Training Log: Trav

Shoulder strength. As many shoulder press sets on the ground as we could do in 2 minutes with kettle bell carries in between times 6.

Recovery family run. Crisp perfect air. Beautiful morning for an easy run with Balogna and Rox

The fourth stage of dances with dirt. 250+ Relay teams making their way through the southern Michigan woods and swamps, which feels a little like Deliverance meets Ozark meets Cool Hand Luke. My first of three legs was bush whacking, one bog crossing, and would single track. I ran this one well, felt strong and, building on the hard work of Al, super and Tarno, put us in second place. Which was a fine surprise. Conditions were perfect: chill and dry.

This was my year to get all the wet legs. My second run, leg 8, was a cruiser, but with three River crossings and quarter mile in-river run through hell itself. I was red lining most of the way and still got passed by two people, and there was nothing I could do about it other than try to minimize the damage. In any event this leg knocked us back into fourth. Multi stage Relays are tough and fortunes swing quickly. It's easy to feel you're not pulling your weight.

Fortunately, we had Blaine heading out next, and he decided that this was the leg in which he would show us what he was capable of. He made short work of the two teams that passed me and put in another five minute buffer, throwing down a 40 minute 10k in thick woods. He was not fooling around.

My second leg had taken a lot out of me and I was feeling stiff and a little gut shot. So I was not really up for a long running leg. Talked it over and decided to switch me into running stage 14 instead of 13--the oh brother where art thou leg, which, after doing it 4 years ago I swore I would never do again. But the others, especially Blaine, were all running well, and we were holding second, and this leg 14 was just a pick yourself through 2 miles of swamp and deadfall leg anyways and I don't care what kind of gifted trail runner you are, this leg is just total black mud and dense bush-crawling shite. So logic and team tactics dictated that I run this one. Which I did. Glumly. On the plus side it's a mercifully short leg and I lost us no more time.

I handed off to Blaine, who ran the last leg and gave us the second place finish with a convincing cushion. Best finish in many years.

C • Congratulations! :) 1

My first crossfit gymnastics class. Concentration on toe up and pull ups. I can do a pullup, but not well. Toe ups not so much. So basically I hung from the bar and twitched my knees up a few inches, like I was a dead body being hit every few seconds by electricity. Hip flexor strength, it seems, needs some upgrading. Add that to the pile. So many things to work on!