Suffer... with a smile. :)

With the weeks winding down to the Tough Mudder event in Tampa, Florida, Jessica and I are both making plans to facilitate both a memorable and stress-free event to come.  As I have written before, Jessica is not as excited about the event as I am but for good reason.  She’s just not into adventure/obstacle racing as I am.  But nevertheless, she’s yet to utter a single word about backing out.  Our plan is to just work together and finish as a team.  I myself will face the self-imposed up-scaled difficulty of finishing the race with my 40lb weighted vest.  Wearing the vest will add some discomfort but certainly doesn’t add any shade of possibility of failure.  In my past life, I was certainly exposed to carrying almost my own body weight in gear and weapons.  And even with all of the training that I received, nothing is more complex and difficult than operating in a real-life hostile environment.  Circumventing obstacles, both mental and physical, were simply a facet of the business.   In any physical event, the reality is that it is just mental.  Do you sit and think about the entire mission, overwhelm yourself with the sheer complexity of it all, or do you compartmentalize everything and address tasks as they appear?  The idea is to take the ladder; step by step, obstacle by obstacle, until the job is finished.   Jess and I will certainly be taking this approach. 

Click here for a course layout of TM Tampa!

We’re not looking to finish fast, just strong.  Each one of us has our concerns.  For Jessica, it’s probably the “Chernobyl Jacuzzi.”  It’s essentially an elongated dumpster with a 50/50 mix of ice and water – she hates the cold.  I remember doing this obstacle in Virginia when it was about 38 degrees outside; so it sucked, but it only lasted a few seconds so it was indeed temporary.  In Tampa, it’s the second obstacle out of twenty six.  In theory, it should really be downhill after that for her.  I am personally concerned with the fourteenth obstacle known as “Walk the Plank.”  The fifteen foot jump into a stream will be cake, it’s the fifty feet of water treading and swimming thereafter is what relatively elevates my level of concern.  Worst case scenario is that I pass out or drown.  I’m not trying to sound tough, I promise, but I am confident that I will fair just fine with the extra weight.  And in all reality, there’s a huge difference in finishing with a sigh of relief and finishing with a smirkish grin whilst thinking to yourself, “Next.”  I’d like Jessica to have a bit of both and I know that she can.  She has proven to me that she can not only compete but keep her avid sense of humor about her while getting after it.  I remember back to our Warrior Dash event earlier in the year and her and I had just passed the two mile mark.

Me:        Hey babe, how are you holding up?

Jess:      Well, I was thinking that I was going to puke my guts out about a half mile back… but I didn’t.  So I’m pretty psyched about that.

That comment was followed by a luster of laughs from the large group of folks that trailed us during the race event.  So I know she can gut it out and still maintain her cavalier demeanor.  And I recall looking for that very feature in the Marines that I trained when I was still active.  Those who did, I kept closest to me.  So when in doubt, smile!

As for an update on my journey, I am still hitting the weights and glad that I started to do so rather than focus purely on circuit training.  The strenuous leg work outs are already starting to have a dramatic effect on my run time.  In the realm of running, I have also begun to run with what are known as “minimus-type” running shoes.

They essentially are light running shoes but offer very little support for your feet and arches.  This, in turn, trains your body to let your feet do most of the work when running.  The pair I have selected are known as the Inov-8 Bare-Grip 200s.  They closely follow the idea of a bare-foot running shoe but their not as impractical, in my eyes.  This particular model offers a VERY aggressive tread pattern which is great for off-road and wet-trail running.  I was sold on the pair after watching a review by a guy who showed a pair with over 600 miles on them – they have very little wear on them.  So far I have only been able to run once with my new pair of shoes but did I fly!  These shoes just scream at me to run faster.  I’ll let you know how they turn out but so far I am very happy with my purchase.

I have officially signed up for the 2012 Raleigh – NC Goruck Challenge.  It goes down at the end of February so, once I am back from Tampa, all efforts will be made to ensure that I complete the challenge.  In my next blog entry, I’ll go more into what it’s all about.  Super excited.  Also, I have been chosen to be Jacksonville’s Spartan Race Street Team Ambassador.  This will essentially allow me to promote Spartan Races and offer discounts as well as a number of other sorted goodies.  More details to follow on that as well. 

Once again, thanks for reading guys.  Hope all is well with you and yours.  Take care.

Pressing forward.

So this will be my first post that doesn’t primarily focus on or preface an upcoming event.  Nor does it follow one, for that matter.  The next event that I have on the docket is the Tampa Tough Mudder event with Jessica.  I am still pretty amped up about it.  Originally, I had planned on running it with a small collection of Marines from 3^rd Force Reconnaissance Company out of Mobile, Alabama.  Unfortunately, they have since had to withdraw from the event due to their hectic training schedule.  It’s definitely a bummer but is totally understandable and is most certainly indicative of the lifestyle these guys live.  It is, by  in large, just one small example of what these guys have to sacrifice in order to do the work needed to support our nation’s elite special operations community.   

I ultimately know that Jessica is probably not looking forward to it as much as I am but that is understandable.  This type of thing just isn’t her forte as much as it is mine.  But in order to add an additional challenge for myself, I will be adding weight to myself just as I had done previously with the Warrior Dash that she and I ran together.  I’ll probably do this with a 40lb weighted vest and a 300ml water supply for both Jess and I.  That way, we both get something out of it.  If you get a chance to talk to Jessica, make sure that you give her an encouraging fist bump.  Jessica’s only other event she has ran was the Warrior Dash so there is a considerable distance difference between the two events; the Warrior Dash only being about three miles long verses the grueling twelve mile event that Tough Mudder HQ facilitates.  She is most certainly cowgirlin-the-eff-up, in a manner of speaking.  I could only be more excited if the bug bites her just as it has for me.

So to add on to my last post, I finished this past week of restarting my heavy lifting routine.  And let me tell you, I haven’t been that sore in quite a while.  This only further proves to me what I had originally postulated: that the two facets of fitness that I focus on are two completely separate disciplines.   I have decided to hire a professional trainer from my local gym that specializes in heavy weight lifting of fitness in order to expand my knowledge base and, thus, provide me with a more solid foundation.  I plan on utilizing this window of training to primarily perfect my ability to do what is known as a clean-and-jerk and clean-and-press.  Both are a huge part of Cross Fit.  Videos are provided below.

In light of this, I have recently purchased and am excited to test out my new weight lifting shoes from Rogue Fitness.  In my next posting, I will go over what my initial thoughts are on the shoe and why I think that they are important.  Essentially, just like any other shoe, they are designed to help and support the athlete (or wannabe such as myself) to  train for a specific task just as what running shoes for runners, cleats do for traction, etc.  They essentially provide the user with a forward leaning posture to help support the heavy lifting from a clean and jerk.  They’re not necessarily needed but I can use all of the help that I can get.

The duality of my focus on both disciplines of circuit training and weightlifting will prove to be difficult.  This I am certain of.  But both focuses are extremely important if I want to ultimately finish the Death Race.  Take an athlete like Joe Decker for example.  He has completed the past two Spartan Death Race events from the past two years… oh yea… and he also placed first both times.  From this, he has started his own fitness company known as Gut Check Fitness.  Before he decided to take on the Death Race, he also holds the belt for the Guinness Book of World Records competition known as the World’s Fittest Man.   A guy like Decker is the type of person and athlete that our nation’s youth should be attempting to emulate.  He’s strong, fit, smart, capable, unflusterable, and most importantly, he is as humble as they come.  I can only hope that maybe he will become as famous but I will not hold my breath.  A video is provided below.

                      Joe Decker: Worlds Fittest Man and two-time Spartan Death Race Champion

Well, I think I have run my mouth enough for one week.  Thanks for reading guys and gals and stay tuned in for my preamble of my next event: the Tampa Tough Mudder.