The Dirt

As promised, here are the "real" after pictures from the Warrior Dash...

Clearly, a good time was had by all!

Warrior Dash Report

We started out like this:

A mighty clean-looking bunch.  Oh, and 

notice that big hill behind us.  Yeah, we 

ran up that.  And several of its brothers.

We ended up like this:

There's a full-mud shot of the whole group out there somewhere

on someone's smartphone,

but it hasn't surfaced yet--so you'll have to make do

with funny hats and bad hair.

In between, there were 3 miles of (a little) running and (mostly) walking; 13 obstacles that involved climbing, crawling, water and mud; and a whole lot of fun.  The SISU group made the event a puddle-stomping, joke-cracking, somersault-doing, cheer-everyone-on blast.  This is definitely an event you want to do with a group, and I can't imagine a better group to do it with.

As it turned out, the obstacles weren't a problem; none of them were challenging physically.  Of course, it would have been different had we been trying to do the course for time; there was pretty significant potential for slipping on the wet obstacles--especially some of the climbing ones--for anyone moving quickly.  Fortunately I moved with my usual sloth like methodical pace, and thus never came close to disaster on any of the obstacles. There were a couple of climb-over ones that could have gotten into my head if I'd stopped to think about them, (or paused at the top to look down) but I didn't so they didn't. 

Actually, I think that for a lot of people the biggest obstacle in the event turned out to be the terrain,which the website had described--with great accuracy--as "mountainous." Hey, if you hold an event on a ski hill you might as well take advantage of the natural obstacles--so they ran us up and down the hills multiple times.  (And they took advantage of the man-made stuff as well; I suspect that a mid-race drenching and our post-race showers were both provided by snow making machines).  I saw many people struggling up the last ski hill using the "bent over, pushing on legs with hands" climbing mode that predicts some serious muscle soreness tomorrow.

As for me, my skater butt wasn't too concerned with the hills.  No, my biggest challenge came at the very end of the race, on one of the last obstacles.  It started with a high climb up a cargo net, which was OK.  As with many of the climb-over obstacles, going up was fine and so was going down--it was climbing over the top of the obstacle that got a little tricky.  On this obstacle, fortunately the "down" side was short--just an 8 foot climb down a cargo net--so my fear of heights didn't kick in.  I wasn't happy with the horizontal cargo net we then had to traverse, but not because it was suspended fairly high above the ground.  No, I was cranky because the crawl peeled off my "keep the biohazards out" bandaid that I had carefully applied to my scuffed knee (I misjudged the bar/knee clearance on a clean yesterday) and had managed to nurse through almost the whole race unscathed and attached.  When I got past the horizontal net and climbed another short wall to look over the top at our final descent, though, I forgot about my bandaid.  I was facing the most scary obstacle yet.

A water slide.

I hate water slides.

For us control freaks, there's just nothing fun about whizzing down some slippery slope with no say in how fast you go, and then landing in some unpredictable position in water of unknown depth--water which, of course, will try to force its way into as many bodily orifices as possible when you catapult into it.  Trade "water" for "half-water-half-mud that God knows how many people have landed in then done God knows what in" and you have an obstacle that will make you stop and think.

So I stopped and thought, but I really couldn't see any other way down.  So I carefully edged myself into the slide, used both hands and both feet as brakes for as long as I could and then, when my speed got too fast to control, I plugged my nose, held my breath, closed my eyes, and landed in the "water."  Whee.

Other than the "slide of doom," though, the race was a blast.  I had a great time and I'm really glad I did it...but now I am DONE for the weekend.  Eat, sleep, roll, eat some more...that's pretty much all I have on the schedule for tomorrow.  I have exactly 36 hours to recover before my next CrossFit class...and one week before my first "real" (on-site rather than online) CrossFit competition, "Mayhem in Mankato" next Saturday.

This summer just keeps getting better and better!

Wimp Saunter

A couple of months ago I signed up for a Warrior Dash that will be taking place tomorrow morning.  It seemed like a good idea at the time: 3 miles, 13 obstacles, some mud and mayhem and fun, and all with a bunch of people from CrossFit SISU. Oh yeah, and a T-shirt.   Seemed like a great way to challenge myself physically and have some fun with the great people that I sweat next to multiple times a week in CrossFit.

Of course, that was before the Granite Games came up.

Now?  Well, now I'm thinking my "Warrior Dash" tomorrow may well end up being more of a "Wimp Saunter."  Between the Granite Games sectional WODs last week and my (perhaps not terribly effective) attempt this week to, for the first time, switch from training for skating and simply doing CrossFit, to training for both--I have done more workouts the past two and a half weeks than I ever have in that time frame before.  Eighteen in 18 days, and that was with the five days off when I was at the cabin.

Ooof.  No wonder I'm not feeling particularly warrior-like today.

Still, despite the need to perhaps tweak a thing or two in my workout planning--I had to do four days in a row of CrossFit this week due to coming back from the cabin late Monday night; I've never done this before and by today's WOD my arms were suggesting that perhaps I might consider never doing this again.  (My butt might agree, since it's probably sporting a new bruise or two from my falling on it repeatedly today when I was attempting to clean a weight that I can usually get.)  Anyway, where was I?  Oh, yeah...despite the need to tweak my schedule a bit, most of the workouts actually went OK.   So in general I think I can handle the "train for both sports" thing, at least for the summer (when I have no job and no schedule beyond what I feel like doing at the moment).

 I do have several sore spots to work around, though, including a left knee (from left leg pistols), my usual left shoulder stuff, and a right quad pain (from what turned out to be inappropriate insistence on finishing a very long endurance skating workout on Tuesday).  I went to a very good Physical Therapist today; he's based out of CrossFit MN and I've seen him a couple times before, and he was able to assure me that my shoulder and leg issues aren't serious, and he gave me some strengthening exercises to add to my "remediate the weak spots" list.

With my left knee being less than enthusiastic about running, and my left shoulder being unpredictably cranky when asked to work, running and obstacles should be interesting tomorrow.  What with general fatigue and the minor injuries, I have decided to focus on "have fun" rather than "challenge yourself"as the theme for my Wimp Saunter Warrior Dash.  Obstacle looks like it might take a lot of arm strength to get over?  I'm going around.  Knee hurts when running fast?  I'm running slow--or even walking.  My goal is to enjoy the event as much as possible, without risking injury or aggravating my cranky bits.

I do kind of want to challenge myself mentally, though, should the occasion arise.  By this I mean that, if there are obstacles that are easy physically but that scare me (I'm extremely claustrophobic, so think tunnels), I'd like to challenge myself to do them.  But then my PT told me today about an obstacle in a Warrior Dash that he did that consisted of crawling on your hands and knees up a hill in basically a tunnel for 200 feet; hot, pitch black, and with people jammed in front of and behind you.    Something like that would not be a challenge--it would be a way of assuring myself of a full-on shrieking meltdown the likes of which you've never seen a 50 year old woman perform in public before.  So I'm probably not going to challenge myself to do anything that might involve me needing to be sedated and forcibly removed from the obstacle. On the off chance that something like that would come up, you know.

Anyway--Wimp or Warrior, I'll find out tomorrow.

Now I need to go find some clothes and shoes that can survive a mud bath.

It's Official...CrossFit Is "In"

In my list of "things I'm obsessed with."  In my list of "things I really want to get better at."  In a separate drawer in my workout clothes storage area.  In numerous bookmarks on my computer.  In my workout log, in my blog profile, and in how I think of myself...I'm not just a speedskater anymore, I'm a speedskater and a CrossFitter.

So now, CrossFit is in my blog title as well.

Wheelhouse

I'm beginning to think, after just over a year of CrossFit (yes, I missed my CrossFit-versary on July 6.  Since I was only at CrossFit MN for a month, I kind of consider my August start at SISU as my start to CrossFit)...anyway, where was I?  Oh, yeah...after a year of CrossFit, I'm beginning to think I may actually have a "CrossFit Wheelhouse."  It's tiny, and there's only room for two things in it...but nevertheless, it's a wheelhouse.

I do have a skating wheelhouse, and I've known this since I started racing.  My best events have always been the 3K and 5K (just as, in high school track, my best events were the mile and two mile).  I apparently have no fast-twitch muscles whatsoever--except possibly those involved in talking and eating--so longer distances have always been my friend.  And since skating produces times that one can compare to the times skated by one's peers, it's pretty easy to see what you're good at--so yeah, 3K and 5K are in the wheelhouse.

CrossFit is a bit tougher.  Up until very recently I've been scaling almost everything, which makes it difficult to compare my results to others', and WODs are rarely repeated, which makes it harder to see rates of improvement in various movements--as opposed to skating, where you get many opportunities, each workout or race, to compare times over just about any distance you'd like.  Still, I was pretty sure that there were a lot of CrossFit movements that were definitely NOT in any wheelhouse I might posses.  Take yesterday, for example.  Yesterday was a "so far away from the wheelhouse I can't even see the wheelhouse" day.

We started with skill work on Toes to Bar and its scaled cousin, Knees to Elbows.  Now, I have to confess that never, in a year of CrossFit, have I ever achieved a T2B or a K2E.

This is my pullup.  Unfortunately, it's also my T2B and my K2E.

Notice that toes and elbows are nowhere near bars nor knees.

After being assured by Coach Jason that K2E, if not T2B, were very likely to show up in Granite Games WODs, I gave it my best shot.  But even with some good suggestions and the exhortation to "pretend that a bunch of judges are staring at you and you have to get this" (hey, it worked with pistols and chest-to-bar), I was unable to execute any, resulting in the coach declaring that K2E and T2B are my current Kryptonite.

Kryptonite is definitely not in one's wheelhouse.

The WOD was a bit better in that I could do both movements--rope climbs and pushups--but neither are things I'm proficient at.  True, I did get asked to demo the rope climb, but I know there was an element of "hey, if she can do it, anyone can do it"--which I wholeheartedly agree with (but it made my day anyway.  I don't often get asked to demo anything).  So I can get up the rope, but it requires great deliberation and is a slow, methodical process.  And pushups?  Well, I started CrossFit unable to do even one--two shoulder injuries had had me avoiding any plank-type exercise for five years, with predictable results.  I was finally getting to where I could do 10 or so unbroken pushups, and then I hurt my shoulder (why yes, I did hurt it doing some ill-advised, not-in-class, and ultimately ineffective T2B practice last March).  So now I'm back to doing very sloooooow, laborious pushups, and after about 10 of them (with a rest break) I have to switch to toes on the way down/knees on the way up.

So yesterday was not a "wheelhouse" day.

Today, though?  Today's WOD consisted entirely of the two CrossFit movements that I now consider to be "in my wheelhouse."

Ready?  Here they are:

Running and rowing.

I know...exciting, right?

It makes sense that I'd be reasonably proficient at these two movements; both require a lot of cardio fitness, which I have from skating, and both are usually done in short intense intervals, which is how my skating workouts are programmed so I've trained that particular system pretty extensively.  Also, skating and rowing use many of the same muscles (many of my masters skater friends row in the summer for cross training).  

And--and this is a big plus--neither of these movements require a ton of coordination.

So it's kind of fun, when I see a running/rowing WOD, to feel like "hey, I'm pretty good at this.  This one will go well."  I'm sure pure rowing/running WODs probably won't come up often...but still, it's nice to have a wheelhouse.

Even if it's a tiny one.

How I'll Spend (the rest of) My Summer Vacation

I just got back from five days at the cabin for the annual Family Work Weekend.  Since "The Cabin" is a compound of six cabins (one 90 years old) and an A-frame garage that was built by my dad with help from me and my sister when we were 12 and 14, and it's owned by um, let's see, I think with my dad's generation and my generation we're at 14 families--well, there's a lot of work to do.  And a lot of fun, what with cousins and cousin's kids and dogs everywhere.  My parents live there full time now, too, and, except for some "aging parent health issues" that make my very sad, I always love visiting them.  Keira, of course, is in her happy place at the cabin...which usually means "elbow deep in Lake Superior."

Swim?  No thanks; I'll just stand here for 10 minutes.

I knew that there would be no time for workouts during the work weekend, but that was OK...I'd planned ahead.  I beat myself to a pulp with Granite Games Sectionals workouts and three more CrossFit workouts after that (one of which, for the first time ever, I simply quit right in the middle of; my left leg is still complaining about the pistols) right before we left for the cabin.  I figured that this way I wouldn't care if I didn't get to work out during the work weekend--and it turned out I was right.  My arms were so sore that it was Sunday before I could lift them over my head without wincing.  Good plan, huh?

Of course, it being a "work weekend," there were still some "functional strength" WODs to be done.  There was the "Firewood Chaingang AMRAP:" Take small armload of firewood from cousin.  Pivot 180 degrees to hand wood off to next cousin.  Pivot back 180 degrees for the next load. Repeat until wood pile has been moved from where it was to where it should be.  There was the ever-popular Two Rounds, Not for Time of the "Middle-aged-lady middle-of-the-night outhouse dash."  And then there was the grand finale:  The 400-pound window "Ground to overhead to scaffolding to hole in wall." Fortunately this one was a four person team event.  Unfortunately, my sister Energizer Bunny and I were two of the team members.

The Hubster and Brother in Law, and the window that's 

a lot heavier than it looks.  And I'm pretty sure the scaffolding

was a lot higher when we were on it, too.

So anyway, the cabin was fun. I mean, what's not to love about this?

But now, I'm excited to be home.  If today was any indication, July and August are going to be a whole lot of fun.  I'm trying to plan my weeks to include four CrossFit workouts, one CrossFit personal training, three oval skating workouts, and one "recovery" trail skate per week.  Today was CrossFit in the morning, then lunch, then skating in the afternoon, then dinner.  Really, who could ask for a better day than that?  Of course, there's the small matter of being 50, and of perhaps having more enthusiasm than stamina, but assuming I don't just tip over from tiredness at some point, the rest of the summer is looking pretty good!

So, What Happened to the Skating?

As you might have noticed, posts about skating have been mighty scarce here lately.  In fact, it looks like my last post about skating was June 8.

Not to worry.  I still love skating, and I still am skating.  Or, I was until last Tuesday anyway. Up until then I was completing my three oval workouts per week and they were going well--I was getting low, the technique was feeling good, the lap times were great.  Then, last Tuesday--in the middle of a fairly epic endurance workout involving 16 one Kilometer (2.5 laps) repeats, with 1.5 laps rest in between-- my right Achilles tendon started hurting.  I had had trouble with my left Achilles earlier in the season, but it's fine now; I guess it's the right one's turn now.  By 12 sets it hurt enough that I figured it was prudent to cut the workout short, which was a shame because my lap times were fantastic and I was pretty excited about it (44-45 second laps, versus last year's 49-52's for the same workout).

I tried skating at the races Wednesday night, even bringing my trail skates, which contact my leg further up my Achilles so I thought they might not hurt.  No dice; the Achilles was still extremely crabby, especially on corners.  So I didn't race, and I haven't skated since. We're heading to the cabin tomorrow for the family work weekend, so I don't plan to skate again until next Tuesday.  That will be two full weeks off, which should be plenty of time for the Achilles to heal.  And when I skate again I'll try using my old skates, which I've been able to use without pain before when my Achilles were acting up.  I injured my right Achilles back in 2008 and it took almost a year to heal completely, and I'm not interested in having that happen again--so I'm being pretty cautious.

Even once I start skating again, though, I'm sure the blog will be a bit CrossFit-heavy this summer.  Summer is off season "base" work for skating, which is necessary and fun but, let's face it, not as exciting as preparing for a competition--especially a big competition in a sport that's new to you, in which you've never attended an on-site competition, and in which there are about 100 different skills to work on.  So for the balance of the summer, I expect The Long Track Life to look more like The WOD Life.  And despite the fact that, as I type, my forearms are so sore and tired that I really don't want to move them and my legs are still so sore, post-pistol, that going downstairs requires some serious thought and effort--I couldn't be happier.