Mudder Effer

My title could be used to describe any part of my weekend since it was one of those weekends where you need an extra day off to recover. Saturday went just as expected when you are on the move from 12 until 8pm with a 4 year old who ate birthday cake for lunch, missed his nap and crapped his pants.... twice. And then there was all the deliciously tempting sugary calorie laden foods screaming at me. I did treat myself to a small piece of homemade brownie, banana bread and a pastry cookie. Dinner was OK, left out the bread on the brat and saurkrat 'sandwiches', had some vinegar based slaw and a tablespoon of German potato salad. Bob convinced me it was OK since it had bacon in it. How could I refuse. After all that food and a single beer, I was done. I could have had a piece of butter cake and pretzels dipped in cinnamon sugar whipped butter but I just couldn't bare the consequences. It's all good going down but I couldn't afford to feel like shit again the next day with the mudder training at 6 am.

Speaking of that. What an awesome workout that was. Got to Valley Forge Park at 6:15 am, it was dark, windy and pretty chilly. Once everyone got there we started off by dragging the tire a few times as a little warmup then we took off on a dark and ankle twisting trail run. Walked along some railroad tracks to practice balance then back onto the trail to a pretty step hill where we had to carry a large rock up and down, twice. Ran some more then came to a memorial stone about 6.5' high. There we practiced getting up and over safely and how to help each other get over since the actual wall at the race will be at least double the height. Another run down to the park rest area where we stopped to rest, stretch and do about 100 various style push ups and 25 dips. Bob and I suggested starting off with 10 burpees. Not everyone was happy with that. Snicker snicker. From there we walked down the ramps which had hand rails that were perfect for pull ups. Then down to the bottom where we needed to learn how to hop a fence. I can't tell you the last time I hopped over a fence but I did it pretty easily. After that up and down some stairs 4 times.

Then my friends, the fun began. Belly crawl thru a cold shallow rocky creek. Did I mention it was cold? I wasn't the first one but I sucked it up and got it over with pretty quickly. Think I let few f bombs fly, unsure since my body and brain went into shock. Second time wasn't as bad but the rocks were hard on the knees and elbows. I'm pretty bruised up today. Once we all got thru that, off running again. Let me tell you it's not fun running in wet clothes and shoes. I was freezing. After a mile or so we came up to the river in which we had to cross. It was about waist high for me until I fell. The bank was so muddy my foot got completely stuck and I lost my balance. Holy hell it was cold but at this point we were already wet and cold so it wasn't quite as bad this time. After I got out and started running again my hands and feet were so numb it was painful. Gotta keep moving though onto the 'rock wall'. This was a large rock pile on the side of a mountain. It was very steep and the footing was a challenge since the rocks were loose. Happy to say I scaled it pretty well but that was tough. It was really high. More running up to another part of the creek, crossed that then on to the switch backs, uphill. That was killer. My legs were burning at this point. Once we got to the top I think we ran down to another paved trail that led up to this beautiful old church. It was probably a 2 mile run. Once we all met at the church we took our shoes off and ran the last 3/4 mile or so barefoot. I'm NOT a big fan of this and am not sure why our team leader made us do this other than to just torture us. I may have missed some things, it was a long 6 miles and took us about 4 hours all together.

CrossFit has definitely gotten me prepared for this race. Endurance and strength wise, I felt great. I even beat some of the boys at the different check points. It was a tough workout but I will say this, there are some 30 minute hero WODS that wrecked me more than what I did yesterday. CrossFit is no joke thats for sure.

Saturday:
CFSB w2/d1
Deadlifts:
warmup: 5x75, 95, 115#
work: 3x130, 150, 170#(6)
last set max reps

Sunday:
Mudder training 6 miles, 4 hours

Monday:
warmup:
200m
stretching

CFSB w2/d2
Bench Press:
warmup: 5x30, 35, 45#
work: 3x50, 60, 65#(11)
last set max reps

*Notes - Metcon rest day today (monday). Hips and knees sore. Chest sore from push ups. Need the extra rest. No breakfast. Had oatmeal before mudder training on sunday, needed food by mile 6. Bring GU to race.