No Races....Muscle Time

So, unfortunately, I have no more races scheduled until the Midwest Super Spartan on October 27th.  I am waiting to hear back from my company as to whether or not they will cover my registration for the Chicago Half Marathon on September 9th.  My wife and I are considering running the Monster Dash in Chicago in October as well but so far I have nothing that I am officially registered for until the Spartan Race so I have started back with a heavy weight lifting and lower cardio regimen for the next month or 2, or at least till I hear about another race that requires training and preparation.

For my weightlifting, I have almost always put together my own routines but this time I decided I would go with some routines that are ready to go and all I have to do is the work.  I started researching Mike Chang's Six Pack Shortcuts product and I will admit, I am interested.  Before I commit to purchasing them however, I decided that I would use some of his videos that he has already uploaded to YouTube.

I have done a few of his workouts and I will say I am impressed.  They genuinely push me and I could feel a difference.  The first day I did 3 of his workouts.  Back, Shoulders and Biceps.  I was feeling the after effects for 2 days.  I put my wife through a more total body version of his workouts and she was smoked by the end.  I will admit I was impressed with the workouts and with his instruction.  (found out I was doing Dead-lifts improperly this whole time).

The following videos are the 3 workouts that I did.  I will be doing his Chest workout today along with triceps.

Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon

On Sunday I competed in the Chicago Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon and I have to say, this was probably one of the most challenging runs I have ever done.  It was the longest distance I have ever run and it was warm and humid.  My previous personal best for distance was 10 miles.  A half marathon for those that don't know is 13.1 miles.

My wife and I went to the XSport Health and Fitness Expo on Friday to pick up my race packet and I immediately hit a snag.  Some how I was put into the first corral.  Now I like to fancy myself a good runner but I am by no means a fast runner.  The guy handing out the packets took one look at me and asked "how fast were you planning on running?"  I replied that I was planning on about a 10 minute mile.  He laughed and said I was gonna get killed in that corral.  I laughed in return and told him I was just as surprised to be in the first corral.  I walked over to the table for corral changes and the women there laughed as well.(good thing I have thick skin and can laugh at myself).  I didn't have to change my official corral number but I did decide to move back to the 10th corral.

We walked around the expo for about an hour.  It wasn't big as I expected but the venders and sponsors they had were all very good.  I got to see all the medals that the Rock'n'Roll series has and I was impressed. I all so saw all the medals for the Disney World and Disney Land runs, and again was very impressed.  I now have new goals on the horizon.

Anyway, the race itself started at 6:30 am on Sunday morning.  The race was very well organized and they have water, bananas and bagels at the starting area for the runners.  They were all so handing out salt packets because it was supposed to be a very warm day (pushing the mid 90's).

At the start, the first corral was allowed to go and there was around a minute wait in between each start.  At the 10th corral I started about 7-10 minutes after the first.  the course was well laid out and they had traffic management people at every intersection.  There were a number of points along the way where they had band stands set up with live music for the runners.  XSport Fitness all so had people out on th course cheering on the runners.  there were water, cooling and aid stations every 1 1/2 miles as well as port-o-potties along the rout for the runners.

The course took the runners all around downtown Chicago as well as quite a distance west of the downtown area.  Having lived in Chicago all my life, I was surprised to see neighborhoods I had never seen before.  I was a little surprised at the number of spectators that came out to cheer on their runners.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading a lot of the signs.  One woman I saw at a few points along the way was holding a sign that read "Do Epic Shit".  I liked that one.  She had a bike with her and must have been riding ahead.

The best part was once we turned down Lake Shore Drive for the lat 2 miles of the race.  The whole area was lined with spectators cheering people on.  The Finish line was in Grant Park and by the time I finished, was filled with people.  I crossed the finish line and immediately spotted the friends that I had come with.  I made my way through the crowd picking up my finishers medal and a lot of free food and drinks.  Gatorade, Chocolate milk, water, pretzels, fruit cup, banana, Jamba Juice and a towel soaked in ice water were a few of the things given to the finishers.  I got my finishers photo taken and headed to the area to reunite with the spectators.

Since I had done the Muddy Buddy the day before, I qualified for the Rock'n'Mud Challenge Medal as well as a special lunch.  I got the Medal and the "Special" lunch.(2 subway sandwiches).  We walked around the vender area, picking up all the freebies, stretched and then headed home.

All in all, I would say the race was very well executed, the course was amazing with great scenery and support by race officials and spectators alike.  All the runners that I saw were courteous of each other and would give words of encouragement to racers that needed it.  I will definitely be running this race again next year and if possible, others in the Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon series in other cities.  Well done Rock'n'Roll Marathon Series and XSport Fitness on a great race.

Muddy Buddy

This past weekend I competed in the Muddy Buddy and the Rock'n'Roll Half marathon to complete the Rock'n'Mud Challenge.

Muddy Buddy

The Muddy Buddy I did with my wife, Raquel, and we had a great time.  Aside from the heat, everything else was fun and challenging.  The race was 4.5 miles long with 12 o"obstacles."  The obstacles themselves were not very difficult for myself and Raquel was able to do all the obstacles without any help except for the rope climb.  Other than that she dominated all the obstacles.  There were only 2 real hills but they were steep and took a lot out of you when going up them.  I was a little disappointed that there were only 2 mud pits and the first one wasn't until the half-way point.  The first one was like crawling through clay it was so thick, and the other mud pit was at the very end and it was more like a water pit with dirt mixed in.  All in all the race was well executed and a lot of fun for Raquel and I.  We are already planning on signing up for it again next year.  I would recommend this race for beginner and intermediate obstacle course racers looking to have a good time.  This would not be a challenging course for advanced OCR'ers but still fun either way.

5k a day Challenge Finished

So it took me a while to write this because, honestly, I was lazy.  My 5k a Day Challenge ended July 1st and it was a success and failure at the same time.  I managed to complete the minimum miles required by the challenge but failed to meet my personal goal of 100 miles.  I finished with 96.45 miles.  Now many people would say, "you only had 3.5 miles let, why didn't you finish?", and I asked myself that question as well.  The entire month of June my legs were in pain.  My body was not accustomed to running so much.  I usually average around 50 miles per month.  So I almost doubled my mileage for June.  That's a lot to do.  I fought shin splints and knee pain from wee 2 till the end.  That being said, I am proud of myself for completing the task that I set myself to and would fully recommend others do the same.  Set a goal for yourself and finish it.  It is a very fulfilling feeling.  Now that this is over, it;s time for a new pair of running shoes.  My Nike Air Pegasus +28's have served me well but are way over the mileage that they should be replaced at.  They will be retired to the walking and OCR shoe pile and the oldest pair will be donated at the next race.  I will follow up this article with a review of my Air Pegasus +28's as well as whatever new pair of shoe I get.

Ron