Mush, Mush!

Official Spartan Sleds

While looking at pictures from the Spartan Beast in Vermont, I noticed one of the obstacles was pulling a crate on a set of ski's with some sort of weight in it. Hmmm, I can do that. I have a very old set of K2's, rope, and a cinder block. I just needed a crate. When I was leaving my massage on Friday night, I walked by The Container Store. Through the glass windows, colorful milk crates were beckoning me. Eureka! The final piece of my Spartan Sled. I ended up not buying the milk crate, but instead bought a heavy duty basket for $16.99. Jon assembled it for me Tuesday night. Let me tell you, this thing is awesome!

My DIY Spartan Sled - With convenient carrying handles :)

With my car loaded, I drove up to the park this morning. Once there I packed all of my gear into my sled and pulled it up to the soccer field. I've been reading Margaret Schlacter's Blog from the beginning, Dirt In Your Skirt. She is a professional OCR and also a former Lacrosse coach. One of her favorite training exercises is called Will Power. Basically, its a sprint/jog pyramid around the field based on the four sides of the rectangle.

TOD:

Will Power
 4 Jog Warm up
 1 Sprint/3 Jog
 2 Sprint/2 Jog
 3 Sprint/1 Jog
 4 Sprint
 3 Sprint/1 Jog - This is where you have to conjour up some Will Power
 2 Sprint/2 Jog
 1 Sprint/3 Jog

Then:
Sled Sprint (50 lb Cinder Block) Up and back
Cindy Carry - Up and back
Walking lunges - Up
10 Bear Crawls and Push ups (3 p/u's if big girl, 5 if baby) - Back
Sled Sprint - Up and Back
Cindy Carry - Up and back

Due to knee soreness, I had to skip my last round of Will Power. Still sore from Saturday's Road Run. Have I mentioned I hate Road Running?

Total Distance: 1.9 miles
Total Time: 39:38

The Old Incinerator at the base

This evening I headed over to Devou Park to test out their Mountain Bike Trails, but on foot. I packed everything into my car before work so I could head south right after work. Once I parked I braided my hair, started up my Nike+ Sportwatch, changed into shorts, switched socks, looked for my trail shoes. Expletive, Expletive, Expletive. Forgot to bring my freakin' trail shoes. They're sitting in my living room. I even made a mental note to myself to not forget them. Had to talk myself into running in my old running shoes with crap for padding and zero traction. I had come this far. Glad I did. My run was slow. Couldn't attack the trails as fast. I definitely slipped around, and I really didn't want to roll an ankle by stepping on something funny. Plus, those shoes are horrible for running in general and I could feel it in my knees. But the trails were awesome. The first 1.07 mile is a climb up the big ol' hill. I'm a weirdo. I love hills and I love to climb. Once at the top, you make a big loop and then head back down the hill. If you're a single lady, I highly recommend getting into mountain biking. Apparently its a male dominant sport. Saw about 5 of them and almost got ran over by one of them. I will say the guy that almost ran me over gave me adequate warning, I'm just not good at getting out of the way. Pretty sure I heard him laugh at me when he went by. But I digress. I've been practicing my down hill running. I know what your thinking, "Uh, you just run but down hill." Not really. I recently read an article that struck a chord with me. It basically said sit back and let gravity do the work. Keep your hips back and make sure you just keep putting your feet out striking fore foot. I am really enjoying running down hill, and I'm getting pretty fast. I will definitely be going back real soon, but with my trail shoes.


Gravel Road leading to the base

Yep, that's the climb in the background

Devou Park Trails
450 Deverill St.
Covington, KY 41011
To access the trail, park in the gravel lot at the bottom of Sleepy Hollow road by the baseball field. From there you will see a small trail that take you a gravel road. Take the gravel road up and veer left towards the fence. Walk around the fence and the trail head is right by the kiosk which has a map of the completed and proposed trails. Then...Enjoy!

Total Distance: 4.1 miles
Total Time: 57:24