Fitness Safari

Since I'm STILL waiting for my polypropylene sandbags from Patriot Surplus, I took a friend's advice and called an audible. I cut the legs off a pair of baggy bluejeans, grabbed two zipties and some duct tape and BAM! Meet the Jean Bag (Name courtesy of Tanis from FFF). I know the jean bag doesn't look like much, but this little bastard was a PITA on the beach last night. Weighing in at 25.4 lbs of packed sand, the Jean Bag accompanied me on my first 1-mile deep sand training run. I have to admit that, while the run itself was probably the hardest mile I've ever undertaken to date, the worn denim was pleasantly soft and allowed the sand to mold itself around my shoulder, eliminating the jabbing pain I experienced running with the dumbbell a few days ago. It was also much easier to switch shoulders while running since I could just throw it onto my shoulder mid-stride. The poly bags will be more of a bitch as they'll get slick, but at least I was able to get in my...

I'm still awaiting my sandbags which, for reasons beyond comprehension, were on back order. But, Warrior Training couldn't wait any longer, so...I hit the gym last night for my first official training workout. What did I do? I'm glad you asked. I was warming up on the treadmill when it occurred to me that I could very easily just grab a dumbbell and jog with it right there. I picked up a 30-lber, wrapped my hand towel around the handle, propped it on my shoulder and started walking. Holding the weight was a bit awkward since my shoulder is so narrow the weight saddled it, therefore the weighted ends pressed against my collarbone and traps - not exactly a pleasant sensation. But, I figured, Warriors don't train in comfort and I pressed on. I increased the elevation to 3.5 and the speed to 4.5 and started a light jog. I must have looked a bit odd, because of the way people were staring at me, but who cares. Either they think I'm some sort of nut (which is partly true)...

Summer is officially here and it's time for a new challenge. I've been having way too much fun outside to spend a lot of time in the gym lately, so I'm taking on a new challenge - The Warrior Challenge is coming to a beach near me on July 16 and I signed up. The Warrior Challenge is a 1-mile deep sand run while carrying a 40-lb sandbag, followed by pull-ups 'til exhaustion, followed by 2 minutes of as many Burpees as you can do, followed by a "mystery challenge." This is a competition I would NEVER have considered a year ago...first of all, running on the beach is hard enough, but to do it with a 40-lb bag of sand on my shoulder is just insanity. And they don't give the 115 lb girls a lighter bag than the 200-lb men and special ops guys who I will be running against. I'll be running with more than 1/3 of my weight. That's like a 200-lb man running with 70 lbs on his shoulder. Somehow not totally fair. I think they should do it as a percentage of b...