Moh moh moh... Mudzilla

[digitaldiscipline]

I am not fast. I am, in fact, embarassingly slow by my standards... but at least as fast as everyone else in this picture (most of whom participate in the crossfit-esque "corn cob abs" workout program held at my office; the dude hunkered front and center is the coach; his wife, a fitness competitor, didn't run, and is the one holding the camera). ;-)

Yes, I have a large grease pencil X on my forehead, because... what are you, new?

5k-ish, with a lot of obstacles providing a nice array of challenges - mud pits where you had to scale tires and duck under logs, a wall to climb with a knotted rope for assistance (this one almost bested me), a tire to drag, buckets of water to carry, stuff to jump and climb over/under, a straightforward rope climb to ring a bell, tires to do fast footwork, wood frame and monkey bar things to scale and traverse, and dirt/haybale/discarded vehicle hills to climb, with various methods of getting back down (more dirt or hay, or waterslides into a splashdown area... going head-first with my arms in a "not the face!" defensive stance was a big hit with the staffers working those obstacles.

All in all, it was enjoyable, with the exception of rolling my ankle on one of the obstacles around the two mile mark (slide down a big tube into a splashdown area... this one was surprisingly shallow, and not at all softly-churned mud at the bottom, like every other water hazard had been), which prevented me from even attempting what looked like the most challenging construction on the course (a rope bridge - two single ropes on the side, with a single rope upon which to walk... it was totally up thewronghands' alley, but by that point, half a mile or so of walking/running on a cranky leg meant I couldn't even stand on the rope stably. I did my alternate-exercise option (a paltry ten situps) and kept going. (Considering that other obstacles had exercise penalties like "twenty five burpees"... yeah, that one was a breather.)

Also a big hit was the orange camo utilikilt, but that's hardly surprising. Afterwards, once I'd gotten my ankle kind of taped, numerous strangers asked for pictures, so, hey. Chatting up friendly folks with common interests, some of whom had, and some of whom were about to, undertake the same shenanigans? I forget that I occasionally enjoy being social when it's not being artificially imposed by people who are stressed out and need my help. :-)

Apparently, I struck a particularly photogenic moment jumping over the fire pit fifty yards from the finish; hopefully the race photographer caught it.

I was pleased to be able to do all the other obstacles, though, despite my relative lack of training (both explicit cardio, which was wildly apparent given my frequent walking intervals) as well as dynamic work... and the lingering shoulder shit, about which I will consult with my GP this coming Friday to review my x-rays

---

I have a consulting conversation with Josh this afternoon, after sending him this, which is what passes for a "mea culpa" in my workout lingo:

Since I am tired of being dictated to by my body, I feel like taking charge and telling ot what to do for the next three and a half months.

Can I take the two remaining weeks from my last block of training and work with you on a fourteen week powerbuilding program? I want to re-dedicate myself here, screw the limitations. My head needs to be mechanically separated from my ass, because the view from there sucks.

Basically, I want to kick ass from now until Labor Day (the week of July 2-7 will be a de-load due to travelling to visit my folks back up north) and quit whining and making excuses.

Two-a-days? I'll get my ass up early.
Lose coffee with cream and sugar? Tea or black it is.
Throw my truck tire around the back yard like some kind of Mad Max reject? You got it.

I'll test whatever 1RM's you need me to explore over the next week, and have my consultation with my physician about my shoulder next weekend, but I am tired of feeling beaten and defeated and weak.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Comments

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo! Congratulations and good luck with your ass-kicking program!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Watch this space for followups. my call is in half an hour.

also enjoyable but not included in the recap: mutually regaling a coworker with ill-considered drinking adventures and our respective world of warcraft facets as pertaining to previous romantic entanglements. made the 40 minute drive each way quite pleasant and social :-)

[tygenco-x.livejournal.com]

Woot, obstacle course of doom completed :D
(although this makes me miss Ninja Warrior a LOT, and thus I curse my lack of cable tv)

A friend of mine is going to be bringing me with her to the gym over the next few months; our plan is to get a balanced workout going on so we can be more kick ass with our bellydancing. Your plans for ass-kickery will likely have epic results. Here's to health and ass-kickery. :)

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Kick ALL the ass!

[thebigpants.livejournal.com]

You are looking huge! In a good way if you couldn't already guess that ;)

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I don't always see it, and have been feeling glum about the backsliding in my strength and physique due to the injury; it was nice to see a flattering shot. :-)

There were some seriously in-shape folks out there, obviously competing for time. One gentleman in what appared to be lycra boxer-briefs and the kind of physique that makes such a garment not-an-assault-on-onlookers got no small measure of attention from the ladies in our group.

Me: "He busted his ass to look that good; if I did, and had the cojones, I'd wear something like that, too... but this kilt is way more my style."

[ivy]

My embarassingly slow fistbumps your embarrassingly slow. [grin] Go y'all -- looks like everyone had a good time!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

You were substantially faster in your endeavors this weekend than I was - your 7.5 in a 1:2x vs my 3.x in 1:0x. :-)

You will hereby be referred to as "Speedy" for the next day or two, or maybe just for the remainder of this thread. *grin*

[ivy]

We had no obstacles in ours; I think that's relevant! [grin]

I can go more quickly... for one mile. But not for distance, as my recentish New Orleans half showed. Oof.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

True, true.

But, still... you ran the whole way, and I most certainly didn't (I am 99.765% certain I couldn't run 7.5 miles without taking walking breathers right now, either, even in a more forgiving climate than 90 and muggy)

ACCEPT ACCOLADES ALREADY! :-D

I think I might be able to do one mile in Mayhem's average B2B pace these days. Bastard.

(remember that "Murph" thing, where we were baffled by my running pace seeming slow? it's because my route was a mile and a quarter. *facepalm*)

[ivy]

90 and muggy might flatten me; even the sun while climbing the Hayes Street hill was... notable... in that dress. (Of course, if I knew I was going out into 90 and muggy, I would have dressed pretty differently and in far less clothing.)

I'll accept accolades if you will. [grin]

Yeah, I think I could do one mile at that pace... I am tempted to try it at the gym later this week. There's a warmup. Heh.

I have a butt-kicker coming up Saturday, so I'm tapering up to that, but if I can find somewhere to do pullups in Rochester next week I'll try Murph again and see how I do. Whoops, to the mile and a quarter. My sympathies.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Apparently, I cheated on Murph - it's "do all hundred pullups before doing the pushups, and finish those before doing the squats" to prevent exactly the kind of recovery I was taking advantage of. *mutter*

I have a new squat bar, to improve my mechanics and take some of the strain off my shoulder, and need to explore my 1 rep maxes this week.... bench press was pleasingly not too far deprecated, and overhead press was a 15# PR.

[ivy]

Well, I'm never going to be able to do it without cheating, then, so I'm just going to have to continue to cheat.

Woo PR!

[feyrieprincess.livejournal.com]

No matter what, you're still my fitness role model and I look up to you.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Hopefully, the view will be better soon :-)

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Love the pic, but I suspect I would love the fire jumping pic even more.

Who's Josh?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Josh Bryant, of joshstrength.com - my strength training coach

sadly, the official photos were only in two places - post-finish, and climbing the wood and rope wall.

(the images from these are shown / linked to on my most recent workout blog post (http://digitaldiscipline.wordpress.com))