I Can’t Hang

Virginia Tough Mudder 2014

First of all – let me take a quick moment to allay any fears I may have created with the title of this post. This is in no way a post about an impending retirement. There has been enough of that talk and I have chastised those needing chastisement.

Nor is it a post about my inability to keep up with the younger generation as I ease into the ripe old age of 41. Frankly, it is way too much fun to continue to celebrate my birthday in the cold November mud with my extended World’s Toughest Mudder family. This year in Vegas will be the second year I get to spend my birthday doing an activity I’ve grown to love. You think TMHQ would have an award for most birthdays celebrated.

This is simply a post about me and the beautiful things I continue to learn as I push on to the next race and beyond. Frankly, races and competing aside, why would I retire? I couldn’t be happier with the physical changes I see in the mirror each morning. In comparison to that guy who took on Tough Mudder Wintergreen back in 2011, I look and feel like a completely different person. 

This year, in my preparation for Vegas, I’ve lost 30 pounds. It took a little longer than one would expect, but I guess I finally got tired of carrying that 30 pound weight around each course. Some people carry extra-large stuffed animals and for others it may be a large section of a dead tree. For me it was not even something I could show off appropriately – just 30 pounds of fat. I now stand before the mirror each morning at a strapping 179 pounds with 175 in sight. Honestly I can’t remember the last time I looked this good or felt this good. The reassuring thing is that I have been assured that it will now be even easier to throw me over Berlin Walls as we head into the early morning hours of WTM. 

Virginia Tough Mudder 2014

Without OCR though, I never would have had any reason, of course other than wanting to be here to walk my daughters down the aisle one day, to take the weight off. And with each new race there is no doubt that eating better and pushing the workouts has improved my performance. This time at Wintergreen Super Spartan I was a wall climbing, barb wire crawling, log carrying monster. You can take that 75 pound bucket of gravel and shove it though. That is going on the shoulder!

The weight loss has led to some great improvements in my overall strength. For those constant readers out there, you may remember that I personally have had several internal debates about different types of workout strategies since we started the blog. There have posts rating different workout routines, all of them that will get you drippin’, and even discussions on how we planned to become stronger runners – that one is still a work in progress. One thing I have come to realize though is the fact that I really don’t like going to a gym. This is probably more so because I just can’t build it regularly into my schedule, but I would much rather work out around the house when I have the time to fit it in. One day it might be in the morning, and another day after my girls are in bed. But I have found it so much easier for me to walk out to the garage than it is for me to actually get out of the house. I know that may sound terribly lazy, but that’s just the way it is.

Of course, this has made it nearly impossible for me to engage in more regular workout programs such as a regular Crossfit routine, but it has allowed me to mix and match different ideas to create programs that work for me. So over the past year I have been focusing almost exclusively on body weight exercises. My program today consists of 200 regular push-ups (sets of 30 with each set followed by a door jamb pull up – this are quite brutal I might add but needed as I’ll discuss in a second), 100 wide arm push-ups, 100 pull-ups over the course of the work day, and tabata finger-tip planks (20 seconds with 90 second rest). Just doing the push-ups and pull-ups has produced great improvements. For the guy who maxed out at 5 pull-ups (with a leg kick on the last couple) to the guy who can get 15 pull-ups. Personally this is just an amazing accomplishment for me. I was always the kid who couldn’t do pull-ups and wouldn’t even attempt the rope climb.

What I have find most interesting though are the lessons I’ve learned about myself along the way. It actually has become quite funny that I continue to find things I can’t do. If I take a few days rest and jump up on a pull-up bar, I can easily crank out 12. I say crank out because I still hate the dang things. But even with this new strength, I’ve learned something about myself – I Can’t Freakin’ Hang!!

https://toughmudder.com/obstacles/hangin-tough

Our constant readers will have read about my Hangin’ Tough albatross. For those of you new to the world of Tough Mudder, you can read all you would like about this lovely obstacle on Tough Mudder's Web site.Probably the only Tough Mudder obstacle I have not completed. I am sure my Mudda Bruddas will correct me on that one if I’ve spoken in error. Yes – Twinkle Toes is behind me. My goal has been to improve my core, build up my arm strength, and I would finally put that obstacle behind me as well. But I had quite an enlightening experience last weekend.  

Virginia Spartan Spring 2014

My weekend is the time when I focus on my longer runs or some swimming. As I was heading out for a run, I happened to look up at the rings installed in my garage, installed for the single purpose of completing Hangin’ Tough, and thought about seeing how much I’d improved at simply swinging back and forth on them. You know that little rhythm you work to swing to the next ring. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would have improved – for goodness sake, I’m doing sets of 10 pull-ups.

As soon as I hopped up on them, a sense of wonder filled the air. I could do it. I have never been able to gather any momentum on these things, but now the tide had turned. I had arrived and ready to transfer my hands. And that is where the joy ended. While I can swing, I apparently still can’t hang like a monkey from one arm. I don’t have any idea whether it is strength in the arm, back, core, grip, or whatever – I just simply can’t hang.  It is hard to put into words just how frustrating that realization was. After all the work it seems I am no closer to swinging from these rings than I was 4 weeks ago. (Well that is not entirely true, but I don’t see myself completing this obstacle after 4 laps of the WTM this year either.)

What I found most interesting though, as a little time brings some perspective, is not the fact that I couldn’t do something, but the fact that I learned something new about my strength that I never would have known before. Understanding that I can’t hang could only be realized once I got the pull-up monkey off my back, and just when you climb over one peak, there is another one staring right back at you. But, in truth, this is a weakness I simply was unable to diagnose two years ago when simply crossing Funkey Monkey was the challenge. So in a way, with a few days to reflect that is, it has become this rather satisfying failure that has allowed me to gather some new focus on where I am physically and where I actually want to be when I do one day hang up my OCR gear and announce my retirement.

As is common in many of my posts, we all can decide what that special tough mudder is we want to chase in life. I must admit though that I am still working to love the baby steps and all the unforeseen hurdles that rear their ugly little head when you start to believe that you’ve gotten somewhere. Learning to appreciate the journey and lessons learned along the way become as important as actually getting off the couch and planning to conquer that tough mudder in the first place.

How much more relevant is it for those of us in leadership positions. And by “those of us” I mean all of us because leadership is not any particular position in an organization but a role that you as an individual can choose to take on if you are passionate enough. These little setbacks, or learnings as they eventually become, can either make us give up or they can inspire us to realize that we still haven’t crossed the finish line quite yet. We are simply on another leg of that Death March and there is just a bit more climbing to do. (Death March I curse thee!!!)

Can't want to see what's next!

http://homebrewedtheology.com/whats-next.php

 

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But What If I Fail

"But what if I fail?"

One of my favorite authors Seth Godin recently posed this question in his blog.  This question made me think about my World's Toughest Mudder experience.  His answer to the question of failure was quite simple yet profound.  The answer to the what if question is, you will.  You will fail and fail often if you are truly stretching yourself and trying to achieve lofty goal.  World's Toughest Mudder was a very lofty goal two years ago that became a reality in 2013 through a course of repeated failures.  

My World's Toughest Mudder experience can be looked at through this lens of failure.  I did not reach my initial goal of completing 50 miles.  My legs gave out much earlier than expected.  I failed repeatedly to cross the rings.  I even took several penalties without attempting obstacles in the early morning hours of the race.  I've teetered between proud of the experience and disappointed in my performance.  DC's post about Always Do Your Best   and Pat's post about Dealing with Expectations have helped me grapple with my own notions about performance.  Did I do my best?  I believe so...especially in that moment in time.  Would I do some things differently?  Absolutely which brings me to Seth's second question about failure.

A better question might be, "after I fail, what then?

Many people spend time thinking about things that they should have done differently.  This happened for me as a teacher after every lesson.  Keep in mind that you only know how to do things differently once you have tried something the first time.   My best lessons as a teacher never occurred the first time I taught the content.  As I refined lessons and changed assessments my results got better.  The same holds true for World's Toughest. My failure on the rings is a perfect example.  DC and I have concocted a number of different techniques to stay relatively dry on the rings.  Each one of these ideas was born out of a failure.  So far none of these techniques have been successful but it could be related more to operator error.  After you fail you will be one step closer to succeeding.  Success will occur on the rings in 14. 

I can look at my WTM experience as a failure which could be accurate.  I did after all wind up face down in the New Jersey swampland at 3 in the morning unable to move with the world's dimmest headlamp.  I am instead choosing to look at it as a springboard to my successes in 2014.  Similarly, my first mudder in Wintergreen was the springboard to many successful future races.  I know the weaknesses that prevented me from even more success at WTM13.  I need to be a stronger runner (both in speed and distance).  I have to continue to work on grip and upper body strength.  I need a brighter headlamp and additional baselayers.  I'm working on the plan that will get me back to WTM in 2014.  This plan will be littered with failures along the way.  Each one of these failures will continue to move me step closer to success.

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Approaching Each Obstacle: Part 2

This is a follow-up post to Part 1. As with Part 1, I'll be a bit more specific about my approach to the obstacles that a Mudder might include.  In this case, I'll take the obstacles as they happened in Society Hill, SC last October.  I'll describe each obstacle, give my impressions, and then define my approach to that particular one.

Official Course Map from Toughmudder.com

1. Log Jammin': This obstacle is made up of a series of log walls that you have to navigate.  The walls themselves are high, but they are staggered so you have to do some crawling.  The intention is to get you to climb over one wall, then go under the next, then climb, then crawl, etc.  If it's busy, and lots of people are going through, then you'll have to suck it up and do the climbs and crawls, but there is another way if the challenge isn't all that busy.  I'll do pretty much anything I can to avoid crawling (if I can), since I hate getting my knees and legs all scratched up, so my method for this obstacle is to climb over the walls, and then lay down and roll under the crawling walls.  This works pretty well if there aren't many people there, but you should be careful to look at the ground where you'll be rolling.  I actually got a pretty big rock to the lower back on this obstacle in SC, so be careful.
2. Mud Mile: This tends to be a large open pit filled with mud.  In SC it was a little bit different, but not so much so that it makes a difference.  The key is to just keep moving (you'll want to make sure that you have your shoes tied on tight though).  I will say, the SC mudder was the muddiest mudder we've participated in, and it really showed up on this event.  I had a blast getting into the mud and slogging my way through.
3. Dong Dangler: This event requires you to get across from a stand on one side of the water to the other shore climbing across a wire strung between two locations.  I've seen two ways to do this.  The first is to hang below the wire and shimmy hand over hand.  The second is to balance on top of the wire and pull yourself across.  The first option requires a good amount of upper body strength as your entire weight is suspended and all of the effort is put into moving the shoulders and holding on with your hands.  The second requires you to straddle the wire with one leg hooked on.  The SC mudder was the first that I attended that actually had this obstacle, so we went with option number one.  Needless to say, it didn't go very well.  We all made it a good distance across during our first lap, but barely made it any of the way on the second lap when upper body strength was gone.  I vividly remember thinking "just get past the rocks at the starting point so you can let go and fall into the water".  Prepare to get wet, though, because I didn't see many people making it all the way across.
4. Underwater Tunnels: This is a little misleading, because there aren't actually any tunnels involved.  Rather, you have to swim out to a series of barrels floating on the surface of the water (don't worry, they're tethered in place) and then go under them in sequence.  It's not too tough, but if you're not a good swimmer, then you may want to skip this because the water is deep enough that you'll have to swim.  The key for me was using my hands to hold on to the braces holding the barrels in place and use them to pull my way.
5. Kiss of Mud #2: Same as Part 1, but it's much more likely that the crowd will have thinned out a bit by now so rolling should be possible. 
6. King of the Mountain: This was more fun that I thought it would be.  It's a series of two "mountains" made out of hay bales.  Each side was stepped, so you can climb, but my approach was to lift with my arms and then twist so that I ended up sitting on the edge of the bale.  Then I would get up and do it again with the next step.  Going down the other side was a pretty simple slide from one level to the next.  The final part of the obstacle was the large roll of hay (maybe 5 feet tall) that you had to climb across.  They gave us plenty of room to get a running start, so it wasn't too difficult to jump, grab on and pull yourself over, but one of our team members (none of the authors of this blog) was so beat by the time he got here that he couldn't get over and an un-named mudder got down on hands and knees to let him step up on his back.  Talk about taking one for the team...
7. Hangin' Tough: The Rings Obstacle.  If you are of a certain age, you'll remember having to navigate the rings in gym class.  This is basically the same thing, just over water.  There are about five or six rings hanging down from a wooden structure, and you have to swing from one to the next to make it across.  I've seen people actually put their whole arm up to the elbow into the rings and hold on that way, but we chose the simpler grab with the hand approach.  Brian made it across during the first lap (although he did lose his balance on the other side and fell into the water, so I only give him partial credit), and he saved a dude's life on this obstacle during the second lap.  Since neither Danny or I made it across in either lap, Brian is the unequivocal winner of this obstacle for SC.
8. Funky Monkey: This is the bane of my existence, and there is visual evidence of my failure.  It sounds easy enough...monkey bars in a slight inverted V shape.  You get from one edge to the other without falling in the water.  The first mudder we did in Wintergreen had this, and I missed a bar and fell pretty quickly.  The second mudder in Pocono I made it to the very last bar, which I missed and fell.  As disappointing as that was, I was horrified to see my failure advertised in the official Facebook pictures of the Saturday Pocono mudder (I'd link to it, but the memory is too painful).  Imagine hoping that your picture would be one of the chosen ones to be included in the official set of Facebook photos, and then seeing that the chosen image is actually of your biggest failure.  Unfortunately, SC didn't go much better.  I actually made it most of the way across, but a guy next to me was swinging pretty badly and caught my leg (throwing me off stride).  I have yet to make it all the way from landing to landing, but I absolutely plan on crushing this event in Miami.
9. Boa Constrictor: A set of tube tunnels that you have to get through.  The first ones are angled downward towards a pit of water, and the second set are angled up from that pit.  The ones going down are pretty easy...get in, and you can almost slide down.  The ones going up are more difficult.  The tubes are too tight for most people to crawl, so you end up having to scrabble using whatever method you can to get up.  I tend to struggle on this because I try to bring my knees up.  It works, but it's slow going.  I know other people who go up on their sides or on their backs, but I've never been able to master that.  In SC, at least during the second lap, the mudder support crew put in place ropes on some of the inclined tubes so you could pull yourself up, but that seems a little too much like cheating for me so we didn't use them.
10. Everest: The quarter-pipe that you have to climb.  I've seen two distinct approaches to this.  The first, which most people employ, is running and grabbing for someone's hand.  The second, which is used when people are having real difficulty or are in special need, is that a group of people will lay down on the quarter-pipe to create a makeshift ladder that people can climb.  I've come to realize that the key to this is that you need to run through the obstacle.  Don't run to the goal...run through the goal.  Don't run just enough to get to the hands (or the support 2X4 along the edge).  If you run just to reach those, you'll probably fall short.  The key is to run through those things.  Don't think of reaching for a hand...keep running.  Don't just try to reach the edge...keep running.  We all made it up this obstacle both laps at SC, and it's become much less daunting.
11. Electroshock Therapy: This has been talked about before (Brian has a whole post about leadership lessons to learn from it).  The thing to realize is that you will be shocked, but you have to keep moving.  As with electric eel, the faster you move, the less the effect will slow you down.  As this is the last obstacle in every Mudder, we've gone through it in several different ways.  We've gone fast, we've gone slow.  The only thing we haven't done (yet) is to go through with your arms spread wide out.  The shocks aren't all that bad, in that they don't last long, but the will get you. If you want to minimize their effect, go fast.  If you want to savor it a bit, walk through and embrace the effects.

Anyway, that's the end of my post about how I approach the various obstacles at Mudders.  I'm not sure there's much to learn here about leadership or education, other than maybe to embrace the challenges that come your way.  Prepare for them, obviously, but embrace them regardless.  It's only by confronting them head on that you can actually succeed consistently.

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The Secret Formula to Excellence

"Researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: 
10,000 hours."

- Malcolm Gladwell

I was rereading the book Outliers recently and came across the quote above.  There really is no easy road to expertise and excellence.  There will also be no easy path to the World's Toughest Mudder.  The truth is that many people give up before they can realistically see improvement.   The other scenario is that people get just good enough and settle.  Good is often the enemy of great for most people.  This is true with piano lessons, diets, and in the workplace.  As a group we have gotten pretty good at completing the courses that are thrown at us by Mother Mudder.  We have completed the course four times in three different states.  We could settle with being pretty good at doing that or we can look at the challenges that still exist.  There are obstacles that still present a challenge or we as a group have not completed together.  

For example:

• Twinkletoes (2/3 have successfully completed)
• Hangin' Tough (2/3 have successfully completed) 
• Funky Monkey (2/3 have successfully completed

Author's Note:  I intentionally chose three obstacles where I was in the numerator.  

We are also looking forward to climbing Everest without assistance and completing Dong Dangler/Ball Shrinker (0/3 have successfully completed).  There are obstacles that we have not encountered yet but are eagerly looking forward to conquering.  I could never climb the rope in gym so I am ready for revenge if the rope climb comes my way again.  We have become adept at taking on new challenges such as running two laps in Carolina or running on both Saturday and Sunday in Miami.  The point of these challenges is to keep us from falling into either of the two scenarios.  We will not settle for good or give up if we fail to complete a challenge.  We will run farther and train harder.  We will even take to extreme measures like building homemade rings to hang in the garage or spending far too much time on playgrounds traversing the monkey bars.  

Release Forms Will Be Standard on This Mission

People are often looking for the secret to greatness.  The secret all starts with your personal passion.  This year in the mud has ignited a passion in the three of us.  This passion spans fitness, education, and leadership.  Once you understand the first ingredient...the rest of the formula falls into place.  Understanding the formula is not difficult.  Putting the formula into practice is what ultimately separates good from great.  We may end up outliers or just completely crazy.  Either way this will be a memorable 10,000 hours.

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