Resolution success!

409 miles completed for 2017. It would have been more if I were not sick these past 2 weeks. Either way, Resolution success. New year.. new miles.

365+

New Years Resolution 2017 achieved!!! Back in Jan this year, I committed to 365 logged running miles for 2017. It didn't matter the frequency.. whether it was 1 mile/day or 365 miles in one day.. I just needed to run 365 miles by the end of 2017. I opted to keep accountable by focusing on 1 mile/day and to keep a log of the miles monthly.

Certain days and months, I went over the 1 mile/day.. Jan, Feb, and March. If I felt like I had extra time or energy, I would run extra miles to "cash" it for rainy days. Other times when life was overwhelming, such as August/Sept/October when I put 110% of my effort into job hunting, those months lapsed in running miles. However, now towards the end of the year, I'm happy to have achieved 365 miles for 2017 on the day after Thanksgiving.. Nov 24th.

In fact, an ex co-worker took on this challenge as well... but he's a runner, and he achieved the mileage in June/July time frame. A way that I connect with my ex-coworkers are through Fitbit Challenges, and it's nice to know that there are other OCD crazies like me. I'm definitely missing my old work environment, my former co-workers as I am still adjusting to my "new life" as I call it. But we still get together on occasion for Happy hour, Fitbit challenges, or messaging.

This week we had a work-week hustle. I've retained 1st place, logging in 163,309 steps in a 5-day period. It required running about 10 miles a day which I would do in the wee hours (4-6am) of the morning before work, and late into the night after work (9-11pm).

Here's a photo I took to show evidence of such endeavors. Me and my slow-man companion late one evening after putting the kids to bed.

2015 Spartan Sprint : Hellmecula 2.0 Continued...

The day after the Beast, I went back to run the Sprint (~5 miles) with a co-worker that is new to the Spartan races. Took my camera this time to help document her first Spartan experience!

We spent months discussing back and forth on gear and techniques for the obstacles, so it was really fun re-experiencing the first-time Spartan jitters through her. I think sheer fun is the best way to describe it.

Stopped to capture the scenic view of the race course/venue.

Sled drag.

Sandbag carry. Have to carry a weighted sandbag up and down the hill.

See the line of people on the hill? You carry the sandbag up the hill (right of the photo), around the peak of the hill, and then back down (left of the photo).

Very crowded and slippery mud pits and hills. The Sprint races tend to be more overcrowded.. lines for the obstacles, hard to run fast or pass people, esp on the steep, narrow trails. Not the best for racing for time, but definitely more so about team work and having fun on the obstacles.

A-Frame wall climb in the background.

One of my favorite obstacles cause it's easy for rock climbers, the Z-Wall traverse.

Bucket brigade. Same idea as the sandbag carry --> up and down a hill.

Spear throw. Even though Ryan has this obstacle in our yard for me to practice on, it doesn't matter. I fail this obstacle, every single time. I am 0-5.



Another failed obstacle.. the rig. I was so close, but the 2nd day of racing and my arms had no mo' strength.



At least I got the rope climb.



Nailed the fire jump pose like a boss!

2015 Spartan Beast : Hellmecula 2.0

Ryan and I ran the Spartan Beast (13 miles, 30 obstacles) again recently. Harsh conditions again this year, and the race was informally dubbed as Hellmecula 2.0. This was our make-up run from last year's cancellation race. Both of us had started to get back into training mode mid-June, but work, kids, schedules, and unexpectedness of life hindered consistent training. So even with sporadic training, we were able to manage completing another Spartan Beast, in 90+ degree temps.

I am super proud of Ryan on his finish! He placed top 3% overall out of 3,402 racers, top 5% out of all 2,243 male racers, and 6th place for his age group. I can just imagine how he would do if he REALLY trained for this race.

I did not prepare well for this race, with ~two weeks of consistent training after taking most of August rehabbing a rotator cuff injury. I went into this race with low endurance and strength and fully expected to place poorly in all categories. So, all in all, I'm happy with my results, placing in the 25% for women and 28% for my age group, but 50% for overall.

I was planning to retire from doing Spartan races, but I feel I can do better, so maybe one more Beast before I retire. I did back-to-back races again this time, running the Sprint (5 miles) on Sunday for fun with a co-worker. This weekend completed my first Spartan Trifecta for 2015.

The kids unfortunately did not get to run the kids race again because they got sick! So.. looks like our family is not quite yet done with Spartan. We'll have one more hoorah!!

Pre-race photo at entrance to the start line.

Post-race photo at the finish line.

Sandbag carry up and down a hill.

Barb wire crawl.

Fire jump finish!

15 Miler Training Run

Here on out, we rotate taking turns on doing our long distance training run. While he's out for his 15 miler hill/distance/elevation training run, the kiddos and I hang out somewhere and chill. Found a nice shady faux-grassy spot for the kiddos to color and run around.

Running is not fun. It's physically hard work and mentally challenging to have your mind dictate over a tired, dehydrated body. But, no one can dispute the high that comes towards the end of a run, hitting the target goal whatever that may be. These last few minutes, especially seeing the kiddos cheering, are the best!



And then consuming massive amounts of food and water that tastes like the best meal you've ever eaten!! We are so proud of Ryan even though it's not race day yet.

Back in Training!

Kids coloring and having a brunch date with me while we wait for Ryan to finish his run.

Ryan and I are officially in training season since the beginning of June. We both have separate races coming up in a few months time, and we both have our own training regimen and program. So even though it is summer, our schedules are again a fine juggling act. But well worth it! It feels great to be back in training mode. Of course, seeing Ryan train motivates me even more to train!

Our conversation goes something like this:
C: How many miles are you going to run for your long run this week?
R: 14 miles.
C: Oh. Well, I'm going to do 12 miles (even though I planned for 10 miles, and am only capable of 6 miles).
R: I'm running ----- Mountain (the steepest local mountain with the highest elevation gain).
C: (thinking to myself.. I can't do that, so I'll do an alternative)
C: Okay, I'm going to do 12 miles on some kind of terrain, then another 5 miles the next day, and throw in some ninja obstacle training on top of that. Yeah.
R: (sighs. and rolls his eyes.) The kids and I want to come and watch.

So what did we do? I found a local mountain and did my 12 miles Friday, and then obstacle course training with additional running on Saturday. And Ryan followed it up on Sunday, with 14+ miles of THAT mountain.

Yup. That's just our way. It's how we do things.

Here is Ryan, at the end of his 14+ mile run, at the base of the mountain where kids and I were waiting for his return after our brunch.



We're back in the groove of training!

Spartan Indoctrinated!

We are now a Spartan family! Yup, that's right, the kiddos ran their very first race, a Spartan Jr 0.5 mile obstacle course, and they were AWESOME. Proud parent moment! Big thanks to Ryan for making this happen.

Original plan was for both Ryan and I to race, but the latest bouts of being sick sidelined Ryan. After my race on Saturday, the kids wanted to come watch mama run on Sunday. (Yes.. I did 2 races on back-to-back consecutive days.) Ryan made the effort to bring the kids to spectate. My race time was early enough that I could finish in time before the kids race, so last-minute we gave the kiddies a choice if they also wanted to run, and they did!

Attempt at a pre-race photo... can't get all of them looking at the same time.

Pre-race stretching.

Mulling around.. waiting for the race to start..



10...9...8... ...3...2...1.. GO!!!


Run! Run! Run!


Liam & Ryan, climbing over the wall.

Emilia doing the Under-Over wall obstacle.

Liam's "barb wire" crawl.


Emilia going over haystacks.

Go! Go! Go! Yes. I am THAT mom.



Waiting for her turn at the kiddie "spear throw". Kids have a 5 burpee penalty for not hitting the target.

Emilia doing burpees in the back and Liam's "spear throw" attempt. =)


The Finish line!

Post-race outfit --> Emilia tried the muddy water obstacle but did not like the freezing waters. We did not bring a change of clothing for her, so she had to sport a fashionable towel look.

Connie's Super and Sprint Summary Recap:

For the 9+ mile Super, the conditions were completely opposite from the last time I did this. There was severe winds blowing sand and dust, making it hard to see and breathe.

(photo curtesy from random facebooker in the Spartan group)

(video curtesy from random facebooker in the Spartan group)

The obstacles felt harder this time around, with a few more upper body centric ones. Even the traverse wall was a challenge. Here's a view of the Z-traverse wall with people doing the 30 burpees penalty for failing it.. And in the background is the bucket carry. One fills their bucket with small rocks and have to carry it up and down the hill in the further back.

My Super time was pretty dismal.. 4:16 (~90%). Grandmas and grandpas beat my time. However, I did go into it with no training (haven't ran more than 2-3 easy miles since last October) and lingering muscle strains. But, I did it anyways. It was more a mental game as I was not confident about any obstacles that require dynamic movement with the possibility of jumping or falling (aka rehash of the ACL injury). I failed 5 obstacles (monkey bars, Spear Throw, Thermophalea, Z-Wall, and Tarzan Swing), so that meant I spent a lot of time doing 150 burpees!

Okay, so the Super results were not good and very humbling. I was tempted to postpone the Sprint the next day, but I decided to Spartan it up! I already knew what to expect, and I had the extra motivation to finish faster so I could make it in time to watch the kiddos. The first 0.5 to 1 mile was hard running on tired legs, but surprisingly, the body learns and adapts. After the first mile, I felt great. I knew what to expect and it felt comfortable. I ran the course faster, did the obstacles faster, felt more confident. I did take assistance on the monkey bars, so less burpees there, but I added burpees by choosing to burpee out of doing the bucket carry because that obstacle aggravates my low back muscle strain. Z-Wall was not an issue this time. Still failed the Spear throw and Tarzan Swing, so did a total of 90 burpees. My time was 1:51 which places me in the 20-30% for age/female/overall categories. Much better results.

We achieved 4 medals, 2 from the kiddies for the Spartan Jr race, and 2 from mama... these medals were definitely 100% earned!

Super proud of the kiddos and Ryan! And motivated to train again! I do not recommend running these races without training, but it is doable. I just can't walk for the next few days... =P

November?? Already?!!

October was good. I felt on top of all the events going on and we had a good amount of birthday celebrations and Halloween fun for the kiddies. BUT November??! Already??!

I was so busy planning October, I did not adequately prepare for November. I had to change my entry for a local, women only, half-marathon race to a 5K due to inadequate preparation and a nagging hamstring. The flip side of it was that I rarely run 5Ks, so it felt quick and fast.. just enough to break a sweat, but not enough to have major impact on my strained hamstring.

Yessir.. I am a total race poser!

I took it easy by stopping and chatting at the 3 water stations (that's a lot for a 3 mile race... you're lucky if you even get 1 water station for a 3 miler), and focused more on my running form versus speed. All in all, my time was okay. Definitely not my best, but since it was a local race, I did end up placing 3rd in my age division. (Ignore the fact that two 60 year-olds and two 10/11 year-olds beat me among many others... but hey, they aren't in my age group!). I was in the 47% percentile overall.

Since running has been reduced temporarily, rock climbing and upper body training has bumped up in priority. It just so happens that there is a new gym opening in town which is geared towards ninja warrior training and OCRs (obstacle course racing). I am hoping they will install the Ultimate Cliffhanger, but a sneak peak shows a 14' Warp wall and Spider Climb/Rope climb.

I have been wanting to get the kids into activities as well, but way back when we tried swim lessons, we found it very time consuming and difficult to work into a regular routine. I clearly recognize though, that my kids have NO activities unlike many of their peers that are enrolled in gymnastics, soccer, dance, swim, etc. So, not to be too much of slacker parents, we are starting them off with rock climbing; It seems like a great choice for our family.

Em trying on her (and Liam's) new rock climbing shoes Ryan purchased for her.

Em trying out climbing back when we went to the grand opening of a local climbing gym a while back...

Ryan and I do have more Spartan Races coming up in January...so, on top of holidays, it is time to up the training again.

SPARTAN TIME

This week has been a whole mix of unexpected emotions. From nervousness and anxiety looming for race day, to feeling guilt for being consumed and obsessive about such a small, insignificant, even silly event in life. Sept 11th just passed. Obama addressed Syria issues. Emilia's EEG is upcoming... and some difficult news about a family member we love very much. With all things to worry and stress about, this is even more so why I need to race.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." Mary Lou Angelou

Gratitude is also is on my mind lately. Gratitude for being able to live life and enjoy it. Right now. Gratitude that all things past have lead to the present. Gratitude to my parents for immigrating, working hard, and giving me this life. I truly understand how it feels to be a parent now that I have kids. Gratitude for my kids and hubby for being my joy. Gratitude that I live in a country where I can live life in a way where I can have these moments that "take our breath away".

With that said, so this race, yes, it is just a race. It is also an analogy to life. At times when it's difficult, I will focus on one step at a time and remember that I am grateful for the ability to live life to its fullest and take a step for those that cannot due to various reasons. I'm starting to understand why people race for charity. When we feel helpless, we do what we can to at least give empathy.

Back to the race... I have been monitoring all the chat forums and event information sites throughout the week and getting peeks of the course setup. Here is one the race director posted!

The lake pictured above, that may be race day salvation! Race is 99% sold out with over 10K racers. Lots and lots of nervous racers all around, especially with the weather forecast. This may be the hottest race in Spartan history with temperature high predicted to be in the 100s. 104 to be exact, with a heat advisory warning.

Let the fun begin! Less than 1 day to SPARTAN TIME - five stages of SUCK, physical exertion, the mind overcoming the body, camaraderie, and hopefully, triumph!

Ridiculous Obstacle Course .. the ROC Race

Last weekend was the ROC Race. The first of more races this year. I ran in a 4-person team with a couple of the neighborhood mamas and one papa. Good times. Ridiculous costumes. Not much of a race, but a fun run. I had a chance to test out the GoPro video camera with the chesty mount harness. Not bad.. not bad. Thanks to Ryan for staying home and taking care of the kiddies while I ROCed out, on Mother's Day weekend. =)

My only official race photo at the trampoline obstacle.



Here's a video summary that team member, Goldilocks, put together. Oh yeh.. our team costume was "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".. just in case ya can't figure it out. =P



This race was fun and a perfect start to the competitive year. I am looking forward to harder obstacle challenges, more competitive running, and overall push for higher performance.

BRING IT!

Brains.. Mo' Brains... & The Zombie Apocalypse...

Meet the gang. Curt-the crazed zombie scarer, Katy-the left-right-take-a-spin juke mover, Ryan- the I-run-so-fast-invisible-man, and Chris, the group beacon-locator and automatic zombie attractor.

The walking dead would not have been as fun to evade without the gang.

This is an unedited video frame shot from the sports camera I had. The view was really like a scene out of a zombie movie. This bunch of ghouls were hounding a clearing while we were waiting for our bunch to re-group past the electric shock house and zombie spewed mud pits. They don't look so fast, but their looks are definitely deceiving! But let's not get too ahead... and start from the beginning.

For our group, we all made it on time as planned, with enough time to spare. That's saying a lot! We did the usual prep --> gearing up, getting ready, assessing whatever it is that we can see.

We are at the start. How nice of the zombies to let us decide which meal course we want to be in. The gals can't say no to dessert!

CR getting serious now. Hazmat suit and gloves on! Now imagine running/sprinting/zombie evading while wearing that.

What's da plan?? As we all wait inside the human cage for release time.

Ready.. Set.. Run for your lives!!!

First up, the steep and narrow hill of flying dust balls, which produce National-Geographic-esque flocks of humans perfect for zombie pickings around the bend.

Someone makes the executive decision to take the path less traveled.

Upward we march. We chose trail #2 thinking it may be a short cut, only to find that it is an extended roundabout loop.

haha!! We got others to follow us too. See the people coming up this way from the split in the road? Yup. Wrong way.

Running is easy without them zombies around.

After this point, zombie evasion really goes into full force. Them zombies are EVERYWHERE. So.. sorry, but I ain't stopping to take photos. But, have no fear, hazmatter Chris to the rescue. He braved being the zombie attractor, evasion in a hazmat human oven, and taking some photos and video during the later part of the course.

Highlights Re-cap:

Obstacles we encountered were steep mounds and pits of mud to crawl over, an electric shock house-maze with dangling electric wires and zombies around corners, chest high walls to climb over, army crawl through barb wires, more mounds of mud and pits, a mud slide, and all obstacles with zombies RIGHT THERE when you come out of the obstacle.

There was a stretch of semi-flat clearing with zombies EVERYWHERE. We would sprint past one group of zombies and evaluate the next group of zombies with the rest of the people there and then be forced to sprint and evade again when them zombies started closing in on us.

Them zombies were sneaky, some would seem to blend in and unsuspectingly grab flags from behind. Ryan could not be caught when he was Usain Bolt-ing, but he fell victim to the unsuspecting lurkers.

We were given tips prior to the race. Whatever you do, DO NOT make eye contact with the zombies and DO NOT STOP. They will zombie-chow you down. Oh yeah. Of course, I did both. Bam! Slip, slide, flag down. In all horror flicks, the victim always trips and falls at the worst possible moment. Yup. That's me! Took such a good wipeout fall, that a nice,still-alive human even stopped in the middle of a zombie infested field to see if I was okay.

Left-right, juke boxing Katy, a zombie-evading naturale, was making flag footballers proud as she was displaying the moves. Run, jump, shuffle, spin, and left-right fakes... right in front of zombies.. and it worked!! Totally awesome.

Mr.Nice guy, Curt, apparently flipped the Dr. Jekyll/Mr.Hyde switch on the zombies and used the "I'm crazier and scarier" tactic to keep them zombies at bay.

And Chris.. all he needed to do was to throw his glove-full of sweat to throw off zombies and humans alike.

Four out of five of us made it as survivors. Really though, I should have joined my hubby in becoming the undead. Before his transformation, Ryan acted as my zombie blocker and helped me make it to the safe zone. Just for that, I'll keep my zombie-transformed hubby. =)

Here are some video highlights. Excuse the raw quality, afterall, the camera man was evading zombies.







We missed having the Chuckster, the KO, and K-Dawg on our team. Maybe at the next apocalypse!?