Spring Break quick recap

Okay, okay, I know, I've been slacking when it comes to keeping up with this blog thing lately, but I've been nonstop it feels since I have returned from Spring Break. Speaking of Spring Break, I have not even written about it, what the heck! Here is a short recap of Spring Break 2011:

Jimbo, his pops, and I drove to Georgia . Jimbo and I did the Tough Mudder at Highlands Park and dominated. Immediately upon finishing, we drove down to Jimbo's grandparent's place in Meridian, Georgia. We stayed there the whole week of Spring Break. We went out the boat in the intercoastal, rode our bikes from Meridian to Jekyll Island and St. Simon's Island, had a major epic fail when we tried to go kayaking, enjoyed the sun, and slept outside on the back patio. We spent quite a bit of time on the bikes, however, the roads soon became monotonous because there was one way to and from his grandparent's house and it was about 10 miles to get to different roads. We also watched BATTLE: LOS ANGELES! It was so awesome! I want to see it again. Action was nonstop right from the get-go. YEAH! I also bought a new pair of Vibrams- the Sprint! They're so comfortable.

The boat was a lot of fun because it had literally been YEARS since I've been on a boat. It was neat being able to let the wind go through what little hair I had and just look at the scenary. Legit ;)

There was not as much beach as I was visualizing in my head, it was mainly marsh land in the surrounding areas near his grandparent's place, which was why Jimbo and I rode to Jekyll and St. Simon's Islands, to get a change of scenary and see the beach!

It was a good time, for sure, and his grandparents were so welcoming, but I was definitely ready to get back to my own 'routine' I guess you would say and do things on my terms when I wanted to. We arrived back in KY with a sort of heat wave on Saturday evening March 19. It was in the 60s and 70s, everyone had thought spring had sprung! The little tease of warm weather would only be around for a couple days and then the 40s came back. Drat!

Tough Mudder Georgia 201111111!

Tough Mudder is claimed to be the longest and hardest of the muddy obstacle course race series out there. I figured, I’ve done an IronMan and other grueling events, so I figured an obstacle course-muddy run would be super fun! I did not want to be mediocre at it, by any means, so most importantly, I had to get in the right mindset to have fun and do well. Online for Tough Mudder Georgia, the race directors told us it was 10-11 miles. Race day they told us it was 12-ish. Come to find out, it ended up being 14.2 or 14.3 miles. YEAH!

Upon arriving to the race site, Highlank Park, Georgia, in the morning, nerves were stirring. I simply wanted to get a mohawk before the race, as they advertised free mohawks, but no one was there at the mohawk station.

Bummer. Jimbo and I were to begin our Tough Mudder adventure in the second wave at 9:20 A.M. Our race numbers permanent markered on our foreheads and legs, we use blue Crayola body paint from SGA to represent Lindsey Wilson College Cycling and R.A.V.E. We were Blue Raiders, for sure. If he and I knew there was an “elite” specific start at 9:00 A.M. we would have been on board. The first wave went off and we went to the starting area and were given the speech from one of the race directors. The race clock drew closer and closer to 9:20… and I was nervous and psyched. We were at the front of our wave. I was worried about being passed right in the beginning and looking like an idiot.BOOM! The race officials started us and the SPRINT downhill began. Jimbo and I were sitting 3^rd and 4^th right off the gun… YES! The first obstacle was an ice-cold muddy river crossing, twice. I had to remind myself to breathe; it took the air from my lungs. WOO! Get past it and press on. We did.

As each obstacle came, our lead on our group grew and we would pass the two guess in front of us within the first mile or so, one of them would hover behind us a couple seconds. Completely covered in mud from head to toe, we kept running, as if trying to escape from a wild pack of dogs – like when we’re on road bikes, so it was a similar nostalgic feeling. Obstacles came and went, ranging from mud and ice filled narrow tubes, low crawl under 8-inch barbed-wire, maneuvering under a cargo net in nearly a foot of mud. Let’s just say that within the first two miles, blood was drawn on my knees and elbows. The blood (and future scars) made me feel as if I was in some sort of battle because I yelled to Jimbo that the battle wounds have started to show!

Our shoes were covered in mud and so were our bodies, which added weight and made moving harder. Still, we pressed on. We run, and run, and run some more, still just Jimbo, that guy a few seconds back, and myself. In the distance, we could hear the next wave of Tough Mudder participants taking the same oath that we did. That was rather a neat feeling.

We then make a dash into the woods, following the course directions. HILLS EVERYWHERE! It was rather impossible to get lost during the run because the single track (and some double track) was beautifully marked with arrows and Tough Mudder signs galore. Up and down, up and down, the hills continued and continued, and Jimbo and I started passing numerous people. It was a cool feeling to know that with the first three to four miles of the course we had caught people that started 20 minutes before us. The hills came and went, and so did all of the people that we passed from the 9:00 A.M. group.

The legs were definitely starting to feel fatigued because of the hills, but we pressed on. There were rocks, roots, mini-trees, trees, mud puddles and people were things that we had to make sure we avoided in order to reduce chances of injury. Well, mud puddles were not really avoided on my part, simply because it was a MUD race, so why not run through the MUD! I splashed some other people we were passing, but they got over it and I had a good time doing it, too.

The water stations were essential in continuing the Tough Mudder because it was HOT and there were only three water stations throughout the course. Pressing on, there are other obstacles, including Berlin Walls, which are 12-foot walls you must get over- piece of cake. Some other obstacles, this time in front of crowds, included the Funky Monkey and the Fire Walker, more cargo net mud crawls, and other crazy challenges that were fun. Still, we pressed on. We ran past some people that were about one mile into the race, and they were gasping for air, complaining about this or that, and I wondered how they would end up continuing for however many miles the challenge ended up being. We were nearing the finish. A couple more mud pits and cargo nets later, we approached the final water obstacle, which was a climb up to a 20-foot platform into 15-feet deep, cold, muddy water, which you had to then swim 15-20 yards to the exit.

The FINAL obstacle was “Electric Shock Therapy” which had live wires hanging down (which we had to

run through) that would conduct up to 10,000 volts if you touched a positive wire with a negative wire. Jimbo did not get zapped once, however, I was lucky enough to feel it THREE times! BZZZT! We crossed the finish line and received our victory mementoes, a Tough Mudder Georgia t-shirt and the coveted orange Tough Mudder head-band. It seemed as if only about three to five people finished ahead of us from the 9:00 A.M. start group, so we did pretty awesome for passing almost all of the “elite” wave. Our time was 2 hours and 10 minutes for the 14-some odd miles hilly, muddy race. Seemed like a victory to me since the average projected finish time online for the 10-mile version was 2 hours and 30 minutes. We stomped that time and had a great adventure in the meantime.

All during the race, and as we finished I kept thinking about the World’s Toughest Mudder – the world championship event in December and how the top 5% of participants get to do the event if they chose to. I wanted to be in that top 5%. Looking at our time, I was (and I still am) 100% sure that Jimbo and I qualified. Now we just wait for the e-mail, which should be coming soon. The World’s Toughest Mudder website says to "expect 50 miles of mud, ice, snow, fire, hot coals, rock climbs, barbed wire, electric fencing, underwater swimming, boulder carries, rope climbs, extreme weather conditions and 100-foot dives from waterfalls." Sounds like an adventure to me, since the location and actual distance is undecided. They project 10% to finish the World’s Toughest Mudder. Jimbo and I will be part of that 10%. Stay tuned as we press on.

OSU RR and update before Spring Break

So the OSU race was last weekend (my bad for not posting earlier) but it was an exciting weekend. We departed campus around noon on Friday on the big honkin' LWC charter bus. Bikes and bags and people scattered everywhere, was worried about my pretty Miranda getting scratched, but luckily nothing happened. When we arrived in Columbus on Friday evening it was freezing cold and raining, which meant a promising weekend of excitement on the bike. We ate dinner at CiCi's pizza.... WHOA. so. much. food ;)

Saturday rolled around and I was feeling pretty good despite the really cold wind and rain. Our race was the first to go off, two laps. BRRRRR.. was really cold! and WET! Right before the race started, I noticed my front brakes were not working! yikes! Legs were frozen and immediately wet, and the power output was just not there! I needed to do some sort of hard warm up to get my legs pumped and ready, but they were not. It took about 18 miles for my legs to feel really good, and by that point the field had kind of gone into the distance. I started to time trial to finish hard and pass people. Within the first mile that my legs opened, I had passed three

people, then came a 90 degree right turn. Neither of my brakes, front or rear, were working and.. I could not slow down enough to turn and I did not want to take the turn going 25mph since the roads were wet and very slick. Missed the turn, and the cop at the corner just stared at me. Those three people I had passed, made the turn and were ahead of me again. The TT continued once I got onto the right road. In the rest of the race, I ended up passing about 6-8 people, but still realized that I needed to have warmed up hard before the race, especially in the freezing conditions. Sunday was supposed to be a crit... but the roads were icy and it was snowing, so it was cancelled.

Moving forward to the next race at Notre Dame, which is the weekend after Spring Break 2011! I'm going to be prepared and mentally ready to dominate. I purchased the USACycling Coach Certification Manual because I want to work towards adding "Cycling Coach" to my resume. I am hoping to work with Coach Grigsby and gain some experience with the LWC Cycling Team and other respects, as well. Also, I am thinking about the AMFPT Strength and Conditioning Certification, as well, which would help me in many aspects. Lots to think about.

So, since the Spring Break trip was cancelled on Wednesday that Joel had set up, for lack of proper preparation, I decided to do the Tough Mudder in Georgia with Jimbo. I have just been doing regular training, but I will still be more than ready to dominate. I mean, I did an IronMan without really training for it (that was 140.6 miles - Tough Mudder is 10 miles). After the event TOMORROW, we're going to Jimbo's family's place and we're going to go camping, biking, running and many other chill, relaxed things (along with working on my research paper).

I'm rather excited about the next week or so, it will be great. Look for more, soon. Here's a picture from the road today... Jimbro, Chrisbro, and yours truly.