Thanks to my good friend Michelle, I am now fully entrenched in the world of the Death Race and this is now consuming most of my spare time. A few things that need to be achieved are

• Getting used to training for long hours (the DR is 48hrs long)
• Learning your weaknesses that might cause you to quit
• Getting used to ferrying large loads monotonously for long periods of time

Two guys that I am starting to consider as good friends completed the Death Race last year and famously took a 300lb+ tractor tire around the Spartan Beast obstacle course. Bruce and Jeff, known as the Tire Guys, started running a phenomenal Death Race training camp in RI and the 3rd was this past weekend. I’ve attended all three and this was the hardest and most fun yet.

Note, I write this foggy due to lack of sleep, but will do my best to remember all the details as I recount the sequence of events here.

Before I start, we had some mandatory equipment. A saw, headlamp and safety light, $10 in pennies, 1.5lb wrist weights, 2.5lb ankle weights, swimwear and water shoes. We had no idea what any of these items were for.

After getting dressed, a gear check and signing waivers we setoff (‘we’ being about 14 of us.
We put our packs into some barrows and Bruce led us around an elaborate obstacle course set up around their property. This was really well put together and consisted of the following (in rough order). Note that our pack was on throughout (mine weight around 40lbs), and wrist and ankle weights were worn.

1. Sawing a 2-3′ section of log (our companion for the loop)
2. Monkey bars
3. Wall climb
4. 200lb tire up and over ramp (6′hi gh, ~15′ long)
5. Long tunnel crawl
6. Scrambling over brush
7. Loooong tire walk
8. Sandback carries (4 60lb backs needed to be ran about 50′)
9. Rope climb
10. Tire Flip
11. Culvert crawls
12. Hurdles
13. Log traverse – complete with soap covering
14. Calasthenics. No elaboration here, but they SUCKED!!
15. Raise block on rope
16. Wood chop (including the piece we carried with us)
17. Tunnel crawl though fire

And repeat.

After the walkthrough I noticed our packs were moved. Hmmm, weird. We were also asked to remove our shoes. While the rules were being explained further our shoes were tossed into the muddy brush area and we were then given 5 minutes to find our pack and shoes. All but one of us found them all. I forget who didn’t but he reverted to his spare shoes that he thankfully had packed.

Then we set off. The loops probably took 40 minutes or so, and I loved every minute except maybe the log traverse. My balance always sucks on these, and I took a penalty each time. At first the penalty was a 3-5lb concrete ball and chain attached to wrist or ankle. On the ankle it tends to give you the occasional toe smash. Fun! The wood chop is always my favorite, made even more special by (I think Jeff’s) solid steel axe. I have no idea how much this weighed but it was a LOT. The best part was even a misstrike caused the wood to split I think out of sheer fear of the beast that was this ax. I WANT ONE!

In the third lap, I wrenched my shoulder really badly on the tire flip. Subsequent pushups had me close to tears, and I definitely didn’t manage the full ROM for those. I lay down for 5 minutes trying to stretch it out. Jeff came over concerned and I told him what happened. He asked where it hurt and he could massage it out, and of COURSE the smart ass jester in me kicked in first – I turned over, point to my crotch and said "Right here, on my penis!". He walked away mad that I got him, and I heard Bruce laugh from within the culvert a few yards away.

Somewhere around lap 4 for me, we were called to the fire area for the next challenge.

Here we grabbed a couple of tires each and took a hike – probably not much more than a half mile, maybe less, to a baseball field. Here we had to place our tires on the ground and walk across the field and back from tire to tire without touching the ground (about 300 yards). The tires were all pretty floppy so it was easy to flip and fall off. The penalty for hitting the ground was 10 pushups – AGONY for me both times I had to do it thanks to the shoulder pain. The task was pretty annoying at first but eventually I hit a zen state and just floated across gaining time quickly. Once complete, it was back to the house for the next challenge.

Here we had a white water raft, 5 gallon filled buckets and tires. As a group we had to start carrying the lot. I started with the buckets. They suck, always have and always will, but I am a big fan of just getting it over and done with. We waled perhaps a 1/4 of a mile and the pain was unbearable. Holding back tears of pain, I slammed them to the ground, walked over to Jeff and Bruce, and said "I can’t go on. I’m done. I QUIT!". Jeff looked at me blankly and simply said "No you aren’t". Fair enough. I stayed on and was able to find ways of keeping my shoulder out of the picture. At some point I realized I could use my pack to carabiner the buckets and move all the wight instead to my back. GENIUS!! Now I could pull my weight and still keep going. We walked like this for quite some time – I have no idea of the mileage to be honest – but again you quickly become zen and the monotony of it seems to help with the pain.

We eventually came to Sheri’s car and were split into two teams. I went with Jeff, and we were sent on a two mile run with our pad and paper. Before this we were told we could remove our packs and wrist/ankle weights. I decided to keep my weights on. This is training after all, with a safe out, so why not make it harder when possible? After hitting a couple of miles along the bike path, we came to a cone with a puzzle made of of connected discs with various colors. We had to write down enough info so we could reproduce it and leave. Working on Architectural software for 15 years really helped me here. I drew a quick rear and side elevation and plan view and started off. 50yds away, I remembered I forgot to write a schedule (how many pieces of each color) so I ran back to get this information and then left.
A third of the way back running with the weights was starting to hit me so I decided to run 400 steps and walk 50 until I got to the starting point where I sprinted the last 50 yards or so. Ryan had overtaken me at this point, and he was already started with the puzzle. I looked at my schedule, grabbed the pieces I needed and wandered off to recreate the puzzle. Ivana arrived after me put finished the puzzle first – she definitely has good spatial skills proved later as well with the knot untying. I finished next and in fact not one person failed at the puzzle. The punishment for an incorrect result was to wear another persons weights for the remainder of the event.

Once we had finished this, we grabbed a wheelbarrow with a huge tire, tire pulls, cinder blocks and buckets and proceeded to do a walk up hill and back down again. The wheelbarrow bothered my shoulder slightly but not as badly as I expected.

The two groups reconnected at this point and we set off with the raft, buckets and blocks for quite some time until we hit Lincoln Woods. This is going to be the location of a 5k Obstacle Race that the Tire Guys will hold in September – watch out for details of this.

Sheri was waiting here with a trailer full of large tractor tires. We split into pairs – Ivana chose me, we picked our tire (well she did) and we set off across the road. Bruce and Jeff started pushing there tire up a 40 degree incline for 50ft or so. Many groans were heard and we did the same, then across a baseball field then another incline. We thought that was tough but then we had to navigate an entire trail system uphill until we hit the peak. This must have taken maybe 90 minutes to get to the top and an hour to the bottom but it was a BLAST!!

At the bottom, we were told to grab the raft and blocks, and the idiot I am decided to take buckets as well. Here we set off in motion again. I think it was during this walk that we passed a bench that someone was throwing out so decided to carry that also. Why not!!

It was probably around 8am when we hit a honeydew donuts store and decided to stop for coffee and a snack but none of us actually had any money EXCEPT for our pennies. There was no way I was going to be last in line, so I dashed in first and in my cutest British accent ordered a coffee and muffin from the girl and asked "before you get those, I only have rolls of pennies – can I possibly pay with those?" – she seemed fine, so $4 of pennies later (and a thunk thunk of $1 in the tip jar) I drank coffee and ate junk.

Fed and warmed we set off, getting back into the woods area and to the side of a lake. Bruce or Jeff showed us a grate at the side of the road and said our next task was to have our photo taken from behind the grate. The catch was we needed to walk through the tunnel on the other side of the road through an ice cold stream to get to it. I LOVED this – the cold water felt great on inflamed feet. I actually expected a full submersion though so changed and stripped to just my swim trunks.

This done and dusted, we set off again with all our stuff for a couple more miles until we hit a beach area. Sheri was hear again. We were asked to pick a cinder block (each had a rope tied numerous times around the inside of it) and we were relieved of the heavy stuff for the last time.

With our cinder blocks, we lined up at the beach shore and were instructed to walk waist deep (the water was probably 40F) drop the cinder block under the water and untie the knots until tope and block were separate although we could come out to warm up. Once in, I decided to stay until the task was done and have to admit I did cheat a little and study the knot on the way in. Ivana and Bruce were the first to leave the water. Really quickly my fingers slowed down and it was hard to grip. Next to me Jeff kept chanting "It’s not cold, its warm" (later we talked about this and he had no idea he was saying this out loud . Eventually I got my rope and block apart and slowly walked out of the water. Surprisingly I didn’t feel cold at all – no shivering – but my fingers were burning. Some glove liners and a bunch of fist clenches for 3-4 minutes saw to that.

Once everyone was changed and warm we were handed three velcro strips each. Weird!
Again, paired with Ivana, we had to loosely loop a strip around each ankle and then back to back put a loop through one each of our feet so we were no fastened together. Then we had to walk probably 3 miles – one of us forwards and one backwards. This was pretty hard, and Ivana took the lead and almost fell on her face. To prevent this, I took one of the straps in my pack, tied it to her ruck and made a leash. This way if she fell I’d catch her. The confidence this added really improved our speed and we started overtaking Luke and James who were holding hands for the same fall prevention. Of course our cadence chant went from "12345678…" to "123456 Lukes gay" "123456 very gay" etc. Hey, we had been awake for around 30 hours at this point and in the event for maybe 19-20 – we had to make it fun. This was a fun walk but we got to a point where the traffic became too intense and so Bruce and Jeff decided for safety we should just hike back. Being the idiot I am I picked a log from someones yard (I think Keith did the same) just to keep the walk interesting and set off back to Bruce’s house – the starting point for this all. They kept saying "this isn’t over when we get back" and they were right.
Once get back and what I think is our final challenge was to break down the obstacle course. 10 people can do this really quickly – and once done I went to grab a Guinness. Bruce looked at me and said "Are you quitting? We aren’t done yet!". "Erm, no Bruce" – I put the Guinness down and we set off for a five mile run. We got lost a couple of times on this making it a little longer but it was amazing how light I felt doing this after all the effort expended although it was the first time I had taken the wrist and ankle weights off and pretty much the only time my pack had come off. The kicker with this run by the way? We were given an egg. If the egg broke, we had to do the loop again with another egg.

About a mile from the end point (again Bruce’s house) I started to run out of steam and so walked it out with Luke. Bruce came by and offered us a warm ride back to which I said "Hell no!". Finally we got to Bruce house. I almost tripped crossing onto his lawn and nearly dropped the egg mere yards from completion. Thankfully i kept a hold of it and saved myself another 5 miles.

This was the 23 hour mark and I could have continued but was glad to be done. I cracked that Guinness along worth Luke, went inside and immediately started to reminisce about the whole night. This is the new hardest thing I’ve done and enjoyed every painful minute of it. Funnily enough I realized my shoulder injury had worked its way out too – with only slight pain during certain ROM.

Props here to Gabriel. He had told his friends and family that he was doing a 24 hr event and so decided to go and and split wood for an hour. Tempted to join him, but more tempted to drink Guinness I stayed inside and admired his spirit. Also props to those that pushed through and completed this. It was torture yet fun. Another epic Tire Guys event. Look them up (outerlimitsfitness.com) and do one for yourself. You won’t regret it.

About a month ago I ran an overnight training event for friends that lasted about 12 hours, covered around 20 miles, and involved elements of surprise. The intention was to simulate some aspects of death race and some of a Goruck challenge.

One of my good friends is ex Special Forces and suggested next time i try a mission based approached that mimicked the SF selection process a little and thus titled it “Complete The Mission”. This took place a few days ago (December 30th, 2011) with a 6pm start. He came up with the missions and an example of what they might translate to in real terms, and I turned this into a planned route map, with logistics.

Mission Overview

This was the initial mission overview

Frago

Complete the Mission –

15 Hour Adventure Event – Class 12-2011

Classification: Top Secret, Clandestine Operation

Event Mission Scenario: Personnel Search and Rescue, Package Retrieval, Payload Retrieval, Long distance movement.

Situation:
A US aircraft has been downed over hostile territory across the sovereign border of Pategonia. The Pategonian government claims that the us aircraft was spying over the border and was waging war agaisnt the soverignty of the people of Pategonia.

1. Personnel: Lt commander Bill Stevens is Package Santa and this is considered a personnel search and rescue. Stevens is considered alive at this point.
2. Sensitive equipment: Classified. Package Cookies is to be kept secured and unopened.
3. Munitions: Classified, highly advanced, and NBC. Package Milk is highly weighted and has an arming mechanism that could be damaged.

The aircraft is a stealth bomber that carried a highly sensitive payload and munitions. the pilot was able to successfully jettison the payload and munitions package prior to the uncontrolled landing. The package guidance system is supported with solid rocket propellant systems and guidance. The system was deployed successfully, however the transponder has not been activated through JSOC due to the highly sensitive nature of the search operation by the Pategonians who are looking for the pilot. It is currently believed that the Iranians may have technology to detect the UHF signal. If packages Milk or Cookies are unfound and the teams are withing the expected region, the transponders can be remotely activated by JSOC for quick retrieval. You must immediately deactivate the transponder for security once retrieved.

Task:
Deploy alpha and bravo teams to the central west region of Pategonia. Infil conditions to be assessed at time of departure, primary infil through vehicle transportation simulating delivery by the 160th Soar.

Deployed to the approximate regions of the search. You must complete the following 4 Objectives.

OBJECTIVES:
1. Conduct movement to the search area.
2. Search for Santa. Retrieve and extract under covert conditions. Other US agencies are working through clandestine channels for a safe house for Santa. The elves will be able to take Santa to the next safe location.
3. Search for Cookies. Retrieve and extract under covert conditions. There will be follow on instructions for the delivery of the package once retrieved.
4. Search for Milk. Retrieve and extract. In the condition that extraction is not manageable, targeted detonation of the package can be done through a JDAM munition delivered through a FLIR system via air support which is on station throughout the mission.

Condition:
· Fall outs must be carried through the event unless conditions dictate otherwise.
· Rules of engagement: Covert.
· Land navigation skills will be instructed at the beginning of the event.
· Noise and Light discipline will be instructed.
· Swiss seat harness instruction.

Standard:
· Due to the sensitive nature of the mission and events:
· Noise and light discipline to observed.
· Time is of the essence and will be observed. Time hacks will be announced at mission briefing.

Stay alert, stay alive.

Required equipment was

• Axe
• 12′ of 1/2″ rope
• Headlamps
• Safety Strobes

The training consisted of an awesome group. Mark, Todd, Jessica, Luke, Ryan, Heather, TJ, Danny and of course myself.

Getting Started

The specific plan of action I put together from here was to start from my house, warmup with a short 2 mile ruck run, some PT and then to launch into the missions.

Before we set out, instruction was provided and I handed out the topo maps needed for the mission itself. We instructed everyone on how to make a swiss seat from 12′ of rope, and how to use a map and compass.

The main ground rule from here was that if a stranger asked “what are you training for?” or had a similar interaction we would suffer a casualty, meaning that one member of the team would be required to be carried for 1km. Similarly if we were passed by a police car or security vehicle (regardless of whether we were questioned). Most of the event took place outside of populated areas though and none of these interactions happened.

Additionally we ran without headlamps and strobes most of the time and kept quiet in order to observe noise and light discipline.

We arrived at first camp with the intention of fueling and performing PT at a local little league park. This is a popular make out spot at night though and shortly after arrival (remember we had no headlamps on) a vehicle showed up and the lights and engine were killed. Being the evil folks we are we decided to spook them a little, and the plan was to line up, turn on all our headlamps at once and then slowly approach the car – needless to say as soon as we did that the engine fired up and they peeled away

After this we knocked out pushups, sit-ups and LOTS of flutter kicks.

The missions were all taking place in ‘enemy territory’, therefore specific maneuvers were required to avoid detection. Any time we crossed areas of risk (junctions with roads, heavily lit areas, etc) we would perform maneuvers to ensure team safety and reduce risk. For example, the team observed a defense position while pairs ran through the area of risk. The next pair left when the previous team members were set.

Mission 1 – locate safe house

I announced two things for the first mission. The first was the lat/long coordinates of the safe house (this was along the same trail so navigation was more about measuring distance through pace counts than it was direction), and the second was that an injured ally had showed up at camp and needed to be transported to the safe house.

The safe house was actually a trail head parking lot, where I had left my vehicle (in case we had actual injuries or fatigue) and a trailer full of unchopped wood.

Purposefully I wanted the team to navigate after PT to experience urgency. Once movement stopped the cold winter air caused us to cool down very quickly. Unfortunately the temperatures were between 35 and around 28 so we didn’t quite get cold enough for my liking (insert evil laugh here

The injured personnel was actually a large log that weighed somewhere in the range of 400 lbs (extremely light by Goruck standards – I had something much bigger in mind for later).

The nature of the log, the fact we needed someone walking normally to keep an accurate pace count for distance, and the varying height of the team meant that we typically only had 5-6 people carrying the log at any particular time, but this was still very doable.

SNAFU #1 about 3 miles into the 4 mile log carry I noticed that my car keys had fallen out of my pocket. I was ready to plug on, but the team (in hindsight I am glad about this) decided we should do a sweep of the trail to look for them. Note it was dark at this point. We swept for the full 3 miles before Ryan found them right where we started with PT. I owe him a nice bottle of Scotch for that…

We had ditched the log for the sweep, but after much relief in finding the keys got back to the log and navigated the final half mile, with about 100m or so through the trees.

Mission 2 – locate package ‘Santa’, and transport to safe house

Obviously we couldn’t have an actual person laying in the open for hours waiting for us to come and find them, so instead Lt Commander Bill Stevens had his place filled by a duffle bag, around 450lbs of sand and rocks along with a bunch of 2×4 that I had dropped earlier that day as well as tagging the location with orange tape and a red strobe. The team didn’t know this though until we hit the target location.

A few extra gotchas were added to the mission. First the area was “reported as being under intense enemy patrol, therefore roads and trails could not be used” – in reality this meant compass navigation was needed in a heavily wooded area (the FOMBA trail system in Auburn). Second I picked the target location so that direct line from the “safe house” contained a marsh area and a lake. Finally once we reached the location we would encounter a small river, and would need to construct a rope traverse to get Santa across.

We identified a new team lead and navigator (Danny), and after refueling and planning our route (directly east for around 1km and then south east for another) we set off into the woods. Navigation via compass only at night is difficult, and through heavily wooded areas and uneven terrain is MUCH harder. The approach suggested by Mark and Todd was to first pick a specific tree at the target bearing and then walk to that tree and reset, while using the contours on the topo map to validate against actual terrain features. This worked really well, but…

SNAFU #2 our navigator ‘reached’ the first waypoint and was ready to adjust direction based upon reaching a particular landmark (crossing a fire road), however had forgotten the checks and balances of measuring distance and verifying with pace count – a really easy mistake to make. We were crossing a different trail and were actually half a click off target (for safety I was keeping track with a GPS but not providing this info to the team). Using our new bearing we started entering the marsh area and before we went to deep I decided to alert Danny of the error. Once he had our new current location, we set off again and found the new checkpoint sometime after.

At this point we took our new bearing and headed in that direction, and after a period of traveling I added a wrench to the works. I had “heard over the radio, that Package Santa needed to relocate and I have new bearings”. Based on where we thought we were and where the new location was we took a bearing/distance reading and headed off in the new direction. Some great nav skills led us right to package santa.

At this point most of us crossed the river (some traversing over a fallen tree, others – myself included – by simply jumping into a shallow point and wading across). From here we started filling the duffel bag with material but unfortunately we only achieved 320lbs before running out of space so made the decision to carry the last two bags of rocks separately.

Things started to get really fun here. Using some rope that we brought along with us, we found two solid trees and started constructing a rope traverse (this took around 20 minutes), hoisted ‘Santa’ 9ft into the air to attach him to the traverse rope and then push him across the rope. It seemed, though, that the rope was stretchier than expected and the sag caused him to stop half way across and submerged in water. At this point we (and I have no idea how – i wasn’t watching this part) attached a rope to the carabiner and pulled him the remainder of the way. Finally we hoisted him out of the water (not an easy task), constructed a stretcher from the 2×4 and 550 cord, secured Santa, hoisted him onto the shoulders of 4 of the team and setoff. This time we were allowed to use trails, making nav much simpler and the going quicker. The approx weight of this contraption was around 400lbs.

Heads clashed and I sustained an injury here, but nothing debilitating

Mission 3 – Bring Santa back from Hypothermia

After returning to the parking lot where the car was, I announced that due to ‘Santas’ injury, time in the woods and dunking in the water he is hypothermic, and therefore needed to be warmed quickly. To do this, we needed to chop firewood

Everyone unloaded the rounds of wood from the trailer, and proceeded to chop. This is always my favorite activity, always providing a ton of stress relief.

This warmed us up nicely, and after putting all the newly chopped wood into the trailer I provided details of the next mission.

Mission 4 – Retrieve Package Milk

By the time we finished the wood chopping, we were behind schedule by a couple of hours, partly due to navigation delays and mostly because of the lost key incident. Therefore we abandoned package cookies. This was intended to be a tree trunk that I had found that was around 800lbs in weight at a guess, but two factors caused me to remove this in the interest of time. First, package milk contained a couple of slosh pipes and other materials that I didn’t want to leave out to be found by a casual walker the following day. Second, this was found on what I later realized to be private land. We would have gotten away with retrieving under the cover of dark but as it would be light by the time we got there I decided it safer to skip that mission.

Package milk consisted of 10 logs and two slosh pipes (with the anticipation of a slightly larger team).

I provided the new coordinates, and we set off. We were allowed to use roads, but the rules were adjusted so that if we got noticed by a vehicle and were not under cover, we had a casualty. This led to very suspicious behavior – any time we say head lights heading into the corner or over the hill ahead or behind, we ran for cover into the treelike. It was around 6am at this point. Vehicle activity was increasing and it was starting to get light.

I had set the location to inside a trail head at Tower Hill Rd, which is a fairly steep hill that we walked for about a mile to the top. Fatigued legs made this much more ‘fun’, and the toll of the night was starting to show but spirits remained high. It was daylight by the time we approached the top, and we found the ‘package’ and started distributing the weight, either stuffing logs and pipes into packs or strapping to the outside. I tied two to the outside of my GR1 with 550 cord as a test of its quality, and the MOLLE strapping held up really well and despite hanging around 60-70 lbs off the pack it was really comfortable still. We hiked back to the ‘safe house’ (another hour or so) and I declared the final mission complete.

At this point, I let everyone decide whether to keep their packs or not for the 7 mile run/hike back to the house. I kept mine, as did Todd, Mark, Ryan and Luke I think. We set off, and after a mile Ryan, TJ and Heather decided to run back – partly dude to Heather starting to get really cold (it was freezing rain at this point and the roads and trails were really slick).

My group though hiked, Danny found a 1/4 keg that he picked and carried and we got back in good spirits.

Just as we were about to declare it done, Todd came up with one final piece of info. We were 900m short of marathon distance. We looked at each other and said “what the hell” and set back out to make up the distance. A quick loop to the golf course next to my street and a walk up the fairway and back and we were done.

Conclusion

The event lasted the expected 15 hours, and we all finished in good spirits with big smiles.

Over the next few hours, we packed everything up, and set off for a huge breakfast at the Red Arrow and reminisced about the awesome night. It seems like everybody that showed up had an absolute blast, and I will definitely run something similar soon. Mark did a great job not only of coming up with the mission and instructing us on some basic tactics and maneuvers but also helping me understand how to convert this into something we could do in our own backyard as it were. This was a riot to put together and such an amazing group of friends to share it with. Thanks to all of them, and if you read this and want to try the next one just hit me up on Facebook and I’ll be sure to invite you. Details partially forthcoming, and location as yet unknown.

Mission accomplished.

This is what I undertook this weekend and completed 20miles over 11 grueling hours with 80 obstacles in a hypothermic state. Many friends did much more, some the same, and some a little less but even a half lap was something to be proud of and I believe that success was strongly related to clothing choice and adequate nutrition – something I screwed up for the first lap.

For that first lap I wore short compression shorts and a loose long sleeve top. The first obstacle got this entirely wet immediately, and the wind chill immediately put me in a cold state. Wet obstacle after wet obstacle dropped my body temp further and further.

This became more a race against core temp for me and probably most than against the clock or other athletes.

2/3 of the way through the first lap I was uncontrollably shivering and easily stage 1 hypothermic and ready to quit. I warmed in a medical tent with dozens of other athletes at which time transport arrived for those ready to quit. I stayed and thanks go to my friend Paul DiMarino for giving me the final push to at least finish the lap. The urge to quit was HUGE.

I got to the end – including 4 times in the icy lake with full submersion – warmed, ate, dried and donned my shorty wake boarding wetsuit and set off with Paul for a mentally better second lap. Electroshock Therapy shocked both ass cheeks at once with 10kV – not recommended. I got wet and stayed wet but mustered the strength to delay the worst by making Funky Monkey despite the failing upper body strength. I made the rope crawl – a first for me. I got to the end in better shape than my first lap and was ready to dry, warm up the core and eventually tackle a third but my lap partner was injured and couldn’t continue and I was NOT going to risk everything and go it alone.

If I was more prepared (many that did more than 1 lap had a shorty wetsuit under a long sleeved) and better fed who knows. All I know is I am proud of what I did do. I conquered something most wouldn’t dream of and live to tell the tale. I’d do this again, and crucially it taught me a lot.

Huge thanks too to my Goruck and Spartan friends that provided laughter, support and company for this brutal journey.

Hippocrates : “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”

I’ve been a long time sceptic on the use of medicine to ‘cure’ disease and am of the opinion that fixing the symptoms is pointless without fixing the underlying cause. The human body has evolved over many millennia to get everything it needs from the natural sources available and by giving the body the foods it is designed to consume it will know how to fix itself more often than not. An example – Drew Carey recently disturbed by his inability to keep up with his fiancés 5yo son decided to look at diet and exercise to help. Not only is he running races, he has also lost 80lbs in weight from eating real foods and treating his body to exercise. The most amazing part though is that he has not only reversed his diabetes but has also reversed eyesight problems without laser surgery or cures for the symptoms. I rarely take medication – with the rare exception of NSAIDs in periods of intense activity.

I’ll talk more about food in future articles. The reason for this post, though, is a reminder of how we are not always learning but also how we need to draw on parallels elsewhere in life.

I recently developed a severe knee injury during a fall in a training session in VT – the worst and most persistent pain I ever remember feeling that appeared the day after the actual event. Trying to resolve the pain involved many attempts at fixing the symptoms.

I went through various self diagnosis while waiting for the medical industry to go through the test and refer cycle. From the beginning I went through the RICE protocol, resting as much as I could mentally stand. Fixing the symptoms.

A few x-rays later and about two weeks later, no visible problems – nothing broken. Kept up with RICE. Rest helped, but the problem immediately flared up when I left rest. Fixing the symptoms.

An MRI and a few more weeks later, no visible problems – no tears or tissue damage was apparent. Was diagnosed with Illiotibial Band Syndrome. got a referral to a PT, started foam rolling and continuing with RICE. Starting to resolve the problem while also tackling the symptoms.

A few MORE weeks later and a trip to the PT, and it was finally diagnosed that my initial injury caused the ligaments to stretch. This in turns makes my fibula loose causing inflammation where the end of the fibula grinds away when the motion is just right (or wrong).

The resultant PT surprised me though. Rather than touching the knee, it concentrate entirely on strengthening the hips and ankle which caused me to question, think and read. It dawned on me quickly. The symptom was the result of a problem somewhere else entirely!

My symptom was the effect of a problem somewhere completely different. Weakness in the hips and ankle was causing undue stress on my knee which not only caused the problem in the first place, but is also exacerbating it now.

The following recent T-Nation article also brought this idea home : Straightforward Knee Rehab

So what next? My knee is never going to heel but I can get some positives from this situation

• Fixing the cause will prevent things from getting worse
• I can use the info to evaluate the remainder of my body for weak spots or imbalances that need to be fixed
• My knowledge of the physiology of the lower body and the interactions is much improved

Coming forth from this is the new understanding that I have many imbalances that need to be corrected to prevent further injury elsewhere. As always, the body and mind are works in progress.

In the first revision you can access all of Mark McManus’ well written blog articles as well as a could of fitness calculators. Future revisions might include additional calculators, links to how-to videos and other useful fitness tools.

You can get the app here: http://bit.ly/do1UX3

It seems that adding instability to a workout VASTLY reduces the amount of force/weight that can be used for an exercise. While you might argue that the stabilizer muscles get more of a workout when instability is involved, the fact that the ability to progressively overload the main target muscle groups is reduced due to the inability to add a decent level of resistance is a problem in my mind. Personally I have also found that adding instability makes it easier for the form of a movement to slip with a higher potential for injury as the forces go up.

Mark cites a study that shows almost 60% reduction of force output on an unstable surface compared to a stable surface. 60%?? No thanks!

I recommend taking this information and using it wisely. Experiment over time and find a technique that works for you. Personally this information makes me even more committed to my ab workout on stable surfaces with larger amounts of resistance/weight over time.

Related posts:

• I Never Do Crunches
• A favorite exercise – the Renegade Row

• Runners for some reason really enjoy running.
• Just because somebody runs, it doesn’t mean that is all they do from an exercise standpoint.

I had a conversation with a young friend who runs competitively, and she is trying to get into weight training in order to improve her competitiveness too. I’ll get into that in a bit with some evidence that she is right on track.

There are a number of downsides to running or other endurance training as the main form of exercise.

1. Endocrine and immune function is compromised.
2. Muscle mass is compromised.
3. Reduction in functional capacity over time due to loss in strength and power.

Consider the flipside of weight training

1. Increases endocrine and immune function.
2. Maintains muscle mass.
3. Improves functional capacity, even despite aging.
4. Builds bone density (critical for a runner to reduce the chance of stress fractures)
5. Provides a way to correct muscle imbalances (common among runners)

So to maintain good health in general it is important to add resistance training in addition to other activities. In my opinion, you can be smart and efficient about it too. With the right exercises you can easily start to build and maintain muscle mass and get the benefits of increased bone density in 3-4 sessions of 30-40 minutes per week. If you train for running at a gym, you can just jump right into the resistance training routine after your period on the treadmill. If not, you can perform bodyweight or band exercises easily after your run.

One myth is that resistance training tightens the muscles, and therefore reduces running capacity or competitiveness. A study at the University of Connecticut looked at the effect of resistance training on endurance running performance and measures an improvement of 4.6% in running economy. Another study showed a 10 week resistance training routine improved running economy by as much as 10%. For a 3.5 hr marathon, that is an improvement in finishing time by 21 minutes!

Here is yet another study: http://www.saskathletics.ca/pdfs/concurrent%20endurance%20and%20strength%20training.pdf

I’ll post a follow up article with some example workout routines that are efficient and effective. The aim is to use compound movements to stimulate muscle growth and get good coverage of the main muscle groups.

Here in New England the seasons are very distinct, and therefore the activities associated with the seasons are different too. Eating habits can be different too.

In the winter, for example, I tend to eat slightly heavier foods and the main activity outside of the gym is snowboarding. Because of the extra calories, winter is an ideal time to concentrate on strength training. With that in mind, I ensure that my workouts target the big compound movements – barbell squats, bench press and deadlifts. I also use a workout log to ensure that I am progressing week over week. The only way to continue to grow muscle and strength is to continue to tax your system by increasing the weight lifted over time. Personally I don’t find snowboarding that taxing, so don’t do anything specific to core strength/flexibility or leg strength/flexibility.

Now that summer is rolling around, the diet is lighter and the activities change. This is the season for mountain biking, wakeboarding and strutting around on the beach. These require different capabilities. Wakeboarding benefits from upper body strength and core stability. Mountain biking benefits from explosive leg strength and stamina. Being on the beach benefits from reduced body fat and plenty of lean muscle.

Therefore my routine is now changing from purely strength based to a combination of strength, explosive strength and cardio activities.

While I haven’t completely decided on my routine, I know I will include the following

• Rowing Machine
• Treadmill, HIIT running
• Power Clean and Press
• Jump Squats
• Cable Woodchop
• Cable Side Press
• Renegade Rows
• Weighted Pullups/Chinups
• Bench Press

These will all contribute to explosive strength, lean mass/reduced body fat and increased core stability. Enjoy the summer!

Check out the article here.

My personal feeling is that running is an inefficient way of losing weight, if used alone. Despite my hatred of running though, I still use it as part of my cutting routine and also occasionally compete just to prove I can. And as always, your workout routine is entirely dependent on your goals.

There are a few key reasons why people run, and it usually boils down to one of the following

• They are sadistic, and actually enjoy it for its own sake.
• They want to lose weight and assume running is the best way to achieve this.
• They want to become generally fitter and improve cardio-vascular health.

Running does have a number of advantages. It provides 25% more calorie burn than walking, and dramatically improves lung function, lowers blood pressure and reduces insulin sensitivity. Psychologically, running has been shown to have a positive effect on brain function and on mood.

It has a number of disadvantages though. Running has a high risk of injury, and places a lot of forces of various parts of the body, causing trauma on the leg joints and back and even the kidneys. Running outside also causes increased risk of the effects of sun exposure, as well as the inhalation of exhaust fumes from vehicles.

Running has been shown too to reduce muscle mass, which reduces your resting metabolic rate.

Steady State v. High Intensity Interval Training

Running for health and weight loss benefits opens up the argument to steady state against HIIT. I define steady state as running at a consistent rate for a specific period of time.

HIIT is defined as running at in increased level of intensity for a short burst followed by running at a maintenance level for another short burst, repeating for a specific period of time.

An example of HIIT might be a fast sprint across your yard, followed by a slow jog back, repeating as necessary. It has been shown to burn MUCH MORE body fat than steady state cardio and in less time. It also vastly improves lung function.

If you goal is weight or body fat loss I strongly recommend following HIIT principles in your cardio workout. This article lists some hard numbers on why.

Conclusion?

So is running worth it? Well its really up to you, but my opinion is that it is worth *adding* it to your exercise regime. Using running – or other cardiovascular exercise – in addition to a strength training regiment will optimize your fat loss and improve your fitness levels in a well rounded manner.

I continue to believe that strength/resistance training (preferably with free weights/cables/bands/body weight) is the absolute best way to lose weight and get into shape and is the only way to get that cut or toned look. Adding running or another cardiovascular activities (particularly HIIT) can help trim more body fat enhancing your look, while also improving lung capabilities.