extremely fun. Uphill monkey bars, lateral bar traverse, then downhill monkey bars! Whee!

WRONG. My winter-weather grip gloves didn't have the friction to hold on. I took them off and tried with just the nitrile base layer. Didn't work. I would have taken them off, but my hands were very sweaty underneath and would have frozen to the bars. So sadly I had to take the L. I'm so bummed. If it had been 70 degrees I would have LOVED this obstacle. More snowy woods, then the piece de resistance: the Polar Vortex. Slip wall, to a horizontal cargo net traverse that goes over the road below. EEK. We'd obviously seen this obstacle on the walk up that very road, but it is way freakier from inside the net. The net was loose and shifted violently and frequently. I ended up keeping my head close to the central bar and rolling so that my legs wouldn't suddenly WHOOSH through the netting. But I survived.

At the bottom was a log carry, which was very long and had a few sections of loose rocks underneath the snow. At this point I'm just praying my insurance is up to date. Got through without spraining anything, then entered another section of woods and went to the Apex obstacle, which is ASR's version of Olympus. The surface is easy to traverse. The GIANT gaps between the boards are not. Seriously, there were at least three feet between the three different angled board sections, requiring an incredible amount of hip dexterity. Even if I could have reached that far across the gap, there would be no way for me to maintain three points of contact. So I fumbled through "doing it my way" like Frank Sinatra and rejoined the forest trail.

With two miles remaining, here is where the forest got interesting. Not only were the hills bigger, but they were ICY underneath the snow. Truly this was the treacherous part. I was already pretty tired, but this whole section damn near killed me. Finally, more obstacles. A 15' rope climb looked easy enough, but again my gloves were just AWFUL for this particular surface. I wish I'd worn my regular race grip gloves with the nitrile underneath, but you live and learn. Took off the grip gloves AND the nitrile gloves, which were now broken, and still couldn't get up the rope. My grip was shot. Headed to the low crawl under paracord and netting, which went fine. A bit rocky but what else is new?

After that we got to carry an ice bucket down and up a hill. I shouldered it because thankfully women only needed to carry one. Men had to farmer's carry two of them. Back at the top to Weaver, which had a bunch of (TOO MANY) logs positioned at about the same height, and you go over one and under the next, so on to the end. I managed to do ONE cycle, then I just GTFO of there. It was an obstacle designed for insane backups. Even with three lanes, it would just take so long to get through it that it wasn't worth it. I wish they'd had maybe half the logs and twice the number of lanes. It would have been much more doable.

Speaking of doable, the low multi-rig after that was just not happening. The components were extremely cool and I would have loved to play on it, but I absolutely hate low rigs. It is so hard for me, six feet tall with my shoes on, to stay that low on a hanging rig. And I get that "that's the point," but this is a winter OCR, and grip obstacles are already made very complicated by the whole glove issue. Again, if it had been a high rig and 70 degrees, bring it on. Afterwards we went down a hill, where we were meant to bring a used tube back up through a low crawl area, but there were no tubes so I just did the crawl without one. It was long. Very long.

Now is the part of our story that gets a little bit sad (tm The Book of Mormon musical). There was a good half mile of INSANE forest hills. We had to slide down on our butts. It was rocky. There were trees and giant loose snow piles at the bottom that got in our shoes. Then we had to crawl up a similarly steep hill. Then we had to slide down ANOTHER hill. It was absolutely harrowing. Nobody over the age of 20 should ever do this. Finally we came out to the obstacle area and there was an easy 8' wall. 

I could do this all day!

Then was the tube slide. Riding a tube down a hill sounds like it should be fun. It was terrifying. I got going so fast that I ended up careening underneath the rope onto the beginning of the course. Fortunately nobody was there at the time.

"I should have updated my will."

After returning my tube to the poor bastards who'd have to drag it back up, there was a crawl/low wall/crawl obstacle, then O-U-T (over, under, and through). The final obstacle was a sort of herc hoist with a 50 lb sandbag, but instead of hoisting it, you had to turn a crank with your forearms to raise it up. I got the thing a foot or so off the ground before giving up. This would have legitimately taken FOREVER. This was the only obstacle of the day that I genuinely felt was just a poor design. For women it was way too heavy, and for anyone it was just way too high to have to hoist it considering the small crank you needed to use. I chose instead to just finish the damn lap, regroup, and go back out there. 

And wouldn't you know it, Wes was still around! He'd finished about 20 minutes before and was still talking himself into going back out there. And so Team Strugglebus was formed once again, and we vowed to complete a second lap of this insane medieval torture arena. We didn't know how far back Lara was or if she'd even want to do a second lap, so we just went back out and hoped for the best.

The second lap was much the same as the first, except we were two exhausted middle-aged whiners who just straight-up skipped the obstacles that we failed the first time. And when we got to the tubes, there was a wait, so we just said "eff it" and WALKED down the damn hill, LOL.

After the race we got our three medals each and clanged our way through the festival area, getting cocoas and beer and staying warm by the fire. A roaming candid photographer captured the moment.

"So I said, 'this isn't my cousin's dildo!' And then SHE said..."

Lara's bag was still in the Yeti's Challenge area so we knew she had gone out for lap 2, and she found us about half an hour later! We all made it! And we each individually had to talk ourselves into doing the second lap! But we are a proud and mighty trio. I wonder if I can talk them into doing this again.

We were, in fact, ready for this Yeti.

Pros:

-Challenging obstacles. Too challenging for ME, frankly, but folks who complain that Spartan obstacles are too easy would be satisfied here.

-Terrain was abominable as advertised. 

-Nice course and festival layout, and preferred parking was great.

Cons:

-Took until post-race for them to put garbage cans out (but better late than never).

-Some of the obstacles felt a BIT rickety.

-I do not like having to slide down rocky, icy hills on my butt. Although it keeps my chiropractor in business.

Race Grade:  B+. A fun winter event with just a few design flaws.

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.

***

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