QuirkyDM deploys against the Kaiju

[redpuma]

 

 

I really need to find access to a rope to climb too. I know the UB will have a few probably and I don't want to waste time/energy doing burpees.

 

I believe that there's a rope you could climb at a little adult jungle gym area just south of the Santa Monica Pier... you are in LA right? It's the site of the old "Muscle Beach" I guess. Here is a link to the Yelp review.

[Anamal]

I believe that there's a rope you could climb at a little adult jungle gym area just south of the Santa Monica Pier... you are in LA right? It's the site of the old "Muscle Beach" I guess. Here is a link to the Yelp review.

I was just thinking of those! I went and checked them out online and it looks like they have a 20ish foot rope! I'll have to make some time each week to head out there and practice. It doesn't have knots like some of the Spartan ropes do. But if you can climb a rope without knots, you sure as heck can climb a rope with knots!

 

QDM We should totally plan a meet up! Although I might be a total anxious mess until after the race. I'll be in town starting Friday so a lunch or coffee on Saturday would be awesome.

[Xena]

 

 This included scattering powder on the 3 ant hills threatening my yard. I put some on there Sunday and I'm going to keep doing it every two days until the ants leave/die or I finally give in and declare ants as the official rulers of Earth.

 

If only they would be of some use in battling zombies...

[Chris56Ryan]

Oh wow you are good at push ups I'm currently at one set of 3/4 depending on the day followed by maybe three negatives as a second set

[QuirkyDM]

If only they would be of some use in battling zombies...

I'm not even sure they're good for battling ants.

 

Oh wow you are good at push ups I'm currently at one set of 3/4 depending on the day followed by maybe three negatives as a second set

Thanks. I don't know if it's so much good at pushups as it is that I only weigh 135 lbs. Bodyweight exercises are a little easier when you don't have any bodyweight. Doing 60 pushups now is a little out of reach. 40 is a good set and failure is around 50. But I'm hoping that working my way up over the next 5 weeks will let me push through them all in one set.

[Epsilonx2]

Sounds like you're chugging right along! It's great that you can incorporate your challenge (and general fitness) into other parts of your life, i.e. running with your manager, climbing with your daughter, rope in your front yard. I'm also staggered by the idea of doing that many push ups (at all, let alone in one set), but I do certainly have more than 135 lbs to push up!

[Teros]

Looks awesome. I have a spartan race in august that I'm nervous as hell about. But even if I come in last place, that's still better than all the people that never tried because they were scared.

[AverageJoe]

Great job on the workout but more importantly take care of those ants!  It's either Them or us!

[QuirkyDM]

Sounds like you're chugging right along! It's great that you can incorporate your challenge (and general fitness) into other parts of your life, i.e. running with your manager, climbing with your daughter, rope in your front yard. I'm also staggered by the idea of doing that many push ups (at all, let alone in one set), but I do certainly have more than 135 lbs to push up!

I'm pretty lucky to have people around who are into the same things I am. It's funny, because my closest friends are not into OCRs or obsessive exercise, but we still get along somehow.

 

 

Looks awesome. I have a spartan race in august that I'm nervous as hell about. But even if I come in last place, that's still better than all the people that never tried because they were scared.

Damn straight! Arooo!

 

 

Great job on the workout but more importantly take care of those ants!  It's either Them or us!

Yeah, and truthfully, I'm not sure which it's going to be at this point.

 

 

Did Season 2, S7 of Zombies, Run! today. First time I've hit ZR in a month because I broke the clip on my iPhone skin so I couldn't use my armband. My pace was crap, but I had 4 zombie chases, so I'm not too disappointed. It was a great rainy day out- 19C. Just perfect for getting wet on the run. Did my PLP at the end of my run and the velcro on my arm band came apart when I flexed on the first pull up. Made me feel tough. 

 

PLP today at 18, 3x6 on pullups. 30 burpees a day still going strong. My new trick with burpees is on the descent of the jump to not try to catch myself- that uses up valuable leg energy and slows me down. Instead, just let the momentum carry me down into a nice deep squat and thrust out from there.

[Maledictus]

I'm pretty lucky to have people around who are into the same things I am. It's funny, because my closest friends are not into OCRs or obsessive exercise, but we still get along somehow.

Did Season 2, S7 of Zombies, Run! today. First time I've hit ZR in a month because I broke the clip on my iPhone skin so I couldn't use my armband. My pace was crap, but I had 4 zombie chases, so I'm not too disappointed.

none of my friends are into OCR ... I seem to be picking up a load more that are, oddly enough.

I'm a couple of missions ahead of you. I can honestly say the next couple were outstanding. can't say more than that.

pardon typos, I'm running an OCR right now...

[Xena]

Love the story about busting out of the armband during pullups!

 

I'm with you on the burpees. When I'm strong and used to the motion, I can do them a ton more efficiently.

[The Swedish Ninja]

Awesome goals!

I love these spartan races, tough mudder etc. I did a similar last year, Tough Viking, and it was freaking great!

[Maledictus]

Tough Viking _ think we're trying to get a coach together from the UK to do the brother one of those in Amsterdam.

 

But "Swedish" eh?  How do you fancy this one?

 

http://www.toughest.se/en/toughest-ice/

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Hey, looking good!!  Breaking exercise equipment with arms of steel - priceless!!

[The Swedish Ninja]

Tough Viking _ think we're trying to get a coach together from the UK to do the brother one of those in Amsterdam.

 

But "Swedish" eh?  How do you fancy this one?

 

http://www.toughest.se/en/toughest-ice/

That. Is. Freaking. Awesome!

I might sign up, since it´s a year left (knee injury at the time, but hope it will heal up nicely)…..

[Phytomancer]

Zombie run is awesome!!

[Teros]

Tough Viking _ think we're trying to get a coach together from the UK to do the brother one of those in Amsterdam.

 

But "Swedish" eh?  How do you fancy this one?

 

http://www.toughest.se/en/toughest-ice/

An Ice Spartan. Awesome.  I've seen that ice hotel before.  Cool stuff.

[QuirkyDM]

I'm a couple of missions ahead of you. I can honestly say the next couple were outstanding. can't say more than that.

Ooooh. Now that's something to look forward to. I really enjoyed the last few, so I really have something to look forward to.

 

Love the story about busting out of the armband during pullups!

 

I'm with you on the burpees. When I'm strong and used to the motion, I can do them a ton more efficiently.

I've been playing with a few variations to make them more efficient. One is to do a dirty push up (leave your hips down) so that when you pop up, it uses the spring in your hips to close the distance instead of the thigh muscles. It's definitely easier, but I'm not sure how much I like the idea of dirty pushups. For a Spartan when you're trying to get 30 done as fast as possible, maybe, and for crossfit for AMRAP, but in general, I want good form to help get in shape.

 

Hey, looking good!!  Breaking exercise equipment with arms of steel - priceless!!

Yeah- I might start getting weak velcro on all my exercise gear just  for that.

 

Weekend Report

What a great weekend. And painful. But great painful.

 

Friday night was playing board games at my brother's as my wife was finishing up report cards. Good start.

Saturday my wife was out for most of the day, so I took the kids to do obstacle course training with me. First, we ran to the nearby woods and found an appropriate weight to carry.

Then we ran with it, crawled, did PLP, monkey bars, traverse wall, log hop, spear throw, rope climb and finished it all off with 30 burpees. My kids are awesome.

 

Then because they both love soccer and play it all summer, we did some of that, too. The day finished off with a little grocery shopping so the 3 of us could make supper together. I always drink red wine when cooking, so they poured themselves a small wine glass of apple cider so they could have something fun to drink, too. I pretty much just helped them read the recipe, "Penne for your Thougts" from the Looneyspoons cookbook. It was great and the kids are becoming little chefs. Which is good because by the time they're in high school, I expect them to start making at least a meal every week.

 

Sunday was Father's Day so I took the entire morning to go do a big run at one of the hilliest trails in the area, a 50 minute drive away. The goal was to run for two hours and forty five minutes. What a trail! It did not disappoint in the vertical ascent and lots of ups and downs along the way.

View from a lookout part way up:

 

The path constantly crossed over streams and waterfalls, so there was lots of rock jumping, mud and soaking feet by the end.

Now THIS is a downhill:

 

At this point, I lost track of the trail completely. Oh wait, there it is on the left on the other side of this stream:

 

After two laps of the trail, I was at 2 hours. So I decided to go for one more half lap using a trail I saw that cut through the middle of the loop. It turns out this was more of a 3/4 lap and my legs were telling me this extra lap was an extremely stupid idea. But I figured this is where I need to get used to pushing past when I'm tired so when I feel like this at the Beast, I'll have dealt with it. As they say, you don't rise to the occassion, you sink to the level of your training. But my pace slowed considerably on all the uphills. I still ran up them all, but I gave a little sigh of resignation every time I saw a new ascent.

 

At two hours and 15 minutes my stomach let me know that a long hill run fueled only by a protein shake, an orange and energy chews might not be as much as I think. I got very hungry. Ah well, train low, race high, right?

 

At about 3 hours, my camelbak was carrying little more than drips of water.

 

At 3 hours and 20 minutes, I finally got back to the parking lot and ate the best almond butter sandwich I've ever had. Total climb of 796m. (2600 feet) I ended up running a half hour more than I intended, but sometimes, you need to bite off more than you can chew. It also kicked the crap out of my hill running form so by the end, I had that fixed, which was great. My new philosophy- if I can feel my quads or my glutes at all when running uphill, that means smaller steps are required. The goal is to make it so you reach the top of the hill feeling the same as if you had run flat. I knew that, but now I really know that.

 

After that, I had a great relaxing day with my family involving reading and lots and lots of food. With a few breaks for day 20 of PLP, 2 sets of 30 burpees and an atlas carry because I hadn't done that yet in the week.

[AgentsSka]

Um....

 

Apparently, I need to step up my training.

 

Also, love that you were able to get the kids involved.  Mine mostly think I'm nuts.  They aren't really wrong...

 

Nice work, man!

[sylph]

Epic fitness weekend, FTW! i hope you've got some good recovery planned after that.

[Elder]

Love that you are getting your kids cooking!  When I was little, even before high school, my parents would have my sisters and me cook dinner on days when they came home later from work.  For the first while they ate a lot of macaroni, beans, and hot dogs, but eventually we got in to cooking other things like spaghetti and meat sauce (home made) or roast beef and potatoes.  

 

Definitely helps with life later down the line.  

 

Also great job on your exercise over the weekend.  

[Teros]

Awesome weekend

[Maledictus]

Ooooh. Now that's something to look forward to. I really enjoyed the last few, so I really have something to look forward to.

I've been playing with a few variations to make them more efficient. One is to do a dirty push up (leave your hips down) so that when you pop up, it uses the spring in your hips to close the distance instead of the thigh muscles. It's definitely easier, but I'm not sure how much I like the idea of dirty pushups. For a Spartan when you're trying to get 30 done as fast as possible, maybe, and for crossfit for AMRAP, but in general, I want good form to help get in shape.

Yeah- I might start getting weak velcro on all my exercise gear just for that.

Weekend Report

What a great weekend. And painful. But great painful.

Friday night was playing board games at my brother's as my wife was finishing up report cards. Good start.

Saturday my wife was out for most of the day, so I took the kids to do obstacle course training with me. First, we ran to the nearby woods and found an appropriate weight to carry.

Then we ran with it, crawled, did PLP, monkey bars, traverse wall, log hop, spear throw, rope climb and finished it all off with 30 burpees. My kids are awesome.

Then because they both love soccer and play it all summer, we did some of that, too. The day finished off with a little grocery shopping so the 3 of us could make supper together. I always drink red wine when cooking, so they poured themselves a small wine glass of apple cider so they could have something fun to drink, too. I pretty much just helped them read the recipe, "Penne for your Thougts" from the Looneyspoons cookbook. It was great and the kids are becoming little chefs. Which is good because by the time they're in high school, I expect them to start making at least a meal every week.

Sunday was Father's Day so I took the entire morning to go do a big run at one of the hilliest trails in the area, a 50 minute drive away. The goal was to run for two hours and forty five minutes. What a trail! It did not disappoint in the vertical ascent and lots of ups and downs along the way.

View from a lookout part way up:

The path constantly crossed over streams and waterfalls, so there was lots of rock jumping, mud and soaking feet by the end.

Now THIS is a downhill:

At this point, I lost track of the trail completely. Oh wait, there it is on the left on the other side of this stream:

After two laps of the trail, I was at 2 hours. So I decided to go for one more half lap using a trail I saw that cut through the middle of the loop. It turns out this was more of a 3/4 lap and my legs were telling me this extra lap was an extremely stupid idea. But I figured this is where I need to get used to pushing past when I'm tired so when I feel like this at the Beast, I'll have dealt with it. As they say, you don't rise to the occassion, you sink to the level of your training. But my pace slowed considerably on all the uphills. I still ran up them all, but I gave a little sigh of resignation every time I saw a new ascent.

At two hours and 15 minutes my stomach let me know that a long hill run fueled only by a protein shake, an orange and energy chews might not be as much as I think. I got very hungry. Ah well, train low, race high, right?

At about 3 hours, my camelbak was carrying little more than drips of water.

At 3 hours and 20 minutes, I finally got back to the parking lot and ate the best almond butter sandwich I've ever had. Total climb of 796m. (2600 feet) I ended up running a half hour more than I intended, but sometimes, you need to bite off more than you can chew. It also kicked the crap out of my hill running form so by the end, I had that fixed, which was great. My new philosophy- if I can feel my quads or my glutes at all when running uphill, that means smaller steps are required. The goal is to make it so you reach the top of the hill feeling the same as if you had run flat. I knew that, but now I really know that.

After that, I had a great relaxing day with my family involving reading and lots and lots of food. With a few breaks for day 20 of PLP, 2 sets of 30 burpees and an atlas carry because I hadn't done that yet in the week.

man I suck at running

pardon typos, I'm running an OCR right now...

[AverageJoe]

EPIC! That's all I can say EPIC!  and that is So Awesome that you get your kids involved.  I'm trying to do that with my daughter (well as much as I can with a 4 yr old).  Your kids look like they really enjoy it too.  I'm in awe!

[MyLittlePony]

what an awesome sounding weekend.  What's your secret to getting the kids to go out with you.....I took mine out on Saturday too, but in order to get them out of the house I had to bribe them with the fact that we would be going past the playground, then I had to put up with the "are we at the playground yet" for the entire 1.3km that I managed to get them to do....Hopefully in a couple of years time they'll get there..

 

And man that run - wow.  I'd love to try a short version of that - looks like a great train, but no way am I ready for 3 hours of running - especially uphills.