TRAINING LEAD-UP
Sunday, Mar 29:
Rucked 1.5 mi at Freedom Park with my parents in 1:16:47, since we hadn't been there in a while. My mom was hoping to find cherry blossoms there, but there weren't many still around anymore, and they weren't as easy to get to as the ones at Romare Bearden.
Afterwards, we went back to uptown to see if they had any left, but they were all gone, with only traces of their petals on the ground. We rucked 4 mi in 1:36:35 there, with 30# in the v23 shorty rucker and MACV1s.
Monday, Mar 30:
Pistol practice at Blackstone...
- 4 mags Ball and dummy, all over the place and flinching.
> I need to set my right foot back to absorb recoil and lean into the gun
> Not putting my thumbs against the side helps to reduce flinching.
- I did some cadence work but was still all of the place
- I did another 4 mags of ball and dummy and slowed way down. It was much better.
- Haley Strategic Delorian drill, going as far as 3-2-bang, for 3 mags
- More cadence... tending southeast still like I was on the Delorian.
- More ball and dummy
- More cadence, not terrible
Wednesday, Apr 1:
After a much-needed 9 hours of sleep last night, I did 18A "Dynamic Warmup" in 25:02, then HDT 31.1.2 (core) in 32:14 using KBs and DBs at the office gym.
Thursday, Apr 2:
Another trip to Blackstone...
- Ball and dummy, still leaning in and no thumbs... nice and centered 2.5" spread at 7yds
- 2 mags of the surprise break drill... not pretty... pushing southeast and yanking.
> Creating a bit of a shelf with my left index finger helps with the yanking a little bit
- Cadence, where the first two mags weren't great, and the third mag was a bit better with the left index shelf
- 4 mags cadence all over the place and generally low... need to slow it down
> Helps to pull the slack out
> Visual patience, waiting on the wobble
- Surprise break... still tending southeast and low sometimes
- Right-handed and left-handed nice
- Delorian - tending southeast but not terrible
- Ended with some cadence, not bad
Friday, Apr 3:
Yoga for Forgiveness & Yoga - PE - Mind with Adriene, still with traces of soreness in my core and upper back/ shoulders from HDT
SPARTAN SUPER
My A-race for the weekend was the Super. I hoped for an AG podium.
I ran in the first age group heat of the day. The bars were still wet from dew, so I ended up failing obstacles that I'd normally be able to do if they were dry. That might be a good reason to intentionally go for a later heat one day... there's another 15 min of drying time (not that that's necessarily enough to make a difference) but maybe more significantly, more hands will have gone through and tried to dry up the bars.
The first part of the course had some uneven footing, since it was ground that many cows have stomped on. Once you got past that first portion, the rest wasn't too bad.
The course was designed such that you went away from the festival, came back, went back out for a long journey, and then came back again. They stopped showing the list of obstacles ahead of time, maybe to give themselves more flexibility with the final course design? Anyway, that makes it harder to re-create the list of everything that happened.
I was glad that they got rid of the dunk wall. I thought it might be because we were in a drought, but some people said that people complained about getting infections from it. I mainly don't like dealing with all of the extra cleaning I have to do to my clothes afterwards, for no good reason.
There was a significant gauntlet of obstacles at the end, like a long pancake carry, herc hoist, rope climb, etc.
I ended up finishing in 1:36:49, covering 7.2 mi with the penalty loops.
I didn't feel like I was moving that fast today, since I was getting passed by people in the back portion of the race. We ran through a creek and more fields, and it was more about getting distance, since there wasn't a high obstacle density in that portion of the race. I gave it my best, though. I managed to get 2nd.
SPARTAN SPRINT
After awards, I stood in the long lines to get signed in for the Sprint. They need to figure out how to speed it up on Super/Sprint days... or recruit more volunteers.
I ran the Sprint for fun / for extra training. I was moving fast relative to the other open heaters, even though I was moving slow for me. The obstacles went better, now that they were dryer, although we didn't have as many of them as before since this was the Sprint.
Dr. Bronner's was back again as a sponsor. They give away soap samples and give free warm bubbly showers. I didn't do it after the Super since I'd be going out again and didn't want to get fully wet unnecessarily. The line was really long after the Sprint, so I didn't end up going after the race, either.
One funny thing... I don't remember which race it was on, maybe the Sprint, but I managed to double-tap a bell... I hit it with my hand, and then when it swung back, I ended up knocking it again with my head. The volunteer had a good laugh about it, too.
I was actually quite competitive in the Sprint. The Sprint did have backups in the open waves, though... the chain sled drag lines were pretty bad, though much worse for the guys than for the girls. Those chains are super loud, too... I feel bad for those volunteers. They definitely need some ear protection there. I get exposed to loud noises all the time, and even I thought that this was a lot.
I failed the Spear Throw in both races, so that might've been my one obstacle failure during the Sprint.
I finished the Sprint in 57:37, covering 3.5 mi.
Dr. Bronner's was back again as a sponsor. They give away soap samples and give free warm bubbly showers. I didn't do it after the Super since I'd be going out again and didn't want to get fully wet unnecessarily. The line was really long after the Sprint, so I didn't end up going after the race, either.
A nice fun activity for Easter weekend was that they hid Easter eggs in the festival. I think most of them had candy, but some had free race codes. I searched and searched but didn't manage to find one.
I just went home to clean up and get some rest before volunteering the next day.
VOLUNTEERING
During sign-ins, we were treated to a nice double rainbow. It was a good consolation prize for the rain that we'd be in during our shfits.
I ended up on course, but at the low crawl at the festival. It's like the "devil's beard" obstacle at Tough Mudder, where you're crawling beneath a heavy cargo net that's staked to the ground. The weight of the rope is way higher than you'd think, so you really do end up staying low, and you're dealing with a lot of friction as you push through.
The best technique is to bear crawl or baby crawl with your head low, though, so that your neck pushes the way forward. It helps if you go right behind someone else, so that they make a tunnel for you. Some people tried to roll through, like you would for the barbed wire crawl, but people give that up after one spin. You get tangled up too much with all of the cargo netting.
I brought my camping chair, so it was a pretty comfortable gig, even with the light rain.
"Chains for Charity" was happening on the other side of the fence from me. You could spend $10 for three throws of a disc golf to try to get a free race, or donate $100 for a guaranteed free race. A few discs flew over the fence and out to me.
After the race was over, it was tear-down time... the hard work part of the day. You get lots of steps in! And you're getting a free race out of doing some heavy lifting, which is good if you like to work out anyways. Extra training.
APRIL BLACKSTONE FIRST MONDAY USPSA
Stage 1: <Virginia>
- Start with feet and hands on the XX's, gun hot and holstered
- Shoot 3 IPSCs from room 1 @ 10-20yd
- Shoot 3 IPSCs from room 2 @ 3-7yd
- Shoot 1 IPSC from the corner of room 3 @ 3yd
- Shoot 3 IPSCs from the end of the lane on the left side of the bay @ 2-15yd, 2 hits each
Learnings/Outcomes: 8/10 division, 16/21 overall
- 15A, 5C in 26.51 = 3.3898% HF
- I ran the tablet until the person right before me.
- I should've probably taken up the RO on his offer to let me do an extra dry run before my turn, since I forgot to do a mag change until I got into position and fumbled it
- My shots weren't great with the C's... I didn't think I was doing poorly, but I guess I went too fast
- At least I got no M's or NS's, since there were some far targets out there
- I had considered ducking under the NS at the start since that was an option, but I determined that there was nothing to be gained by doing that, since I'd end up having to go left for the other "rooms" anyways
Stage 2: <Comstock>
- Start anywhere outside the shooting area with hands above shoulders and a hot gun
- Shoot 3 IPSCs through any combo of 3 windows of different levels @ 7yd
- Shoot 2 head shots and 2 IPSCs @ 3 and 10-15yd
- Shoot 3 IPSCs @ 7 and 15yd, 2 hits ea
Learnings/Outcomes: 8/10 div, 16/21 overall
- 16A, 4C in 24.70 = 3.7247% HF
- I'm yanking my second shots to make C's
- At least I didn't ND on the draw through the window like 2 other guys in my squad did
- I did remember the mag change this time
- I left a target for the last spot instead of trying to take it from a different spot where there was a risk of hitting a NS in the process
- Head shot A-zones are higher and shorter than I thought.... I need to look for and aimf or that box next time, and at close distance, I need to remember to hold high.
Stage 4: <Comstock>
- Start with feet on the XXs, hands by your side, gun hot
- Shoot 3 IPSCs through the window, where you must use all three windows (or 2 if you're short) @ 10yd
- Shoot 1 head shot (and optionally 2 others from box 2 @ 10-15yd) @ 2yd
- Shoot 5 IPSCs (or 3) from box 3 @ 10-15yd
Learnings/Outcomes: 7/10 division, 13/21 overall
- 11A, 7C in 23.80 = 3.1933%HF
- I kept yanking C's to the left
- I remembered the plan, but I was still slow to remember
- I went too low on the head shot
- I did a mag change but could've avoided that if I had done no make-up shots and topped off... I don't remember if that was intentional, but the reload did take time.
Stage 3: <Comstock>
- Start with feet on XX's, hands by your side, hot
- Shoot 3 from room 1 @ 20yd
- Shoot 4 partials from room 2 @ 3-7yd
- Shoot 1 from the corner o room 3
- Shoot 3 from the end of the lane at the left side of the bay, 2 hits ea
- 18A, 4C, 1 NS in 32.62 = 2.8204% HF
- Saw my NS and shot at the target again
- Planned to reload before the last array and went dry before anyways because of the makeup, and autoload worked
- I had considered whether I might run out of ammo from the makeup shot
- I didn't aim high enough on the close head shots... again
- It throws me off when there are head shots followed big big A's, and I have to think for a sec on where I want to aim and how fast to go
- I didn't have in mind where my second shooting spot should be.... it should've been obvious based on the fault lines, but I hesitated between positions in between wall segments
Overall 8/10 division, 16/21 overall
- Aim high and adjust for distance on head shots
- Move to the next spot without hesitation, and go based on fault lines
- Don't yank second shots
It was cool to have all these rooms with the big walls today. Emily keep things fresh here at Blackstone!
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