F.I.T. EPIC OCR/Health Update

OK - so last week I did a new OCR.  It was called the F.I.T. Epic Fifth Challenge.  It was up in Diamond Hill State Park in RI.

I'll be honest, when that day started my body was shaky and I felt a little sick.  Under the weather.  I've been battling something for a few weeks now and it seems to come and go.  I said to hell with it though and went ahead with the plan of conquering this OCR.

The course is a state park.  Trail running, which should have been obvious to me but as usual I was oblivious.  I had heard that there was over 900' of elevation on the course, but when all was said and done I guess there was actually over 1200' of elevation.  It was crazy.  I'm very happy I didn't wear running shoes for the event.

What were the obstacles?  Well besides nature, the hills, the rocky trails, trees, etc... there were some obstacles you had to hop over, some you had to climb under.  There was one random stop coming down the hill the first time where you had to grab a 45lb barbell and press it over your head 30 times.  That was kind of easy.  All the tougher obstacles were at the bottom of the hill.  The hills were there to exhaust you and tax your legs and lungs, which it worked.  At the bottom of the hill there were a couple of wooden barriers you had to climb over.  Some of them were inverted so that was definitely challenging.  There were ones you had to jump up, grab on, get your feet up there and swing your whole body up to grab the next piece of wood so you could go up and over.  There were cargo nets.  Oh, there was a peg board that was 12' in the air or so, I managed to climb all the way up that.  There was rope right after that and I failed miserably on that.  The atlas ball (65lb concrete ball) that you had to pick up and roll it over your shoulder down your back 5x.  Then there was the Wreck Bag carry.  Pick the weight of your bag (I went with 50lb, the heaviest was 1 size up, 70lb), put it on your shoulders and start running up hill.  Yes, up the fucking hill again.  There was this obstacle called "The Destroyer" that had a lot of people up in arms.  In all honesty, if you had some good upper body strength you could conquer it.  I was able to conquer it.  I remember a woman behind me say "holy shit, he made that look easy".  When I went over the top I heard them yell "BEAST".  lol  Kind of funny.  There were some monkey bars, which honestly was my biggest fear going into this.  My kid's playground monkey bars are tougher, probably because I can't swing my legs.  These weren't bad at all though.  There was no mud.  It wasn't messy.  I totally could have worn my headphones (bummer).  It was tough though.

How did I do?  I finished in 1 hr 33min, which put me at about the middle of the pack.  255th out of 530.  Honestly I think I did very well for myself.  I learned I need to get better with my cardio, specifically hills, if I want to improve upon my completion time.  I loved the challenges.  I DEFINITELY need to improve my grip strength and overall strength.  Learning how to climb a rope wouldn't be a bad thing.  lol  I didn't incur any penalties (if there were any I didn't know what they were).  I honestly conquered every single obstacle but that frigin rope climb.  DAMN THAT ROPE!!  Damn me for not being prepared.

How can I improve?  Well, first off... I wasn't going for "time" as so many others were.  I had never done a course like this.  My only previous OCR was the Mudderella, which wasn't very hard (IMO).  Now that I have a better understanding of what I would be up against, I would definitely push harder for a better time.  At one particular obstacle I stood there for 5 or 10 minutes, letting other people go ahead of me, because I was unable to do it my first couple of tries.  Well shit, there's 10 minutes I could shave off my time!  There were other areas where I'd stop and let others go ahead of me while I tried to understand what the flipping challenge was that I was supposed to do.  Again, more time to be shaved off.  Then of course there was the trails, the hills.  I need to be better with them and my cardio if I'm going to improve my overall time.

It was great to have it not be a cold, miserable day out there.  Not just for me, but for my supporters.  My wife and kids came out to cheer me on.  In addition, my friend Jack who was originally scheduled to run the race with me, was there with his beautiful daughters.  They were cold, they didn't have the "benefit" of running up a hill I guess.  LOL   Their support though was greatly appreciated.

Would I do it again?  YES  Actually I'm trying to figure out what my next races will be.  There are a couple that happen in the dead of winter that I'm not too sure about.  We shall see. There will be more races though, that's for sure.  I'd like to get some of my more fit friends involved in them.  One because I think that they would truly enjoy it and two, because it would give me more opportunities to share in healthy challenges with them.

How is my health?  Actually after I finished that race I was tired!  Not really surprising.  My knees and shoulders have been hurting lately.  Since I just finished up 2 months of frigin physical therapy to correct my knee issues it is clear they are hurting not from what I AM doing, but more because of what I am NOT doing.  I've been really good with my form.  Really really focused on it so I know that isn't the cause of my discomfort in the knees.  It is stretching.  Its been pretty tight lately and I've stretched here and there, but I need to get back to doing this 4x a week to get past the pain.  The shoulders?  I can only guess its due to the handstands.  I'm working on yet more stretches to try and address the shoulder discomfort as well.  Like with anything though, consistency is the key.  You get nowhere fast if you aren't consistent.

What am I doing to stay active/healthy?  I've been doing some Men's Health Anarchy program for the past couple of weeks and that has been the extent of my fitness.  It's not a bad program.  There is a lot of focus on cardio/HIIT style, even when you pick up the dumbbells.  A lot of core stuff.  I'm not complaining, because it is a change from the norm.  One other thing I am kind of working on is learning how to do a handstand.  I'm technically on level 3 with that.  Level 1 was hold a plank with your feet on a wall for 60 seconds.  Level 2 was hold a wall handstand for 60 seconds, again, body against the wall.  Level 3 is learn to bail safely.  Level 4 is hold a wall handstand for 90 seconds.  Lots and lots of strain on your shoulders.  I'm supposed to be practicing it daily, for like 5 minutes a day, but I've only be doing it a couple of days out of the week and a couple of 60 second wall handstands.  Honestly the shoulder pains have been holding me back a bit.  I'm probably going to try and stick with it and see both the Anarchy program and the handstand thing through.  1) The Anarchy program is only 6 weeks long and the workouts are only 30 min or less, which is awesome.  2)  How fucking cool would it be to learn the skill of a handstand?  Seriously, 43 and learning how to do a handstand.  That just blows open doors for new fun fitness challenges like, walking on your hands, handstand push ups, etc...  Very cool.

Longer term, what's on the horizon?  I just don't know.  I really don't.  There are so many things I could be better at with my overall health and fitness.  For one, I don't think you are supposed to wake up in pain or discomfort.  Simple tasks like walking up hills or steps should not cause discomfort.  Lifting things over your head, should not cause discomfort.  I call myself healthy, but really I'm just strong and sometimes active.  Healthy, well that means something else now doesn't it?  It means something different to just about everyone.  Everyone battles with something in their health.  I am no exception. My version of healthy is waking up every day, without pain, being strong enough to conquer my training and still have energy in the tank to keep up with my family.

There are multiple directions I could go with my health/fitness challenges.  Lots of different things I'm looking at.  1) There is a course a website Eat To Perform that intrigues me.  There is no question to anyone who knows me that nutrition is an area I could improve upon.  I've got 3 different books I'm currently reading (yes, that's right, I read now too). I'm at different stages for each one.  The 1st one I'm on the chapter relevant to the phase I'm on right now.  The 2nd one, I just started flipping through.  The 3rd one, well, I'm getting ready to experiment with one of the first techniques.
1) Chris Salvato - Handstand Beginner's Guide
2) Steven Low - Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength
3) Kelly McGonigal - The Willpower Instinct
In addition to all this, there is a new Beachbody program that is coming out that definitely intrigues me.  It is called Hammer & Chisel with Sagi Kalev & Autumn Calabrese.  I have the discipline to do the workouts, its the nutrition that is the bigger challenge.  That is going to be the challenge no matter what workout I choose.  Hence why I'm reading the willpower book.

Until the next time.