QuirkyDM going Quazy

[QuirkyDM]

If you're tuning in here, and you're not me, then you might want to know what this log will be about and who I am. I've been around NF since December, 2013, and did 8 challenges with the rangers. I'm a fairly small guy who has been working on getting in shape for the last few years. Some injuries and surgeries have sidelined me for the past year and it's only been in the last 3-4 weeks that I've been able to start exercising again. All that time off has made me reevaluate how exercise is done, what works for me and what goals I want to achieve. Steve is always saying question everything, be a rebel, so I'm trying out some of that myself right now. i would do it in the challenges, but my plans don't fit into 6 week slots right now, so I'm going to give this battle log a shot.

 

You might want to know if this is worth checking out. I honestly have no idea if it's worth your time, but it's definitely worth mine to write it. If anyone else finds something interesting or useful in here, that's just a bonus. I'm going to follow the same guidelines I did for my 6 week challenge entries:

- write a log that I would be interested in reading if I wasn't already writing it

- keep track of what I'm doing for posterity's sake. It's pretty interesting to go back and read what's come before to remember what you did and why you did it.

- Besides that, it's a great way to track progress- both improvement in the present, and if things get derailed, what I ended up being capable of in the past.

 

In here, I'll be posting how I'm working out, any adventures I take and race reports. I'm an OCR fan and every race is usually worth writing down to check out what I've done. So it's sort of a blog, except no pressure with updates and I don't actually expect anyone else to read it anyway.

 

That's not really much to convince anyone one way or the other. I wouldn't tune in based on this already. Maybe a few of my previous links would let you know what kind of stuff I'll be doing. Plus it'll let me put all of my info in one place anyway.

 

Total history:

My NF Intro

Challenge #1: QuirkyDM, sidekick for hire

Challenge #2: QuirkyDM, sidekick takes off the training wheels

Challenge #3: QuirkyDM, facing off against the Fearsome Five

Challenge #4: QuirkyDM Flashes the city

Challenge #5: QuirkyDM deploys against the Kaiju

Challenge #6: QuirkyDM takes his action

Challenge #7: QuirkyDM 's Unbirthday

Challenge #8: QuirkyDM goes back to the beginning

 

 

Some of my more interesting training sessions:

When the squats go wrong

... and when I don't care how they go

My playground as a training ground

Running with kids and running too long

Hill training out of control

A little trail run that turned into something more

Running wet

Four hours of messing with my head

 

 

Some race reports:

Mud Hero 2014

Spartan Kids 2014

Spartan Sprint 2014

Bad Ass Dash 2014

Spartan Beast 2014 (and more pics)

Spartan World Championships 2014  (part 2) (and pics)

Polar Hero 2015

 

 

Others:

A bad song parody

 

 

And in this battle log:

Dead End Race 2015

 

As for my title, that's what our family decided to call each other as a team after I convinced/cajoled/blackmailed them into running a family team obstacle race at the end of this month: Quazy Quirks. Being Quirky and Quazy fits me pretty well.

[QuirkyDM]

I'm working various goals and will get to that in a later post, but for now, I want to start recording what's going on while it's fresh in my mind.

 

Today was a win for running. I'm working on slowly bringing my running back into play. And I figured if I'm taking it nice and slow anyway, why not try bare foot running while I'm at it? It might help my running form or at least toughen up my feet.

 

I started at 1.6 km and ran every other day, adding 0.2 km per run according to this program. And then I want back and read the program again and I'm supposed to be adding 0.2 km every other run. Which means I'm going to dial this back even more than I have been. I'm OK with that because everything I've read on barefoot running says to take it slow and I have no need to rush. The goal is to be back at a solid 5K by the end of the summer.

 

This morning, it was wet outside which would normally be great for a run, but in bare feet, it just means all the little rocks and branches stick to your feet and it's extra pain I wasn't in the mood for. So I ran on the treadmill instead. I was surprised how much slower I needed to run on the treadmill compared to outside. I did put the treadmill on a 2% slope, so maybe that made the difference. I was only running at 7kph, which even in bare feet is pretty slow for me. The distance was 2.3 km.

 

What I got a great feel for this morning was the difference in my feet hitting the ground. My right leg for some reason always tires out first in runs and during bare foot running, I can feel my calf muscle is tighter and the ball of my foot is more susceptible to blisters. On the treadmill, I could literally hear the difference in the way my feet hit the ground and when I focused I could tell my right and left leg were running completely different. After a few minutes, I realized I turn my right foot outside compared to my left foot. My right foot is hitting the ground much less smoothly and my right leg is taking a slight circle when running.

 

When I realized this, I focused on turning my right foot in a little more. This put instant pressure on the outside of my calf, but it also smoothed out my gait so my right and left feet now sounded and looked the same. This seems like a great new discovery for me and now that I'm taking my bare foot running progress even slower, I can really focus on working this issue out.

 

This might be the best improvement I've found to make in my running form in a long time so I'm hopeful and excited that it will lead to good things.

[QuirkyDM]

I just need to write this down so I don't lose my progress so far. I'm out with a cold so exercise is taking a break. I'll update what I'm actually doing in a later post.

 

Pull ups- finished day 23 (7, 7, 6)

Push ups- finished day 25 (3 sets of 25)

Plank- finished day 4 (12 seconds of leg lifted + remainder of 1 minute normal)

Run- finished 2.3 km barefoot

[QuirkyDM]

OK, back to not being sick and picking up exercise again today, especially since this weekend is the Dead End Race and I'll need to be the anchor man for our family going through this, which is just fine with me.

 

Running: I took the car in to the shop this morning and then jogged barefoot back. My right foot felt great all the way as I focused on turning it in, but then I got home and there's a few layers less of skin near one of my toes. Though, when I map out my route, I went 2.7km, which was a little farther than normal. We'll see how my feet recover and if I decide to continue from this point or if I should dial it down a bit. I'll likely just keep going from here. I really want to take things slow, but I am itching to get back to normal 5K runs. Especially as my kids ran a 5K on the weekend and my daughter did hers in 24:32. I need to keep it up just so I'll be able to keep running with her over the next few years.

 

Other exercise: I took everything back 3 days to account for the week off. So yesterday was:

Pull ups: 7,7,6

Push ups: 3x22

Plank: 3 seconds of leg lifted, remainder of minute normal

 

And I need to add my tiny little deadlifts in tonight.

[sylph]

So those goals you mentioned in post #2--what are they?

[QuirkyDM]

So those goals you mentioned in post #2--what are they?

Hey, Sylph. I'm working on a few things right now in what I think is a non-crazy way, so completely unlike me. But in the words taken from one of my son's favorites:

 

Before I tell you that story, I have to tell you this story ...

 

(well, not really, but I've wanted to type this out for a bit anyway; you can just skip to the end for my current goals)

 

The Lottery

I think the concept of a lottery is a great idea. Everyone gives up a small amount of money they won't ever notice, and in return, some lucky winner gets a huge amount of money back that makes a real difference in their life. Normal lotteries are not this generous though, since a percentage of the lottery ticket sales go towards funding the lottery, so I don't take part in those. But I think the concept of a lottery is still an awesome idea.

 

Then I figured, why not have my own lottery? It's not a new concept, but I still like the idea. Let's say I can give up $5 a week into a savings account and never notice it. These are the tickets I buy for my own lottery. Then every 2 years, I "win the lottery" and could buy a new iPad or apple Watch or console system or whatever new gadget I feel like. No guilt- this is my lottery prize and I won it fair and square. The only two real rules to this are:

 

1) The lottery price has to be insignificant and/or easy to manage. Otherwise, I'm just saving money, which takes work and effort. As part of this, I also can't have access to this money- it needs to go into an account or a cookie jar or under the mattress and be untouchable until I've reached my goal and decided to use it.

 

2) The payoff should be something large and worthwhile. Otherwise, I don't get any real excitement from winning the prize. I can spend small amounts of money anytime I want, and they generally don't feel worthwhile.

 

The Exercise Lottery

I spent a lot of hours working out last summer and while I don't regret it, that's time I could be doing other things, like family time, enjoying other hobbies or taking care of the house. I also need time to slowly get back into shape after spending the last 8 months on the couch due to injuries and kidney stone surgeries. If I rush into it, I'll end up hurt and not exercising again.

 

When I combined these two ideas, I thought about how I could run an exercise lottery for myself. Generally, the payoff is getting in good shape and hitting some major milestones that I never really pushed towards. The other side of the lottery, is that I need to try to do this without committing huge amounts of time or effort to accomplish it. Not that I mind committing to exercise, I just thought it would be worth the experiment to see how small consistent exercise would make a difference.

 

With that in mind, I'm combining a grease the groove and PLP method of training, both of which worked well for me in the past. I've picked 4 serious goals and I'm working slowly toward them.

 

1. 25 pull ups

I started day 1 doing 1 pull up and adding a pull up every day, When I reached my max, I split them into 2 even sets and then kept adding 1 pull up each day. Then I reached my max again and I split it into 3 sets. I'm on day 23 (I go back a few days if I miss workouts due to illness or other reasons) with sets of 8, 8 and 7. Once I reach 25 pull ups, I will start working on increasing the number per set in a gradual manner, perhaps with assisted pull ups, slowing the rate down or adding rest cycles, I'll have to see. This a pretty no effort workout- I do a set in the morning, brush my teeth, do another set, get out my clothes for the day, and do the third set.

 

2. 100 push ups

This is exactly like the pull ups, but I add 3 push ups per day. I'm on day 24, doing 3 sets of 24. I do these at work in the morning when I need a quick break.

 

3. 1 minute L-sit

I'm working on planks first to strengthen my upper core and obliques. I started with a basic plank and a left and right side plank, doing 3 seconds of each exercise and adding 3 seconds per day until I hit 1 minute. Then I started increasing the difficulty 3 seconds at a time by lifting my leg up. Once I hit the 1 minute mark with those, I'll add another level of difficulty by lifting opposite arm and leg, 3 seconds per day. I do these in the afternoon at work.

 

4. 20 minute 5K

There's no easy way to do this in an insignificant amount of time, but I really enjoy running, so I don't consider this a hassle. The goal is to increase my barefoot running distance to 5K to develop some new running muscles and work on my running form. Then I'll slowly build my pace up until I hit my goal. I'm currently at 2.5km, running every other day and adding 0.1 km per run. When I hit 3 km, I'll start adding 0.2 km per run. I do these in the morning before my family gets out of bed, though I occasionally do a lunch run if I feel like it.

 

 

 

Every 1-2 months, I'm going to keep adding new goals. Because once it becomes easy to do these daily exercises, adding other exercises will take no new effort. This way, I'll keep mostly focused on the overall goals, but I'll keep expanding my abilities. For now, it's all strength based, but I'll eventually move into skill abilities (handstands, splits, etc.) once I have a solid foundation. I've added:

 

5. Deadlift 2x BW

Which starts out with doing 5 deadlifts every day, starting with a puny little 5lbs and adding 5 lbs to one rep per day, so in essence, I'm adding 1 lbs per day. I'm only 4 days in on this, so it's just starting. For now, it's not about strength, it's about perfecting my form so the later lifts will be easier.

 

 

And that's what I'm doing for goals. Eventually, I expect I'll hit a limit that I can't overcome with daily exercise, but for now, it looks to be a program that will work best for me. At the least, it should get me started on getting back into good shape and be an interesting experiment.

[AgentsSka]

*Cough*  hi  *cough*

[QuirkyDM]

*Cough*  hi  *cough*

You ... you're alive?! I thought you dropped right off the face of the earth. Or at least New England. You still active or is that nasty cough keeping you down? Your Battle Log went dead so I assumed you became a November Project new age cultist: setting up a commune in the middle of Harvard Stadium, sacrificing your legs to the god of stairs and shouting "Fuck, yeah" at anyone who says good morning to you. Feel free to dispute those details by adding your account of events.

[AgentsSka]

I am alive.  I didn't drop off the face of the earth, per se... just off the face of NF.  At this point, all of my exploits are still being heaped upon the book of faces.

 

I am still very much active.  We actually did set up a NP commune this past weekend.  But, instead of in the middle of the stadium, it was at the base of a mountain.  Which we then proceeded to run the trails up and down throughout the night.  It was awesome.  

 

And, I've made the decision to hit the Ultra Beast this year.  So, I have definitely sacrificed my legs to something.

 

And always "FUCK YEAH!"

[QuirkyDM]

I am alive.  I didn't drop off the face of the earth, per se... just off the face of NF.  At this point, all of my exploits are still being heaped upon the book of faces.

 

I am still very much active.  We actually did set up a NP commune this past weekend.  But, instead of in the middle of the stadium, it was at the base of a mountain.  Which we then proceeded to run the trails up and down throughout the night.  It was awesome.  

 

Well, that's good. I sort of thought with NP and your local running groups, you wouldn't need NF as much as some of us who are all alone in our quests. Though now, I'll have to start looking on Facebook to see what you're up to. The NP commune sounded cool. But it's running trails up and down a mountain- how can it not be?

 

 

And, I've made the decision to hit the Ultra Beast this year.  So, I have definitely sacrificed my legs to something.

Wow. Very cool. That's awesome. Now I definitely need to be following you.

[QuirkyDM]

OK, no more procrastinating. I've been doing lots of exercise, making great progress and been pretty happy with the way it's all going. But I haven't written anything down because I wanted to force myself to get my race report in here. And I wrote it up, but my wife kept saying it wasn't as funny as my other writing, so I left it to try to spice it up ... anyway, enough with that. I'll put it up, and her version, too, and then just add notes after that for future historians.

 

My version:

(QM- Quirky Mom,

QJ- daughter, age 12,

QD- son, age 9)

 

At the end of June, I took my family to the Dead End Race, just north of Montreal.

 

The last heat of the day was a family wave- anyone over 6 could go on the course as long as the kids stuck with their parents. The kids have loved the kid’s version of my Obstacle Course Races, (OCR) though QD said he doesn't always love them because sometimes he doesn't want to get dirty. I don't know where he got that idea from. I've never seen him not get dirty when the opportunity presents itself. I figured even though the obstacles were adult sized, it would be a lot more fun for the kids as there were 40+ obstacles on the course and they could really get into it without being finished in 10 minutes like most of the kid courses.

 

The unknown was QM. I dragged her through the Polar Hero in February and she liked it OK. I never really expected her to do another OCR ever again, but it was a great chance for the whole family to go out and tackle something together. So she joined in, though there was a lot of nervousness building up in her for days (weeks?) beforehand. Luckily, she couldn't think about that as this race was the day after she was out for the summer (she’s a teacher) so that kept her occupied.

 

Seeing as our family was going through the race together, we needed team shirts! I found this funky dragon Q online and then got us all some plain grey running shirts (no cotton! - never ever cotton in an OCR) and painted on the patterns.

 

The race was listed as 6km long on a ski hill so we knew there was some climbing involved. But that won’t be a big deal, right? Ha! Oh how QM wished that were so …

 

As the race started, we jogged since it’s always exciting at the start line and we didn’t want to look like losers walking off the start. But we quickly slowed down because it’s a long race and I told the kids right off the bat, we’d be walking the course. The first hill/mountain was right away, and as expected, it was a killer. Well, I expected it. Poor QM really had to push to keep going and wondering how long she’d get through this. This was only the start! But we were in no rush and eventually, we managed to get into the fun stuff!

 

There was a sandbag carry up and down part of the mountain. QD happily carried his sandbag down, but was just as willing to let me carry it back up the mountain for him. The beginning of the tough part for QJ came when we hit our first crawl under a cargo net- which was also be sprayed by one of the snow makers. QJ takes after me- she doesn’t have much excess weight on her and from that point on, she was shivering. It wasn’t a cold day, but it never seems to matter for her. If she’s wet, she’s cold. She enjoyed it all anyway. (or so she said- but she was smiling most of the time)

 

Once we hit the woods at the top of the mountain, we hit the mud. Real mud. QD rounded the corner ahead of us and shouted “Oh my gosh!†The kids got up to the top of their legs in the mud and QJ got stuck a few times and I had to drag her out. Even QM was having a good time now, though anything was fun after climbing up a ski hill.

 

We hit the first 8’ wall and I boosted the kids up one side and a volunteer helped them down the other. QD got it in his head that he would just jump from the top of the wall, which just goes to show that his lack of fear is only matched by his equal lack of common sense. J I hadn’t scaled a wall before my surgeries, so I was pretty happy/relieved when I got over it myself without any trouble.

 

Out of the woods, and there was a set of outhouses up ahead, which suited QM fine because she was ready to use them. But the course was set up strange- the course dead ended at the toilets! But the real path was actually through the toilets- you opened the outhouse door and it was empty inside. We jumped down under them into a trench filled with water up to your waits and crawled through that. Luckily, these weren’t “active†toilets as that would have been an obstacle even I wouldn’t attempt! Though QM really needed an actual toilet after thinking these were real outhouses, but stopping in the middle of the water with the race volunteers watching us seemed a little too conspicuous. J After about 50m of wading through the trenches, we got to climb out another outhouse at the back end and continue on.

 

After looping up and down the mountain a few times, we finally got back to the bottom and the volunteer there told us this was pretty much exactly the half way point. Hmmmm … I don’t think we’re finishing in the 2 hours I predicted we would. Or 3 hours. Maybe 4? Only way to find out is to keep going. Luckily I packed lots of food.

 

What else we tackled: a bridge of rafts tied together to go across a river,

a few more walls, a Tyrolean traverse, (a rope suspended over water and you wrapped arms and legs around it and crawled across) a few more weighted carries, Hercules hoist, barrel lift (climb to the top of a structure and haul a barrel up to your level by a rope), a waterslide, a traverse wall climb, a cargo net climb, a balance rope walk and a lot more that I can’t remember.

 

There was a warped wall which the kids wanted to do since they love American Ninja Warrior. I ran up the wall and then put my hand down for the kids to run up and grab. Afterward they were jumping around shouting, “We beat the warped wall! We beat the warped wall!â€

 

At the four hour mark, QJ said this was starting to get less fun. After being sprayed with snow makers on 2 obstacles and crossing through the water five times (once by crawling through a culvert) she was pretty cold. But we were getting close to the end!

 

And eventually we all made it to the end. In 4 four hours and 48 minutes. If I had told QM beforehand that we would climb up and down a ski slope 3 times and be on the course for close to 5 hours, she would have never even tried. She might have even made me sleep on the couch for suggesting such a thing. But she did it and it was awesome. The kids blasted through the whole course. The second last obstacle was a set of rings and monkey bars. After the race was done, QD ran back around to do them again because he liked them so much. J And for me, this was my idea of a perfect weekend.

 

Immediately afterward, we had a feast of poutine and cheeseburgers from a food truck and then a long shower to get all the mud off. (there was a lot of it!) To cap it off, our energetic after party …

[QuirkyDM]

And now QM's version:

Okay, so you all know my husband and how last year he got sort of addicted to training for obstacle course races, right?  Well he’s been trying to spread his love of the events with his family and it is working.  QJ and QD love feeling all tough and carrying logs on their shoulders, crawling through mud or leaping over obstacles.  On all our hikes now QD is constantly on the lookout for the perfect quintuple steps from American Ninja Warrior in fact.  So, I guess I had been the big hold out until this last year.  In the winter QuirkyDM found a Polar Hero race and knowing that I don’t love heat, he figured this might be a good way to introduce me to the OCR world.  It was also local and not on a mountain, so bonus.  QuirkyDM kept researching and eventually found a mud race that allowed the whole family to have fun on the obstacle course, so with a nod of my head we were registered. 

I tried not to think about it too much, and figured, since I agreed only if we walked, that it would be okay.  I knew I would only do obstacles that I felt I could do, but as the time drew nearer, I did get more worried and sure enough the morning of the race… I was pretty grumpy, mostly nerves coming out as anger.  I guess it started even before the race, because QuirkyDM wanted to make matching T-shirts – God love him and his excitement!  But he didn’t really get his act together fast enough, so I ended up at Michael’s last minute to get shirts, of course they only sell cotton and apparently that was just not going to cut it for an obstacle course where we would be wet and muddy.  QuirkyDM ended up going around from store to store to find athletic shirts that would match for all of us and that was no easy feat with me being a 2XL, him a men’s small and then the kids shirts, but he managed.  He found the template he liked, cut out the stencil and we were spray painting the day before we left just in the nick of time.  And, I will admit, even though I found this last minute stress added to the anxiety and loss of control for me, it was very cool to have matching shirts!

Back to the day of the race - here is what I knew: we were walking and sticking together for the whole race, I felt bad that I would be holding up my family being the slowest, I was going to cry at some point during the race, QuirkyDM would help and support me through it, we were the last heat of the day and likely we could be left all alone on the mountain, the race was 6 km and had 40 obstacles.

What I didn’t know: the race was actually over 8 km long, we had to go up and down the mountain 3 times, going down hills is very hard when your legs are tired, the course would take us almost 5 hours to complete, the photographer disappears when not many people are left on the course L and people in wheelchairs can do an OCR up a mountain – seriously, amazing to watch! 

So, what actually happened… well here is what I remember:

I was anxious and wanting to get numbers written on us, go pee, get sunscreened, yada, yada and was feeling the stress and letting my husband know it.  We got organized and made it to the start line with about 10 minutes to spare.  We slowly jogged out to get in the spirit and then in the first 100 feet we had our first obstacle which was huge pits or trenches I guess they call them, some with water and some huge holes to climb in and out of.  You could get through it how you wanted and so I took the easy road not wanting to tucker out right away before going up the hill.  QD and QJ opted to go in and out of each pit getting wet and dirty right off the bat and loved it!  QuirkyDM… I have no idea what he did, likely leapt across the tops like superman.   From there everything gets mixed up and jumbled.  I know we headed into the woods pretty soon and had to go up, and up, and up, and up and that is when my tears came.  I honestly think I needed to let out the tension and pressure I felt about being the weak link (well that and I couldn’t breathe) and once I did that, I simply did what I could to get through it.  I walked slow, took lots of breaks, ate the honeystingers my hubby brought and took the hugs my daughter offered. 

There were tunnels we had to crawl through, water sprayers (snow makers) spraying us, pits of mud to walk through, walls to climb over and all the standard OCR stuff you would see.  Where I could say I actually enjoyed myself was in the mud pits in the woods, which were just seriously deep, sticky mud that was super hard to walk through without losing a shoe.  I have never done that and it was fun, and funny, too – the kids kept thinking they were going to lose a shoe and QuirkyDM had to seriously pull QJ out of one spot where she physically was stuck in the mud… for real!  It was crazy and because we were alone on the course, being last and all, we could do it at our own pace.  The other spot I enjoyed was when we got to get wet.  It was always nice to hit the little creek or river and we crossed over it a few times.  We did a simple walk through once, climbed over rafts that were tied together, went through a culvert filled with water… these I liked – time for the muscles to relax, your body cooled off and sorry to say it, but yeah, the course was 5 hours with no bathroom, so sometimes it got used to relief ourselves in other ways, too J

There were some obstacles where I was intensely proud of my children, like when they climbed the 8 foot walls.  QuirkyDM propped them up and they reached to the top and hoisted themselves up.  Then they flicked their legs over and sat on the top of the 8 foot wall – yeah, gulp, is what I was saying!  Then they had to turn their bodies around and hang off the edge, so they could then drop the remainder 3 or 4 feet to the ground – quite the production, but they did it and they did it well.  QuirkyDM was happy to do these with little difficulty as he wasn’t sure after his kidney stone surgeries how he would hold up and it was no sweat from the looks of him.  They also had 2 rope climbs where I was super impressed with them.  The first was over the water where they had to bear climb it, so feet and hands were on the rope and they had to scooch across with their back toward the water – seriously I was amazed they could do that.  The 2^nd rope event was where they had a single rope on the bottom and a single rope on top and they had feet on the bottom and hands up top – the roped wobbled back and forth and you had to engage your muscles big time to get across the mud pit and again they nailed it – super impressed!  (I however just watched and walked around these, much too hard for me, the first I could never do, the second would require great effort and then likely I’d be exhausted to finish, so I opted out).  Mostly I was proud because this course took us almost 5 hours, up and down hills, where they were sprayed with cold water, covered in muck, climbing huge walls, taking risks and of course hurting from all the work and I don’t remember a single complaint – even though poor QJ had goose bumps for half the race, since she was soaked and in the shaded woods for ¾ of the race. 

Now, I’ll admit, I cheated… a lot!  I likely only did 20 obstacles and there were even times where the path crossed and I would let my family run for awhile and I took a breather and met them just across the way after they ran up and then back down for 10 minutes or so.  Even though parts of me feel like a cheater and that I don’t deserve the medal because I didn’t do it all, inside me knows how bloody hard this race was and likely how it was much tougher for me than it was for many.  Let’s face it, I’m carrying 100 more pounds than I need to be and carrying that weight up hill on my knees and ankles - that was hard work.  Facing my fears and completing it, as in getting to the finish line when at times I was literally hobbling down the hill, thinking my knee would give out on me at any moment – I need to give myself some credit.  I know a lot of women do these races, but typically they have trained or are young or are adventurous… I am not any of those things, but I am a mom who wants to try and set a good example for her children and not only do I want them to do these sorts of experiences, but I want to be able to do some of them with them.  I don’t always want to be on the sidelines watching and for this race I can proudly say I wasn’t. 

Thanks to my Qrazy husband for dreaming big and challenging the rest of us to do the same.  He was supportive to the max and took care of us all after the race was over, too – pretty awesome!

[Elastigirl]

And now QM's version:

Okay, so you all know my husband and how last year he got sort of addicted to training for obstacle course races, right?  Well he’s been trying to spread his love of the events with his family and it is working.  QJ and QD love feeling all tough and carrying logs on their shoulders, crawling through mud or leaping over obstacles.  On all our hikes now QD is constantly on the lookout for the perfect quintuple steps from American Ninja Warrior in fact.  So, I guess I had been the big hold out until this last year.  In the winter QuirkyDM found a Polar Hero race and knowing that I don’t love heat, he figured this might be a good way to introduce me to the OCR world.  It was also local and not on a mountain, so bonus.  QuirkyDM kept researching and eventually found a mud race that allowed the whole family to have fun on the obstacle course, so with a nod of my head we were registered. 

I tried not to think about it too much, and figured, since I agreed only if we walked, that it would be okay.  I knew I would only do obstacles that I felt I could do, but as the time drew nearer, I did get more worried and sure enough the morning of the race… I was pretty grumpy, mostly nerves coming out as anger.  I guess it started even before the race, because QuirkyDM wanted to make matching T-shirts – God love him and his excitement!  But he didn’t really get his act together fast enough, so I ended up at Michael’s last minute to get shirts, of course they only sell cotton and apparently that was just not going to cut it for an obstacle course where we would be wet and muddy.  QuirkyDM ended up going around from store to store to find athletic shirts that would match for all of us and that was no easy feat with me being a 2XL, him a men’s small and then the kids shirts, but he managed.  He found the template he liked, cut out the stencil and we were spray painting the day before we left just in the nick of time.  And, I will admit, even though I found this last minute stress added to the anxiety and loss of control for me, it was very cool to have matching shirts!

Back to the day of the race - here is what I knew: we were walking and sticking together for the whole race, I felt bad that I would be holding up my family being the slowest, I was going to cry at some point during the race, QuirkyDM would help and support me through it, we were the last heat of the day and likely we could be left all alone on the mountain, the race was 6 km and had 40 obstacles.

What I didn’t know: the race was actually over 8 km long, we had to go up and down the mountain 3 times, going down hills is very hard when your legs are tired, the course would take us almost 5 hours to complete, the photographer disappears when not many people are left on the course L and people in wheelchairs can do an OCR up a mountain – seriously, amazing to watch! 

So, what actually happened… well here is what I remember:

I was anxious and wanting to get numbers written on us, go pee, get sunscreened, yada, yada and was feeling the stress and letting my husband know it.  We got organized and made it to the start line with about 10 minutes to spare.  We slowly jogged out to get in the spirit and then in the first 100 feet we had our first obstacle which was huge pits or trenches I guess they call them, some with water and some huge holes to climb in and out of.  You could get through it how you wanted and so I took the easy road not wanting to tucker out right away before going up the hill.  QD and QJ opted to go in and out of each pit getting wet and dirty right off the bat and loved it!  QuirkyDM… I have no idea what he did, likely leapt across the tops like superman.   From there everything gets mixed up and jumbled.  I know we headed into the woods pretty soon and had to go up, and up, and up, and up and that is when my tears came.  I honestly think I needed to let out the tension and pressure I felt about being the weak link (well that and I couldn’t breathe) and once I did that, I simply did what I could to get through it.  I walked slow, took lots of breaks, ate the honeystingers my hubby brought and took the hugs my daughter offered. 

There were tunnels we had to crawl through, water sprayers (snow makers) spraying us, pits of mud to walk through, walls to climb over and all the standard OCR stuff you would see.  Where I could say I actually enjoyed myself was in the mud pits in the woods, which were just seriously deep, sticky mud that was super hard to walk through without losing a shoe.  I have never done that and it was fun, and funny, too – the kids kept thinking they were going to lose a shoe and QuirkyDM had to seriously pull QJ out of one spot where she physically was stuck in the mud… for real!  It was crazy and because we were alone on the course, being last and all, we could do it at our own pace.  The other spot I enjoyed was when we got to get wet.  It was always nice to hit the little creek or river and we crossed over it a few times.  We did a simple walk through once, climbed over rafts that were tied together, went through a culvert filled with water… these I liked – time for the muscles to relax, your body cooled off and sorry to say it, but yeah, the course was 5 hours with no bathroom, so sometimes it got used to relief ourselves in other ways, too J

There were some obstacles where I was intensely proud of my children, like when they climbed the 8 foot walls.  QuirkyDM propped them up and they reached to the top and hoisted themselves up.  Then they flicked their legs over and sat on the top of the 8 foot wall – yeah, gulp, is what I was saying!  Then they had to turn their bodies around and hang off the edge, so they could then drop the remainder 3 or 4 feet to the ground – quite the production, but they did it and they did it well.  QuirkyDM was happy to do these with little difficulty as he wasn’t sure after his kidney stone surgeries how he would hold up and it was no sweat from the looks of him.  They also had 2 rope climbs where I was super impressed with them.  The first was over the water where they had to bear climb it, so feet and hands were on the rope and they had to scooch across with their back toward the water – seriously I was amazed they could do that.  The 2^nd rope event was where they had a single rope on the bottom and a single rope on top and they had feet on the bottom and hands up top – the roped wobbled back and forth and you had to engage your muscles big time to get across the mud pit and again they nailed it – super impressed!  (I however just watched and walked around these, much too hard for me, the first I could never do, the second would require great effort and then likely I’d be exhausted to finish, so I opted out).  Mostly I was proud because this course took us almost 5 hours, up and down hills, where they were sprayed with cold water, covered in muck, climbing huge walls, taking risks and of course hurting from all the work and I don’t remember a single complaint – even though poor QJ had goose bumps for half the race, since she was soaked and in the shaded woods for ¾ of the race. 

Now, I’ll admit, I cheated… a lot!  I likely only did 20 obstacles and there were even times where the path crossed and I would let my family run for awhile and I took a breather and met them just across the way after they ran up and then back down for 10 minutes or so.  Even though parts of me feel like a cheater and that I don’t deserve the medal because I didn’t do it all, inside me knows how bloody hard this race was and likely how it was much tougher for me than it was for many.  Let’s face it, I’m carrying 100 more pounds than I need to be and carrying that weight up hill on my knees and ankles - that was hard work.  Facing my fears and completing it, as in getting to the finish line when at times I was literally hobbling down the hill, thinking my knee would give out on me at any moment – I need to give myself some credit.  I know a lot of women do these races, but typically they have trained or are young or are adventurous… I am not any of those things, but I am a mom who wants to try and set a good example for her children and not only do I want them to do these sorts of experiences, but I want to be able to do some of them with them.  I don’t always want to be on the sidelines watching and for this race I can proudly say I wasn’t. 

Thanks to my Qrazy husband for dreaming big and challenging the rest of us to do the same.  He was supportive to the max and took care of us all after the race was over, too – pretty awesome!

What an encouraging, inspiring story. This is so great that you did this super tough race because of Quirky and your kids excitement. You are an awesome example for your kids. They will remember this race and how you persevered .

[QuirkyDM]

What an encouraging, inspiring story. This is so great that you did this super tough race because of Quirky and your kids excitement. You are an awesome example for your kids. They will remember this race and how you persevered .

Thanks, Elastigirl- i made sure she got your response. And that's what I keep telling her. She was so nervous about being embarrassed in front of her kids because of everything she couldn't do, she never thinks about how awesome she is with everything she can do. Everyone together as a family was definitely worth doing together.

 

A few more miscellaneous notes before I put this one to bed:

1) Snack list was 4 honey stinger waffles, 4 packs honey stinger gummies and 2 cliff bars. Which is more food than I took on my 8 hour Beast course last year. And we ate it all up.

2) After the race, QM and QJ shut down hard. I was literally running to the car and back to get our dry clothes and extra shoes. People were wondering why or how I was still running around carrying loaded baskets after running the course all day. But taking care of the family and helping them get through this is part of the great experience.

3) The original after race plan was have a quick snack then go back to the camper to shower and eat fire roasted hot dogs and S'mores. The actual plan was lay down near the food truck at the finish line, wolf down cheeseburgers, poutine and pop, stop for an ice cream on the way back to the camper, shower and then collapse in bed.

4) I remembered how much I totally love doing these things, even if I wasn't doing it for me. They are just so much fun. I really want to keep the family involved and I've made a deal with myself to only do races if the kids can be involved, too. Usually this will be a kid's run instead of a full blown course like this, but in a few years, QJ will be 14 and able to join me on the Spartan courses.

[sylph]

Race recaps were super awesome to read!

 

 

Sounds like everyone had a rewarding experience in one way or another.

[QuirkyDM]

Race recaps were super awesome to read!

 

 

Sounds like everyone had a rewarding experience in one way or another.

Thanks. I think we all loved it. QM was worried her knees or ankles would give out, but she got through the whole thing and only ended up with some tired muscles. And then three days later, she tweaked her knee going on a walk with a friend.

 

 

Now, as I'm recording info for myself, I'll talk about drinking water. Dehydration is a major factor in kidney stones, but anyone who really knows me knows that is not an issue with me at all. I lost my old water bottle so I brought a 2-L mini-jug to work to take its place. It's my wife's, though originally she told me it was only 1L and I'm horrible with estimating sizes, so I never questioned it. But on the first day of trying to drink 2 liters of water, in other words 2 of these jugs, I figured something must have been wrong. Half way through my second jug of the day, I was completely bloated. Now that I know it's 2 L, I find it's actually a little less than I normally drink. I fill the jug in the morning and it's empty around 3:00.

 

Other experiments in the world of drinking water is adding lemon juice. This is supposed to help with avoiding kidney stones. The plan is to add 1/2 cup per 2L water. I was just adding a splash of lemon juice into my water at work, but now I got an actual measuring cup and holy crap, is that a lot of lemon juice. It's not that I can just taste the lemon, I can feel it burning through my stomach lining. Well, not that bad, but I notice the presence in my stomach and on my throat, too. Supposedly, you can't really overdose on lemon juice- there's no adverse side effects, so I guess this is just really good for me and I need to get used to it. We'll see.

 

And then my final adventure in water drinking, which may be too much info, but I'm pretty sure that's what the internet is for. My doctor wanted me to do a 24 hour urine collection. I guess they'll use it to see what my chemical levels are at so I know how to alter my diet to avoid more kidney stones. They gave me a 1 gallon jug to take home for the task. I worked from home on my collection days because I didn't think my workmates would want me storing that in the kitchen fridge all day. I also confirmed that hydration is not my problem since in 24 hours I had more than enough to fill that jug. (literally more than enough- there was some ... overflow)

 

The doctor also gave me a second jug with hydrochloric acid in it. (for some chemical/medical lab reason I'm sure) With special instructions to collect in a separate cup and transfer afterward since you don't want to risk having the acid splash back on you. Which seemed like damned good advice to me especially considering where the splash zone would be.

 

After 2 days of staying home and collecting, it actually felt strange to use toilets again when I was done, but somehow I managed. And now I can start talking about normal stuff again.

[Xena]

Loved the race recaps! My favorite part was the difference in the way the two of you wrote about the t-shirts :-)

 

QuirkySelf is a complete rockstar for fighting through that course. I seem to remember the polar race being pretty epic too.

 

Do kidney stones have something to do with the way your body handles calcium? I vaguely remember reading that, but could be completely wrong.

[QuirkyDM]

Thanks, Xena. Yes, QuirkySelf and I have different ways of remembering these things- mostly because she's an obsessive planner and control freak and I'm a low anxiety, slow worker, remember it all at the end and get everything done the night before freak. We compliment each other well.

 

The kidney stones are still being looked into, but calcium is one of the factors. I'm supposed to limit it, but still make sure I'm taking a decent daily dose. When I look at the list of foods to avoid, it's all the high oxalate foods everyone tells you to eat for healthy hearts: nuts, berries, beets, dark chocolate, tea, dark leafy greens, wheat bran, etc. Basically, everything I ate last year, every day, all day. I'm still looking into it, but it looks like it's an imbalance of calcium and oxalates and they are supposed to interact in your stomach, but if they don't, they move to your kidneys and interact there to form stones. I think. I'm no doctor, so as I talk to real doctors more, I'll figure this out. Right now, I'm guessing my high oxalate intake is the culprit. I should find out in a few weeks.

 

This takes some of the pressure off the diet in our house in that now I'm forced to eat a lot more "normal" foods from my family's perspective. I'm not just feasting on greek yogourt, oatmeal, roasted chicken and salads all day long. Though, I still eat those, they're only a portion of my diet instead of the whole thing. I've even had ice cream a few times this summer. My kids have been in shock because "Daddy doesn't eat ice cream." But they're also pretty happy because they'll take any excuse to eat more ice cream.

 

Of course, I can't just eat whatever all the time and not do anything about it. Which is why I've started Intermittent Fasting again over the last few weeks. And it's always remarkable to me how fast the results come. My body seems to respond instantly every time I try this. I not only lose weight, but it pretty much always seems to be fat that's leaving my system and not muscle. I'm interested to see what happens if I keep it up long term. I'd like to shed a few pounds of fat, but I'm curious to know with just a single day of fasting each week, where my body would stabilize and the effect it has on my body as a whole.

 

I find now that I've done it a few times, fasting is no effort at all. I don't miss food at all when I do it. And in the spirit of changing my life for maximum gains and minimal effort, (winning the exercise lottery) I couldn't find a better option. There's no calorie counting, no worries about when to eat or even too much about what to eat. I eat healthy, but I don't have to worry about every single piece of food I put in my mouth. Everything in moderation with fasting to handle whatever anomalies pop up in my life and no worries when they do. That makes intermittent fasting pretty much ideal for sustainability, flexibility and needing minimal willpower. At least for me.

 

It's gotten to the point where fasting is an easier, less stressful day then eating. On fasting days, I don't worry about making a breakfast or packing a lunch. I have an easy, relaxing morning, get to work early before anyone else is there, replace my lunch with a quick break or playing Magic with a co worker, and then go home a little earlier at the end of the day. And when I'm fasting on Fridays, which is my usual day, going home early is a great start to the weekend.

 

My wife rolls her eyes every time I fast. I'm pretty small already, not overweight by any means. But I do believe this makes me healthier in that it's only fat I'm losing. And if I can see my six pack some day, that might not be so bad either. When that happens, then maybe my wife will be a little more accepting of it.

[Xena]

I'm impressed by the IF. Seems like it works really well for lots of people.

[QuirkyDM]

Ah, far too long since the last post. I meant to hit this at least once a week. An unfortunate collision between my son and gastro virus did not make for a good time last week. There's just no way to put a positive spin on that. Not even unicorns and rainbows can make that better.

 

That ended up being a lost week of fitness, but I took the time to reevaluate what I was doing for fitness and maybe I need to mix it up a bit from my current set up. I think I might be taking it a little too slow ...

 

Change #1. If I missed any days, I would repeat my last day or go backward if I missed multiple days. That was an unnecessary rule. It took forever to increase my reps. You can do 5/3/1 and only exercise each muscle 1/week, so I only move back or repeat now if I miss for more than a week. (which will only happen under extreme circumstances)

 

2. Doing easy reps every day only works when I keep up the reps and don't try to hit a specific goal. But I do have goals. Like hitting 25 pull ups. Once I started reducing sets and rest time on pull ups, every day pull ups were no longer an option. My shoulders were getting wrecked and it was too tough. So now it's every other day.

 

Planks were also getting hard, so they are now every other day as well. But, both of these leave me more time to exercise, so I can start adding more to my routine. Which is also the point- once other exercises are easily integrated into my life, ad some new challenges. Starting with L-sits and this little beauty I've wanted for a long time now.

 

 

Whoops- no, no ,no. That's for something ... completely different ... pay no attention to that.

 

I meant this:

 

As part of the "turn our yard into an obstacle course", we set up a slack line in the back yard and that. is. fun! For now it's enough to stand on one foot and keep my balance and get a few steps on it, but I see constant improvement. The kids are stoked about it as well, which is a nice bonus where we can do some exercise together. And it's only one small piece of what we've got going in the yard.

 

On that note, the kids do pull ups with me whenever I am doing it. My daughter really wants to get her first strict pull up. They're using a thin pull up band right now to build up strength. My son is still working on his first pull up as well, but his big improvement is he's started to be able to climb the rope in our front yard. He's managed to pull himself up a few times before he loses his technique and grip. But now, he can actually get up and try to do it, so that's a huge milestone for him.

 

Might as well put some pull up numbers down for me since I'm talking about them.

Pull ups: 4 sets of 7, 6, 6 and 6. 1:12 rest between sets, reducing the rest times by 6 seconds each time.

I'll see how long I can do that before I hit failure, but for now, it's still pretty easy. In an ideal world, I would keep reducing the rest time until I hit 0 and in another month be able to grind out 25 pull ups. Um, yeah ...

[Xena]

Love the slack line! You mentioned doing L sits. I forgot exactly what happened, but I think you tore something in your abdomen a while back. Does that mean you are back to being able to do core work? If so, that's great!

[QuirkyDM]

I think the core issues are resolved. It was a combination of pulled lower abs and overworked hip flexors. And I have a few hernias, too, but the doctor says those aren't affecting me. I'm just ramping it up nice and slow and keeping myself really stretched. Of course, my weekend purchase may have something to say about that. But I'll talk about that later after I unwrap it and take some photos.

[QuirkyDM]

I spent the entire last week on vacation and it was so nice. But besides standard vacation activities, that 1.5 weeks of little exercise. I kept up with L-sit training and push ups, but that's it. Yesterday and today, I finally got back into it, so this is a good time to list my current benchmarks.

 

barefoot running: 4.0 km

push ups: 15

pull ups: 7 + 3x6, 1:12 rest between sets

plank: opposite leg/arm lifted, 30 seconds each side

side plank: leg and arm lifted, 30 seconds each side

L- sit: straight legs, feet on ground, 30 seconds

slack -line: one foot balance, 20 seconds each side

deadlift: 1x5, 45lbs.

 

After the break, I did run a little too fast yesterday, which led to some tender feet yesterday and a killer tight calf this morning. Only one way to solve that.

Now, as awesome as my vacation was, (Bruce Penninsula in Ontario is amazing for anyone in the area looking for a great vacation) I got very excited about the drive back from vacation. Because for a mere 25 minute detour on our 8 hour car ride home, I could go to Fitness Avenue where I found an amazing deal and the next step in setting up my house as my own personal playground.

 

I now have my own, super special set of bumper plates and barbells. Yay! I really missed doing deadlifts when I left the gym and instead of going back to the gym, I thought, "Let's just get my own". This whole set is cheaper than a year membership at many gyms and I can do it whenever I want, which is a huge advantage. Wake up in the morning? Deadlift! Come home from work? Deadlift! Zombies surrounding the house and blocking all exits? Deadlift! It's really ideal for anytime.

[sylph]

Gym equipment at home, FTW! Excellent investment.

[Xena]

Yay deadlifts! Based on your previous posts, I think this will be fun for the whole family (not sure if the kids are old enough yet, but I'm positive they'll be deadlifting eventually)  :-)

 

Glad you had a good vacation. I'm impressed by your one-arm one-leg planks!