Hey parents, get your kids assessed

Over the course of my wonderful (sarcasm intended) marathon training, I encountered quite a bit of knee pain.  To this day I am not sure exactly what that pain stemmed from.  I was guessing it was from over striding and that the damage was too much when I changed my stride 4 weeks out from the race.  I the weeks after the race it was still a little bothersome so I decided to give it more time.  With that in mind, I decided to sign up for the Warrior Dash, Rock & Roll Half Marathon in Va Beach, and Tough Mudder.  Yea, not exactly rest.  The Warrior Dash has come and gone and that was only 3.5 miles.  Not too bad of a run.  I ran it with a buddy of mine who is in fantastic shape but he isn't what you would classify as a "runner".  So I got to run a little slower than my usual pace which made the race more fun for me than competitive.  Up next is the Rock & Roll Half in Va Beach during Labor Day weekend.  I am very much looking forward to that since that is said to be simply a great experience with bands at every mile.  This run will be used as a training run for the ultimate prize, Tough Mudder in November.  I can't begin to tell you how stoked I am to run this. 

Through all of this, I am battling a few nicks and pains.  The knee is well documented but I have also incurred some stupid hip/groin issue.  I think it has something to do with my adductor longus, iliopsosas, or pectineus.  I used to think it was my inguinal ligament but upon further investigation I have deduced that it's not.  Has a Dr. checked this out yet?  Nope.  My wife, the nurse, keeps trying to get me to get a professional opinion but I'm going to try and see if I can take care of it.  Then last week my back decided to give me fits.  My chiro says it's a bulging disc.  Needless to say I have been laid up for the last few days with this.  I'm not even going to go into the issue I have with my right shoulder and bicep. 

I talk about all of this because the purpose of this blog is to showcase how I refuse to be sedentary and stop being an athlete.  But it's kind of hard to do that when I keep incurring little issues like this.  I guess that's what happens as we get older.  Those little dings and pains that went away once we rubbed some dirt on it are a thing of the past once we get past the fine age of 30 (or 35 in my case).  Those little dings turn in traffic stopping crashes that take control of your training and basically stop it altogether.  That is why it is so important to be able to perform basic maintenance on yourself through the use of mobility and stability training, stretching, foam rollers, balls, rolling sticks, bands, and whatever medieval instrument I can get my hands on to push my body through all of the ranges of motion it should be doing. 

You see, I'm not exactly a big guy.  I'm what you would consider perfectly average; 5'10, 175 lbs.  Most of my life was spent with me thinking that I was much bigger.  When I played high school football (and briefly D-1 college), I was always the smallest guy out there.  I was a 155 lb running back on a team that ran the ball roughly 99% of the time.  I switched to receiver in college and even the kickers were bigger than me.  I wrestled and have trained a bit in MMA and always went after the bigger guys.  When I played basketball, I always posted up even though EVERYONE down low was bigger.  All of this has led me to get the holy hell kicked out of me on a regular basis.  I never had anyone telling me I couldn't do it (thanks Dad), so I did it.  And while that is a great trait to have, the strength & conditioning world isn't nearly what it is today.  So all of those little bumps, bruises, strains, sprains, and overall owies grew into much bigger problems as I got older.  Now that I am a strength & conditioning professional, I see how vitally important it is for our athletic youth to begin mobility and stability exercises as soon as they start playing sports. 

Mobility and stability does not equal getting on the bench press or squat rack.  It involves teaching the athlete simply how to move properly.  It teaches them how to land properly.  It teaches them how to engage all of the muscles necessary in order to fully support the movement that is required by the sport.  If you are a parent reading this, please ensure that if you have children participating in sports, you speak to a strength coach who knows about mobility and stability training.  Listed below are a couple of websites that you can check out from some people a heck of a lot smarter than me that have dedicated their lives to this.  Please check them out.  Also, if you have any questions on how you can better assess some of the problems you have going on, please feel free to drop me a line or simply come to my Guerrilla Bootcamp starting on July 23. 

www.mobilitywod.com

www.functionalmovement.com

www.ericcressey.com

http://www.acefitness.org/blog/1189/stability-and-mobility

http://robertsontrainingsystems.com/blog/Mobility-Stability-Continuum/

Guerilla Bootcamp

Get ready Louisville Metro!  My business, Voltage Strength and Performance, is presenting something that will completely take the greater metro area by storm.  Guerilla Bootcamp!

There are a lot of bootcamps around.  Some are pretty bad, some are actually really good.  Generally, a bootcamp takes place at a local park and the organizer brings some equipment and a fun time is had by all.  An hour later, the participants are sweating and may or may not have had a great experience.  Guerilla Bootcamp is breaking out of that mold.  Cherokee Park?  Sure.  Waterfront?  Definitely.  Downtown?  Yes.  Oxmoor shopping mall parking lot?  Oh yeah!  We are going to take bootcamp to the next level and going to take it all over this great area.  

I was inspired last week when I was walking around the waterfront and downtown area.  I kept seeing areas that would make for great workout spots.  I jokingly told my wife I'd love to do plyometrics under the 2nd street bridge next to the arena and I'd love to do sprints on the great lawn on the waterfront.   That was my "aha moment".  

So beginning on Saturday, July 23 at 0900 (it is bootcamp so we will be talking military time),  we will be embarking on the city of Louisville.  Each session will cost $10 and t-shirts will be available for $20.  Voltage Strength and Performance will show Louisville the true meaning of Guerilla Bootcamp.  If you are interested, please email me at rbarnold@hotmail.com, see my Voltage Strength and Performance page on Facebook, or call me at 502-645-0324.  I am absolutely stoked to be bringing this to Louisville.   

Golf and Track

So last week I had some fun with some stuff I hadn't done in a while.  I went golfing for the first time this year.  Sure, I'd spent a lot of time practicing.  I spent 3 hours one day at the chipping green and a couple of more at the putting green.  But this was the first time I did the whole 18 holes.  I went with a buddy of mine whose pretty good.  He's great to go with because I know he is good for one good meltdown throughout the round.  And by meltdown, I don't mean shooting an 8 or a 9.  I mean where he strings together 2 or 3 bad shots in a row and cusses, swears, throws a club, and finally stops talking for a good 10 minutes altogether.  See, he goes golfing about 3 times per week.  He's a teacher so he has the summers off.  His expectations are that of someone that is an avid golfer and someone that should shoot in the upper 70's or lower 80's.  He isn't like me where I go out there about 5 to 6 times per year and hope to break 90.  Expectations can be both hindering and motivating.  They can motivate you to succeed in that you know exactly what's expected of you and you go out and do it.  They can hinder you because when you fail, you start to snowball a bit and things can get out of control real fast.  I have often wanted to be a great golfer but with greatness comes the great expectations.  I enjoy going out, hitting around 90, getting that one-putt, hitting that drive 280 yards down the fairway (once), and chipping from 25 yards to within 2 feet of the cup (once).  Those are the shots that keep you coming back.  But I also love the 3-5 hours spent with buddies, talking sports/girls/music/whatever else comes to mind.  I enjoy the pursuit of improvement and knowing that if I can improve by just one or two strokes from my previous score that is was all worthwhile.  I enjoy knowing that no matter how bad I am,  I'm better than Charles Barkley at an athletic event (better at CrossFit too).  I enjoy remembering every single time I go how my dad used to take me to Duck Creek Golf Course when I was a teenager and I had no idea what I was doing.  Thanks Dad for all of those times.  For all of these reasons, I love golf.  I love knowing that  the game presents a different challenge for me every time I play regardless of what course I am on.  It's the endless pursuit of improvement that keeps me coming back for more punishment.  Great game, great times.

The other thing I did last week is I ran in a track meet.  The Clarksville Parks and Rec. in Indiana has a summer running series in which they have open meets at the high school for both kids and adults.  Of course I took my kid, Abe, there and he ran the 400.  He's getting better every time at that event.  They had a 300 for adults there so I jumped in.  In my race was a kid that appeared to be fresh out of the U.S. Olympic trials with his spikes and USATF singlet.  There was another guy in my race that was a 55 year old man preparing to run in the Master's World Championships this week.  Well USATF guy blew everyone out of the water and smoked the race.  I finished in third about half a second behind a guy that I know I'll beat next time.  But at least I beat the 55 year old.  Hey, I'm proud I beat a guy competing in the World Championships, I don't care if he is 55.

These events are the reasons why I write this blog.  To show that at no matter what age or ability you are, you can always compete.  In the course of 2 days I raced a young guy at the prime of his abilities and a 55 year old holding on to that last thing that keeps him young, and I golfed with a guy much better than me and our difference in abilities didn't matter at all because the point was to have fun.  Yeah, I want to win every time I compete and I want to show everyone I am the best.  But I also want to have fun, make friends, tell stories, and hold on to that kid inside of me for just a little bit longer.

Tough Mudder

I have decided that I am going to participate in the Tough Mudder in Indiana in November.  It's a 12 mile race with lots of mud, obstacles, a bit of swimming, and all kinds of madness.  I am absolutely stoked to be doing it because from the way it looks on its website, it will definitely be the toughest race I have ever done   

In preparation for it, I am going to enter the Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend.  This is something I have always wanted to do so I'm pretty excited about that also.  I'm also going to incorporate a lot of trail running.  Cherokee Park, Bernhiem Forest, and Iroquois Park are all on my agenda.  

I was even thinking of getting in on the Urbanathlon in October but haven't decided.  If you are interested in doing that, let me know and I'll head up.  If I can't get anyone to run it with me, I'll just stick around here with my trails and strength training.  

Speaking of strength training, I had a great workout today and one that I will build upon in preparation for the Tough Mudder.  I went 1/2 mile, 30 pushups, 1/2 mile, 30 squats, 1/2 mile, 30 situps, 1/2 mile, 30 inverted rows.  I was absolutely spent.  Good stuff.  

So if you have done a Tough Mudder, Urbanathlon, or anything like that in the past, let me know.  I'd love to hear how you trained for it.  I have an idea of how I'm going to train, but I'm definitely open to suggestions on how you did.   

Warrior Dash

Since I have completed the marathon, I really haven't trained a whole lot.  For the 3-4 weeks after I really didn't do much.  I realized I was simply burned out both mentally and physically from training.  That marathon certainly took a lot out of this old sprinter. 

 

I started hitting the workouts pretty hard again about 2 weeks ago.  Even though my hip and shoulder are bothering me, I'm doing as much as I can with obvious modifications.  I started doing banded deadlifts, which is a nice way to add some intensity into a deadlift workout.  It's definitely a different feel and you definitely cannot do nearly as much weight as you are used to but it's a hell of a way to fry your back and hammies.  In addition to this, I have gotten reacquainted with my love for mud runs. 

 

Last year I participated in my first Warrior Dash with my friend Liza.  This race, not so much of a race but more of run with a lot of dirt involved, is roughly a 5k and they throw in obstacles such as a rope climb, cargo nets, running through a creek, jumping over fire, running through tires, and final jaunt in a giant mud bath that's about 100 feet long.  It's a lot of fun and it's generally not very competitive.  Most of the people running it wear costumes and there's a lot of camaraderie going on.  I guess you could make it competitive if you ran up near the front in the first wave of the day. 

 

Then later in the year I took a trip to Virginia Beach and ran the Mud Run there.  That was 5 miles, mostly on sand, with about 3 or 4 mud pits.  This was an insanely hard run due to the introduction of sand.  This land lubber from Kentucky really doesn't get a whole lot of running in sand.  Needless to say, my 22 year old nephew made me eat my words when we beat me by 4 minutes (I hate you Brandon!).  But the run was extremely challenging and even more fun. 

 

Last weekend I headed back up to Chicago and did the Warrior Dash again, this time with my buddy Justin and his roommate Linda.  Once again, this race proved to be not so much of a race but a run with an absolute ton of fun thrown in.  This year the run didn't have as much mud thrown in but it seemed like it was a little bit longer and had a couple of more obstacles.  The worst of which for me was the stupid horizontal cargo nets.  I felt like a 2 legged monkey trying to get through this thing.  I kept overextending myself and almost fell threw a few times.  Justin flew right threw like the ninja he is.  Fortunately for me he's a slow runner so we made a good team.  Most of the obstacles are fairly tame with the exception of that.  While it's not crazy difficult, it is a whole lot of fun as they also have music littered throughout the course so you aren't bored with your own thoughts very often.  The final obstacle is a 100 foot mud pit.  This year's was a whole lot deeper at the beginning than last year.  I jumped in feet first this year and got absolutely stuck.  For the life of me I could not get my feet removed.  I had to have Justin pull me out so I could finish up the rest of the 100 feet.  So after completing this, I went to the "shower".  I remembered this as a horrible experience from last year and this year was no different.  It's basically a guy standing on a platform about 15 feet in the air spraying a fire hose on everyone.  This really doesn't accomplish a whole lot.  Needless to say I did not get all that clean and wound up driving the 5 hours home with caked on mud from my knees down and from my elbow to my shoulders.  Nice. 

 

This run solidified my desire to run the Tough Mudder in Indiana in November.  I am absolutely stoked to do that.  That consists of 12 miles with even more intense miles.  Now this one will be all about survival.  I can't wait.  For more information on either of these runs, be sure to check out www.warriordash.com and www.toughmudder.com. 

 

Theft, injuries, and races

It feels like forever since I have written in my blog.  For those that follow this, I'm sorry, I missed you too.  For those that are stumbling on this for the first time, I give you a big hearty WELCOME!

About a month ago I got my computer stolen.  My house was broken into and the bastard thieves stole my computer, the kids Wii, and my wife's jewelry.  Violation and anger were the feelings I had for a few days.  So I had to wait for the insurance to send me the insurance money to get a new computer.  I couldn't get on this site at my work because the fascist pigs there seem to think they are paying me to do a job and not post silly blogs about me thinking I am still that 18 year old athlete I once thought I was.  Long story short, I now have a computer.  Got myself a shiny new Mac.  I still don't know how to use it but I figured out how to get on Safari (Internet Explorer for you PC peeps) and post a quick update to this.

Over the last few weeks I have been battling a slew of nicks and pains.  My right shoulder and biceps tendon have been bothering me off and on for about 1.5 years.  I got a shot in my bursa hoping that would make it feel better but it didn't.  Thanks Doc.  I'm still not positive how the problem occurred but I'm pretty sure it's from my lack of mobility in my t-spine while performing pullups and overhead presses.  See kids, that is why it is extremely important to ensure you look at your total functional capacity, including mobility and stability while training.  My lack of mobility in my t-spine caused my shoulders to take a brunt of the forces from that and they weren't prepared to do so.  So, they got injured.  No I spend about 20 minutes on the foam roller and other various mobility exercises found on www.mobilitywod.com.  Another thing bothering me lately is my left leg.  Obviously you already know a bit about the knee but my hip is causing great discomfort whenever I squat or jump.  Odd.

Anyway, enough about my theft and little pains.  I just wanted to get something out there to keep you interested and know that I didn't forget you.  Tomorrow I'm going to talk about the Warrior Dash in Chicago I did last weekend.  I also talk about some other upcoming events going on.  Stay tuned!

To be continued shortly

Sorry for the inability to post recently.  My computer was stolen and I have been unable to post anything in a while.  But don't you worry, I am currently collecting all kinds of thoughts regarding mobility/stability, Warrior Dash, shoulder bursitis, biceps tendonitis, failed business ventures, future business ventures, and much much more.  So stay tuned and be ready because it's all coming back once my insurance company sends me some moolah!