New Year

Hold tight for much more content here.  Had some significant downtime due to injury, adjusting to a new work position, etc, but I'm back on the horse.  OCR season is just around the corner!

Humbled

It's been a while for me, but read about this from this past weekend's Super Spartan.  This is Cpl. Todd Love (a.k.a. "Sacrifice") of Team X-T.R.E.M.E.  He's missing both legs & an arm thanks to his service to the U.S. The next time you're trying to figure out which shoes will be best to help you compete in any race (obstacle, marathon or otherwise) just go ahead & shelve it.

Spartan Sprint TX 2013

And just as I get done posting about the wikid deal on Warrior Dash, a similar deal goes up for Spartan Race. Amazon Local has a great deal for $30 entry into next year's Texas Spartan Sprint.  Typical entry into a Spartan Sprint starts at $60 and goes up as it gets closer to race time.  The Sprint is the "easiest" of the 3 main courses (coming in at 3-4 miles in length), but still a challenge for many.  Get real competitive and come in the top 3 male or female classes & you get free entry into the next level up, the Super Spartan.

I had promised my wife that I would only compete in 2 races per year simply for economic reasons, and had already mapped out next year to be Warrior Dash in April & Tough Mudder in October, but I am giving this serious consideration given the relatively cheap entry.  Coming a month out from Warrior Dash I'd be fully recovered but still in top shape after training for several months.  hmmmmm, decisions, decisions....

Amazon Local / DFW / Spartan Race TX 2013

Warrior Dash - North Texas - 2013

Just signed up for Warrior Dash 2013.  Saturday, April 13, 2013...10 am wave.  They have a $30 special that ends this Monday, so get in while it's cheap!

Warrior Dash NTX 2013

The first week of my formal training has started off with a whimper.  After feeling strong with strength training Sunday, I quickly realized I was way overzealous & over trained on squats causing minor injury to my back. That sidelined me for a couple of days then the July 4 holiday happened.  After getting fat & happy on Wednesday, I was lulled into laziness for the next two days.  I shouldn't really use any of this as an excuse, but it happened and one can see how easy it is to get off track.  Went for what was supposed to be a 2-3 mile run with interval rest today & it turned into around 1.75 total miles running.  My lack of consistent training coupled with the heat & humidity (84 degrees/47% at 9am!) resulted in me being smoked rather quickly.  Only thing I can do is get back on the horse again & make this a good week.  This will be a more or less "normal" week (i.e. no holidays or special activities planned throughout the week) so I feel it should be fairly easy to maintain consistency.

Couple of takeaways I had from today's session:

1. Hydrate early & often.  On the weekend, I know if I don't get up & get to working right away in the morning, it's not going to happen ever.  I tend to jump out of bed, dress, throw down a cup of water & head out.  I really need to give a half hour of hydration prior to heading out as I'm pretty sure I either sweated or peed out that cup well in advance of my body using it.
2. Find something other than a black colored dry fit shirt to run in.  I've shied away from white ones cause I think they show too much sweat/dirt, but this Texas sun (even at 9am) is killer and the black just soaks up the heat. 

For those wondering, I'm following a training plan I found for the Warrior Dash that mixes in strength training days & running days in a more or less "traditional" fashion...using free weights & body weight training, interval & distance running.  Strength training can be found HERE; running program can be found HERE.  I tweak a few things to suit my own personal training style (for instance, I don't do body squats, rather Smith machine squats) but follow it exactly for the most part.  Also, for training logs, I use an Android app called JEFIT and/or RUNKEEPER (both also available on iPhone). I've used several training log apps in the past & Jefit is by far the best on phone I've ever found, though the web interface could use some work.  Runkeeper seems to be the gold standard in cardio tracking as far as I can tell.  I'll go into more detail about my individual training assistants later.

music: Fishr Pryce - "Cold war Defense System"
This is a mix I have pulled out for July 4 since 2010.  Fishr, a native Dallas hip hop DJ, put together this mix of (mostly) 80's jingoistic rock layered over breakbeats.  Every mix I've ever gotten from him (or his collective, Los Hip Hop Guys) is top notch.  I suggest anyone check this out, but warning, there is some language towards the end, use caution around the kids & grandparents if that sort of thing concerns you.

Restart

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect it’s successful outcome. - William James

So this thing has apparently kicked off with a whimper. After that first post started a series of time consuming life issues & moderate injuries. Without going into mundane detail, looks like everything is behind us & I'm back to it.

Headed out for an easy run today. One of the aforementioned injuries is some sort of acute pain in my big toe. Not sure if I jammed it, stressed some tendons or have a stress fracture, but it's had me fairly hobbled for these past few weeks. There's still some soreness & I move with every intention of protecting it, but really had to get back out today. Taped the shit out of it so the first "knuckle" would be immobile & headed out. Managed to get around 1.7 miles in intervals in before my hamstrings started barking... but the toe held up! Time for some ice, foam rolling & we'll hit it again tomorrow.

Oh, and for those wondering, not all of my posts will be of this nature. I will be using it as a training log like this, but also sharing unique content I find interesting that's relevant to obstacle racing/running/weight training/general fitness/etc. Also, since music is a big part of my training, I'll be posting my selection for the day, with links as available.

music: Zeds Dead - "Guest mix for Mista Jam"

So it begins....

Yep, starting a new blog.  This one will serve to record my trials & tribulations in a new sport/hobby I decided to take up in obstacle course/mud run racing.  I'll go into much more detail in the next few posts.  Just needed to get some content on here to be sure everything is how I want it & test out various publishing tools.  I'll use the Blogger format as my primary publishing tool, but plan to cross post to both Google+ and Facebook.  I'm trying to make everything as public as possible, but if you're a friend & don't want to see these posts on either one of those social networks, let me know & I'll add you to my block list (I have some thoughts on that subject that I'll save for a later post).  In the mean time, I'm headed to bed & plan to make a more substantial post over the weekend.