The yard work workout

Let me just remove any possible comment of pretentiousness, because I am not that. This project which I call a workout, is what some very hard working people do for a living, day in and day out, with much more efficiency than I have. 

A few months ago we hired a company to remove some tall palm trees from out backyard that provided no shade and managed to dump everything right into our pool. It only cost $100 per tree to remove except for the stumps which were cut to as flush to the ground as possible. To remove them would cost $300 a piece because they would have to do by hand. No way to get equipment through the gate. We declined. 

Here is the start.

One stump, the closest to our pool was on a raised pile of ground about a foot high, surrounded by rock. I decided to let the grass grow over it and create a little hill. Which it did. The problem became how to mow this mound of rock and stump with without bottoming out the blade on the incline. Couldn't be done. So I decided to take out the stump myself using an eight pound maul and a shovel and using the project as an excuse to work on my ax swinging skills.



I roughed out the work area with help from the former tree's decorative brick border as a guideline. The project dimensions are six feet long, and four feet at the widest. This alone took several hours of maul strikes and shovel work due to the fact that unlike a normal tree stump, a palm tree stump is made up of thousands of fibrous roots. This made work slow going to say the least but provided hours upon hours of swinging away with the eight pound maul just trying to shatter the root system.

(good visual of a palm tree root system)

A decent side view of the stump with a better visual of how high this was off the ground. I had to chop out sections by chopping length wise, then width wise. Then because the fibers snaked all over it wouldn't just pop out. I had to chop at the bottom to get each piece to release it. Somewhere in this horizontal chopping I strained my rib a bit. You can see how the root system just snakes around the center. I suppose a roto tiller would have made this work easier. But where is the workout in that?

(Finally making progress)

At the beginning of Day 4 the end was in sight. Over the first three days I had spent approximately 17 hours chopping and digging. Certainly had I paid the professionals to do it, it would have been significantly faster, probably to better results, but the exercise was incredibly rewarding. The entire stump above ground and four inches below ground has been removed. I also tilled the ground approximately four inches deeper the old fashioned way, hundreds of maul swings to remove more root fibers and break up the ground.

I realized too late that I had removed too much soil, so I had to add top soil to bring up the ground level and level the area out. This involved several five gallon buckets of top soil that I had left over from another project. Bucket carries only added to the final workout. The end result was laying all of two pieces of sod. So much effort for such a small piece of ground. But I am now almost twenty hours of non stop exercise into my week.

Protect the head in style

I've been pretty open about the fact that I have had a lot of head injuries and a few of those have been extremely violent, which may not be the perfect adjective but it is apt. Recent theories suggest that the more concussions a person receives the more susceptible they become to receiving them in the future, maybe as much as 3x the greater than a non Traumatic Brain Injury person. Thus I have been very conscious of wearing head protection. 

Now look, I am not some rabid helmet advocate that demands a law in every state that a motorcyclist wear a helmet or every time a toddler gets on their trike to ride around the cul-de-sac that they need to have a helmet on. For me personally, I always wear a helmet when I am cycling or mountain biking for fitness or recreation. I also wear a helmet when I horseback ride, ATV, 4 Wheel, paintball, airsoft, an occassional attempt to water ski, when I boulder, rappel or encounter Class 3+ hiking trails. (If you enjoy any type of hiking, read that link for some good information) Even when I am on a ladder putting up Christmas lights or changing a light bulb in our house. That last one might seem a bit over the top but, considering I got my last concussion hitting my head against a wall in my house while I checked the tire pressure on my bike tire. True Story. 

For years I have worn a Pro Tech skating helmet (right) and it has done a great job of protecting me from random bumps and knocks. I've got a few scuffs to prove it. Last Christmas I got a GoPro Camera to capture my adventuring and endurance pursuits in glorious 5mb/1080 HD frames. Because lets face it in the digital age, "No pictures, didn't happen.".  The provided helmet/headband strap has worked well, bounces a little, so I went looking for a way to mate the GoPro to my helmet and kill two birds with one stone. Maybe that is the wrong analogy to use. 

I found that Pro Tec has started marketing a line of military helmets. It would be a great way to platform a helmet camera with mounted lighting options, a requisite American Flag velcro patch slapped on plus protect my head from whatever I, someone else or gravity, decides to throw at it. I think I will pick one up in the near future. It would really come in great during my NightOp training sessions.

 For those looking for general head protection for yourself or your child without looking out of place in a multi-colored cycling helmet for you or some embarrassing brightly colored kid show sponsored brain bucket for them look into a multi sport/purpose helmet. And if its tactical or even tacikewl, it works for me. 

Classic Overreach

A couple days ago I went for a run during the hottest part of the day. Not generally the smartest way to do things but I had to workout, had to get out of the house and clear my head, and had to continue my acclimatization for the forthcoming and inevitable summer heat.

As I left for the run, the air temp was 108. I was including push ups and burpees every mile so I also took a ground temp (using a Thermapen) and got a reading of 135 degrees. At those temps, using gloves becomes a requirement.

My run, an out and back had a turnaround at a park that I discovered had a dozen exercise stations. So I ran there doing burpees and ab exercises every mile then completed the stations and ran back doing the same. I'll also chip in that my return route completed an errand to pick up medication for my son at the pharmacy, so I saved gas too.

Its a couple days later and my legs are still fairly zapped. I know its the result of heat acclimatizing and it being my farthest run in a few months by 3 miles. Classic over train. I'll overcome this today by working on my flexibility, some treadmill work and consistent, smooth exercises that keep my HR up and steady rather than ballistic or anaerobic.

building steam

Good gravy this year has tested my patience. Its May and since New Years all I have done is take care of sick and injured family members or be sick myself. Today is the first time in a few weeks where no one is home sick or me in bed sick. So I am going to keep this short and sweet so I can go out for a run and build my base back up. Unlike some people I do not lose weight when I stop working out or when I am sick so I am about 10 pounds over my fighting weight. 

The last event I completed was GORUCK back in February. Which I did with the Flu and a virus infection. Even with no real base, last weekend I signed up last minute for a local 5k charity run for the troops, so I could pace a friend of mine rehabbing his knee. In true goruck style I carried a GR1 with a case of beer in it. The course was not marked well and we ended up doing an extra loop around a pond and our 5k became 6.5k. We still had a respectable time of under 40 minutes (<10 min mile pace). It was nice to feel that kind of sensation again; me, outside surrounded by like minded motivated people, sweating.   

Here are photos of my ruck and race contents plus a photo of a 8' tall American Flag made out of Lego's that was at the finish line. I just thought the colors where vivid and amazing and surprised this iPhone photo did it some justice.

In any regard, the flywheel of my fitness is no longer sitting still, it is slowly rotating again. It will take time to build steam enough to move on its own and build unlimited energy and abundance. Exercise is only the momentum, nutrition is the lubricant that keeps the wheel moving smoothly. Both are required for a healthy motor. Keep that in mind as you go about your day. 

Small box gardening

One of the things my family wanted to do in 2012, and well to be honest 2010 and 2011, was create a garden and grow vegetables for the dinner table. 

In between bouts of being too sick to get out of bed, I would sit on the couch or in my backyard and watch the arc of the sun along our backyard. In February I had a window of relative un-sick, so I build a 4x2 small box garden along the side of the house. Around the garden I put up a short chicken wire fence to keep out any animals that might sneak over the wall and  the posts allowed me to string up some light netting to keep out the birds that would try to eat the seeds before they took. Over all it went pretty easy thanks to some help from the local nursery on proper soil and gear. 

I surprised Mistress, and for those who haven't followed my blog very well, that is the alias I gave my wife, with the garden box when she came home from work. One of the things I handed her was a .pdf spreadsheet of when it was best to seed and harvest vegetables in our area for year round gardening. 

Mistress got right at it with fear that her efforts would produce nothing or she would kill everything off. The hardest part has been watering every morning, as I did not hook up an automatic system. 

The photo is about two months into the first harvest. There is pumpkin, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, lettuce, carrots, sunflowers, sage and bunch of beans. We have already snipped some of the herbs and a tomato for salads and little dishes.As you can see by the little pink tools our DD likes to help out too. 

It went so well that I decided to go a little bit bigger, in the next post, you'll see how that went. 

Down and out, now just out.

Since the last time I deigned this site I know I have never been so sick for so long from basic illnesses in my life. True Story. Late January a sinus infection. Script didn't help. Mid February, a secondary infection. Script didn't help. Mid February again, bronchitis. First of March, Influenza. The real McCoy, not the term used as hyperbole for telling people how bad you had it. I literally spent days in bed, no tv, no book, no lights, no radio. Just me, my hot and cold flashes, flop sweat, headaches, sinuses, coughing and fevers, sleeping for hours at a time. When was the last time you were so sick you couldn't even listen to a tv in the background. Ugh. 

I've been healthy for a couple weeks now, but its been hard to get any workouts going. I wish I could admit I feel too weak or whatever but truth is, I just don't feel like it. Something in me has snapped mentally and I need to get it back. I go for a run but I can't stay inside my head. I can't stand listening to the conversations going on up there. The questions I don't want to answer, the topics that throw me off my stride. 

It will all turn around. I can plan a workout, I can think about a workout. I can see myself working out. I just can't stand listening to my conversation in my head when I do it. Like the most annoying, worst workout partner in the world. 

I've always wished that I had the type of body that lost weight when I got sick or stopped working out. Sadly no and a pox on all my friends that lament they've lost ten pounds when they stopped working out. I've gained about seven pounds since the beginning of the year. 

I've been trying to catch up on some home projects, so over the next couple posts I will be typing those up rather than discussing my lack of race and training updates. 

I thinking getting back onto a schedule and writing regularly will help me recalibrate my focus. Lets see....

GORUCK Class 113

Lets begin with the end. I'm Patched. Not in the sense that I've joined a motorcycle gang, though to some it might seem as such. No, the patch I have now represents, a different 'dirty underbelly' of society. That of a group of people who are GORUCK tough. I had the honor of participating in one of their urban challenges as part of Class 113 in Phoenix. 

Like most people, maybe you right now, you are trying to read up on what the GORUCK challenges are all about. Trying to get some sort of insight, knowledge or peace of mind before you sign up. Before your class kicks off. I know I searched the heck out of it before my Class weekend. Talked and texted with all my friends lucky enough to do this before my weekend arrived. Maybe like me, you were disappointed in what you haven't read, namely: What the heck do you do in it?  How are you treated?  What is it like? I discussed my nerves regarding my class right before I left to the meet up. 

I sat at my computer afterwards wondering how to write about what occurred over 12.5 hours and 22 miles of Class 113. How can my post be different than all the others I've read. How could I put it into words. In the end, I can't. Sorry. I can say that what I thought would happen, my worst case scenario was completely unfounded.We were not treated like maggots, the cadre was hard but fair. We were not punished for unknown reasons. Every thing we got, was deserved. And every reprieve we got was deserved.  

So, specifics, it's what you want. Its what a 'race' report demands. Honestly too much happened. Too much to be proud of. Too much to be frustrated with. Too much to put into words, as it must be experienced. Some of it should be held under operational security for the cadre to run a good class. It was not the hardest thing I have ever done over 12 hours, but at the end I felt every bit my age every time I got up. You have to be in shape for this event. You have to have the testicular fortitude, women as well, to get through something like this. I am not talking physically, that is assumed. I am talking mentally. 

I will however I will give you some general advice that might help you get through your event. Or what I went through if you're a friend reading this. 

• Pack only what is on the gear list. The only items you are going to use are quick foods, and your hydration reservoir.  You will not have time to take your pack off for any personal items you bring along. 
• What you wear at the start, you will wear for hours before you can take off or add layers. There is no time to take off or add unless you are mercifully given a break. Breaks are earned, not given. Be careful in your choices if you run hot or cold.  
• Nothing will kill a team or raise one up faster than team work. Our cadre said we had the fastest team cohesion he had seen in his classes. A high compliment to be sure. 
• Learn a cadence. It doesn't matter if you sing the same thing ten or fifteen lines for 5 hours, (it doesn't get boring), just have something from start to finish to motivate the team in the middle of the night. If you can't memorize it, write it down on waterproof paper and stick it in your pocket. You can pull it out on the move. Eventually it will be seared in your head. 
• Team mates will cramp up. Most people have never gone longer than a marathon of effort, meaning what occurs physically after say 5-6 hours is virgin territory. Our class was 12 hours and almost a marathon of miles around the city, not included in that distance all the bear crawls, crab walks, low crawling, buddy carries, coupon carrying and team weight carrying we did. Your body will break down. Everything is done at as fast a run as can be managed as a team. As someone who competes in ironman distance events and multi day adventure hiking, I have become accustomed to using a supplement called Endurolytes, which helps deter cramping in endurance activities. There are other products that do the same. This is just what I use. Its a good item to have at break times for yourself and others on the team. 
• For what its worth, no amount of ibuprofen is going to help with the pain you feel under all the physical stress. 70% of that is going to be a discomfort turned into a full out "I can't go on" voice in your head. Don't listen to it. Embrace the suckage. Mental destruction and negativity will crush a team. 

At certain points a team leader and team navaguesser are chosen. I was never picked. That didn't mean I had no responsibility for the success of the team. Let me give you two specific examples. We had a coupon, an item that had to be carried with us aside from the team weight. We carried this coupon as a team for 8 hours and dozens of miles. It was heavy and cumbersome and could not be done alone. After a few hours of two person carry, we were given a quick break and I removed some brick straps from my bag, to create a way for four person carry. It was not without flaw but we could move faster, with less switch outs between the team members. At some point these broke and we were back to a two person carry. And we were breaking down physically as well. I kept looking around for a discarded broom handle or pipe that could be used as a pole to carry the item. At a stop light I happened to spy a 3 foot 2x4 that allowed the team to carry the coupon much easier. It again saved us time and significant energy output. 

I don't mention this to toot my own horn, only that everyone on the team brings a special gift that can help the team succeed. For some this is strength, others motivation, inspiration, or knowledge. Every person in Class 113 had something to contribute and I felt like mine was the ability to solve the problem of how to carry this coupon without killing morale, destroying our ability to move or heaven forbid a good person drop out and quit. 

For any person who is interested in pushing their limits, this is a step up. If a marathon isn't enough. If hiking the Grand Canyon isn't enough. If Ironman isn't enough. If regular gym workouts isn't enough. If obstacle course racing isn't long enough. GO RUCK. 

Don't just survive. Thrive. 

Author wearing blue shirt with red flag on cap.