Mud Hero 2015

 

So last Saturday Anna and I participated in the Mud Hero Ottawa run. It was an absolute blast as you can probably tell by looking at the smiles on our faces. We took a bunch of pictures during the day which I have in an album over here.

First up Anna ran the kids course which was three 500 meter laps with 6 obstacles. The announcer constantly mentioned to parents to make sure that the kids schools were on tight or else they would lose them in the mud pit. Predictably, this led to a bunch of parents having to dig in the mud pit for their child's missing shoe.

Anna escaped with both of her shoes but as you can see she got super muddy which I encouraged whole heartedly.

Then I finally had my chance to run the 6km course with 20 obstacles with my buddy Hicham and one of his neighbours. There were some really fun obstacles like walls, tires, ropes, slides but by far the most fun was the waist deep (or deeper) mud. You can see in this pic I've just come down the slide and luckily retrieved my hat from the mud puddle.

After the race the team from Muscle Mlk was there to hand out ready to drink protein shakes. I don't know if it was because I just ran 6km but that was the best vanilla shake I've had in a long time.

For anyone who is interested in these types of races I can offer a few tips:

1. Bring a complete change of clothes including shoes. You will not want to put your muddy shoes on after getting clean.
2. Wear non-cotton underwear. You really need something that isn't going to trap in a pound of dirt in your skivvies. 
3. Bring a big fluffy towel to get warm. The "showers" are generally hoses of cold water so you will go from being over heated to freezing in no time. The fluffy towel will help.

Next up is the Bad Ass Dash on July 18th in Nepean. Anyone interested in joining?

Jawbone Up Review

So I purchased the Jawbone UP back in July and I think I've had it long enough to have an informed opinion about the band and that would be, it's not quite ready for prime time. If I had the opportunity to do it all over again I wouldn't purchase the UP instead I'd be talking hard look at the Fitbit Force.

While the UP does a good job of tracking physical activity and sleep it has a number of deficiencies that keep me from recommending it. First there is no wireless sync option. Originally, I didn't think that it would bother me but it has become cumbersome to sync the band by plugging the band into my phone's headphone jack but it's become a PITA. Second, there is no external display where you can check your daily activity progress or see what time it is. Third, there is no website for you to track your progress everything has to be done via the phone interface.

Finally, charging is problematic. In order to charge the band you need to connect it's head phone jack connector to a special cable that connects to a USB port. Also, the battery sometimes will not take a charge, I'm on my second band since July and a friend of mine is in the same boat.

All in all, I love the idea of life tracking I just don't think this is the product for me.

Spartan Race 2013

In the tradition of "pictures or it didn't happen" here are some shots of me and my friends participating in the Spartan Race this past Sunday.

So it begins

Probably the first time I've ever successfully climbed one of those ropes. Amazing what the threat of 30 burpees can do.

Flying Matrix crane fire jump

You're almost done, so guys hit you with sticks

and scene!

Robin and I (pictured above) finished the race in a time of 1:49 which is much longer than I expected to take. However, I think we did pretty well considering the race was done in the pouring rain which made the course slick and muddy. Considering we ran up and down Edelweiss three times I'm thinking 1:49 was a pretty good time.

The race course was advertised as 5km but I've heard it was 6.7 km which makes sense to me. As well each time up/down the mountain was a 200m change in elevation.

Things I learned that are important for Spartan Race competitors:

1. Cotton fiber underwear is a bad idea. They get soaked and weigh you down. Better to go with lycra biking shorts as they don't absorb quite so much water.
2. Thiner shoes! I hate to buzz market those Vibram FiveFingers shoes but I can see how they would come in handy in this race. By the time we were heading up the mountain for the 3rd time I believe my shoes and socks gained an extra couple of pounds of water, muck and rocks.
3. If it is raining I'd go with some gloves as it is pretty tough to grab the rings, monkey bars, etc. when everything is slick with rain.

Anyway, I had a blast and I would definitely do it again. Anna really wants to do one so I'm going to have to look into a kids version for her as she is very, very excited to get full of mud.

23 1/2 Hours a day