Extra-Sensory

First, my apologies folks for not posting in a while.  I thought I had a new gig going but so far the editor has not set up my profile.  Two lessons there.  One I remember.  Don't pester editors or they will go away.  One I forgot.  Don't wait for editors.  Keep yourself in the public eye via other avenues.  Same thing when you are job hunting.  Don't quit until you have the offer.

Second, my blog for the day.  As you know, I have been training my son Aaron for his first OCR race.  We are two months into it.  The first month he just followed along with me as I was in strict training for a race.  The second month, I introduced him to my OCR training for beginners program - M80.  For the most part, he has done exceptionally well, with one exception.  He has Aspberger's Syndrome.  That means he is autistic.

He is on the spectrum slice of highly functional.  Most of his issues are social.  I have also discovered his extra-sensory issue since starting with the OCR training.  Those of us in OCR are very familiar with our "war wounds" that we wear as badges of honor after a race.  Cuts, scrapes, bruises, and other minor wounds are part of the game.  We don't give or get any sympathy for them.

But for Aaron, he is hyper-sensitive to these things.  One scrape and he is done and out of the game.  I try everything I know to help get him back on the course.  So far nothing has worked.  He just shuts down.  Typical Aspy behavior.  Very frustrating to me.

This morning we were supposed to do a 5-mile playground run.  We were doing fine until we got to the third playground.  Surrounded by a split rail fence, we were supposed to weave in and out of the rails.  He got scraped on the first one.  Game over.  I decided not to push it or talk him out of it.  Perhaps if we just ran.  No more obstacles.  He said he would give it a try.

But a quarter mile later the issues intensified.  For Aaron, that means he thinks he cannot breath.  The problem I have as a parent and a trainer is I cannot tell if it is real or just a display of Aspberger's.  I know he feels it and something is going on.  So it is real in one sense.  But in another, it is difficult to tell if it is amplified by his hypersensitivity or he really has something physically going on.

I have seen the symptoms often enough to raise the alarm to my wife.  We agree we need to get him checked out.  Thus ended my training for this morning.  I wonder if I should still sign up Aaron for an OCR volunteer job the first week of October.  I don't want to take anything away from him.  But at the same time I don't want to see him hurt.

Unless you are the parent, family member, or care-giver to someone with autism, you may not understand much of this.  But this is part of the OCRMudmaster's life on a daily basis.  It is a very tough, sometimes frightening obstacle.  It defies every technique I know for OCR.  And I can't burpee out of it.

I know there are a few other parents of autistic children who follow me on FB.  There are a few OCR athletes out there who are autistic.  Your insights and stories are appreciated.  I am feeling defeated.

Passionate, Pissed, or Picky?

Are you passionate, pissed, or picky about your race products?  A recent and frequent posting in the OCR world comes from folks who are all three at once when the dreaded Beachbody troll makes the rounds.  The new Coach is passionate and wants to drum up new members and sell product.  Those on the receiving end are pissed about another unsolicited pitch.  The picky ones like me are in the middle.  We’re careful about who and what we support.

Part of my background includes quality and statistics.  So whenever I try a new product, the seller usually follows up with a satisfaction survey.  Nobody ever gets a perfect “10” for me the first time.  I take the time to explain in the comments box.  If the product is repeatably and reproducibly “perfect” over time, then they get the gold star.  That means my experience and the experience of my peers must be consistently excellent over time.  That’s my criteria for success.  Wait and see and in the meantime I will keep using your product until I am either convinced or you screw something up and I drop you.  Once I am convinced, I will use word of mouth marketing to my best ability.  I will want others to know how great this product is.  Sadly, many others are a bit premature in this approach and their passion outweighs the real benefits or consequences of their product.

Beachbody just happens to have a few products that I love.  Shakeology is not one of them.  P90X and P90X2 are.  The system works.  Tony Horton is a man of his word and lives the system.  I’ve met him and worked out with him.  It may not be for everybody.  But that is your decision.  I’ll just give you the option and lend you a DVD to give it a shot.

I also review products for other companies.  Then I post them online – good, bad, or indifferent.  Same for race venues.  My main motivation is because I like to write and I like to race.  But more than these, I like the feedback so that I know I have helped someone.  That’s why I am also a course volunteer.  I love to be a part of the journey we all take in health, fitness, and training.  Whether big or little, I like to see people smile and get pumped up when they discover the magic of “I can.”  If that feeling comes from a product, a technique tip, or a word of encouragement, I’m all for it.  If that happens online, on the course, or any other time, I want to see more of it.

Here’s the thing.  Find what works for you and use it.  Just be smart and stay away from the junk.  There is nothing new under the sun.  If there were, we’d see the top rankings change hands all the time.  Remember, for most of us, this is about fitness, health, and training.  We’re glad to help friends and family sell things if they are good things.  It’s OK to say “No” sometimes.  We look out for one another in this OCR community to it’s good to keep things out that don’t fit the bill.  There are plenty of products I won’t pitch because I learned the hard way thirty years ago just how harmful some things can be.  Don’t be a guinea pig.  Before you agree to review, just be up front and let the producer know that you will read the label, do some research, and be willing to back out, accept “No”, or accept a negative review if things don’t work out.  We have to be brutally honest if we are going to help each other.

If that is difficult for you then do what I do.  I let my wife be the initial sounding board.  She is the family nutritionist and she is very good at it.  If I get her thumbs up, then I try it.  If she is with me at a race venue and hands me a cup of some new drink or whatever, I try it because I trust her.  I really don’t care who is in the tent, how flashy their sign is, or how much muscle or cleavage they show me.  I encourage you to simply be picky. 

Picky pays off.  Producers want picky consumers.  They want your feedback, your posts, and your word-of-mouth.  They don’t really want your passion or piss because these fade quickly.  But if you engage with your producer, they become friends.  And friends help friends.  In one case, I tried a new recovery powder drink mix.  It passed the wife test.  It passed every workout and OCR test.  I gave it a great review on multiple platforms.  The producer sent me another entire batch of the stuff for free.  How cool was that!

I see people post this kind of story on FB quite often.  They are not lucky.  They are not getting random free stuff.  They are engaged, picky, hard-working athletes looking for the best stuff out there to make themselves better at what they enjoy doing.  I’ll see them on the course long after the passionate ones have vanished.

And then there are some products I make myself like these gorgeous arm compression sleeves made from a cutoff tech shirt!

M80

I like M80s.  You know, those great big firecrackers.  Kind of like cherry bombs.  They are tough to find, especially in a state where they are illegal.  I guess that explains why I haven't had any for 35 years.  Until now.

Last year I designed a training program for taking beginners up to their first OCR.  I called it M80.  It is a 90-day program built on much the same philosophy as the P90X programs that I started with.  The Beachbody formula works so why not copy it right?  Three phases.  Ninety days.  Gradual increase in complexity.  Work to get the participants over those difficult humps.  Lots of encouragement.  Form, form, form.  You get the idea.  You see me write about these things often.  They work.

M80 - that's Mud run training for 80 days in your own home or backyard gym.  Where's the other 10 days?  On the course.

I've been training my youngest son for two weeks now.  I've taken him through the basics and assessed his baseline.  Now I think he is ready for formal training.  He is hungry, motivated, and has set some goals.  In thirty days he wants to be able to do a pullup and a pushup unassisted as well as run five miles.  That's about where I was when I started fitness training about seven years ago as what Aaron calls me, "chubby daddy".

Aaron is my M80 firecracker right now.  As an autistic child, he has locked in on this training.  So that makes it kind of easy.  Because normally his autism side can make things like training extremely difficult if not impossible.  For instance, I still have a concern about mud.  Mud is unpleasant to him.  It can cause him to melt down or freeze, sometimes at the most inopportune moments.  Mud is a sensory issue.  So I will have to wait and see whether mud will dampen the fuze of my M80 boy.  That time will come in October when he will volunteer with me on his first OCR race at ABF Mud Run.  As a volunteer, he'll have the option to opt out if he does not want to do the mud.  But I am sure he will blast through all the rest.

Are you a OCR beginner?  Are you interested in formal training?  If you would like more information about the OCRMudmaster M80 OCR training program, please comment or PM me.  See you on the course.

Are You In or Out?

"Some people just don't belong."  Does that painful statement or ones like it resonate with you?  Well last week it rang out loud and clear for one new Spartan.  It's not the first time I've seen these kinds of comments on Facebook.  It won't be the last.  But it was the first time I saw somebody stand up for themselves.  Her first words in answer to the accusation were, "I'm one of them."  Them.  I grew up being one of them.  The memories still haunt me.  Sometimes it's tough to let go.  I applauded her for her bravery.  I know she'll be on the course again despite the words of others who feel she doesn't belong.

 

This week I started training my youngest son for what will hopefully be his first Spartan next year.  He is fifteen years old and he is autistic.  He can't do one pullup or pushup.  His running flags after about two miles although he can clip along at about a seven-minute pace for that much.  Does he belong out there?  We'll see.  In the meantime, he has had a few choice words for the OCRMudmaster.

 

I reminded him that when I started on my fitness training using P90X, I could not do one pullup and maybe just nine pushups.  What I make look easy now was impossible back then.  "Yea, back then you were chubby daddy," says my oh so blunt son.  Chubby was an extra forty pounds.  He remembers.  But ouch, those words.  We can laugh about it as father and son.  But what he doesn't know or understand is the memories that strike suddenly, the rush of shame, the blush of those same chemicals in my body that create tension, fear, and anger.  It's the same principle as I wrote about some time ago when  yoga teacher showed me how to release body pain from old injuries. 

 

In this case, embrace every bit of those horrible flashbacks - the words, circumstances, feelings, reactions from others like laughs and jeers.  Guaranteed if you did that right now you are also experiencing that moment all over again as if for the first time - the tears, fists balling up, wishing you could run and hide, knowing that someday, somehow, you will show them that you are good, better, the best, than the rest of them.  But that time may be way in the future, or never.  Sometimes these events are so traumatizing that we never let go and never achieve what we truly desire.

 

But you can.  Look deep inside yourself now.  Feel it all.  Remember it all.  Now drop it, forget it, put it all behind you.  Because today you are somebody else.  You are not a failure.  You are not a loser.  You are not the last one to be picked.  You are not picked on, laughed at, beat up, or whispered about.  Now you can look in the mirror and see the winner you wanted to be all your life.  Now you see the sweat, the hard work, the hours, days, months, years.  You no longer fool yourself like when you first started and all you had was ambition.  Now you have results.  Now you have what everybody else wants.

 

The two things you don't have and won't carry around with you though are: one - that old defeated person, and two; a person like those who brought that pain on you so long ago.  No, that will never be you.  You are an encourager, a team player, someone who belongs.  And you want everyone to come along with you no matter who they are or where they are in their fitness training journey.

 

In my years on the course, I could have been one of those who say, "You don't belong."  But then the veteran with one leg would not have gotten up the 14-foot warped wall.  But then the team from Biggest Loser would not have gotten over the 6-foot military walls.  But then the family of untrained first-timers would not have finished the race smiling and ready to come back for another.  The OCRMudmaster encourages you Spartan, TM, WD, BF, to be that person on the course whether as a racer or volunteer who says, "You belong!"

The Season is Not Over Yet

I live in New Jersey, the Garden State.  Burlington County to be more exact.  And there are lots of farms around me.  In particular, there is Hammonton, the blueberry capital of the world.  Nobody grows more blueberries than right here in my backyard.  So I know a thing or two about blueberries.  The variety we all know and love was cultivated by Elizabeth White less than 200 years ago in what is now called Whitesbog, NJ.  They even have a festival named after her and her famous blueberries.

Sadly, the growing and picking season for blueberries just ended this last week.  But Proven-Nutrition has extended that season with their CORE All-Natural Blueberry Flavor drink mix.  The little amount of undissolved solids in this mix is sure proof that there's real blueberries in there.  And it tastes good.  I just hope they are Hammonton berries, and not Michigan!

I received five packets of this stuff last week.  Four of the single serving packets are gone.  Each one was consumed right after a training workout.  Another thing New Jersey is known for this time of year is heat and humidity.  This recovery drink also claims to "sustain mental focus and physical energy", and "replenish electrolytes for endurance and hydration".  I will definitely give it a thumbs up for that.  These were 95-degree plus days with the humidity pushing the heat index into the triple digits.  Drinking this stuff helped me feel great as soon as I got back in.  I have one large 300g package left.  I'm pretty sure when it is gone that I will order some more.

The packaging is good too.  It's biodegradable, vacuum sealed, and has a zip seal to keep it fresh.  I posted a short review earlier this week and got an instant response from one of the owner/developers.  So these people care about their product.  I like that.  Check them out at www.proven-nutrition.com.  Hopefully they will start showing up at race venues and festivals.  Mud runners and OCR folks are going to like this swag.

For comparison, I usually take a packet of Vega mix for my post-race rehydration drink.  I think this CORE blueberry mix does a better job, has an overall better and faster effect, and will definitely be with me at the August 22 Rock Solid finish line.

What Gear is Fair?

There have been a few flareups recently in OCR ranks both at the elite and open levels.  What gear is fair to use on the course?  Opinions very widely.  With no regulations, the only general agreement among all comments I have read is, "Pick up your #$@&* trash!"

My buddy Charles "Jazz" Vassallo, an elite Spartan racer, got reamed for drying off his hands before an obstacle.  He used a t-shirt he found on the ground.  Some athletes called foul.  That's unfair gear.  Use the grass or your shorts or wave your hands in the wind.  But using a t-shirt or a rag you find on the course is an unfair advantage.

I got reamed for replying to an issue this week when somebody asked for advice on rope burns caused by dragging the feet on the Tyrolean Traverse.  I suggested wearing soccer shin guards in reverse beneath compression socks.  Oh the names I was called.  The videos and writeups I got for showing proper technique.  There were a few who liked my idea but they were in the minority.

I wear them for two reasons:  First, after my first attempt on the ABF Mud Run 125-foot rope, my calves cramped so bad because of the cold water crossings just before the rope.  I do the underneath monkey crawl technique.  But that pressure on my heels and calves totally spazzed  my muscles.  So I had the brilliant idea to use the shin guards.  Problem solved.  I don't have the issue of burns because I knew better than to drag.  But honestly folks.  Some of the videos people sent me showed the "proper" technique as dragging the feet while doing all the work pulling with the arms.  Ouch.

The second reason I wear them is similar to the first.  Getting over the top of walls, especially towards the end of some races when I use the leg up technique, there is that compression again.  I have seen so many people cramp and fall off the wall when that happens.  Again, the shin guard totally prevents that from happening.

Are they an unfair advantage?  They certainly don't get in the way.  They are not a hindrance to me in any way.  I am an open class runner so I don't have to worry about the wrath of the elites.

This is an open question friends.  What are your thoughts?  What other gear do you see out there that is questionable?  I'd like to hear all sides.

I'd also like to see as many of you as possible on October 3 at ABF Mud Run where you can put your theories to the test.  ABF was voted one of the top ten small race venues in the country as well as one of the top 5 toughest obstacles by Outside magazine.

Race Review - PA Spartan Sprint Week #2

All races in my family are a family affair.  We support one another.  We show up, cheer, and most importantly, provide route support.  My youngest son Aaron gave me five at the top of Blue Mountain yesterday.  That was great.  My wife and other two sons were there as well laughing and taking pictures of the old man in the mud.  But they also take it seriously and when it's all over, out come the recovery drinks and food.

Because let's face it folks, OCR is a shock to the system no matter how well trained you are.  I've talked a lot about recovery so enough said for now.  What I want to tell you about is how much I love this course.

This is my third year running this location.  It is tough.  Just about every Spartan will tell you that.  This year, the course changed again and the first two miles were just about all straight up.  The initial run out of the gate was wide.  But that quickly transformed into a single-track through the woods the rest of the way up.  Rocky, exposed roots, downed limbs, trees, you name it, the natural obstructions were across every bit of this steep uphill and later downhill run.  This terrain is by far the hardest part of the course except one bit I'll mention later.

After two miles of uphill with only three easy obstacles along the way, you reach the top.  And your first water break.  Over the years I have noticed the Norm Koch strategy coming into play as each obstacle is placed with devious purpose.  The traverse wall is now always after a dip in the mud.  Maximum slippery.  What used to be a no-brainer simple obstacle is now a hold on for dear life.  I slipped and did my thirty burpees.

Thanks to a Super race the week before, a lot of new obstacles showed up for this race.  A short Tyrolean Traverse, a ring rig, a new swimming pond, and a ridiculously long back-to-back downhill then uphill barbed wire crawl.  For whatever reason, I became very nauseous during the swim.  Usually a powerful backstroke is very relaxing while gaining me a lot of time.  But I struggled out of the water not feeling too well.  That only got worse a short time later at the crawl where most people elect to roll.  After two rolls I was ready to blow.  And the wire was too low this year to bear crawl.  So I dragged myself.  This was after mile four where up until this point my time was really good.  But this two-hundred year death zone killed me.

So I decided to post that on FB and say Oh well, next year I will just burpee out of it.  No such thing.  It's a mandatory obstacle.  So I will spend the off season trying to figure out ways to do this without rolling or barfing.  Your suggestions are welcome.  Always improving, right?

If you'd like a comparison to Tuxedo, then I'll tell you that Palmerton is by far much harder.  It's the terrain.  But they are both incredibly fun races.  Which reminds me of my friends who ran both weekends, yes all three races.  And they had plenty of gas for more.  Incredible spirit, power, and ability.  My Mud Smear Award goes to fellow ABF team member Katie Crane Sidoli.  She smiles through it all and she's always ready for more.  Rumor has it she went for an eight-mile ruck this morning.  Wow.

Having family and friends on the course is wonderful.  It's a shame Spartan charges $20 for spectators.  I hope my family got their $80 worth.  I sure did as I got to hear their cheers, encouragement, and help along the way.  Blue Mountain is by far the best venue I know of for spectators to see a lot of the race from top to bottom.  You get to ride the ski lift up where fix or six obstacles are up-close for great photography.  The only downside to that yesterday morning was the mountaintop socked in with fog.  It cleared up later in the morning though.  Down at the bottom, access to probably ten obstacles is perfect for viewing and action shots.

Is it age or was it the killer crawl that knocked my percentages down this race?  I'm used to being in the top ten for age.  I dropped pretty hard to 25th percentile.  I blame it on that wire.  That gives me reason to train.  What other excuse can I offer?  My friend Charles "Jazz" Vassallo podiumed again with a first place finish for Master's Elite.  How many weeks in a row now buddy?  But even he asked in a FB post, "It's getting harder and harder.  What else can I do?"  I know he has all the support from his little girl and the entire Spartan community.

And you know what, we thrive on it.  One person posted yesterday that she had decided to end her life back in February.  But instead, she trained up for and did a Spartan.  And she found new life in a community of new-found friends/family who support her, encourage her, and help her find a purpose.  That's really what OCR is all about.