Saturday, Feb 20:
My first workout of substance in a while. Did 4.0 of intervals in 29:52, 7:28 average, at 2 degrees of incline. 1 mi warmup in 8:20, 3x[0.5mi @ 9mph (3:20), 0.25mi @ 7.5mph (1:58), 0.75mi in 5:30.
Thursday, Feb 25:
6.0 in 47:56, 8:00 average, 2 degrees of incline. Only about 45 min after dinner... ok, but got tougher towards the end. Pushed the pace. Mile splits> 8:31, 8:14, 8:07, 7:56, 7:44, 7:22.
Sunday, Feb 28:
Trail running, 9.0 in 1:48:00, 12:00 average. Kind of bonked towards the end. Good run, though. Nice to explore.
Monday, I attended my first Geocaching event, in which geocaching.com gave out a special Leap Day souvenir. There aren't as many events in smaller cities, so this was my first real chance. It was great to meet people as crazy as I am (really, way crazier... like thousands upon thousands of caches found) about GC.
Tuesday, Mar 1:
55 min strength session. Surprised that it went well, even though I've been really inconsistent about doing my strength sessions over the past couple of months.
The Buzz:
Facebook was buzzing about the Hurricane Heat. This would be my first. Spartan Race is really promoting it this year, as part of their Delta challenge of various tasks. This is the gateway drug for the Endurance Trifecta, which consists of a 3-hr Hurricane Heat teambuilding event, a 12-hr Hurricane Heat, and an Ultra Beast 26.2mi-ish marathon with a bunch of obstacles. They have these events at various places around the US/world.
About a week before the event, they post a youtube video about the gear list. There are standard items that they ask pretty much all Hurricane Heat event attendees to bring, like headlamps, water, rucksack, food, electrolytes, glow sticks. They usually have 1-2 specialty items, too, that are odd, that will play into the theme of the night, somehow. We were asked to bring a 2-ft long green broom stick, with 3 peanuts somehow attached to it... and a roll of duct tape. We were sharing ideas on facebook about how to prep our sticks.
There are articles about what to do / what not to do at a Hurricane Heat, too, to avoid having to do too many burpees as punishment. This was going to be serious. The anticipation built all week long. Now that I've done 7 Obstacle Course Races, I was looking forward to changing things up a bit.
The Spartan Sprint:
I drove to Atlanta early in the morning on Saturday (like, leaving home at 4am), to first do the Spartan Sprint. Since I haven't been very consistent about exercise, at all, with the work craziness, I didn't expect much, other than to have fun. I pretty much sucked at anything involving jumping... walls, the sternum checker. On the bright side, I did complete the z-wall (horizontally traversing a zig-zagging wall, similar to a climbing wall) for the first time, and I got almost to the top of the rope climb but couldn't / was too scared to do a giant reach for the bell that was placed pretty far horizontally from the rope... ended up getting some serious rope burn on my slide down, but at least it was a slide and not a fall. The Herculean Hoist was way heavier than I've ever encountered, so I failed that for the first time. In all, I did at least 240 burpees (30 per failed obstacle). Oh well, gotta start the season somewhere... I'll build from here.
It was cold.
After the race, I showered off, hung out in the festival area, enjoyed a beer, tried to nap, then prepped for the Hurricane Heat. I didn't want to be the person who forgot to bring a gear, bringing down penalties on my team.
The Hurricane Heat:
Didn't know what to expect, so the anticipation was huge. During the day, I had seen others with the tell-tale green sticks and mandatory black tops. We were in for it. We separated into groups by last name. We were KLM, which was cool, since it's like the great Dutch airline. Each group started off with one of the Krypteia, who are the Spartan staff members who lead the event and make us do things. Ours was Steve. Other groups started doing burpees pretty early on. I wonder what they did to deserve it. I was very glad to be with Steve, who started us off with stretching, followed by some strength and group-based exercises.
Then, we went towards the festival. He asked if anyone didn't bring water like they were supposed to, and of course, one guy didn't, so we had to do plank holds for a long time. We learned the Warrior's Ethos:
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade
(remember, it was cold)
Then, he saw where another group (very glad I wasn't in that group) had to drench themselves with hoses as they lay on the ground, forming a tunnel. We went through there, which got us off to a wet start. After that, we went to "The Devil's Playground', a rocky, rough, hilly terrain, where, in teams of 4, we had to drag or fireman carry each other up and down the course.
This guy Brandon, he was like a born leader who had stepped up at the beginning when the KLM group first formed, to lead our exercises. Not only was he a great leader, he was really encouraging to others. I was lucky to have met him and to be a part of his team.
This was the 80th Hurricane Heat event put on by Spartan, and it was their largest. And yet, only 1/41 in our group (not Brandon) had ever done a HH before. To handle such a large group (250ish?), the Krypteia created stations for us to move between, instead of having 1 Krypteia take us to all stations, we moved among the stations where the Krypteia led a particular station the whole time.
By the time we finished with Steve, it was starting to get dark. At the next station, we had to duct tape our leg and arm to a partner, and do various tasks, like burpees, rolling, bear crawl. At one point, we were all laying down under some pine trees, and we saw a shooting star. It was a memorable moment for all who happened to catch it. We were split up into three sub-groups at this time... Team America, Team Tiger (my group), and Team 3 (they didn't think of a name quickly enough, so they settled on that, to avoid any trouble).
Next, we went to Cookie's stations. Cookie is a big British guy, who had organized the whole HH-080. We had to do a race through the barbed wire, in which we were taped arm and leg to a string of 10 other people, which made it really difficult. Our team was not the winning team, which meant burpees in pluff mud, where we had to stick our faces in the mud for the last 10. During that time, though, I learned something that has really stuck with me... what it means to be a team. After we did our 30 burpees for losing, the "winning" team got a choice... 1 guy do 25 burpees, or the whole winning team could do 50. A couple of guys started volunteering to do the 25, but the group decided to do the 50 together, since that's what it meant to be a team.... leave no guy behind, and that was the right answer. And the losing teams, rather than watch the "winning" team do 50 by themselves, decided to do it with them. It was a magical moment, which really floored Cookie, who was so impressed that he let us off the hook after about 11, and we went on to the next station.
(not sure which group this was, but this is what the challenge looked like)
We visited Da Vinci next. He had a giant log that the group had to carry through a winding, tree-laden, hilly trail that seemed impossible. I ended up carrying half of the group's sticks, since I didn't think I could contribute much based on my height and absolute strength. They got the job done, faster than any group, even in the darkness.
(not sure which group this was, but this is what the challenge looked like)
It was cold, and we were wet and muddy. This night was more about mental endurance than physical endurance or physical strength. I kept kind of hoping that it would be over, soon, because of the cold... kind of like love/hate.
The next station was Andi Hardi's. I've done 3 Spartan Workout Tours with her. We had to get a bag of peanuts from one side of the line of sticks to another, while doing squats in synch. We did some stuff like somersaults while duct taped to a line of people, too.
(not sure which group this was, but this is what the challenge looked like)
That was the end. We were proud of what we had accomplished as a team. I learned what it meant to be a team, and to not leave a fallen comrade. I saw great leadership exemplified. I tend to be pretty independent, so all that I learned about being a team really gave me a lot to consider. It was an eye-opening night. Right afterwards, I would've said that it was a bucket list item to check off. But 2 weeks later, I've signed up for the 12 hr event.
Volunteering:
There were no showers available after the HH, so it was back to the car, muddy. I changed into dry clothes and tried to keep the car as clean as I could. I was back out again at 5:30 the next morning, to volunteer with parking. After that shift ended at 1:00, I volunteered at the finish line, prepping and distributing medals, then tearing down the festival afterwards. It's always fun to volunteer at these races. The other volunteers there work hard and care a lot, and the Facebook community is pretty passionate about it, too.
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