Monday

Didn't sleep very well but still got up at 0700 so that I could take the CPD "physical agility test" at 0900.  They had it on the top of the municipal parking garage that's next door to HQ.  Went pretty well.  Minimum finish time is 2:06 and I did a 1:24.  Its basically just a short obstacle course with a little bit of running, jumping some hurdles, climbing steps, climbing over a wall and through a window, and dragging a 150lbs sled.  Not hard.

Went home, had breakfast, then headed to the gym around 2.

Usual 5:00 rowing warm up on 10/10 resistance followed by 10:00 of stretching.

First:
SealFit 121211
For time:
Run 800m

10 Rounds:
20 Mountain climbers
10 Dips
10 Leg Levers

Run 800m

First time.  Went pretty well.  Ran both of the 800m intervals at 6:42/mi pace.  Did every round and set of mountain climbers, dips, and leg levers unbroken.  Took maybe 5sec rest in between each round but otherwise didn't rest.  Finished in 22:28.

Second:
Runner's core wod.  But I changed it a little.  Normally I do 45sec per exercise for 2 rounds.  This time I did 1min per exercise for the first round, then 45sec per exercise for the second round.

Third:
Flat dumbbell bench press.  Started with 80, then 90, then 100, then back down to 80.

Fourth:
Did the "Sally Up" wod for squats.

Saturday - Hairy Bison 30k

Hairy Bison 30k "race" report.

Got up early to do a 30km club run/race that was put on by my trail running group.  30km comes out to about 18mi.  Really all it would be is two laps of the regular 9mi trail that we run every Saturday.  The first lap would be in the regular direction, the second lap would be in the reverse direction.  The second lap was optional. but for each lap you did, you received a buffalo nickle at the halfway point.  After the race, there would be a drawing and how many tickets you got depended on how many laps you completed.  I don't normally (ever) run 18mi but what the hell, its free, and I would double my chances to get free crap in the drawing.

Probably 50-60 people showed up.  A lot of my Saturday morning trail group, a few guys from the road racing club, a few ladies from the Sunday trail group, among others.

I started out towards the front.  The super fast girl Anna was there, along with Hunter and Kyle, so I knew I wouldn't be anywhere near the fastest person there.  Wanted to take it conservative on the first lap, and then just struggle through the second.  Whelp.  Not so much.

First lap went great.  Paced along behind 3 of the road racers.  Got to the turn around point in 1:11.  Felt awesome.  The last couple miles I actually took it easy because I knew I'd have another lap to go.  I probably could have gone well under 1:10 if I had pushed it.  Made the turn and started back slowly.  Felt tough but doable.  Got maybe 2 miles into it and the body said "no more thank you."  Started with both calves seizing up, then both hamstrings, then hip flexors, then groin, and finally because why not, my arms seized.  Pretty much total body failure.  Had to jog/walk the remaining 7 miles.  Towards the end I could only run for maybe 10 seconds before having to walk for several minutes.  Second half ended up taking 1:52.  Ugh.

Afterwards, I won a nice bpa-free bottle and a second Conquest pint glass in the raffle drawing.  So I guess there's that.

After thinking about it, I probably didn't eat enough beforehand.  I only had my usual half a banana, which is fine for 9mi, not so much for 18.  Should have had a full banana and added peanut butter.

Saturday - Paris Mountain 16k trail race

Ran the Paris Mountain 16k trail race Saturday morning.  16km comes out to a little under 10mi.  But I knew in advance that it would not be comparable to the Army 10Miler I did a couple weeks ago.  This is a very difficult series of trails at a park just outside of Greenville, SC.  I've run it before, back in 2011.  It was my first ever trail race, and oh man it did not go well.  I was still very new to trail running and unfamiliar with the difficulty of the trails I would be facing.  Not so much this year.  I knew what I was getting into, and I've run on trails at least once nearly every week for 2-3 years.

This time around, I added in some Stairmaster workouts, a lot of plyometric exercises (box jumps, jump squats, and jump lunges), and intervals of running hills combined with other exercises.  Everything felt good.  I saw how easy the Army 10Miler was a couple weeks prior so I knew I had the endurance.  But endurance on the road is different from endurance on trails climbing a mountain.

Got over to the park at 0730.  Got my packet, warmed up, got my gear and apparel all set then made my way down to the starting area.  It was low 50s with a fair bit of humidity, but with the promise of a sunny day, so I opted for less clothing rather than more.  Wore both sets of calf sleeves, thin socks, my Peregrines, shorts, a singlet, a hat, and my hydration belt with a single bottle of watered down Powerade Zero.

The start of the race is in a small parking lot towards from the front of the park.

Mile 1 - Starting in the parking lot, it goes 600m down the paved park road before turning off onto the trails, where you stay until the finish.  At the start line, I got to the front and stayed with the front pack down the road before turning onto the trails.  Once onto the trails, its single file.

Mile 2 - Started to get strung out here.  The lead group took off so it was just two guys directly in front of me, and who knows what behind me.  The downside to trail running is you can't turn around to see who is behind you because you will almost definitely face plant.  The two guys in front of me looked like they were friends.  Both in pretty decent shape.  The guy directly in front had the Ironman logo tattooed on his leg so I was determined to not let him leave me.  There was a small section of maybe 20m where the trail widened and a few people passed us but I wasn't worried about that.

Mile 3 - Oh yes, the worst part of the course.  Nearly impossible to run.  The trail follows a stream. Unfortunately you are going up stream.  Lots of sections of slick boulders and logs that you have to climb up, sometimes using nearby trees or branches for help.  Lots of steps.  Like, a lot of steps.  My mile time plummeted.  We would run up to a climb, get up it, run 5m to the next climb, get up that, repeat, for a mile.  Couple people passed here and there, but for the most part it was very single track.  Towards the end of the climb, the Ironman tattoo guy stepped aside for me to pass.  His buddy took off.  Another guy passed me, but then couldn't hold the pace and I was on his backside before he stepped out of the way.  The trail weaves away from the stream, widens, and then does a few switchbacks going up the mountain.  A taller guy (with a headband) who looked in good shape passed me but not all that quickly, so I decided I'd try to stick with him.  I couldn't hear anyone else, and since the trail was wide and open, I took a peak behind and didn't see anyone for a little ways.

Mile 4-5 - Stuck with the Headband Guy to the top of the mountain and then for the very fun and very fast downhill.  2 miles of long swooping downhill switchbacks.  Headband Guy and I were cooking.  I let him stay maybe 5-10m in front of me in case he fell so I didn't just plow him over.  We got to the bottom where it curves around this big reservoir.  Started to hear footsteps and heavy breathing behind me and then bam, this tall lanky old guy passes Headband Guy and I like we're stopped.  He gets maybe 20-30m in front of us and then stays there.  Whatever, we keep chugging along.

Mile 6-7 - Knew this was coming, the second series of steep inclines.  For the next two miles, it was basically steep .5mi climb, then it would fool you with what appeared to be the "top of the mountain," you make a turn, and then have another .5mi climb.  I think I counted four .5mi climbs.  The trail was a little wider than single track.  We would randomly pass people going in the other direction.  Headband Guy and I stuck together and actually chatted a bit.

Mile 8 - Got to the top of that series of climbs and then headed back down.  Not as long a decline as before but still quick.  Headed through a water stop where the lanky old guy was standing there drinking.  Headband Guy and I kept going (we both had hydration belts) and I figured we'd never see the lanky guy again.  Nope.  There was a short incline after the water stop, and then a series of steep decline switchbacks.  We were cooking, and almost to the bottom when lanky guy passes us again.  What the hell.

Mile 9 - I'm starting to be annoyed by tall lanky old guy.  I don't like playing leapfrog during a race.  Headband Guy and I keep within 50m or so of lanky guy on a series of small incline and declines. I can tell that Headband Guy is starting to fade though while I'm starting to pick it up.

Last .9mi - I decide I've had enough of lanky guy.  I tell Headbang Guy I'm going to catch up to the lanky guy, he steps out of the way and I'm off like a rocket.  Within a few minutes, I catch up to lanky guy.  Wait a few seconds for a good section then pass him like he passed us earlier.  Immediately pass another guy.  And then I put the hammer down.  I have strong legs, the end of a race is where I like to show them off.  I leave the lanky guy and start catching up and passing other people.  Trail starts to look familiar and I can hear cheering.  Sprint to the finish line and cross in 1:26:59.

Its about 1min slower than my first try at this race, but the race is also 1km longer.  I think I did much better.  My first try I had to walk a lot during the steps/boulders section, and then I tripped and fell during the series of .5mi inclines and had to walk for a few minutes.  This second try, I only walked a little bit during the steps/boulders section.  And I didn't walk for the rest of the race.  Very happy with the result.  And very happy that I could catch up and pass so many people in the last 1.5mi of a tough race.  Have to love strong legs.

Virginia Trip Pt 2 - GoRuck Nasty Obstacle Course

Here's my AAR for the GoRuck Nasty 001 obstacle course race on 21 Sept 2013.

Nasty is a 5-6mi race with 20-25 obstacles along the way.  It was held at the Massanutten ski resort in the Shenandoah Mountains in Virginia.  The obstacles are based on designs from the Special Forces Obstacle Course at Ft Bragg and the BUDS Obstacle Course at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado.  The course was planned, organized, run, and monitored by former and active duty military special operations soldiers.  Most from Army Special Forces but a few others from Marine Force Recon/MARSOC and one or two from the Naval Special Warfare community.  Roughly 3000 people registered.  They were broken into starting waves that began at 0700 and went until 2pm, every 10min or so.  My brother and I were in the 1020 wave.

My dad drove us to the race.  It was definitely in the mountains, my ears popped several times just in the car.  Parked, checked in and picked up our packets.  Like I said, the course is on a ski resort.  Its designed so that the staging area was the large open area at the base of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd slopes.  The 4th and 5th slope and the chair lift slope were a short walk away.

For apparel, I wore a black synthetic running shirt, compression undershorts, a pair of old soccer shorts, thin toe-socks, a pair of thin calf socks over those, both my red and black pairs of calf sleeves, and my new Peregrine trail shoes.  When we check in, they told us that gloves are highly recommended.  Thanks for the heads up GoRuck!

I should also say, the map above is a little distorted.  First, its upside-down, North is down in the map.  Second, the obstacles aren't in order.  Third, there are obstacles on there that don't exist.

Here is more accurate map using Google Pedometer.  The green dot in the upper right is the start, the red dot in the middle is the finish.  The numbers are mile markers.  The yellow dots are actual obstacles.  I didn't add yellow dots for the obstacles that were just climbing a hill.

Kirt and I got in line and started a little early with the 1000 wave, oops.  There were maybe 15-20 other people ranging from younger to older, men and women.  We had a group of 10 or so guys wearing the same t-shirt and pants who we found out were from a local SWAT team.

Started up the first slope.  First obstacle was a 10-15m low crawl underneath a grid of boards.  Jogged a short distance and got in line for a 15ft cargo net climb.  Waited maybe a couple min before we could get on it.  I had a little trouble getting a good grip to roll over the top but other than that it wasn't a big deal.  After another short distance were a couple 8ft walls you had to climb over.  They had a small ledge in it for people to use but it was quicker for Kirt and I to just muscle-up over them.  At the top of the slope was a rope swing.  You had to jump up and grab onto the rope, swing across a 10ft space, and land on a waist high ledge on your feet.  Pretty easy as long as you grabbed high up the rope.  Jogged halfway down the slope and another wall, this time maybe chest high.  Pretty easy to jump and push up and over it.

At the base of the hill, we made the turn and started up the second slope.  The first obstacle was just a large mound of dirt to run up and over.  Then it was supposed to be one of the harder obstacles called The Dirty Name.  Its three horizontal logs, one at knee height, the next at head height, and the last above finger tip height.  There is maybe 2-3 feet separating each.  You're supposed to jump from one to the next.  Minutes before we got to it, someone had fallen off the highest log, landed on his wrist, bone popped out, and then he was knocked unconscious after hitting his head on a sandbag.  They closed the obstacle for the rest of the day.  Ran around it and then had another couple walls that were 8ft tall to climb over.  I think there was another obstacle after that before we turned around at the top of the hill but I can't remember it.  Then running back down the hill, there was a 25m stretch of mud to run through, with one of the instructors spraying everyone with a cold fire hose.  Made the turn at the bottom of the hill and started the third slope.

The third slope started with a smaller version of the Dirty Name.  Thankfully there wasn't a line for this one.  It only had two logs, one at waist height and one a little above head height.  Seemed a bit safer and more manageable so I gave it a try.  Stood on the lower log and jumped to the higher, but landed too high on my chest, so even with my arms grabbing on top, there wouldn't have been any way to pull myself up.  Didn't help that both logs were slick from water and mud.  Dropped off onto my feet.  Tried again but with a bigger jump trying to land more on my stomach.  Ow.  Landed on my stomach with my arms over the log.  Had to kip a little before I could get on top and then roll over and drop off the other side.  Did not feel awesome landing on a log on my midsection twice.  Ran a short distance up the hill to get into a big line for a 50m underground tunnel crawl.  It was looking like a 30-45min wait, so we opted to bear crawl 50m instead of waiting.  Another short run, then we immediately started another tunnel crawl, but in a tunnel big enough to bear crawl through.  Much longer though, probably more than 75m long.  A little weird being in total darkness but you just keep moving and eventually you crawl out of it.  Another short run, then back in line for the monkey bars obstacle.  Waited maybe 20min before we got to try it.  It was a 15m stretch of monkey bars with a foot or two of water underneath.  You had to jump 3-4ft across the water to get to the first bar, so people were having issues with that.  Kirt and I made it look easy though.  All the way across with no problems, and pretty quickly too.

Short jog around the first water station and then the start of the fourth hill.  Maybe 200m up the hill we got into a huge line, long enough where we couldn't really see what the obstacle was.  Waited probably 50min before we got to the front.  It was two pyramids of logs, each maybe 6ft high, and maybe 15m from each other.  There was a thick rope tied around the top of each log.  The idea being that you climb up the pyramid, climb onto the rope, pull yourself across the rope to the other pyramid, climb onto the pyramid and jump off.  Except that in practice, they were letting 4 or 5 people on the same rope, and there wasn't enough tension in it, so you would get to the middle and literally be crawling on the ground.  Kirt got all the way across but when he transitioned off the rope and onto the log, the rope shook and I dropped off 6in onto the ground.  So basically a 50min wait to fall off a rope after 30 seconds.  Back to tackling the slope.  No running up this one, very long and pretty steep.  Calves started to feel it.  Finally got to the top, quick water station and then an obstacle.  Quick line, maybe 1 or 2min.  The obstacle was a series of five letter "X's" made of 4x4 beams.  You had to get over them by jumping and pulling yourself up.  A little awkward but not all that hard.  It was at the top of the hill, so we made the turn and jogged down the next slope.

Jogging down a very steep slope is very hard by the way.  Very taxing on your quads and because it wasn't designed to be run on bare, there were lots of rocks and holes, so we were constantly bouncing.  Really think my trail running background helped here as I didn't have any issues.  Made it down the slope, then turned left through a treeline and yay, another gigantic hill to climb.  This one nearly as long and just as steep as the previous.  Got to the top of it and found another obstacle.  This one had the biggest line yet though.  The obstacle started with a 15-20ft rope climb, you then had to transition from the rope to the horizontal log that the rope was tied to, from there you had to scoot onto and down another log that was attached perpendicular and running at a slight down angle, from there you then had to climb onto a horizontal metal ladder running at a slight down angle, and then jump down maybe 10 feet onto a padded mat.  Couple things.  They only had two safety mats, one near the ropes at the beginning, and the other at the end.  Neither of which would really help any if you fell from the highest and most dangerous points on the obstacle.  I got in line and Kirt walked to the front to check it out up close.  When he came back, he said we were looking at a 1.5 to 2 hour wait.  The guys just getting to the obstacle had started in the 0830 wave.  Nope, not going to wait 2 hours.  We heard randomly from someone that it was a 50 burpee penalty to skip it, fine, I'll do 50 burpees for not waiting 2 hours.  Also noticed Dad was there, he had taken a couple ski lifts up and saw us.  We did the burpees, said hey to Dad then made the turn and headed back down the slope.

We jogged down the slope, and got maybe 3/4 of the way down before we got to another obstacle.  This would be awful.  Probably 100m of low crawling underneath barbed wire, on gravel/dirt, on a steep downhill.  It was agonizing.  I was mainly using legs, so my legs were torched.  Kirt mainly used arms, so his upper body was smoked.  He tore his shirt, I nearly tore my race bib off my shorts.  Arms and legs scraped up.  We were slowed down when a girl in front of us got her hair caught in the wire.  Luckily one of her friends we nearby, crawled over and helped get it untangled.  Did not look fun.  I had a couple barbs poke into my head and back but otherwise I was fine.  Crawled out, jogged maybe 50m down the hill and around the corner to the base of the final slope, which followed underneath a chair lift.

At the base of this last hill, there was an instructor standing there in front of 2 large peg-boards with a bunch of small American flags sticking out.  He called a big group of us together and gave us a speech about how this next hill was the "Memorial Climb" and how we were supposed to each carry one of the flags from the bottom to the top and think about the men and women who have been KIA in OEF/OIF.  He brought up that only a few weeks before, a Green Beret that several of the GoRuck instructors knew had been killed in Afghanistan.  So we all grabbed a flag and headed up.  It was the steepest hill of the course.  Even though it was maybe only 800m long, it felt much longer.  Kirt and I set a good pace, we'd pause for a quick breather every 50m or so.  The incline was steep enough that if I stopped moving, I would start to slide back down the hill (this is with new aggressive trail running shoes on, which don't ever slide).  We got maybe 3/4 of the way up when we got to a cluster of people.  Going around them we noticed they were grouped around a guy who was probably over 60 years old and a good 100lbs overweight, sitting down looking like he was about to have a heart attack.  Got to the top of the hill, placed the flags we were carrying into another peg-board, then had another instructor call us together.  He said the next "obstacle" was the "Mogadishu Mile."  We were supposed to stick together as a team and head down the gravel road.  The name comes from the last part of the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia in Oct 1993.  Two Blackhawk helicopters were shot down during an operation to extract several high ranking Somali warlords.  A group of Rangers and Delta operators that went to secure one of the crash sites then had to run a mile through Mogadishu carrying their wounded and dead teammates all while being engaged by the thousands of militia in the city.  GoRuck's version of this was for us to walk down a gravel road for a mile.  Yep.  That was it.

Got to the bottom of the gravel road, which wound its way down the mountain, and found another obstacle.  This was a balance beam obstacle.  It had maybe a 30min line which didn't seem so bad after seeing a close to 2hr line earlier.  While waiting in line, one of the GoRuck instructors was walking up and down the line and mentioned to us that obstacles in Nasty were harder than what he had to do in the Nasty Nick course at Ft Bragg.  Hm, good to know.  So we get up to the front.  The obstacle is getting across 3 telephone pole logs.  Each log has a slight up-angle, so you get progressively higher off the ground.  You start maybe a foot off the ground and finish 6 feet off the ground.  Not high, but if you have crappy balance this will screw with you.  The logs were not secured in place, so there was a system of people wedging the logs in place so they wouldn't rock while someone walked across them.  Kirt and I got across then jogged 200m to the next obstacle.

Next obstacle was a couple of high walls that you had to climb over.  These were at an angle coming at you, so it made it tough for some people.  But Kirt and I didn't have any issue just doing a muscle up over them.  Maybe a 100m jog to the next obstacle.

Next obstacle was The Weaver.  This was a series of horizontal 4x4 posts creating a pyramid, starting waist height and going up to probably 20ft off the ground.  The object is to go over the first post, then under the next, then over, under, and so on.  I got up the pyramid, got to the top, then realized I had no earthly idea how you safely do over/under doing down the slope.  I decided I did not want to learn on the fly and possibly drop 20ft onto dirt so I just scooted down the top on my butt and jumped off.  Another 100m job to the next obstacle.

This was the Confidence Climb.  Probably 30-40 feet straight up a wooden ladder, go over the top, then come back down.  Oh by the way, it had been raining for the last hour, so everything was wet.   And it had a 15-20min line.  Kirt and I decided to skip this one.

Then the last obstacle.  This had probably a 45min-1hr line.  You started by climbing a 15ft rope.  Then transition to a platform.  Then walk across horizontal 4x4 beams spaced 2ft apart (with no safety net underneath, just a long drop).  After 10m of that, you climb a wooden ladder another 15ft, climb over the top, then climb onto a cargo net and descend to the bottom.  Kirt and I skipped this one too.  And then you had maybe a 600-800m run to the finish line.  The End.

Problems I had with the race:
-The massive lines.
-They made their obstacles harder than the original obstacles they were based on.
-The order of the obstacles was terrible.  Lets have 3 of the hardest obstacles all in a row at the very end! Great idea!
-Little to no considerations for safety.

Army 10Miler

Headed up to Virginia to run the Army 10Miler race with my brother.  Its one of the largest 10 mile races in the world with 35k registrants.  Of course, it being a race, only ~27k actually showed up, but whatever.

I stayed the night before at my brother's house since he lives closer to downtown than my parents.  Worked out pretty well.  Got up at 0600, out the door at 0630, drove 10min over to the nearest Metro stop, maybe a 15min Metro ride to the starting area, then about 45min to warm up and stretch.

It was pretty cold, somewhere in the high 40s, and wouldn't be getting above the mid 50s during the race, so I dressed appropriately.  Both sets of calf sleeves, Injiniji toe socks, my Puma flats, running shorts, a long sleeve running shirt, a hat, and my hydration belt with one bottle of watered down Powerade Zero.  In the other cup holder I carried my brother's phone, my ID, some money, and my bag of Sport Beans.

We got stuck in the last corral so we didn't start until 0820.  Kirt wanted to average somewhere around 8:00/mi.  Race started and we took off.  And for the next 10 miles, we did a fartlek run.  We would sprint for 10m to pass people, then slow down and get stuck behind someone, then pass and sprint another 10m, then slow down.  On and on, for 10 miles.

Course was pretty easy.  Only a few random small hills, which we passed even more people on.  I know its supposed to be scenic because it weaves its way around Arlington and DC, but I don't remember anything other than the Watergate Hotel.  Had to focus on not running anyone over or tripping anyone up.

The post race was a bit disappointing.  There was water bottles everywhere, so that wasn't a big deal.  But if you wanted any sort of food (bananas, bagels, whatever), you had to wait in a huge line.  No thanks.  We walked the mile or so back to the Metro and went home.

All in all a fun race but I wouldn't ever run it and try to PR.  That would be dumb.  Unless you are literally in the front elite group, you will be stuck behind people the whole way.  But overall, a fun way to spend a Sunday morning.