My Friday evening and Saturday afternoon saw me participating in something I'd only heard of in passing, a human dogsled competition. I joined team Wicked Muddy(Founded by Mark and Alysha Lynch) along with Craig, Jeremy and Ron. I pulled up the rear as the musher and Alysha was in the basket. We won a few, and lost a few. Knocked one team completely out after sending them to the losers bracket, and then beating them on day 2! Rivalry created! The event was part of Lowell's Winterfest, though being that it was quite chilly, I'm not sure any of the team members actually got to enjoy the other festivities.
In the end, Wicked Muddy put up a good showing, and we didn't even complain that they kept calling us Team Wicked Money. Good Show Team!
Update on my exercise life-
Missed Yoga AGAIN, sheesh!
Monday was a 5 mile lunch run and Crossfit day.
Today will hopefully be a 5-6 mile lunch run and a homemade workout which will include dragging a tire, squats, weighted pull ups/dips/pushups/ring rows and maybe a hand stand push up for good measure. Today's exercise sponsored by Market Basket Dark Chocolate covered Coffee Beans.
Some time in the last year or so, I became obsessed with minimalist shoes. Not just "barefoot" shoes, and especially not those ridiculously hideous Five Fingers. Instead, I focused on sustainable shoes, more specifically, SoftStar Shoes based out of Corvallis OR.
Soft Star originally started out as a slipper company, manufacturing sheepskin mocs by hand. Then the big bang of barefoot running happened(most say it was the book Born to Run that caused it) and people started running in Soft Stars slippers. Well, wouldn't you know it, the good Elves in OR decided to compete with the likes of Vibram and came out with their own line of "barefoot" shoes, The SoftStar Shoes RunAmoc. Pictured above are two versions of the RunAmoc, 5 pairs of the Dash model, and the newest addition to my collection, a boarskin bottomed pair of the original RunAmoc(the all black ones). What I love about these shoes, and Soft Star, is that they hit the minimalist shoe movement head-on in all the right ways.
BOAR SKIN SOLE!!!
While most companies are trying to figure out the best way to minimize their shoes to best appease avid barefoot runners looking for the "bare" minimum(harhar!) in terms of protection, Soft Star already had that down. Where they excel is in their use of materials. The original RunAmoc is technically 2 pieces of leather, the front and the back and a Vibram sole(2mm/5mm your choice). The leather comes in an assortment of custom colors, all made with vegetable dyes. Once your shoe wears out, rip the sole off, cut up the leather and your shoe is ready for the compost. Can you say the same about the Barefoot Trail Glove?
Trail Sole(5mm)
While the sheepskin may offend some Vegans(my BFF is vegan, so I'm allow to poke fun), it may comfort them to know the leather used in the shoes were from animals not killed for their hides, in fact, the boar skin sole is scrap material(technically it's not offered as yet, these are test shoes). Did I mention the shoes are hand made in a solar powered factory? And that the scraps are donated to arts & crafts programs?
Street Sole(2mm)
The only other companies I'd consider buying from are Tera Plana(many of the soles of their shoes are made from recycled rubber), or New Balance(the New Sky line of shoes uses a 100% recycled upper), but still neither is made from 100% recycled synthetics, nor are they biodegradeable. So at this moment in time I'm going to remain a devout Moc snob.
On to the shoes! mocs! Pictured above are all the Mocs I currently own. Over the last year, that pile was at one point two pairs larger, but those went back to Soft Star. The shoes are arranged in consecutive order, from left to right. The orange, blue and black are actually the second pair of that specific design(the first got a little beat up after a 34 mile, 2 day hike over the highest elevation section of the Long Trail and had to be retired). The Silver and Shiny Sapphire shoes I still wear. They were what helped me conquer the Beast, and several other obstacle races last year. They were with me for all of my trail runs, and are still holding up! They also spawned my first ever experience testing shoes mocs.
One shortcoming of the 5mm trail sole Soft Star uses is that it's stiff. It's definitely welcome support over sharp, rocky terrain, but it doesn't flex with the rest of the shoe. Specifically, it begins to separate at the inner arch on the Dash model. At the Beast, this happened to my lucky Sapphire pair, and so, the Elves at Soft Star asked me to evaluate new glues, effectively making me a Tester! Anyway, my first pair of test shoes isn't pictured, since they didn't fair well. They were another Shiny Sapphire and Silver pair, following that an improved glue with the two Shiny Lime and Silver pairs pictured above. Finally, for work, I have the Chocolate, Nutmeg and Suede Rust shoe, pictured on the right.
Soft Stars crowning achievement, I believe is what's pictured on the left. A nearly fully leather RunAmoc. The Original, with a thick Boar Skin Sole. The soling has about the thickness of the trail sole, but is 100x more flexible, and you get the benefits of grounding/earthing. I'll be wearing these as my primary running shoe, with my trusty shiny testers as obstacle course mocs. They'll also be with me through the Death Race.
My biggest issue with my mocs, is that rarely does anyone ask me about them. Meanwhile ANY time I see someone wearing Five Fingers, the wearer gets accosted with inquiries...where's the justice? Now, I didn't get into the benefits of minimalist running, or "barefoot" running shoes, I just assume by now everyone knows the spiel, if not, watch this uninformative video:
I love my mocs. Do yourself a favor and get a pair. Call up the Elves, and you'll get to speak with someone who'll likely be making your shoe by hand. That's a one of a kind experience right there. Amazing company!
And since I already asked it today, how much BACON did you eat today?
**oh, and I'll definitely post an update regarding the boarskin mocs once I get some miles on em.
As some of you know(haha, I'm writing this as if I actually have readers!), I'm from VT. In VT we always wear flannel. It's so ingrained in our lifestyle, it's what makes us rugged. The more flannel you own, and frequency that you wear it determines your ruggedness. It's a simple mathematical equation:
[(F*N*(VT-X)*M*D)^y]A = R,
Where F, N, VT, X, M, D, A and R are the number of flannel shirts you own, number of days per week you wear them, number of years you lived in VT, number of years you lived anywhere else in the world(add up any time you were away from VT, to the hour.), the number of gallons of maple syrup you consume in a year, the number of times you've stood on the top of Mt. Mansfield, the number of years VT has been a state(to account for the pussification of VTers turning into whiny wannabe hippie/emo/indie kids) and the Ruggedness Factor, respectively.
For many, y = 1. This number is the key to ultra ruggedness. To increase it, you must EAT FLANNEL. That's right. It's not enough just to wear it and proclaim yourself a true Vermonter, EAT IT. For every pound eaten per calendar year, the exponential increases by 0.5. Science can't explain the nutritional benefits of flannel(ask a doctor, he'll probably tell you it's "inadvisable" and wont offer you any nutritional value). It's fuzzy plaid, that doesn't wet your palate?
Anyway, running fast is directly proportional to being more rugged. So, gain ruggedness, gain speed and ability. I myself have a ruggedness factor of ~15.93. Being that I live outside the great Green Mountain state, I'll need to begin eating the magnificent fabric asap if I want to retain or improve my athletic abilities. What's your R value?
So what we've learned here is that simply making proclamations regarding flannel, living in VT and wearing it on random days has no bearing on VT-based ruggedness. None. So stop saying it.
So, this week was supposed to be my week back. Monday, I do my pull ups, but I shorten it due to a visit from a lady friend.
Tuesday I forget my running shorts for my lunch run and decide instead to do a modified Murph at home...well, lost power to some outlets, had to deal with that, did like half of it...
Wednesday ran at lunch(woo!) had a racquetball match at 5:30-won it- and was going to hit crossfit for this beastly workout-
3 rounds for time
5 Deadlifts(315lbs, obviously I was going to do less weight)
10 HSPUs
15 KB swings(70lbs! I opted for 53)
10 Muscle ups(These I did proper, and on the bar, no swinging ring-kip crap from this guy!)
5 Thrusters(135lbs, I did 95 first round, had never done them before)
Wouldn't you know it, my lame ass 185lb deadlift was being out done by the gal next to me...so on round 2(I was ahead of everyone at this point and did 9 bar muscle ups in a row, PR!) I attempted 235lbs, my previous "max"(not a real max, I don't actually know my max), and of course, I lifted improperly, and my back suffered for it. I did 2 reps, felt it tweak, and dropped the bar on my shin, an awesome feeling by the way. After that I couldn't even swing the kettlebell, and so I finished out 20 more hspus and muscle ups and swore at myself a bit.
Yesterday I did nothing
Today I'm part of a human dogsled team. Should be entertaining, and I hope it lets my back rest!
Goals for this weekend- Run with some resistance, or hill sprint. Squats, and ski(if your lame back is up for it). Also try for 80 push ups in a row, and get some video evidence for reals this time.
I hate when my feet are cold. I despise the sensation. If it's cold, I will avoid getting them wet at all costs. I take this seriously. I own Gore-Tex socks(GEAR!) for this specific purpose. Yet, when I was instructed to remove my shoes and socks and repeatedly soak my legs and feet in 32F water, I didn't think twice. I even went as far as to put my damp socks back on and then ran several miles with numb feet(they felt lumpy)...all because I wasn't the one pushing myself to do so. But I did it, and I didn't flinch. Had I been out on my own, I'm pretty certain I'd have called it quits after an hour, but I carried on with some brutes for 12 on Saturday.
I don't feel like calling it a "Death Race Training Camp" is appropriate, it's more of a test of endurance. The first one I attended was 23 hours long, and emphasized strength and endurance, while Saturday's camp emphasized mental strength, it tested your breaking point. It's run by Bruce and Jeff, brothers, affectionately known as the Tire Guys for their ridiculous attempt at competing in the Spartan Races Beast in Killington VT but taking it a step further than simply running like everyone else; with them they brought a 300lb truck tire. This weeks "camp" was only 12 hours(6am-6pm), but promised to be every bit as brutal as the last. On to Saturday's crapfest, here's the skinny( with me, Mario, Mark, Anthonly, Paul and Jess were just as masochistic to follow the Tire Guys orders)-
12 hour Camp with ~5 min breaks every 2 hours(they pretty much held to this)
I arrived late, had to carry a bag of cement and a ladder ~1/3? mile and do 100 push ups
Chopping wood. We were all splitting chopped wood, meanwhile they'd ask random participants to attempt to climb a tree, or pull some cement blocks attached to a rope up to a pulley. My failure here was my grip strength and weight since the blocks would literally lift me off the ground when I went to regrip! As for the tree climbing, Jeff pointed out to me how ambiguous his request was, he merely asked us to touch a point in the tree, he didn't specifically tell us to climb it, so upon repeating that fact to me, he asks me how I'm going to touch it...and I responded "Ladder?" Good work Jeff, I ended up paying for that gift later on..
Run to the beach at the park without packs. Self explanatory. Probably 2-3 miles.
Fun in the sand! Here's where we were treated with our first dose of cold water for the day. We're told to remove our socks and stand in the frozen, abrasive sand while they explain our next objective. This one was rather inventive, with the help of Bruce's kids, they'd buried plastic bags in the sand, each bag contained 1 Lego. We had 5 minutes to dig, after the 5 minutes was up, we'd spend 1 minute standing in the water up to our knees. The first time in was probably the worst. I found a bag in the second round, but finding one didn't mean immediate relief, no, once you had your Lego, you still had some numbing pain in store. First 1 minute in, come out, rest, 45 seconds in, rest, semi dry your feet, 30 seconds, and then of course 15...the painful part was coming out and walking on your frozen footsies, partially drying them, only to repeat the freezing process. Bruce, Jeff, good show.
I'm told to put my shoes back on and run the beach 5 times(maybe 1/4 mile one way?) After about 2.5 times, Bruce grabs me and we do some hops up some stairs, hops down the stairs, then some box-esque jumping up onto benches, probably 20+, we did those down and back.
Next was something I'd never even considered doing, a Plank Crawl(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzYeaK3d9D0 Imagine that, but without the silly foot pads, and on frozen sand). Jeff tells me I need do a plank crawl for the entire beach...all that I said about frozen feet on abrasive sand was now about to apply to my elbows. My feet had more or less warmed up at this point, but my elbows, my poor elbows, they didn't know what they were in for. Even with my jacket, the cold hard sand was slowly numbing my arms, but what was more evident was the burn in my legs and shoulders. About 2/3 of the way through, Jeff had let another participant bear crawl due to our obvious deficiency with the plank movement, so I hammered that out and prepared myself for more abuse.
Next they instructed me(unfortunately there were some poor souls still searching for Legos and standing in water) to carry a large barrel down the beach, only caveat was that I had to hold it in front of me, instructions I would later find out he didn't give to everyone else! After that, it was a tire-yolk carry. Think of a bar with little hooks, and some ATV tires hanging off the hooks...whenever you set it down, they'd fall off the hooks. Jeff instructs me to carry it over my head, arms fully extended, another instruction I seemed to be the only one to get! Thanks Jeff! Did it, and graduated to doing tire flips down what was slowly becoming my most favoritist patch of beach ever. After tire flips, they had an even bigger tire with a chain attached, as I began to drag it, the final Lego was recovered, and we got to move on. For a moment, I had relief.
But it was only a moment. Next we were all given an object. There was a 4 ft tractor tire, buckets filled with water, a pallet, a half circle block of cement, wheelbarrow with two cement balls in it, the tire yolk, and a red cart with a cinder block on it. I was given the tire. For the first part of what I'll call a "hike" through the park, the wheelbarrow(Anthony) was probably the worst off. The Tire Bros led us bushwhacking. Somehow in February, they found the healthiest, thickest patch of thorn bushes I'd ever seen. They stabbed my legs, hands, and even impaled the tire, which would later impale my hands when I went to push the damn thing. What was great about this camp was the pace. Even though all but one had emerged from the woods, we didn't just sit and wait, no, it was jumping jacks with our packs on until Anthony made it out. After that, we moved along, me and Mr. Tire taking up the rear. This continued for a while, through brush, streams that smelled like sewage and dead fish(the tire actually had fish scales on it at one point, felt great on my bleeding hands!).
I know I'm forgetting something, but we switched objects, and kept going through the woods. Mark and I swapped, so I got to tow the awesome red cart with 4'' wheels, a cart designed for a shop floor, not the undisturbed floor of the leaf covered, stick strewn floor of the forest. It did feel like an improvement over the tire though... So, through the woods, up a ridiculously steep hill, and down to a swampy stream bed. This was fun for Paul(wheelbarrow) and I. Others were asked to walk down this stream bed keeping ~4ish feet from the shore. Since the cart and wheelbarrow wouldn't really work here, we got to walk our wheeled friends down to the end, then walk back and carry our secondary objects(mine being a cinder block) down the length of the stream bed like everyone else. I couldn't begin to estimate the damage that cart did to the sapling population on Saturday. I bow my head in environmentalist shame. :(
We moved onward, guess what we didn't get to do next? You guessed it, we DIDN'T get to remain dry. At the edge of a pond, we're instructed to walk across to the other shore, to go through the water, basically riding the edge of the ice that had formed. Once on the other side we grab rocks(I swear Bruce said 1 at a time at first) and bring them back to stack them. The stack needed to reach "3 ft", but our measuring stick was just that, a stick, might have been more, might have been less. The great thing about this pond was the surface below...it wasn't much of one. There were a few rocks, but for the most part, we were stepping through leaves, mud, algae, and probably dead things. As we walked through it more, it became more and more loose, foot holes got deeper, and more unpredictable. Impressively, none of us fell. Numb feet/legs and all, no one fell in. Mark and I stacked ours first, and were instructed to attempt to climb a tree...we couldn't. And because of that, we got to bring our rocks back to the other side. The path through the water was worse and worse. You'd spend an increasing amount of time crossing each time due to the unevenness of the surface. The added soaking time didn't bode well for those of us that got back first...Now, I'm all for resting at this point, but sitting, with the light breeze present, and soaking wet legs was not conducive to avoiding hypothermia, yet sitting, was exactly what Jeff asked us to do. And we had to do it until everyone was finished. How Mark sat so still, I do not know.
More trekking, and finally, we emerge at a field, where we actually rested for the longest period of time(probably at around 2-3pm at this point). Here while we waited for Mark and his tire to bring up the rear, we refueled(i know, I missed one or two of the breaks we had, but they were so short they weren't easy to remember). I ate some of my coconut balls(recipe below), and a few of the dark chocolates. Up to this point, I'd probably only soaked myself up to my upper thigh, I was getting comfortable with having damp legs in near freezing temperatures, but of course, comfort is relative. The next task required a pad and pen. We had to copy to the best of our artistic ability, a Lego puzzle in 3 minutes. To recreate it, we needed the Lego we'd dug up that morning, as well as a pile of Legos resting safely in the wheelbarrow...which was not so safely floating in an oversized "puddle" just 100ft away. I went in first to grab it, since Jeff said it was only waist deep...three steps in, I'm at my waist, still 5 feet from the slowly sinking wheelbarrow. I take one more step...and I'm up to my chest. In my mind I was just thinking "did that really just happen? Really???" I brought the wheelbarrow closer for the rest, touched it again, and it disappeared...it sank, but luckily, the Legos mostly floated. I don't think any of us had time to accurately draw the puzzle, so we all stood in the water(or sat) and attempted to build what little we could. Because everyone was taking so long, we were allowed another look, 4 minutes this time, but Jeff and Bruce took our Legos while we got another glimpse. I'm not sure why, but Jeff took my bag and said "Come get it" and proceeded to run, and dive into the water...I was actually confused...self preservation told me not to submerge myself again, I guess I wasn't listening? I took a step toward him further than I had before, and was submerged up to above my chest...attempted to keep my arms dry though and took the pieces from him. The attempt was short lived when I tripped on my way to shore and had to drop my entire left arm into the water up to my shoulder to keep my head from going under. As I mentioned, comfort was relative. At this point, the water felt better than the air, when I got out after someone solved the puzzle(they were 'nice' and let 1 solution be good enough for everyone) I started shivering, uncontrollably. My head was shaking to the point that it was affecting my vision. Jeff and Bruce told us to sit in the field while they brought the things back to the support vehicle ~200 yards away. Once back we'd get to change...how nice of them. Well, we huddled, I shivered, they finally came back, only to tell us "you can change your tops". I think I was the only one who had to.
Next was another run, to a stream. We're told to walk up through the middle of the stream, then climb a waterfall and wait at the top(road). Climbing the waterfall at first looked ridiculous(only 15ft, but still...it's a WATERFALL), and I wasn't excited to be completely soaked, but luckily Bruce lent a helping hand, and pulled us up from the side so the only thing that got wet was our already waterlogged lower body. Which we'd again submerge on the other side of the road where they had us walk in waist deep water for about 50 ft. And then we ran some more. It was definitely an interesting feeling having the sensation return to my toes after so long being numb...at first the running warmed my calves, then my heels, then suddenly my feet didn't feel like lumpy stones, and I was able to notice the pound of sand grinding between my toes.
My feet were once again feet. I shouldn't have thought that thought, since as soon as I saw where were headed(the beach...again) I knew that meant more h2o, and I could tell we still had at least an hour to 6pm. We get to the beach, do a few buddy carries, and are once again instructed to remove our shoes and socks. We're each given a section of 2x4 on which SPARTAN is written. Each letter has between 5-8 dots on it. Here's where part of the gear list, 100 1.5'' screws and a screwdriver came in handy. We were to use the screwdriver to drive the screws all the way into the wood. One letter on land, then one letter while in the water up to your knees. Paul, being the most intelligent of us, brought an electric screwdriver since they didn't say it had to be manual. They were also nice enough to let us start the screws on land before finishing them in the water. Amazingly, no one dropped a screwdriver. This was the event that saw two people nearly drop. Paul's feet were white and had no feeling, he was also shivering, Anthony was almost at the same point, so they both warmed up in the car during this "obstacle", though not after giving the challenge a good try. Originally Jeff said we'd have to keep hopping in and out of the water until we'd also removed the screws, but as daylight dwindled, they changed their minds. The brothers stopped us just as I'd finished driving the first screw into the last letter. Still need to finish that little arts and crafts project....
Last one! a run back. Same run as the run to the beach. We all stuck together, which was awesome. Even Paul and Anthony pushed through after nearly losing to the cold, they came back and finished strong. We got back about 10 to 6, and with the remaining time we unpacked the support vehicle, then did jumping jacks for 1 minute until the clock read 6:00pm.
That was my Saturday. I came home and slept after that. Oddly enough, even after all that frigid water, I can't bring myself to take a cold shower. Today, I was going to run, but instead, decided to rest my joints, maybe crossfit tonight?!
Ok, not enough food talk....Here's what I made for the camp
Coconut balls-
5 Dates
5-10 apricots
4 Tbsps coconut oil
3/4c Macadamia nuts
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup Almonds
3/4 cup cashews
To taste- coca powder, ground coffee, shredded coconut
-Blend it all together and roll it into balls. Place them in the fridge, then bag em when you're ready!
And for lunch this week!
STEW!
Home made Chicken bone broth
4-5lbs Chuck Roast
4 Carrots
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 large onion
MMMMMM gelatin! Ok...long post, will make the next one shorter with lots of swearing.
So, another blog, probably wont keep up with it, but lets go anyway! First, a primer-
I eat "primal", which I actually can't stand saying. I eat whole foods, nothing processed(though coconut flour is an exception), though the processing meat goes through at a butchers is something I'm overlooking, and I eat a lot of fat. Dinner for me the other night was almost 1lb of bacon. This wasn't some special occasion. I'm 155-160lbs. I don't gain weight, even though I eat as much as I like.
Did that last statement make you hate me? Regardless, it's the truth. Breakfast-
1/5th portion of a scramble-
12 eggs from pastured chickens
1lb grass fed ground beef
Local-ish oganic spinach
broccoli
cauliflower
Fried in bacon fat(to be referred to as lard from here on out)
That's how I start my day. Healthy dose of cholesterol, your body and mind want it, give in!
Where exactly am I going with this? I'm not sure, not in the slightest. I'd say this is a friendly hello, but it isn't, it's merely an introduction to the active and healthy side of me.
So far for the week-
Monday: 6 mile run at lunch, 80lb weighted pull/push/dip routine at home
Tuesday: Crossfit( 21, 15, 9 155lb squats and ring dips for time, 7:50)
Wednesday: 5 mile lunch run, 2 hour Parkour training
Thursday: legs hurt...1 hour racquetball
Today- Resting...what?!
Tomorrow- Death Race Training Camp. If this blog is lucky, I might remember to post back here and elaborate.
My life is moving fast, toward simple sustainable homesteading in the woods, but at the same time, I love activities, to push myself beyond anything I'd have expected myself to ever be capable of doing. I'm striving to do this as naturally as possible, whole foods, modern moccasins, wool clothing and water. I will eventually be the scary guy that lives in the woods and has a house he tows behind is beat up Jeep Wrangler(will soon purchase). Until then, I'll dabble with a makeshift garden, wash my clothes by hand, and continue challenging my mind and body. The Death Race could have been named anything, it's just another challenge, something that I'm curious if I can do. Between now and then are several other interesting events, and we'll talk about those next time.
Until then, I'll simply leave you with a question, how much fat did you eat today?
