Now here is the real problem. The event is 12 miles of running with too many obstacles to count. The last time I ran was the half marathon last November. I was in marginal shape when I ran that event and felt like I should have trained way more than I did. Now, I am way over weight and seriously out of condition. So, what’s my plan? Run, run, and run some more.

Today I ran, sort of. Truth is that is was walking and jogging and I only made it a single mile. Wow. How far I have fallen. I did run however and that is far more than I have done in the past 9 months. I also have been working on a simple home gym. I don’t really believe that I can get back in shape without other activity. Over the next few months I will chronicle my progress and even have some posts  planned on DIY home gym equipment. I hope that you will come back to read about the shrinking man.

My starting weight is 243lbs. Ouch.

So here we are; Komen on a national level played hop-scotch with their funding of Planned Parenthood. I was happy when they pulled their funding and disappointed when they decided to fall back on their original position.

Please don’t misunderstand, I am 1000% in favor of providing adequate resources for women to be screened for breast cancer, but Planned Parenthood has a history of providing far more than well checks for women. This is where the water muddies.

I just want to provide funding for cancer research, specifically breast cancer research. I lost my mother-in-law to the disease and I can only dream of a day when we will see an end to this disease.  So what I am going to do?

This year I am still going to participate in the Race for the Cure and here are my reasons. 1st, the monies raised in Columbus stay in Columbus… for the most part. 75% of the funding stays in Columbus. The remaining 25% funds the national organization. 2nd, Komen Columbus has never funded Planned Parenthood as they don’t provide mammograms or other screenings for breast cancer. It comes down to trying to make the best decision I can. I don’t like the decision that the national organization has made. However, I’m hoping that my money is going to help save lives instead of taking them.

I never ran as a kid. EVER. I was on the varsity track team for 4 years, but that was only because I lived in a tiny town and only participated in strength events. I have a paralyzed vocal chord and it has always made any kind of strenuous activity difficult. The old advice of still being able to talk while running has never held true for me. I truly can’t walk and talk without long pauses between sentences. As a kid it was easy to just say that I couldn’t do it. After all I had an excuse. As an adult my perspective changed. “Why can’t I do it?”.

I started running a little over a year ago. I ran my first 5K with our families best friend on little more than a whim. She asked me to run with her and I registered at the race that morning. I ran slow but I was thrilled with the results. I ran a little less than a 10 minute mile and had a smile from ear to ear. After this I conned this same friend into another 5K and ran a little over 24 minutes. Unfortunately for me I own a Garmin which immediately pointed out that the course was short. I still ran less than a 9 minute mile which fueled thoughts of yet another race.

So, crazy running girl sends me the site for the Warrior Dash and I said why not. I tried to recruit every person I could find. I figured that it was  a perfect fun run. A couple of brave souls stepped forward including a couple of my close friends from Bowling Green. We did indeed have a great day and I ended up running the Warrior Dash again a few months later.

So, to help you with the math, I had run 2 5Ks and 2 fun trail races that were about 3.5 miles long to date. Then my friend from Bowling Green announces that she is going to run the Columbus Marathon trying for the third time in a year to break 3:30. It was like putting candy in front of a baby. I hadn’t even remotely thought about a half marathon, but I started thinking that I just wanted to be there when she accomplished her goal. So, after a little thinking and maybe a couple of glasses of wine I registered. Oops. What the hell was I thinking?

Too late. Misery loves company, so I immediately tried to recruit support, once again starting with my running wife. She, apparently as crazy as me, accepts.

So, now I’m in this thing… how do I train? Thank goodness for Amy and Todd Ahrens. Amy was the one targeting sub 3:30 and they were my go to couple for any of my running questions which seemed never ending. They agreed that Hal Higdon’s programs were fine so I started training. Then the wheels feel off.

I took a job.

I know, it was a silly thing to do. I had been lucky enough to stay home with my kids for over three years, but they were both now in school full time and dad really wanted to talk with adults again.  An opportunity came up in education and I decided that it was a good opportunity. Only problem was that it took up a huge chunk of those daylight hours. I also have kids that really wanted dad’s attention when I came home. It made it really hard to get away on runs and I skipped out on a LOT of runs. My training program was horrible. I skipped weeks of running and when I did run, I would run 3 – 5 miles at a really slow pace. Occasionally I would get a long run in on the weekends but I didn’t run nearly enough.

I started panicking the last couple of weeks before the race and started sending an email a minute to my friend Amy. “What do I eat?” “What do I wear” “Can I make it?” She in typical fashion patiently answered all of my questions. One of our conversations still stands out.

2 weeks before the race I was talking with Amy about being nervous. She simply asked what was the longest run I had run and how far did I run that day. Simple question right? Sadly I knew that I didn’t have a good answer. I had only run 10 miles once and had only run 2 miles that day and it felt like a thousand.

Her response. “WTF!”

Enough said. The next week I ran about 4 times but nothing more than 5 miles.  This is going to be a long day.

So getting to the race. My running wife and her husband picked me up about an hour and a half before the race. It took us only about 30 minutes to get down town and get parked. It was cold. No really. I was shivering. I had worn an old long sleeve shirt that I planned on throwing off along the course and it wasn’t cutting it. My friend was laughing at me as he stood there in his Notre Dame stocking cap and jacket. No fair. Truth be told, even he was cold.

In the last few minutes, Angie and I slipped into our corral and waited patiently for the time to come. Then it was here. The start gun, fireworks etc., all suggested that the race had started. But we were at the back. It took almost 10 minutes for us to reach the starting line. After that it was off to the races.

Angie squirted out onto the course and weaved in and out like a woman on a mission. I didn’t know how the day was going to go, but I knew that her pace was going to kill me. As a side note. Angie must weigh about 90 lbs soaking wet. I’m 230+ lbs and 6’6″. She was like trying to chase a rabbit through a briar patch. She would slip through a gap and I would get blocked by bodies. I would then wait for my moment and then accelerate, weave and push my way back onto her heels. By mile 3 I knew that I couldn’t continue this chase. She started to pull away and by mile 4 she was out of my sight. In a way I was happy. She was running a great race. But now, I was alone in a sea of people.

I had an mp3 player that I really had debated about using at all. I wanted to experience the sounds and excitement of the course. In the end I really wanted it and was glad I had it. Of course, my arm strap broke and I carried it in my hand for the last 10 miles or so.

The course was beautiful. For someone living in the suburbs, it was like taking a tour of my own city. The crowd was fantastic and I had a couple of friends that I hadn’t seen in 20 years yell out my name. What a surprise!

I know you want to know how the run was. Right? Well, good, sort of… Strangely I never thought about the mileage or stopping. It really didn’t seem to register. I had a pace where I could still breath fairly easy and I tried to keep my cadence as high as possible while not exhausting myself. Before the race, I was really concerned about doing anything aerobically for 2 plus hours. I was used to a 30 minute cardio workout being the norm. Now I was trying for 4 to 5 times that length. In the end, my mind was some place else. The negative thoughts never entered my mind. I just knew I had to keep moving.

By mile 9 I was getting tired. Significantly tired. I became way too aware that my right hamstring felt like a guitar string. Every time my foot hit the pavement I felt like it was playing it’s own little painful tune. I kept moving. My pace started slowing significantly my mile 10. By mile 12 I was really hoping that the race would end soon. This was the first time that I thought that my legs were going to cramp bad enough that I wouldn’t be able to finish. They really hurt at this point. My calves and hamstrings were pleading with me to stop. The only time I stopped running was to walk through the water stations. I tried to alternate between gatorade and water.

The last half mile for me was brutal. I knew where the finish line was. I knew all I had to do was to climb a tiny hill, turn left and run down the hill. By the time I reached my little summit I couldn’t even accelerate down the hill. I just kept slugging through my last few steps. Then I was done.

I took my solar blanket and bowed to have a medal placed around my neck and then stumbled into the reception village. I was on the verge of crying. My legs hurt so bad I just wanted to sit but there wasn’t any place to sit. Eventually I made my way to the end of the field and sat in the grass wrapped in my foil blanket. I had never been so happy to sit in wet grass.

My final time was 2:23:45. I was happy. I ran under an 11 minute mile and had just ran 3 miles farther than I had ever run in my life. I was asked that night if would I try a marathon next. I said ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! I didn’t even want to think about running a half marathon again. But I’m not 100% sure now. The pain does eventually fade.

My family got to Kaeppner Woods about 3 hours ahead of my heat. I had friends running earlier and wanted to see them run. There were few areas to actually watch people running the race but the final two obstacles were clearly visible from the main staging area. The fire jump and the mud crawl were the final two obstacles. The fire jump was actually much larger than I thought it would be. The fire row was at least 3 feet deep with fire in the 2 to 3 foot category. The fire was the entire width of the path and was immediately followed by a second row of fire. After crossing the fire, you got to crawl through mud under barb wire. Don’t confuse mud with muddy water. This was the type of mud that sucks people’s shoes off. Seriously thick muck that sticks to everything.

Check-in was painless to pickup packet. T-Shirt, Hat, and envelope with your bib and timing chip. Tent was organized by last name and pickup was quick. I didn’t use the check-in services but it seemed to work quite well. A piece of your running bib had a coupon for the check-in service that allowed you to check keys, phone, clothing etc. The main field for the event had a ticket booth. You needed tickets for everything including clothing. Most prices seemed reasonable enough to me. Very in line with other festival prices.

• Sandwiches – $4.00 – 7.00
• Water – $1.00
• Chips – $1.00
• Beer – $4.00 12oz

There were tons of Porta-Potties. I never once heard of anyone waiting in line and they were fairly clean other than a little mud. A results tent was running a live feed of times on a large LCD. Two beer tents were at the far end of the field next to the stage. Lastly there was merchandising and a Warrior Wash to clean off the runners. If I had any pet peeves of the event, I would say that the beer tents could have been moved to opposite ends of the field or the very least moved farther apart. They also were located close to the Warrior Wash which meant that by mid-day most of the area was flooded. Since most of us brought dry shoes and clothes, it was sort of a nuisance to stand in ankle deep water to get a beer. The Warrior Wash could have been better planned as well. Only one way in and out which meant walking back through a mud hole after being sprayed off. An elevated platform of some type would have been nice as well.

Back to the race. I watched my friend go off at 12:30. From the starting line you could see a couple more obstacles. You could see the cargo net wall which was about 16 feet tall. After that was an elevated ramp that ran up and down. Sort of a tight rope, balance type of obstacle. The main starting corral was fairly large. They were estimating 500 runners per heat but I would have guessed more along the lines of 100 runners per heat. Once the countdown ended, two giant gas burners blasted fire into the sky and the runners were off. As a note, the fire was HOT. If you are at the starting line, prepare to feel considerable heat at the start. Once she was off, I went back to the main field to see if I could see her for the final obstacles.

I could see through the woods from where we were setting and we anxiously awaited Angie to come running through the woods. Although I knew that she was a strong runner, after about 30 minutes I was getting a little tense. I figured she should be popping out of the woods at any minute. The minutes passed really slowly until we finally caught a glimpse of her running down a ramp with a huge smile on her face. I didn’t make it to the finish line but she found me very quickly to tell me how hard it was. Ugg.

Breathless. “HILLS! HILLS! Once you hit the tunnel, kick it your almost done.”

Excited, I moved towards the starting line. I still hadn’t located my friends and after trying to find them for several minutes, I simply gave up. I ended up in the middle of the pack in the corral and this proved to be a mistake. We took off across a grassy field with a very gentle uphill grade and headed into the woods. This is where everything came to a grinding halt. The path narrowed to between 4 and 5 feet and was seriously steep in sections. Caught and blocked behind runners, I could do little except wait it out. Frustrated, I continued walking and trying to run around people whenever I got the chance. It was at least a mile into the course before things started to open up a little and I could pick a route. Even this far into the race there was still considerable uphill sections. It is hard to think back to what order the obstacles were, but as I recall, a section of wooden walls was the first obstacle. About 4 feet tall, 4 in sequence, over, under, over, under. I could simply hop over them but came close to getting knocked out on the first wall when I got too close to a runner in front of me and almost caught his foot on my chin.

When I finally got the chance to run I started seeing some of the obstacles as nuisances. I really wanted to pick up some of the lost time, but the obstacles were all a part of the game. One obstacle was a small pond with logs anchored on each end to the sides of the pond. You had to push the logs down and climb across. Unfortunately, the pond was much deeper than most competitors expected. For many it was over their heads. I noticed as I was making my way across that my kilt was floating up around my back, when I exited the water I realized just how much water this thing could hold. It was easily 20lbs of water and I was forced to try to wring out some of the water as I jogged.

The junk yard scramble was easy to navigate as was a woven maze of elastic ropes. The worst obstacle for me was a covered tunnel which pitched down towards the middle. I was crawling on my forearms, my kilt catching under my knees, stones digging into every available piece of skin. Not fun to say the least. The cargo net was fun and was immediately followed by the elevated plank walk. Both passed fairly easily. After the planks, you moved into the final stretch. Moving into the river, I expected ankle deep water, but it was much deeper, probably about 3 feet deep in places. Made moving difficult. Another climbing wall made from plywood with 2x4s nailed to it horizontally proved easy for me. I was tall enough that I just climbed using the 2x4s, but shorter competitors might have had to use the ropes. A horizontal cargo net was much harder than I thought it would be. Other runners would shift your balance and at first I was putting my feet in the loops on the net which stretched quite a bit. I realized that by placing your feet more like a tightrope was the best solution. A short run around a corner and you could feel the heat from the fire jump. A couple of jumps later, I plunged myself into the mud crawl. Most runners wanted to wallow around, I just wanted to finish and was still trying to find routes around people.

Done.

In the end, I loved the event. I was pretty amazed that I managed a 10 minute pace considering all of the forced walking. I would definitely line up at the front for the start of the race and I was unprepared for just how steep the hills were and how long they lasted.

Stats

Course Length: approx 3.5 miles
Finish time: 35:38
Pace: 10:11
Overall Place: 2752 out of 9836 runners on Saturday
Age Group 40-44: 278 out of 789

Much of the focus of my spring training has been the Warrior Dash. I wanted to be able to run more independently than I have in the past and I wanted to change up my workouts. Finding CrossFit has been an absolute blast but I have tried to keep running at least 50% of my workouts for the week. This hasn’t always happened as I got caught up in a new WOD or family obligations pulled me away. In the end I am becoming more confident in my running and I am probably close to the best shape of my life.

What happens after the Warrior Dash? That was the question of the week. It is always nice having some type of goal to keep workouts more interesting. This is especially true for running. I am not an especially strong runner. I am an adequate jogger that thinks maybe he can become a runner. It may seem strange to pick something truly hard for a goal, but I believe that I can see the largest possible gains with running. So after a couple of 5K races, I have decided that a half marathon will do the trick.

To date, I have never run or jogged more than 7 miles. My fastest 5K is right at 27 minutes and as mentioned before I have a paralyzed vocal chord. This has the cool effect of making me sound like a wheezing train even at slow paces but more importantly I experience shortness of breath under exertion. Makes any sport interesting but running is where it really can put a hurt on my performance.

I have almost 18 weeks before the Columbus Marathon so I have plenty of time to train. Training during the heat of summer isn’t especially appetizing but it is, what it is.

My Goals:

• Finish
• Finish without walking
• Average a 10 minute pace or better

Anyone want to join me?

Rest

Tuesday

5×5 deadlift

3 rounds
incline bench press x 10
row 500m

Not a particularly exciting workout but it got the job done. I hurt quite a bit even going into the gym. It seems like I never feel great anymore. Too many pains in too many places. I’m chucking it up to aging but it’s seriously annoying.

Deadlift rounds went a little worse than I hoped. I was really shooting for 315lbs for my last round but I didn’t complete it. My weights, 135, 185, 225, 275. I stopped after 4 rounds just because it felt far heavier than I had anticipated.

Incline bench was with tiny little 156lbs for all rounds. Rows were all in the 2 minute range.

But since it was pouring all over the place to the amusement of my niece and nephew, I drug the ladder out of the garage to clean it out while nature was providing me with constant water. I cleaned out the obstruction and immediately noticed a gyser at the base of the downspout. That can’t be good, I thought to myself.

So, I went to the street to see if I could see where the water should be discharging. I found the tube, but as expected nothing was coming out of it. So I went to the garage and grabbed a small diameter piece of wood to see if I could reach the obstruction. Unfortunately, I could only get about 4 inches in and the blockage was very hard.

Plan B. I go to the shed and pull out the heavy artillery. One large spade and a hand trowel and back to the front yard I went. I dug up a smallish portion of yard about 1 foot wide by about 2.5 feet long. Immediately I see a problem. I find the end of the PVC that is sticking through the curb, but it ends about 8 inches behind the curb. Another 10 or so inches behind that is another piece of PVC. I am at this point assuming that this piece runs all the way back to the house but I’m also positive that it is totally full of dirt, leaves, seed pods and anything else that could wash down the downspout. This is definitely going to take a plumber’s snake and that is going to be a project for another day.

Oh, the blockage at the curb? Someone pushed a beer bottle into the end and it just happened to have the exact diameter of the PVC. How kind of them to make sure that the streets didn’t get wet.

So, how is it affecting this home gardener? Actually it is affecting me more mentally than affecting my ability to get in the garden. The day after day of rain is just simply sad after a certain amount of time. I want to be playing with my kids in the backyard. I want to be complaining about the heat. Instead, I get to complain about the mud stuck to my shoes.

This past week/weekend gave me a rare stretch of 3 dry days in a row which allowed me to transplant most of the garden. Tomatoes and peppers take up the most space and I fill the garden with the remaining vegetables. Some of the large vegetables are destined for our flower beds in front of our house. Whether my neighbors will see these as ornamentals remains to be seen. When getting ready for transplanting or direct seeding, I print out a little layout of the main garden beds and start making scratches to layout all of my desired plants. I then will refine this with a single page diagram for each bed. You will notice that I have labeled each bed with a simple letter. This corresponds to the final layout diagram on another page.

Being a member of the Seed Savers Exchange allows unparalleled access to rare seeds but the yearbook can be a bit intimidating. The yearbook is printed on newsprint and numbers this year in the 535 page range. If you are lucky, you are looking for specific varieties. If you like me, like the unusual, then it takes a bit of digging. Two years ago, I looked for varieties listed by Heritage Farms that lacked a description. Unfortunately, most all of my seed failed to germinate. This year I tried again, looking for orphan tomatoes and peppers with completely different results. All of my seed germinated. Even with warnings about long storage times and the suggestion to sow heavily made little difference. Almost all of the seed germinated and germinated quickly.

So I am left with quite a few varieties this year that have almost zero information regarding fruit size, leaf type, taste, etc. I hope that I can fill in some of the gaps in the yearbook by growing out these varieties. Even if I can’t grow them out to re-offer seed, it should give some other seed saver enough information to pick up the mantel. Of course, there is the chance that gardeners don’t grow these varieties because they have huge character flaws. Only time will tell and I find that exciting. I can say that I am likely the only gardener in the United States and possibly the World growing a particular type of pepper or tomato this year. That’s cool, isn’t it?

My only sad germination failure was a new herb/plant called Shiso. Hopefully I can contact the seller to see if they can provide more seed and possibly advice. I grew Geraniums (Pelargoniums) from seed for the first time and was honestly amazed. They germinated almost immediately and grew quite fast. I doubt that I will try to overwinter a Geranium again when they are so easy to grow from seed. Portulaca was harder to grow from seed, but Columbine and Lavendar also proved quite easy to grow.

Two different types of Pak Choi have been growing like gang busters as well as Brocolli , Brussell Sprouts and Cabbage. Apparently they have enjoyed the cooler rainy spring.

I am trying two different melons again, against my better judgement. This is usually the vegetable/fruit that makes me feel like I don’t belong in the garden. But, have no fear I intend to try once again.

I grew 25 varieties of tomatoes along with 13 varieties of peppers this year. Some I grew as germination tests along with grow outs for seed I offer in Seed Savers. The rest were new varieties for this season.

NOTE: I have way to many plants to plant in my garden. I grew at least 6 plants of each variety and in some cases far more. I only planted 30+ plants in my garden this year. This leaves about 200+ plants that will need a good home. If you aren’t picky, I might be able to provide you with some free plants. If you are in the Columbus area, leave a comment on the this post and I will contact you as my plant supply lasts.

Have a great season.

5×2 Thrusters

2 rounds
10 negative pullups
1 min of single jump rope

I haven’t done thrusters with any real weight lately. I have been using them as substitutes for wallball which requires almost no weight, so today would be different. I started with 95lbs as that is a common weight for a lot of WODs. My weights were 95, 115, 135, 155, 165. Not bad for me. The cool part is that the 165 was a fairly heavy weight for me to front squat but in a thruster you don’t really think about getting out of the bottom. All of my focus was on thinking about whether I could push this thing over my head.

Negative pullups sting but I do believe that they are helping with my normal pullups. I’m going to have to get around to doing a max rep set to see where I am at. Jump rope also continues to improve. The last set was for 2 minutes since I was feeling good. Calves were burning fairly good by the end but I made it through the set.

Tuesday

Rest

Wednesday

Two mile run after way too much dinner. Love our neighbors but tonight wasn’t a good night for diets or exercise.

Thursday – Sunday

To be honest, I can’t remember. I am just now getting back to the computer after the weekend and I’m not sure I did a lot of anything.

Next week : )

You can find video after video of people changing guitar strings with all kinds of advice but several pieces of advice stood out.

1. By putting a small bend in the end of the string with the bushing, you can get it to slide past the end of your bridge pin easier.
2. Change one string at a time
3. Leave the right amount of slack in the string to leave between 2 and 4 wraps on the tuner peg when the string is tight.

The last piece of advice was the one that I thought could be a little clearer. Lots of comments like, “you’ll just get used to knowing how much slack to leave” weren’t all that helpful. Frankly, I really doubt I would have “got used to it”, because I change strings so infrequently. Isn’t there something more substantial I can use as a gauge?

Yes, there is. Taylor guitars has a video of technicians installing new strings and that provided the information I needed. Essentially you want the slack to be equal to the length from the string’s tuner peg to the next tuner peg. So for the low and high E strings, you would want the strings to reach the tuner pegs for strings A, and B respectively when pulled taught. Instead of cutting them at this length, I just grabbed the string at the length I wanted and pushed it back through the peg to provide the “right amount of slack”, bent the string up and out of my way and then I started to wind the tuner peg. For the D and G strings you will need to just eyeball the length based on the distance between the previous tuner pegs.

Make sure that your string comes up the inside of the tuner peg and that the windings head towards the head stock and not towards the end of the pin. Trim strings as close to the tuner peg as possible and you are done. Stretching your strings several times will prevent new strings from going out of tune.