As a kid, I was involved in a lot of typical activities: soccer, swim team, piano lessons. But when I was eleven years old, I also joined a children’s circus club. A little before my 11th birthday I saw a kid on TV riding a unicycle, and decided to ask for one for my birthday. It took me about a month to teach myself how to ride it, hours spent riding back and forth along our deck while holding the railing. Shortly thereafter, we found out about a kid’s circus club in the area.

The exhibition club was started in the late 60’s by Jim Moyer, a PE teacher at the elementary school that was home to the club. He wanted to teach children acrobatic and circus skills. Unfortunately, Jim Moyer passed away shortly before I joined the club so I never got to meet him. But the club was left in good hands. Upon joining, I advanced my unicycling skills and learned many other circus and acrobatic skills.

Unicycles

When I arrived at circus club, I was only able to ride my unicycle forward and turn. They taught me how to free mount (without the assistance of a wall, a helpful hand, etc.). I also learned how to ride in formation for parades and exhibition shows.

Later on, I learned how to do more advanced skills such as ride backward, ride with one foot, jump rope on a unicycle, and ride down steps and over teeter-totters.

Once I mastered these skills, it was time to move on to a “giraffe” unicycle, which is a tall unicycle that uses a chain to power the wheel. The club had giraffe unicycles from 5 feet to 12 feet tall, and I started out on a 5 foot tall one. It took me a bit longer to learn to ride this one, and thankfully I had a patient dad by my side who would walk back and forth across the gym holding my hand while I learned. Once I got the hang of the 5 foot unicycle, it didn’t take me long to move on to a 6 foot and then a 7 foot unicycle. In 2002, I rode my 7 foot tall unicycle in the Cherry Blossom parade in DC.

To this day I still own my first unicycle, my own 6 foot giraffe unicycle, a miniature unicycle, and an “ultimate wheel” (a unicycle with just a wheel and pedals – no seat). I can still ride all of them, except the ultimate wheel, in the same way you never forget how to ride a bike.

German gym wheel

Another neat circus skill I learned was the German gym wheel, which is a bit hard to explain. The wheel had wooden planks on the bottom that you strapped your feet to, and then you held onto handles as you rolled the wheel.

There were different variations in the way you stood inside the wheel. You could also have multiple people in the wheel. There was also a trick called Ferris Wheel, where two people rode around on the bars. I usually always rode my unicycle in parades, but would also perform on the gym wheel in exhibition shows.

The trick in the above right picture is called a “penny roll” and it was one of the most difficult tricks that we were taught. I tried to learn it a few times, but kept getting stuck and ending up with the wheel falling flat on it’s side (thus hitting my face on the ground).

Juggling, balancing, and tight rope

In addition to unicycling and the gym wheel, I also learned to juggle. I started out with scarves, and later moved on to juggling balls. I can also juggle oddly shaped objects, but I never learned to juggle clubs. I still have my own set of juggling balls.

We were also taught various types of balancing acts. We were taught to balance on rolling globe balls, cylinders, stilts, and other people. We also threw in other types of tricks like juggling, jump roping, and hula hooping on these apparatuses.

One time we also got the opportunity to train with the Taiwan National Acrobats, who were touring the country. We learned a lot from them, and also taught them a few of our tricks in the gym wheel. That’s me standing on the guys hands on the left!

The club also had a tight rope for us to practice on. I dabbled with the tight rope in practice, but never had the patience to develop any skills for exhibition shows.

Tumbling and contortion

Finally, we also learned a variety of tumbling and contortion skills. I learned to walk on my hands and do basic tumbling passes like a round-off back handspring. We also had an inflated inner tube that we would bounce off of and then do flips and tricks in the air.

Circus club was a great experience for me. I always looked forward to going to practice, and I learned a lot of skills that I still have today. Back then I dreamed of becoming a professional circus performer. My younger sister joined the club when she 5 or 6, and it was fun performing together. We ended up leaving the club when I was in high school, though. It had kind of fizzled out. It’s still around today, but its not what it used to be. Hopefully some day it will be returned to it’s former glory.

*many of these photos were provided by the Jim Moyer Circus Club

Do you have any hidden talents? I can juggle, ride a unicycle, and walk on my hands
Did you ever dream of being in the circus when you were a kid?

This was a big week for me. It kind of felt like my first full week of training. Up until this point all of my runs have been easy runs, but this week I had my first track workout and my first tempo run. Now it feels like training has really begun.

Monday- 4 mile easy run in the evening. I had a long day at work, so I ended up just running with Sven (the treadmill) when I got home.

Tuesday- 12 x 400 on the track. This was my first track workout of training, and it went pretty well. The workout was 8 miles total, including the 1 mile warm up and cool down, and the 400m recoveries in between intervals.

Wednesday- Rest.

Thursday- 5 mile tempo run after work. This was my first tempo run with the Hansons. For them, tempo run means marathon pace run. So I did 5 miles at 10:18/mile pace with a 1 mile warm up and cool down, for a total of 7 miles. I had other things to do that evening, so I ran on the treadmill just to save time.

Friday- 4 mile easy run in the morning before work. I was at my dad’s house (I drove up Thursday night and was only there for a little over 12 hours), so I ran around the neighborhood. I had wanted to go run in the woods a bit, but they had the access path closed.

This run was a bit tough for me. My legs were pretty fatigued, I was tired, and it was pretty humid outside. It was my first taste of cumulative fatigue.

Saturday- 8 mile easy run with Kim on the Dora and New River trails in the morning. It was nice and cool outside, albeit a bit humid. My calves were really sore, but after we stopped and stretched halfway they felt a lot better. My legs weren’t feeling as fatigued as they did on Friday, either.

Sunday- 8 mile easy run with Sven. I had to get up and do this run pretty early in the morning, because we were leaving for the beach (oh yea, I’m at the beach on vacation now!). But nevertheless I was able to get my miles in before we hit the road.

Total Miles: 39 miles
July Total: 113.91 miles

I was a little nervous about this week of training, because this week my mileage jumps from 24 to 39 miles. That is much more than the 10% rule. Try somewhere between 62 and 63%. So far things have been going well. My legs felt pretty fatigued on this morning’s easy run, but that’s all part of the Hansons plan. More on that in a minute.

I had an easy run on Monday, my first doozy of a track workout on Tuesday, and then took a rest day on Wednesday. One thing that was pointed out to me by Jeano (a Hansons veteran) was that my track workout was coming at the end of six days in a row of running. That’s the way it’ll be throughout the training program. I knew that already, but forgot about it on Tuesday. Probably a good thing, as I have no idea what my mind would have done with that information as I chipped away at 12 x 400m.

After my rest day on Wednesday (my only rest day each week of training) I had my first tempo run on Thursday. Tempo means something a bit different to the Hansons, though. Traditionally a tempo run is a faster-paced run where you hold a “comfortably-hard” pace. But for the Hansons “tempo” and “marathon pace” are synonymous. So a tempo run for them is a marathon pace run. From my understanding, their tempo runs are also longer the traditional type.

For my first one, I had 5 miles at 10:18/mile pace, sandwiched between a 1 mile warm up and cool down. I was short on time in the evening so I ran with Sven (the treadmill). Pretty easy to nail your pace when all you have to do is set the speed and go. The next two weeks will also include 5 mile tempo runs, and over the course of training I’ll build up to a 10 mile tempo.

This morning I had a 4 mile easy run on tap. No biggie, right? Baby miles. But once I got out there (on my old high school stomping grounds, no less) I found that my legs were actually very fatigued. That’s to be expected, as I just wrapped up my first week of running six days per week (something new for me).

This morning’s run gave me a little taste of what the Hansons refer to as “cumulative fatigue.” Cumulative fatigue basically means never feeling fresh for any workout, and learning to push through even when your legs are tired. I suppose you could say it’s one of the pillars of the Hanson program.

I’ve got 16 more miles to go before I wrap up my 39 mile week, with an 8 mile easy run on both Saturday and Sunday. I’m definitely fatigued, but *knock on wood* nothing is feeling injured. Maybe I am cut out for this type of training after all?

Do you stick to the 10% rule in running?
What is the highest weekly mileage you’ve ever done (running, biking, etc.)?

 

Last night I had my first speed workout of marathon training. The base building portion of training is over and now it’s time to incorporate “something of substance” workouts. The Hansons training program incorporates speed workouts on Tuesdays for the next five weeks. Treadmill Tuesday has become Track Tuesday! The workout they had on tap for my first week was 12 x 400m with a 400m recovery jog in between each interval. This was pretty daunting for me. It was the longest track workout I have ever done and I hadn’t actually done a track workout in ages.

I actually got so anxious about the workout that I ended up asking Barry to come along for moral support. He sat and laid in the stands while I did my workout and kept me company. I started out with a one mile warm up before I got down to business. It was nice and cool with low humidity outside, which is unusual for July. There was a strong breeze, too, which I enjoyed (except for the headwind on the back stretch of the track). I was going to break the workout down into 3 sets of 4, but once I got started I decided to just chunk it in half.

My goal pace for the 400m repeats was 2:15, which came straight out of the Hansons book and was based on my marathon goal and my 5K time. The Hansons explain that most training programs have you do intervals at 100% VO2max. However, their paces are based on 80-95% VO2max in order to maximize the physiological gains they’re aiming for. Here’s how the first 6 repeats broke down:

1- 2:16      4- 2:13

2- 2:14      5- 2:12

3- 2:14      6- 2:13

My legs were definitely getting more tired with each interval, but I was recovering well after each one. With that I headed into the second set of 6. Right after interval number 7 (or number 1 of set 2) I needed to use the restroom. There’s a building with restrooms right next to the track, but the women’s was locked. The men’s was unlocked, though, and no one was in there so I used the men’s instead! It was clean, at least 🙂

7- 2:13      10- 2:11

8- 2:11      11- 2:13

9- 2:09      12- 2:14

I started going a bit too fast on these. I would go out too hard during the first 200m and have to slow it down during the second half. The Hansons advise sticking to the prescribed pace and warn that doing speed workouts too fast can lead to injury. I think I did alright, though. After the second set of 6 I went right into my cool down mile.

This workout really intimidated me, as it was 8 miles total including the warm up, cool down, and recovery portions. I think there was as much to gain mentally as there was physically with this workout, as with most speed workouts. The Hansons say speed workouts require you to put your game face on, and I certainly did that last night. I’m glad today is a rest day, though, because my legs are sore and tired (especially my calves). Tomorrow I have my first tempo run!

When was the last time you did intervals on the track or a speed workout?
What types of workouts intimidate you the most?

 

This is a long one, since I broke down all of the obstacles, but there are lots of pictures! This past Saturday I had the opportunity to participate in my first obstacle/mud race: the DC Spartan Sprint Race (which was actually in Maryland). My younger sister and her boyfriend came, too, and we completed the course together. It was a lot more fun that way than it would have been to go through by yourself!

On the morning of the race, we made the trip over to southern Maryland. The drive went smoothly and we arrived at the parking area, where we were directed into a spot. The Spartan folks did a great job organizing the parking. It was 2.5 miles from the race, so we were shuttled to and from the race, all of which went really well. There were lots of fun signs to entertain us along the way, too.

Once we arrived at the “festival” area where the race start/finish were, we breezed through registration.

 With the above sign in mind, we pinned on our bibs, attached our timing chips to our wrists, and put on our headbands (which also had our bib number on it to help identify us on the course). It was time to Spartan Up!

We had a bit of time to hang out, since we had arrived about 90 minutes before our designated start time (per the race organizer’s instructions). So we watched the elite men finishing, and worried about how tired we would be based on how they looked. We also checked out a few other obstacles that you could see from the festival area.

Finally, it was time to head over for our start! I was getting excited. To get into the starting corral, you had to climb over a wall that was probably about 5 feet tall (basically the same height as me).

We stood in the starting area while an announcer got everyone pumped up and ready to go. There was a lot of chest banging and fist pumping going on as everyone prepared for a 4.3 mile run with 18 obstacles.

Finally we were off! I wasn’t wearing a watch, but I think we started right on time. We started out by heading into the woods for a short trail run before we reached our first obstacle. Passed another funny sign along the way.

The course was set up so that most of the obstacles were located around the festival area, with trail running through the woods in between. For some reason, I hadn’t been expecting to be running trails or just hadn’t considered it, so that was a fun surprise!

I’m going to break up the rest of the report by obstacles. As you’ll see, a lot of my photos are kind of blurry or just aren’t good quality. My waterproof camera did just fine (it became completely submerged at least three times), but there were plenty of times where I was too muddy or wet to clean off the lens.

Over-Under-Through

After a brief stint in the woods, we arrived at our first obstacle. You had to climb over the first wall (probably 5 feet tall), crawl under the second one, and go through a window cutout on the third one.

Under-over-under-over-under

Our next obstacle came shortly after the first. We had to climb under a plank of wood with a net attached to it, go over a wall, and repeat. Then it was off into the woods again.

Rope hill climb

I think this one counted as obstacle #3. As we were running through the woods, we came to an area where it was backed up (this only happened about two or three times on the course). There was a steep hill and a rope attached to a tree at the top. You had to climb the hill using the rope to help pull yourself up.

Inverted wall

Next we arrived at an inverted wall. This one was challenging for me, thanks for my height disadvantage! The wall was slanted towards us, and we had to climb up and over it.

My little sister gave me a boost, and then her boyfriend gave her a boost. He was able to do most of the obstacles unassisted, except for the ones that required teamwork. Since I went over it first, I was able to snap a picture of the two of them coming down the other side of the wall.

Tire Drag

This one had tires attached to a post by a rope. First you had to drag your tire out until the rope was fully extended, then you had to run back to the post and pull the tire back by the rope. They had men’s and women’s tires.

Barb Wire Crawl

Right after the tire drag we arrived at a barbed wire obstacle. They had pits with really thick mud and you had to crawl through it under barbed wire. This is where my camera became submerged for the first time! We were totally caked in mud after this one.

Big Cargo

Immediately after the barb wire crawl we looped around and climbed over a big cargo net. This one was a bit scary for me. The apparatus shook a bit, the cargo net moved a lot while people were climbing it, and everything was wet and muddy and slippery. It doesn’t look that freaky, but it felt a lot different when you were actually on it!

Shortly after this obstacle we arrived at mile 1.

Hero Hoist

Just after passing mile 1, we arrived at our next obstacle. This one required you to pull a large sand bag up to the top of a structure using a rope and pulley. Once again they had men’s and women’s bags. My sister and I teamed up on this one. The hardest part was lowering the bag back down. You weren’t allowed to let it drop and the rope was really muddy and slippery.

Sand Bag Carry

After the hero hoist we ran/walked through the woods for awhile, up and down hills (some were pretty steep!). Then we arrived at our next obstacle, where we had to carry a sand bag down a steep hill and then back up it. Coming back up the hill was very challenging because it was muddy and slippery. I actually fell and slid down the hill a bit before finally stopping myself with my left forearm (cutting my elbow on a rock in the process). This one was one of my favorites, though!

Rope Climb

Just before mile 2 we arrived at the rope climb obstacle. You started out in a pool of muddy water (that nearly came up to my shoulders!) and climbed a knotted rope. You had to ring the bell at the top. I like climbing ropes, and the knots allowed me to use my legs to help. But I didn’t like how people kept falling off of the ropes into the water. I was afraid someone might fall on me!

If you couldn’t make it to the top, you had to do 30 burpees. Which is what the people over on the right of the above photo are doing. Thirty burpees was the penalty for any failed or skipped obstacle.

Concrete Block Drag

Mile 3 was mostly made up of trail running through the woods. Shortly before the end of the mile we arrived at another obstacle. This one required us to drag a concrete block by a chain down a steep hill and back up. Everyone had the same weight for this one. There was a Spartan guy yelling like a drill sergeant at this one! This obstacle was another one of my favorites. I guess I like challenges like this.

7 ft. & 8 ft. Walls

Shortly after the mile 3 marker, we arrived at the 7 ft. and 8 ft. walls. We had to get up and over each wall. The 7 foot wall had a red step (a 2×6 piece of wood screwed into the wall) about a foot off of the ground for women only, and the 8 foot wall had steps. I still needed a boost for the 8 foot wall because I couldn’t reach the ledge at the top. The women had formed a line where the two steps were. You would help boost the person in front of you and then the person behind you would boost you.

Rolling Mud

This was one of the toughest obstacles for me! There were four muddy hills with mud water pits in between. You had to go up and over each of the hills and through the muddy water. It was so slippery that you needed a boost just to get out of the pit and then someone at the top of the hill had to pull you up. At one point I slid down a hill on my knees. Since the mud was rocky, my knees and shins got all scraped up on this one.

Slip Wall

Don’t worry, we’re getting close to the end now. Immediately after the mud hills, there was a slanted wall with knotted ropes. The wall was super slippery because it was all muddy and wet. I watched several people make it to the top and then slip and slide all the way down, often taking others out with them. After seeing that, I decided to skip this one. My sister’s boyfriend was the only one who did it. I would have liked to, but I didn’t want to risk getting hurt!

Traverse Wall

Next were vertical walls with blocks screwed in at angles. You had to go across the wall using your hands and feet on the blocks. Unfortunately I was too short for this one, too, and couldn’t reach from one to the next.

Spear Throw

This was a fun one! Try and throw a spear into a hay bale. 30 burpees if you miss. My first spear went sideways and just hit the target. You only got one try, but they let me try again after a Spartan official showed me the proper technique. This time my spear went straight at the target and hit it, but it fell off. Oh well!

Gauntlet

After the spear throw it was back into the woods for more running. We hit mile 4, and knew we were getting close. The last two obstacles came up right at the finish line. First was the gauntlet, which involved running through a bunch of suspended punching bags that were hanging over a mud pit. The pit dropped off halfway through!

Fire Jump

Right at the end, we jumped over a fire and ran across the finish line. Done!

I’m not sure that the people crossing the finish line in the above picture actually did the race, because they are super clean and we looked like this:

After that we headed over to the area they had set up for everyone to hose off. There were also men’s and women’s changing tents. We got most of the mud off and put on some dry clothes. Then we collected our race shirts, signed the ‘Wall of Valor’, and caught the shuttle back to the parking area.

Overall I had a blast. The obstacles were fun and also challenging. My sister’s boyfriend and I both said we would definitely do another one. My sister, however, says she wouldn’t. We’ll see if her opinion changes over time 🙂 She’d had enough by the end. The next morning my upper body was super sore. My legs were sore from the scrapes and bruises, but my muscles felt fine. This is what my legs looked like the day after:

It’s much more impressive in person, I promise 🙂 AROO!

Disclosure: I was provided with a free entry to this event in exchange for blogging about my experience. All opinions are my own.

Which obstacle would be your favorite? Which would be your least favorite?