After finishing up a 72 hour shift at work with multiple calls after midnight, I was a little beat. I got this workout in in the morning before getting off shift.
2 x 1 mile on the exercise bike on the 3 minute
Max TRX pushups with hands in the handles 30, rest 1 minute, max TRX rows w/ feet 2' from the anchor 40, rest 1 min, max air squats 100.
On all my max efforts I only count the reps with good form. As soon as my form starts to deteriorate or I feel any pain (muscle burn doesn't as pain) I stop. Even though I could probably squeak out a few more shaky reps, that's not the movement pattern that I want to train or ingrain into my muscle memory.
GTG
6 sets of 15 TRX rows & 20 yd side shuffle steps each side
20 24kg KB swings after each call x8 calls
The jumping pull ups seem easy in the beginning, but they do a great job of working the legs and get my heart rate up in a hurry. 20 swings is a relatively low number until it's 0400 and our 3 call after midnight. Then I was usually pretty thankful that it was only 20 swings.
Last year shortly after I completed my first Tough Mudder they announced the World's Toughest Mudder competition. On a whim I put in an application for a wild card spot. After nearly a year with no word from the Tough Mudder folks and just a few months until the WTM, I figured that I probably wasn't going to get a wild card slot this year. Then, a few days before this year's Nor Cal Tough Mudder my number came up for the wild card slot. I jumped up and down a bit, spun around in a few circles, told all my friends, signed up, and then very shortly afterward wondered what on earth I had gotten myself into this time.
Despite having a highly anaerobic body type and a long standing history of not really liking endurance events, over the past year between Goruck Challenges and Tough Mudders, I've kept signing up for more and more such events. After this year's Tough Mudder, I wondered even more what I had gotten into.
Still though, before all of these events, I've had my pre-game jitters and though this is definitely the biggest challenge event wise that I have faced, it's still just a challenge. The event format is a 10 mile course with 30 obstacles and 24 hours to complete as many laps of that 10 mile course as possible. I've always wanted to do a 24 hour adventure race because my shift at work is 24 hours. The course is also in New Jersey in the middle of December. That will be it's own special challenge.
To train for it, I'm sticking with the program that's worked for me for 2 Goruck Challenges and a Tough Mudder, a modified version of Tim Ferriss' "5k to 50k in 12 weeks" from his book The 4-Hour Work Week. For the last few events I've had usually about a month to get ready for them. This time I've got just a little bit less than 3 months, which should allow me to get through close to the whole program. The modifications I'm making to the program this time around are substituting, biking, jump roping and the versa climber for the running portions, using primarily kettlebells, my TRX and other bodyweight exercises for the strength portions, and adding in runs on soft sand 3 or more times per week.
My first day of WTM training September 22, 2011 went as follows
At the station before getting off work
Good Mornings 2x8 w/ 180 sec rest w/ 45lb bar
Jump rope 150, 120, 90, 60, 30 + sit-ups 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 (superset)
total time 11:03 minutes
Then later in the day I went over to Alameda beach and ran as far as I could on the soft sand in 7:30 minutes, turned around and ran back. The run back to 15 seconds less than the run out. I cover .8 miles.
I wore Vincere beach volleyball sand socks to give my feet a little bit of protection. My feet and arches definitely got in a good workout during this run, as did the rest of me. One of my complaints with the treadmill is that my glutes and hammies don't feel as though they are working as hard as during a normal run, because the push off is easier than a run on ground. On the sand though, the push off definitely required more effort as well as lateral stabilization.
Overall, even though this was less than 1/2 hour of total work for the day, it felt like a good start to the program.
Yesterday was my turn to cook at the station again. Since I'm at a single company house now with less crew members, it means I have to cook more often and learn a few more recipes. Since we have our wonderful bay area summer weather with temps in the 90's these days, I decided to go with a crisp and refreshing meal for dinner. Using the Whole Foods app on my ipod I found the following recipes
Watermelon and Feta Salad with Mint
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/653
and
Quinoa Primavera with Chicken, Spring Peas and Asparagas
For the Watermelon salad I left out he tomatoes and cubed the watermelon. I substituted cous cous for the quinoa because we had a box on hand at the station. I also left the chicken, cous cous and veggies in separate dishes to accommodate for me being veggie and another crew member on the paleo diet. Cooking for 5 at the firehouse I multiplied each of the ingredients by 1 1/2. This proved to be unnecessary for the balsamic reduction with plenty left over. 1 cup of balsamic would have been more than enough. Total time for both recipes (minus the calls that we ran while I was cooking) was about 1/2 an hour for each dish. The balsamic reduction can be omitted all together saving about 15 minutes on the watermelon salad. The dishes came out quite tasty with lots of good flavors and folks going back for seconds and thirds.
Sometimes I really love my life. The past week has been one of those times. Within the space of barely over a week I participated in a Goruck Challenge with Class 057 in New York, ran Tough Mudder Norcal on the other side of the country in Tahoe, California and worked two 24 hour shifts at the firehouse running multiple calls after midnight, in between those two events. I went from one event at sea level to the next with climbs reaching peaks at over 9,000 feet high.
I had been assembling a small group of folks to run the Mudder with for a while, since these experiences are much better shared. One by one they all had to drop for one reason or another. I had found three more teammates through the Goruck Tough facebook group and was looking forward to doing the event with them with a buddy carry or two thrown in for fun. I checked facebook one last time before heading up to tahoe to confirm our groups 10 am start time. By then Joel from class 036 (and numerous other GRCs) who had gone on Saturday, had posted that this was the toughest tough mudder course he had been through. Joel has been through quite a few of these things so to hear that definitely caused a butterfly or two. Then I remembered that with all the challenges over the past year - last year's Tough Mudder Norcal and then two GRCs - I had butterflies with those too, but got through them all the same. This was simply my old friend the pre-game jitters. I'd get through this just as with the past challenges.
Once in Tahoe I lost all comms; no cell phone, wifi or landline, no way with communicating with my team. I figured this would simply be an exercise in resourcefulness and another little challenge for the event. Once at Squaw Valley I donned my Radio Ruck and GR Tac hat hoping someone from the team would spot me as I did laps around the registration area looking for them. When that didn't work I stood in the middle of the area and scanned the crowd for them. I didn't find my fellow GRTs but I did run into two friends from the East Bay. As we hiked up the hill for our 10 am start I still kept an eye out for the GRTs. Still no luck. As my new team and I charged up the hill at the start, I realized I had forgotten to tell them to wait by the obstacle if we were to get split up. There was a huge bottleneck of folks at the second obstacle, the mud crawl. Before I knew it, they were already up the next hill while I was still waiting to make my through mud. Last year's Kiss of mud obstacle was more gravel than mud. This time through I was able to float most of the way through before having to crawl the last little bit. The water was cold, but nowhere near as cold as the 38 degree pond during last year's. We continued up another hill until we got to a large tank filled with murky water. A plywood board and barbwire spanned across the tank, forcing us to dunk completely underneath it and surface on the other side. Again, cold, but not that bad.
Here I am right around 3 miles in. There was a sign on the side of the trail that read "WARRIOR DASH FINISH LINE. But this is Tough Mudder and you've only just begun."
We continued up the hill and over a few more obstacles until we got to a second dunk tank. I thought it was a little odd that they would repeat the same obstacle. Turns out they didn't. Sure it looked the same from the outside, but not until I climbed up the ladder to hop in did I realize they had poured bags of ice into this one. There was so much ice in the tank that after I ducked under the plywood I couldn't physically walk through the ice. I had to sort of breast stroke my way through until I could get a hand on the far edge of the tank pulling myself and climbing over the ice.
I've never understood those folks that do the polar bear events. Never had any inkling of a desire to join them, yet here I was.
After hiking a short ways I ran into another bottleneck of folks at the Everest obstacle. This obstacle looked very similar to half of a skateboarding half pipe or the warped wall from ninja warrior. Here I met the best ad hoc teammates I could ask for in Nathan and Katie. We struck up a conversation while waiting in line shivering and all decided to run the rest of the course together. One of the things that Tough Mudder emphasizes is teamwork among all participants, not just amongst your own team. People formed a human ladder at the bottom of the wall while people at the top of the wall would extend out there hands to help pull people up and over. I decided that once at the top I wanted to help 6 people over the wall, because 6 is a good round number. Once at the topI was having so much fun helping people over that I stayed for probably closer to 30 people. Every time someone that was struggling with the wall would make it over the crowd would erupt into cheers and clapping. As I finally stood up to continue on, someone else eagerly took my spot. I figured Nathan and Katie were probably miles ahead by now, so I'd go it alone once again. At the bottom Katie smiled and asked if I was ready to go again. They had been doing the same thing for just as long.
We set out together along the trail coming across fun obstacles like these monkey bars over more murky water.
Another fun obstacle was this year's boa constrictor. The boa constrictor obstacle is made up of corrugated tubes similar to the ones we use for low profile training for firefighting. This year someone had the bright idea to have them slope down into and out of a pool of more cold murky water. As I got up to the obstacle there were lines on both sides, but the middle was free. I figured I'd just hop through the middle one instead of waiting around. After inching my way through the first tube, I soon found out why the middle tubes were free. The water was deeper in the middle so I had to hold my breath and almost completely submerge my head as I crawled through the first part of the second tube. This was definitely not for the claustrophobic.
A few more miles in, Nate asked a few questions about the GRCs and wanted to take a turn with the pack. We started trading off every mile or two. Here, out of all the folks in the Tough Mudder, I had managed to cross paths with someone else that felt more comfortable hiking with a pack than without.
We came across numerous folks that were hurting out in the heat and altitude. Once again all three of us were on the same page. We stopped and asked them all if they were alright and offered gu's, hammer gels and water to those that needed it. For all three of us, this was less about racing and more about the shared experience. I can tell you their company and conversation made a world of difference. Last year's Tough Mudder was around 7 miles and took me around 2-2 1/2 hours to complete. This one was 11+ miles and took 6 1/2. Sure, we definitely could have shaved a bunch of time off if we hadn't stopped to help others out, but then we wouldn't have had this great experience together.
Katie and Nate, I thank you both for a great time and hope to do more GRCs and Mudders with you in the future.
More pics can be found at the NS6 Facebook page link on the right.
I did something a little crazy to prepare for this GRC. In order to get ready for a 15-20 mile 12 hour endurance event, I decided not to do any running at all. To prepare for my last Goruck Challege in May, I noticed that my major limiting factor during the runs were pains in my feet and shins.
nuffsaid6.blogspot.com/2011/05/goruck-tough.html
This was further proved during the Down-N-Dirty Half Dozen where I completed 18.6 miles in 6 hours with a 30 lb. pack. After about 15 miles, my feet far more than my endurance were holding me back.
Therefore for the upcoming GRC in New York I decided to once again follow the "5k to 50k in 12 weeks" program in the 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferris, but this time around I substituted biking and jump roping for the running portions. If I had continued to run despite the aches and pains, there was the potential to develop an awkward and unnatural gait. This had the potential to lead to long term injuries and problems that would far outweigh any short term gains I would have made. My livelihood as a firefighter depends on my mental and physical fitness and health. Therefore my goal is for all of these events - Gorucks, Tough Mudders, and whatever else comes my way - to make me stronger and fitter rather than tear me down in the process.
Before altering the workout program in this way I knew that I had a solid background both in strength and operating while under load. As a wildland firefighter I spent several seasons hiking and working with packs weighing from 25-40 lbs.
In my current job as a structural firefighter my personal gear weighs around 75 lbs. before I add on tools, hose or whatever I else I might need to get the job done. Both of these jobs have done a great deal to help develop useable fitness which works great for things like GRCs.
Given this background and knowledge of how to move while under load, I focused my training on building muscular endurance and strength through biking, and training my shock absorption through jump roping.
I also incorporated the tips from this video into my workouts after finding it in Riff's (Mark Reifkind) blog.
I added the calf stretches in to the GTG (Grease the Groove) portion of my workouts. Overall this plan worked out pretty good. My feet definitely felt better than the last GRC, with no pains in my shins. I still had some cramping in my arch and a little bit of pain under the ball of my foot. My plan for the next GRC will be to add in runs on soft sand to further strengthen my feet.
While foot strength was my perceived limiting factor, proper hydration turned out to big my biggest challenge this time. I began hydrating with a minimum of 4 quarts of water a day 4 days before the challenge. I knew the 9 hours of travel time out to NY from California would be pretty dehydrating and wanted to counteract that. In the day before and the hours leading up to the challenge I added in pedialyte to maintain proper electrolyte balance.
Starting the challenge and for several hours into it I felt great. My pack had the sweet set up this time and felt great throughout the challenge.
Pictured are petzl e+ headlamp, windbreaker, road ID, mechanix work gloves, protec knee straps, wright running socks, GR Tac cap with GRT patch, 2xu compression top and shorts, board shorts, solomon xa 3d shoes, radio ruck with cinch straps, bricks wrapped in bubble wrap and duct tape, yoga brick, 5.11 tactical 9.11 tribute patch, fog rugby ball, fire engine key chain, arnica cream, mole skin, assorted snacks, NS6 t-shirt, platypus big zip 1.8 L hydration bladder, camera in pelican case, extra socks, cash, 5.11 tactical watch cap, and dry bag. Not pictured is a sternum strap taken off of a camelbak and attached to the MOLLE webbing on the shoulder straps.
The temps were warm through the night, generally around mid to upper 70s. This was fine by because I like and tend to operate well in the heat.
What I didn't count on was the humidity. I had been doing a decent job of keeping up with my water intake until the humidity dropped late in the night. Once that happened I suddenly felt as though I had to pee every 5 minutes. As a woman during one of these challenges that can be a bit problematic. Places to pee for us can at times be few and far between. By this time we had started carrying our log and railroad tie around. I of course wanted to take my turn under the log and support my team as much as possible, but after a while it felt as though the log was sitting directly on my bladder.
So again I further reduced my water intake. Mistake. Shortly before dawn when the night was stretching out into its wee hours, the temp raised back up to 75 degrees with 75% humidity. I began sweating profusely without increasing my water intake. My mood took a sharp turn for the worse resulting in one of the biggest internal hissy fits I've had in a long time. Not until I got back to my usual cheerful self after a few sips of water did I realize that I had been significantly dehydrated.
A bit later when we took a refreshing cooling dip in a fountain I realized just how hot my core had become.
Normally I'm a big fan of compression tops, but in the humidity it wasn't able to wick away moisture and sweat like it normally would. In this case it turned into more of a wetsuit adding to the heat stress and dehydration. As a testament to the power of teamwork, through it all my feet kept moving buoyed by the spirit and momentum of the team. While I was downright miserable for a bit there, my awesome battle buddy Brie, the rest of the women in the group (there were 5 of us) and of course all my boys kept me motivated and going strong throughout. Within hours of finishing I was already looking forward to the next one. Thank you all for an incredible experience 057.
June 10, 2001 I spent my first day on the line as a city firefighter. A mere three months later I awoke in shocked disbelief to find out terrorists had attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I along with the rest of the world watched in uncomprehending horror as the towers and then building 7 fell. We listened as the first estimates of firefighter fatalities came in at an estimated 250, a figure which was later revealed to be much greater than that at 343 of my brothers lost that day. Firefighters make up an extremely tight knit community throughout the world. It doesn't matter that we may not know each other personally, we all know that if there is ever truly a need, we will be there for each other without hesitation. Recently in the blog post "June 10, 2010" I wrote of the amazing outpouring of support given to the members of the San Francisco Fire Department for their two fallen brothers.
If this was for two, imagine what it was for 343. There were over 60,000 uniformed personnel from all over the country, all over the world, lined up in the rain for the procession. This was by far one of the most moving, humbling and awe inspiring things of which I have ever been a part.
Last year I gained another connection to September 11 when I joined the family that is the San Francisco Fog Rugby team. One of the Fog's founders was Mark Bingham. Mark was aboard Flight 93 and believed to be one of the passengers that led the attack on the hijackers, causing it to crash in a field before hitting its intended target. His spirit still and always will burn strong among the Fog.
As the 10th anniversary of September 11 was fast approaching, I knew that I needed to do something to commemorate this event. GORUCK provided me with the perfect opportunity when the announced they were holding several GORUCK challenges over the September 11 weekend with a special one time only commemorative patch.
As the news began to surface that first responders were not invited to the memorial, this GRC turned out to be one of the best ways for me to honor the fallen. I packed a small fire engine key chain that I got when attending the FDNY memorial in 2002, and strapped a Fog rugby ball to the outside of my Radio Ruck as a tribute to Mark and the 343.
I later learned that for our team weight we would be carrying pieces of the world trade center recovered from the pile. These were provided by Laura Cross who lost her father FDNY Battalion Chief Dennis Cross, when the towers fell. Pictured below are part of our team weight - two elevator floor plates and a desk ornament.
As we got under way all of us were nervous, but we jelled into a team almost immediately. The last Goruck challenge was to prove something to myself. This one was about something much greater, about honoring the courage and sacrifice of all those involved that day ten years ago. I believe this was a strong undercurrent that ran through us all during the challenge and was a major reason we all bonded so quickly.
During the long hours the significance of this challenge continually deepened. One of the first stops we made was to the field of the Flags of the Fallen. These flags are printed with the names of all those lost that day. One flag was posted for each person lost.
During a bathroom break, Laura showed me the necklace that she wore which was found on her father when he was recovered from the pile. She also mentioned that it was an incredible coincidence that we were class 057, because her father was Battalion 57.
As a class we all came together and supported each other through all of our rough spots until all 28 of us that started this challenge together ended it together at our final challenge destination, firehouse 20. Laura's father was acting deputy chief that day and due to report to this station, but couldn't get over the Brooklyn bridge to the station, so he called in orders as he crossed the Manhattan bridge, the same bridge we carried our log across.
I'm getting a little misty eyed at the writing of all of this, the memories of September 11, the memorial 9 years ago, and countless other firefighter memorials I've attended over the years. I will carry the memories of this challenge and all of the members of GORUCK tough class 057 with me always.
The NS6 Original T-shirts have arrived. The NS6 Logo is screen printed on a dark heather grey American Apparel 50/50 tee available in both men's and women's styles. It's a cotton poly blend for both comfort and to help wick away the sweat during those hard charging workouts.
So, how do you get this awesome t-shirt?
Step 1
They're $20 each, but in order to get one you've got to come out and play or train with me.
Step 2
Once you have your shirt, go out and play. Go do something that fosters and encourages your mental and or physical health and growth, or benefits your community. Some great examples of this would be
Get in a good workout
Learn a new skill
Play an instrument
Cook a healthy meal
Draw, paint or sculpt
Go to school
Go back to school
Do your homework
Read a book
Have a good time hanging out with friends
Serve your community
Volunteer
Travel
Set a goal for yourself and accomplish it
Run, jump, play, climb and frolic
You get the idea. Be creative with this.
Step 3
If you're so inclined and want to help inspire others to do something positive for themselves and their communities, post a pic to the NS6 Athletic Facebook page.
Step 4
Hurry though, this first batch is a limited run.
As the Two Hand Swing is at the core of the ballistic kettlebell exercises, the Turkish Get Up is the foundational kettlebell strength exercise or "grind." Here is video that gives a great in depth overview of the Get Up.
Some key points and to keep in mind when learning and performing Get Ups are
Start by practicing these movements unweighted or with a light object that won't hurt you if it falls such as shoe or plastic water bottle balanced on the fist.
Even when working with light weights, treat them with the same respect and attention to form and detail as you would with a maximal effort. The foundations you lay now in learning this exercise will stay with you through the heavier lifts. This exercise is as much if not more about moving correctly than simply lifting something heavy.
Keep the elbow locked and the shoulder packed in the socket throughout the movement
Make this exercise as smooth as possible with extra adjustments as possible.
For one of the most in depth resources around on the Turkish Get Up check out Kettlebells From the Ground Up by Gray Cook, RKC and Brett Jones Master RKC
My GR Echo has served me well through a Tough Mudder and a GORUCK Challenge and is by far the best laptop bag I've ever owned. Still though, with possibly 3 GRCs coming up in the next two months I wanted something with just a tad more room. During the last GRC I barely had enough room for everything that I needed and had to clip my windbreaker to the outside. Everything fit, but it was a tight fit.
When my Radio Ruck arrived two days ago I couldn't wait to try it out. What better way to test it out than with a 6 brick hike through the East Bay hills, because 6 seemed like a good round number. I posted in the GORUCK Tough group on facebook that I was going for a weighted ruck and within minutes my 036 classmate Bob Nugmanov stepped up and said he was in.
Initial impressions of the Radio Ruck were that it looked like a slightly larger version of my echo. This is true, but the deceptive part about it is that it is slightly larger in all dimensions, giving it much more useable space. I was initially thinking of attaching MOLLE pouches on the outside same as my Echo, but since the front zip pocket is bigger and easier to access, it'll be the perfect spot for snacks. The pack is also wider than the Echo, allowing the bricks to be secured horizontally instead of vertically. This helps to more evenly distribute the weight across my upper back. This time I used 4 cinch straps instead of three like last time, in order to split the load more evenly among the MOLLE. This held the bricks, but with 6 bricks still did stress the webbing. I've since added the yoga brick underneath to support the bricks even more. Another possible tip brought up in my class was to use empty water bottles duct taped together.
Another mod I made to the pack before this hike was to cut to fit a gardening knee pad and put it in the hydration bladder compartment. Bob commented that it felt like I had a tempurpedic in my pack. This felt a lot better and more even than having the bladder rolling back and forth across my shoulders. I put the hydration bladder in the main compartment with the bricks.
During the hike overall the pack felt pretty good. We went for a little over 5 1/2 miles on dirt trails and asphaly roads. With 6 bricks and a total weight of 33 lbs my shoulders and traps definitely got a little sore during the hike. A sternum strap would've have helped to draw some of the weight off of my shoulders. The Radio Ruck does have MOLLE webbing along the shoulder straps unlike the Echo, which will make attaching a sternum strap easier. Other differences are the Radio Ruck is full zip which will make accessing gear at the bottom of the bag easier (especially if the bag has bricks attached up top) and it has MOLLE webbing on the sides.
Later that evening I walked to the grocery store with my 3 brick pack attached in the ruck. If I had've removed the hydration bladder and bricks before hand the bag would've easily held all 2 1/2 bags of groceries. With 3 bricks instead of 6 the bag felt super comfy and ridiculously light. I plan on playing around with brick configurations to see if this affects the weight distribution across the shoulders. After hiking with the Echo, Radio Ruck and GR1 the Radio Ruck stands strong as my favorite for hikes and challenges.
One of the great things about the bay area is that you can go from a major city to views like this within about 5-10 minutes
On the way back down the hill we passed by the Lawrence Hall of Science. You've gotta love a place that has a whale as a play structure. This was one of my favorite field trips in pre-school.
Here are a few comparison shots with Bob's GR1 and then with my GR Echo
The MOLLE pouches on the Echo are 5.11 tactical gps/strobe pouches and a medium drop pouch.
Here's a side view showing the differences in depth between the two bags
Finally here's the strapping method that's working the best for me so far. The yoga brick seems to help reduce the strain on my shoulders by keeping the bricks from pulling down and away from the MOLLE webbing. The straps with the orange buckles are shorter than the blue ones, but still plenty long enough for this application. Bob noted that his bricks fit well in the mesh pouch of his GR1. He thought having the bricks low like this might also reduce some of the strain on his neck during bear crawls.
High Vis RIT
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Matt Leonard from Montgomery County (MD) Fire Rescue Station 3 submitted
this high vis idea! Matt was going over the RIT pack and thought of all the
impo...
and we begin again....
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I'm back for a wee bit! With the holidays approaching and life in the fast
lane with my two beautiful and growing children, I thought I had better pop
in h...
