2013 in Review

As 2013 winds down and I look back on it, it has turned out to be an extremely productive year. The year didn’t start off that different than the previous years other than my regular trips to the gym to work out. I had never been a fan of the gym – I don’t like crowds and I always preferred to do any workouts at home, though I don’t have any weights and was limited to bodyweight exercises. A group of friends at work play soccer on Thursdays and in the spring, we decided to add a second day of soccer on Mondays. I played both days most weeks from New Year’s to Memorial Day.

One thing I tried to do more this year was take chances and opportunities. I liken it to the movie Yes Man where Jim Carrey’s character says yes to anything that comes his way, though I was les liberal with my acceptances. In February I agreed to be team captain of our company’s Relay for Life team. We hadn’t fielded a team in 2012 and our team in 2011 was small, so I was hoping to get a good bounce-back. We rolled through several fundraisers – one a week – for two months until the night of the Relay. We ended up raising around $4500 in two months’ time with a sizable team of almost twenty walkers. It was exhausting and I swore that I would not be captaining again in 2014, though I did write up all my thoughts on the process – what worked, what didn’t, and thoughts for next year – to be given to the next captain.

On February 13^th, I took the day off work to spend the day at the movie theatre watching a Die Hard marathon before a late-night premiere of the new movie, A Good Day to Die Hard. I had never seen the first three movies on the big screen, so it was worth the admission just for that experience, as Die Hard is my favorite movie. The new movie was pretty bad – it made an okay action movie, mostly forgettable, but it was a horrible Die Hard movie. I wouldn’t see any other Hollywood movies in theatres this year, but I did see Mile… Mile and a Half at the Athen’s Theatre in Deland, where I would also see All Shook Up and The King is Back, and I also saw Appalachian Impressions.

Also in February and March, a coworker asked if I wanted to canoe down Rock Springs Run, which we did four times over about five or six weeks, culminating in an overnight camping trip at the Otter Campsite along the run. This led to many weekends hanging out and many new experiences throughout the year.

In early February, I had gotten an email about the Space Coast Marathon and how they were planning to do a five-year event with medals celebrating the space shuttles. I immediately signed up for the marathon, figuring I had a whole year to get ready for it. I had always wanted to do a marathon and a flat Florida course seemed like a good start. I wouldn’t actually start training for several months though.

In late April I started running shorter races, the Healthy Heart 10K, the Run for the Trees 5K, the Seminole High School Spirit 5K, the Rescue Run 5K, the Lake Mary 5K, and The Nude Run 5K. A friend had told me about the Healthy Heart 10K, happening just down the street from where I live and I had only run one 10K previously, so I jumped on it. The Run for the Trees 5K was one I had run before, but you get a tree for completing it, so I had specifically looked it up online in order to run it again. It also runs through private communities that have very nice scenery. The Rescue Run 5K is one that happens in the park next to where I work and our company sponsors a team every year, so I competed in it for the third or fourth time. The Seminole High School Spirit 5K runs through my old high school and the parking lot of my old middle school, so it was a nostalgic race for me and also culminated in my fastest 5K ever. The Lake Mary 5K was another race close by that took place near the library I go to, so it was a familiar area. I decided to do the Nude Run 5K while looking for races with something exciting to offer, as opposed to the mundane show up and run 5K.

Post 100!

I’ve actually hit 100 posts! It’s amazing, though I did have a lot of short posts thrown in there. I try to do one post a day every morning at 7:00AM Eastern Time. That post I try to do at least 500 words for, but sometimes a topic just doesn’t have that much to write about. In the evening, if I have time, I’ll try to post something quick and short – like a video of the day. I’ve decided for my 100^th post to go back and look at some of my older posts. And since I do a lot of Top 7 posts, I figured I might as well list out some Top 7s here!

Top 7 My Favorite Posts:

These are my personal favorite posts that I’ve made for one reason or another. I’ll try to avoid any repeat topics.

Runner-Up: Vogel State Park

I liked this post for a couple reasons. The first was that I had such a great time at this park that I enjoyed writing about it and I enjoy thinking back on it. It’s definitely my favorite hike that I’ve done so far. The second reason is because I had that great vertical panorama of the waterfall and WordPress actually let me just sit it off to the side of the post, which I thought looked pretty cool.

7: Reverse Pythagorean Theorem

This was just some mathematical experimentation that I did several years ago, but I’m still proud of myself for figuring out this formula. Sometimes I look back on it and it takes me a while to remember how it works because I never actually use it since it only has one or two practical applications. I still get a little ego boost anyway.

6: Boston Red Sox 2013

One of my more recent posts that took over a thousand words, I didn’t even get to see the winning game, but I was right there the rest of the way from April first through the end of October. I’m just glad my team didn’t let me down this year.

5: Hang Gliding

This was one of my favorite experiences of the year. I loved hang gliding so much, I actually went back a second time and am planning to go back a third at some point. My first trip I got a GoPro video of me hang gliding and on the second trip I got my POV from a helmet mount. Probably my favorite GoPro videos thus far.

4: Final Fantasy VII

One of my first posts and it was over 3500 words. I actually wrote this all in a couple hours just reliving my childhood playing this game. I think it’s pretty obvious that I really enjoy this game as it speaks to me on multiple levels of rebellion, taking on the corrupt government and corporations which have become one entity, sacrifice, redemption, and so much more. My friend wanted me to expound more on that in another post, but so far I haven’t been able to complete that follow-up – maybe one of these days.

3: Photoshop: Vector Tattoo Ideas

I love playing with Photoshop even though I’m not that great at it. One thing I can do pretty well though is play with shapes and text to create decent minimalist creations. Fortunately, I feel black and white minimalist tattoos look the best, so I was able to create some vector graphics that I thought would make nice personal tattoos. This is my right brain coming out after being cooped up for forty hours a week.

2: Central Florida Tough Mudder 2013

I had originally started writing this post a few days ago to get a jump on it, before I had even run this year’s Tough Mudder. Then once I completed Tough Mudder, I didn’t think I’d have time to write up the post and edit the video before I got to a hundred posts. But here I am including it in the eleventh hour as one of my favorites because it has so many great memories. I loved the obstacles in the race and this year I was able to compete as part of a team, which made it so much more fun. The video came out pretty well too, considering my battery died with only a few obstacles remaining – nooooooooooo!

1: 10 Goals for Age 27

I love setting goals. I have enough goals to last me a lifetime, but I often don’t push forward with them because I figure I can do them later. This year has been a lot of pushing myself into new things. If you’ve ever watched the movie Yes Man, that’s what I feel like. Things will come up and my initial reaction will be to reject it, but I just think of that movie and will myself forward. It’s let me to many great adventures this year and hopefully will continue – as long as it doesn’t kill me first.

Top 7 Most Popular Posts:

I don’t have any form of Moneyball sabermetrics that determine a combination of view, comments, likes, and such to determine popularity, nor can I even see some of those stats on a per article basis, so I’m just going off of general reaction.

7: Jana Kramer, Easton Corbin, and Blake Shelton in Concert

This post and the one on Jason Aldean’s concert both have been trickling in small numbers of views since I wrote them, but this one seemed a little bit more popular. The concert was great and I enjoyed it, so hopefully all those viewers enjoyed my post on it.

6: Silver Glen Springs Recreation Area and GoPro Test 3

This post got a combination of view and likes that made it pretty popular. I had actually written six posts over six days covering five springs and hang gliding, but this was the one that seemed to attract everybody’s attention.

5: Top 7 Places: Countries I Want to Visit

This post generated a bit of traffic when it first was published, but recently has been buried in everything else. I’d still like to visit all these places though.

4: Video of the Day – Little Boy vs. Drill Sergeant

This post seemed to generate a lot of traffic from Facebook, as I guess the video was pretty share-worthy. I can’t take much credit for it though, since all I did was post it.

3: Panorama Photos

This post actually has the most likes of any of my posts – eight. I have a lot of new panoramas that I’ve taken since then, so I’ll probably do a revisit post on this topic soon. I also intend to go back and fix the colors and levels in the old panorama pictures because I just uploaded them as-is from my camera, so they’re a little washed out.

2: 10 Goals for Age 27

This was a post I made for myself to set some goals to last me for a year. I made some easy so that I would be able to knock them out, since many I have wanted to do for a long while but never made the time for. I also added a couple that I was already in the progress of working towards because they would take up a lot of time and I wanted to keep them in focus. Others I added because they were so out there that if I could knock out just one of them, I would be happy. This post is still attracting people today, though it may be because I keep referencing it.

1: Nudism

This one surprised me because I didn’t think it would be popular at all, and at first it wasn’t, but about a week after writing it up, it blew up and I still occasionally get visitors to it. It actually makes me want to write more on the topic. I’m not a huge nudist and rarely partake in the lifestyle, but I fully support it.

Top 7 Categories:

I’ve written about a lot of things, but what are the most popular categories I’ve written about?

6: [Tie] Games – 6 Posts

Though I don’t play games much anymore, I still have a fondness for a few. I’m sure I could change this category to Final Fantasy VII and it’d have almost as many posts. I’m not addicted, I can quit whenever I want.

6: [Tie] Space – 6 Posts

I’ve always been a huge fan of space, space travel, planets, stars, etc. so it’s no surprise that I’d have a few blog posts on the topic. I’m kind of surprised I don’t have more though.

4: [Tie] Music – 13 Posts

Between country music, concerts, and video game music, I guess I’ve racked up a few notes on this topic.

4: [Tie] Florida State Parks – 13 Posts

With all the State Parks I’ve been to, I’m surprised this isn’t higher, but then again I haven’t written about all of them yet. I have a lot of GoPro videos on these topics though.

3: About Me – 27 Posts

I’m a narcissistic egomaniac, so is it any surprise this topic is on the list? It’s probably more surprising that it isn’t number one.

2: Travel – 36 Posts

From state parks in Florida to the highest points in two states to cruising the Bahamas, this topic has racked up some pretty decent mileage.

1: Activities – 44 Posts

From hang gliding, to marathon running, to Tough Mudder, to hiking and swimming in parks, this category takes the cake.

Top 7 Upcoming Posts:

Here are seven posts or topics that I’ll be writing about in the near future that I’m looking forward to.

7: Looking back on 2013

Once the year is over, I’ll take a look back on it. I can’t wait to recollect all the things I’ve accomplished this year – it’s been so productive from a personal development standpoint.

6: Big Shoals State Park

During my last road trip, we stopped here and I got some great footage of the rapids. I haven’t gotten around to editing down that footage yet, though.

5: Revisit: Final Fantasy VII

A few months ago my friend wanted me to revisit this post with some more personal feelings on it. I started writing it a while ago, but still haven’t finished it yet. Maybe one of these days.

4: Scuba Diving

One of my 10 Goals for this year, I’ve signed up for scuba lessons the two weeks between my triathlon and marathon. I look forward to getting my feet wet – and the rest of me.

3: Florida Caverns State Park

This was a really interesting park that I hit while on my latest road trip, but I still haven’t been able to piece together all the footage I took while I was there. Hopefully I can get to that soon, though I do have quite a few events coming up.

2: Space Coast Marathon

This is still a month away, but it’s only a month away! My training will peak next Tuesday when I do twenty-plus miles before tapering off the following two weeks. This was the first goal I listed on my 10 Goals list and it’s been in the works for a long time. I’m excited to finally get to it.

1: Beat the Heat Sprint Triathlon

I’ll be running this next Sunday, so I should be able to write something up next week. I’m not sure if I’m going to use my GoPro for this or not since it won’t have much footage underwater and the biking and running probably won’t be too exciting. I might be able to whip up a short commercial-length video though. We’ll see.

Central Florida Tough Mudder 2013 [Video at Bottom]

On Saturday, November 2^nd, I headed south to River Ranch, Florida to compete in Tough Mudder. The last time I did Tough Mudder, in December of 2011, my buddy bailed and I went alone despite having dislocated my shoulder twice in the prior two months. I had been up the night prior debating whether I would even compete or not and woke up early to make my decision. I had driven two hours in the December cold through daybreak towards Tampa and competed by myself. Three miles in, going over the Berlin Walls, I dislocated my shoulder again. I popped it back in and finished the race, but a few months later I was in surgery to have my labrum reattached and chunks of floating cartilage removed.

This year I had been fretting over it for months. I had been trying to train my upper body as much as possible to prevent any injuries, but I really wasn’t sure how I would hold up on obstacles like the Berlin Walls, Funky Monkey, or Hanging Tough. This year, one of my friends put a team together including his wife, a couple other friends, and me. I met up with them shortly before we were set to go. We were part of the 10:40 start group, so we headed over to the start corral and waited to go. At 10:40 we left the main area and headed through the warm-up area to the start line, which included an obstacle – a short six or seven foot wall to climb over. It was a wall like this that had ripped my shoulder out the last time, so I was already feeling the stress of the course.

We made it over the wall with relative ease and waited in the start area for everyone else to complete the wall. We got a pump-up speech and at 11:00 we were off. The five of us stuck together as a team the whole way through the race, occasionally separating as some of us ran ahead and then waited either before or after an obstacle. Before we even got to an obstacle, we had a long trek through the mud – maybe a half-mile or so. At some points the mud was so deep, it was chest level. I laid back in it and it was so buoyant I was able to easily float.

The first obstacle was Kiss of Mud, a crawl through the mud under barbed wire. The mud had dried up and it was just dirt at this point, but the water truck showed up just as we were finishing to re-wet it all. A girl ahead of me kept getting her ponytail stuck in the barbed wire – gotta keep your head down! The second obstacle was the Jesus Walk, where you walk a long path through knee-high water – an easy task.

The next obstacle was Sack Up, carrying a sack of dirt around for about a quarter-mile before dropping it off and heading out. The sack only weighed maybe forty pounds, so it was an easy trek with the bag draped over my shoulder.

The fourth obstacle, The Phoenix, made you crawl through a smoky enclosure before getting out and jumping over two-foot flames into a pool of water below. It looked like an awesome obstacle and I was really looking forward to it, but it was closed for some safety reasons. Thus, we bypassed in and walked on. After trekking through another long stretch of mud and wondering if it was the Mud Mile, the fifth obstacle, we finally came upon the actual obstacle, which was a short run through mud, up hills of dirt, back down, and through more mud. It was very easy to complete.

The sixth obstacle was the toughest, Hangin’ Tough. I heard it had the lowest completion percentage of any obstacle on the course. The object was to swing from one ring to another across a pool of water. My four teammates only made it to the second ring. I got to the second ring and got both hands on it, which killed my swinging momentum. The guy behind me gave me a push with his foot to help me get to the third ring and I tried to transition to the forth quickly before losing my momentum again, but I fell into the water dejected.

The next obstacle was the Electric Eel, where you crawl through a shallow pool of water while electric wires shock you from above. I tried to just not get hit in the face with any wires and I ended up not getting shocked at all. The eighth obstacle was the Warrior Carry. The idea was for two people to take turns carrying each other for about 25 yards each. One of my teammates and I had gotten ahead of the others and he carried me the full obstacle length – even with two metal knees. He was a badass. Our other teammates went with the threesome approach, two guys carrying one girl. There was a Course Hazard “obstacle”, though I don’t remember what it was followed by another Jesus Walk.

Next up were the Glory Blades, short walls that were angled so you couldn’t kick off of them. With a little help from others for footholds, the walls were easily conquered. The twelfth obstacle was the Funky Monkey, probably the obstacle that stressed me out the most. While waiting in line for the obstacle, I kept trying to figure out what position I should put my hands in. I wasn’t sure if I should do it normal pull-up style, if I should do it chin-up style, or if I should try doing the course backwards. I had thought of lifting my feet up and taking some weight off my arms, but I was afraid that if I fell my leg would get stuck between the bars and I didn’t want a knee injury.

I actually made it across a few bars, but the first half of the bars climbs upwards before the second half descends. The difficulty of raising my weight up to the next bar eventually spelled the end for me and I took another bath in the pool of failure. After failing on the Funky Monkey, I was pretty pissed and a little fired up to try it again next year.

The next obstacle was the Cage Crawl, going underwater on the underside of a fence and crawling backwards – an easy endeavor as long as you don’t panic. The fourteenth obstacle was the always dreaded Arctic Enema, a dumpster full of ice-water that sits at just above freezing. You have to jump in, swim under a wooden beam, and then exit the other side. Even only a few seconds exposure is extremely cold, especially when the water soaks into all of your clothes and shoes.

There was another Course Hazard, though again I don’t remember what it was, and then the Trench Warfare obstacle. This is a completely mental challenge where you have to crawl through underground tunnels in complete darkness – or at least it was complete darkness the first time I did Tough Mudder, this time there was a hole that shone in light that took away the most intense aspect of the obstacle, darkness.

The seventeenth obstacle was Walk the Plank, where you climb to the top of a fifteen foot tower and jump off into the pool below. Another obstacle easy physically but challenging mentally if you have a fear of height. After I completed my jump and got out of the water, I went to turn off my GoPro to preserve the battery and found that it was already dead – a shame since some of the best obstacles were at the end. There was another Course Hazard after that – were these even marked, because I don’t remember any of them, let alone three. The nineteenth obstacle was Underwater Tunnels, a quick swim into a lake, under three sets of barrels, and out the other side – an easy task only made difficult by the wearing of shoes.

Finally we made it to the Mystery Obstacle, which was a climb up a pipe using a rope. Some of the pipes had footholds throughout while others did not. I chose one without footholds, but found that there were three near the top of the barrel to help you get out. Instead all they did was leave a nice welt on my shin and slice off a piece of skin.

Then we made it to my nemesis – the Berlin Walls. These walls were about ten feet tall and my teammate helped me get up each side and then down the other, over both walls. He had attempted the climb also, but decided against it. Our other three teammates all decided to not even attempt it, something I had considered also due to my last encounter.

Finally we were on to the home-stretch with two obstacles right before the finish line. The first one was Everest, a quick run up a quarter-pipe. The first time I ran up, I got good height, went to grab what I thought was a two-by-four lip at the top and found that it was actually a two-by-eight and my fingers couldn’t get the edge, so I slid back down. I made a second attempt and this time someone reached down to help me and I scaled Everest.

It was a quick jog to the final obstacle, Electroshock Therapy, a run through trenches with hanging electric wires. The last time I had done this obstacle, I didn’t get shocked once, but this time I took at least four – one in the chest, one in the back, one on the leg, and one on the arm. My muscles quickly tensed up with each taze, but my forward momentum and fleet-footed running allowed me to escape the electric grasp and make it to the end. I waited for the rest of the team and we all ran across the finish line victorious.

Here are some top ten lists pertaining to the obstacles and a video below:

Top 7 Favorite:

7: Sack Up

6: Kiss of Mud

5: Glory Blades

4: Hangin’ Tough

3: Funky Monkey

2: Walk the Plank

1: Everest

Special Mentions: Arctic Enema and Berlin Walls – I hate them both so much, but I’m also proud when I complete them.

Top 7 Most Challenging:

7: Electroshock Therapy

6: Arctic Enema

5: Glory Blades

4: Everest

3: Berlin Walls

2: Funky Monkey

1: Hangin’ Tough

Tough Mudder Tomorrow and Solar Eclipse Sunday!

Tomorrow at 10:40 my team will begin our Tough Mudder race. Last time I was out there was two years ago and I dislocated my shoulder. The shirt I wore that day was the same shirt I wore the other two times I dislocated my shoulder. Even though I’ve cut off the sleeves which give my shoulder full mobility, I still feel it would be bad luck to wear that shirt, so I may be doing a twelve mile mud-run in a cotton shirt instead. I expect lots of pain when I’m done, but hopefully it won’t be from any major injuries this time.

I’m not sure how I’m going to make it through some of the obstacles, especially the monkey bars and other upper-body intensive ones. I’ll probably end up skipping a few, but that was also my strategy two years ago and I still got injured. I can’t wait for the race to be over so I can stop worrying about it.

 

But on a happier note, there’ll be a solar eclipse Sunday morning (Americas) or Sunday afternoon/evening (Africa/Europe/Middle East). The East Coast of the US will get to see the end of the eclipse as the sun rises over the horizon while Africa has the best viewing. In order to view it here in Florida, I’ll need to find somewhere where I can see the horizon, like the beach perhaps. Of course after tomorrow’s Tough Mudder, I’m not sure how interested I’ll be in getting up early for the fourth day in a row just to drive out to the coast.

Marathon, Triathlon, and Tough Mudder Training

While I should be writing about all the places I visited on my road trip this past weekend, it’s taking several hours to import all the video footage I took into iMovie. So instead, I’m taking another day to write about something else. I’ve posted before about my biking and running, as well as a couple of posts about goals I have for the year (until next August). I figured I’d do an update on my training.

A few weeks ago I had written up a training schedule for myself that looked something like:

• Monday – Gym
• Tuesday – Short Run before work, Bike Ride at lunch
• Wednesday – Swimming
• Thursday – Medium Run
• Friday – Gym
• Saturday – Long Run, Light Swimming
• Sunday – Swimming

After a few weeks of this, my knee was starting to really bother me, but it was my toe that sidelined me. I could make it a few miles without pain, but the long runs became horrible as I did over ten miles with intense pain on each step. I made a few changes including my desk at work which I had been using as a standing desk, I swapped back to sitting full time. I also scratched my short run altogether, moved my medium run to Wednesdays, and made both Tuesday and Thursdays swimming days. Now my schedule looks like this:

• Monday – Gym
• Tuesday – Swimming
• Wednesday – Medium Run
• Thursday – Swimming
• Friday – Gym
• Saturday – Long Run, Light Swimming
• Sunday – Swimming

On the running front, I just completed my sixteen-mile run last Saturday and will be attempting an eighteen-miler this weekend. I’ll probably go an extra mile in order to reach the next water fountain on my route. I skipped my medium run this week in favor of a bike ride since I worked up a pretty good blister last weekend and took Monday off for some hiking and swimming. My medium runs are now up to nine-milers and should make their way up to ten miles in the coming weeks before tapering off.

On the other hand, my biking seems to be getting worse. Not only did I go a couple weeks without a long bike ride, but when I do ride, I need to stay in lower gears to keep going. I got in an 11.5 miler this week, which is good enough for my sprint triathlon, but disappointing since I’d like to make more progress. My main problem right now other than fatigue is that both my hands and my crotch constantly go numb while riding. I’ve ordered some triathlon shorts and biking gloves to try out and see how they perform. Hopefully they’ll cure what ails me.

My swimming was what I was most concerned about heading into the triathlon, but over the past few weeks I’ve been increasing my swimming distance and time tremendously. Since I first went to Wekiva Springs State Park, I’ve gone from doing one lap, or 200 meters, to doing eight laps, or one mile last week and twelve laps or 1.5 miles this week. I have more trouble in the ocean due to their being fishermen on the shores and not wanted to get caught up in their lines or anything.

With some upcoming days off and different events, I have to work my schedule around a little bit each week, but I’m hoping to get more bike time in before my triathlon and to keep my running progressing as hoped.

The gym workouts have been going alright. I had to stop doing exercises that worked my legs because it was increasing my running injuries. I now stick mostly to upper body workouts – bench press, curls, tricep pulldowns, crunches, shoulder shrugs, and a few others. I also try to do pull ups at home when I can, as I know that will be what kills me in Tough Mudder, but I just don’t have the strength or endurance to maintain long sessions. My goal for Tough Mudder is to complete it and not get injured. The last time I ran Tough Mudder, I completed it, but I dislocated my shoulder, leading to surgery.

So that’s where I’m at right now. I have a week and a half until Tough Mudder, then another week until the Triathlon, then a two week break and the Marathon on December 1st. The nervous energy is starting to creep up.

Shoulder Surgery: Torn Labrum

On October 1^st, 2011, while playing Flag Football, I made a diving grab to grab an opponent’s flag and in doing do, dislocated my left shoulder as I landed on the ground. I popped it back in and continued playing, which probably caused even more damage. Then four weeks later on the 28^th of October, while playing flag football again, I made a jumping swat at the ball while on defense and upon contacting the ball, my shoulder came out of the socket a second time.

This time I crumpled to the ground on top of my arm and couldn’t get to it to pop it back in for several painful seconds. Again, I stupidly continued playing and probably caused even more damage. It was suggested I go see a doctor, but I put it off. Five weeks later I played a full game of flag football without injury and felt pretty good. I was intending to run Tough Mudder the following day and wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it since I had no strength in my left shoulder.

I woke up the next morning and made my decision to drive two hours to run Tough Mudder, a 12-mile obstacle course race. The race began smoothly with simple obstacles like jumping over three-foot barricades and lunging over ditches. One of the worst obstacles was a dumpster full of ice water that wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if it didn’t take so long to get through it because of all the people in front of me slowing me down.

I’m sure the spectators thought I looked like a pervert when I finally got out and had my hand down my pants trying to warm up my nuts which had retreated into my throat due to the cold. I continued through the obstacles until about three miles in I came across the first set of obstacles that had worried me – nine-foot walls that we needed to climb over. I didn’t think I’d have the strength to get over the walls – I didn’t – but with the help of a stranger, I made it over the first wall. I slowly lowered myself as far as I could go and dropped about three feet.

Not only did I have shoulder injuries, I had constantly rolled my ankles during soccer and football, so the drop didn’t feel great. I only had to make it over one more wall and with another boost, I made it over. This time I decided to lower myself a little bit more and as I did so, my arm gave out, my body shot downward and my arm, still holding onto the wall, jerked as my shoulder ripped out of the socket for the third time. Again I found myself lying on the ground and I quickly popped my shoulder back in and crawled off to the side of the course. I waited a few minutes while the pain subsided and I was able to stand and I continued the course.

The following nine miles included much pain and a few more tears in my shoulder. I failed a few obstacles such as the monkey bars, and completely skipped the twelve-foot walls. I made it to the end and got my orange headband. I went to see a doctor a few weeks later and get checked out. After an MRI they determined that I had torn the labrum in my shoulder.

I contemplated surgery for a while before finally deciding to go through with it. On March 22^nd, 2012 I had the labrum in my shoulder surgically reattached to the bone. They also removed large chunks of cartilage that had broken off during the dislocations. The video below gives an idea of how the surgery is done.

 

After the surgery, I had to wear a sling for six weeks. At first I couldn’t move my shoulder at all and even holding a glass of water, with my arm in the sling, was extremely difficult. Around week 3 I would take the sling off for short periods and stretch my elbow and, very minimally, my shoulder. I returned to work after six weeks and started physical therapy the same day. The first few weeks of PT just involved being able to lift my arm on my own. After a couple weeks, I could lift my arm up to shoulder height and over the next few weeks I slowly gained more mobility and eventually was able to lift my arm straight up.

PT lasted several months until my arm was stretched to the point where I had almost full mobility in it again. I had also started using dumbbells to train with to strengthen my arm, working up to a whopping five pounds, almost four months after my surgery. After I completed my PT, I started going to the gym in late August of 2012.

It took me until about February until I could do Pullups and Pushups again. I’ve recently stopped using the smith machine for the bench press and moved to free-weights. I can still only bench about 75 pounds. It’s been a long road, but I finally feel like I’m almost there.

Running – From Beginning to Marathon Training

When I was finishing my time as a student in college, I still hadn’t determined what I wanted to be. Sitting in an office all day didn’t appeal to me – nor does it now and I still don’t know what I want to do. I had serious considerations of joining the military, and in a go-big-or-go-home mentality, I had focused on joining the Marines. This option left many challenges, not the least of which was my horrible physical conditioning. The Marines wanted people who were strong and athletic, I was weak and pathetic.

I started running in the spring of 2008 in order to get up to the required three miles in 28 minutes required for entering Marine boot camp. It’s more than five years later and I have still never hit that goal. When I first started running, I followed this simple eight-week schedule meant to get someone ready for a 5K.

My first run, a 1-minute run, 2-minute walk repeated 6 times had me on the verge of puking shortly after. Just six minutes of running, with plenty of rest in between, had me hovering over the toilet for a half-hour – almost twice the time it took to run. Somehow I managed to continue on this training, occasionally skipping days when I wasn’t feeling well enough to run, or redoing weeks if I didn’t feel ready to move ahead.

That fall I ended up running my first 5K – the Rock ‘n Run 5K. I tried for months to push myself to run faster, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. Eventually, I worked to longer distances in hopes that the endurance would push my short-distance time down. It did a little, but I still couldn’t push my three-mile time below 28:40. And not only was 28:00 the minimum for entering boot camp, they expected you to get the time down to 24:00 once you were enlisted.

This wasn’t the only thing keeping me from joining the armed forces however. Mentally, I was able to memorize the many lists, sayings, rules, etc. required, but I have a tendency to push back against authority. The harder I get pushed, the more I want to push back. This would not exactly fare well in any branch of the military, let alone the Marines. I also had a growing distrust of the government and felt that if I was going to be risking my life on a daily basis, I’d rather do it for something good, not for some corrupt government to make money for oil companies and war-mongering corporations. They all could go fuck themselves.

With no goal in mind, I let up on my running, but a few months later I realized I had grown to enjoy the struggle of putting one foot in front of the other. It’s a real stress-reliever to head out the door from work on my lunch hour and just pound pavement for an hour, taking in the trees and sky, the fresh air. The feeling of freedom, of having the choice of not stopping, to never go back to that shithole where no one will leave you alone for five seconds so you can actually do the work they want you to. But I’ve always returned – usually feeling a lot better. Sometimes it might be a little more than an hour, but I return nonetheless.

I did a few more 5Ks, but they became boring for the most part – just a short race with a bunch of other people that I don’t know. Then I found some more interesting races – a Run for Water 6k where I ran 6k while carrying a gallon of water (or was it two?). That water made running so much harder, especially the second half of the race. I also started running longer distances, including my first 10K, which I flew up to Massachusetts for a 10K that ended on the 50-yard line of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. The run was marred with problems from knee pain, ankle pain, chest pain, and my foot going numb. Each mile relieved one problem only to replace it with another and my time was horrible. I’ve only run one other 10K and had the same issue – major calf cramping and foot numbness.

I’ve also competed in a couple obstacle-course races, the first of which was Tough Mudder in 2011 where I dislocated my shoulder a quarter of the way through the race and had to skip a few upper-body obstacles. I’m planning on competing in Tough Mudder again this year and hopefully I’ll have someone to run with that won’t bail on me.

I’m in full-swing marathon training now, trying to get in shape for a December 1^st Space Coast Marathon. I’m up to 13-miles, a rough thirteen miles that are flaring up every injury I’ve acquired over the past few months. Playing soccer twice a week from New Years to Memorial Day has left my knee wrecked. Even with a month off with no running or sports, it wouldn’t heal, so now it’s time to push through the pain and hope I can outlast it and avoid any serious injury until the marathon is over.

I used to take painkillers – Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen – before any race. Now I’m pounding through dry, hoping the pain will warn me of impending injury. There’s only two and a half months to go and thirteen more miles to tack on. Wish me luck.

10 Goals for Age 27

I recently turned 27 years old and I’ve decided to come up with a list of 10 goals to complete before I turn 28. Some will be simple, some will be hard, and maybe I’ll throw something nearly impossible in here too, just for fun.

1. Complete a marathon
   Here’s a goal I’ve already been working towards. I’ve signed up for the Space Coast Marathon on December 1^st. From today (August 23^rd) that means it’s 100 days away! The longest road-race I’ve run has been a 10k (6.2 miles). I’ve run, back-to-back, a 5-miler and 2-miler for a total of 7 miles with a  short break in between. And I’ve also run Tough Mudder, which was around 11 or 12 miles. Outside of organized races, the longest run I’ve had has been 19 miles.
   The marathon will take place from 6:30 to 13:30, giving me 7 hours to complete the race. I’m planning to run/walk at either 1min/1min or 1min/2min. My training so far has been 1min/1min up to 5 miles.
2. Quit my job
   This has been one of those things that has slowly grown from a wishful thought to a need in order to remain sane. I really can’t take much longer. Luckily, I have fourteen more vacation days to take this year, plus five carried over to next year, so that should keep me going just long enough. I’ve spent some time checking out job offers elsewhere, as well as seeking a raise at my current company, but alas to no avail.
3. Swim and Bike more – Train for a Triathlon
   I just got bought a used bike off of a friend, so hopefully I can start putting some miles on it – especially since I only live a mile and a half from work. Unfortunately, I haven’t ridden a bike since 1996, when I was ten and crashed my bike after a dumbass game of “look ma, no hands!”Tangent: Okay, so I’m 10 years old, going around my neighborhood on my bike. I decide to play a little “look ma, no hands” and coast for a bit with my hands in the air. I safely grab back onto the handlebars and decide to up it to “look ma, no feet.” I take my feet off the pedals and hold them up, still coasting along. I safely return them to the pedals and decide to really up the stakes – no hands or feet. I try it for a second and quickly return all my appendages to their appropriate positions in order to prepare for a turn. I turn down the next road and let loose again – no hands or feet. I coast a several feet before losing balance, crashing hard into the sidewalk and getting my thigh stuck under the seat, wedged between the seat and the bar. Being completely unable to free myself, I yelled for help. After about 30 seconds of struggling, I finally freed my leg from its trap, only to have the woman who lived in the house I was in front of come running out not five seconds later. She saw me all scraped up and assumed I had been yelling for help because I was hurt. Embarrassed, I let her wipe my wounds before assuring her I was fine to walk back home. So now, I just don’t ask people for help. I’ll do it myself if I have to.
   
   Swimming might be a little trickier. I have a pool at my house, but I prefer not to swim in cat urine and feces, so I avoid it. There’s a pool in the apartment complex by work, but it’s not exactly large and if there’re people there, it becomes a chore to avoid them. The gym I go to doesn’t have a pool, but the YMCA down the street does. However, it’s too far from work to swim during lunch, or work out at, which would mean I would need two gym memberships.
   And all this leads up to completing my first triathlon (probably a sprint).
4. Go to a Medieval Faire
   I’ve always been fascinated with medieval times. Swords, knights, jousting – it’s all so interesting to me. So the last year or so I’ve been looking at medieval faires in my area. They’re all a good two-hour-plus drive, which turned me off a little bit, but after making four-and-twelve-hour drives this past year, two hours just doesn’t seem like all that much anymore. Unfortunately, there’s nothing in the summer, so it’ll be November until one pops up.
5. Get a Tattoo
   This has been something I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while, but the art had never formed in my mind. Now I have a couple of designs created in Photoshop that I really like. Next up is figuring out placement and size. And it doesn’t hurt that after a year of working out, I feel like I have at least a little more canvas to work with.
6. Hike a Long Trail
   The three that stand out the most as possibilities are the Appalachian Trail, which is 2200 miles and would take at least four months, the Florida Trail, which is 1400 miles and would take at least a couple months, and the John Muir Trail, which is a short 210 miles and would only take a few weeks. Peak season for John Muir is July – September and requires permits, so that’s just about passed. Peak start for the Florida Trail is January, and peak start for the Appalachian Trail is March-May. Perhaps one of those is in the forecast this year – and would even help satisfy Goal #2 most likely.
7. Climb Mount Kilimanjaro
   The easiest of the Seven Summits, Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa. It would take about a week and a half to fly out there, climb it, and return home. It would also take about $4000 to complete. The best times to climb seem to be August – October, when there’s less chance of rain, but that also means everyone else is going at that time and it gets crowded. During the high precipitation months, the traffic is low, but there might not be views to behold.
8. Ride a Roller Coaster at Night
   This has been on my list for a while. And while I’ve ridden some Disney coasters in the dark, I need something a little more extreme to fulfill this bucket-list item. Busch Gardens would be the primo choice due to their immense selection of sweet coasters, but Universal has a few decent choices as well. And the parks are always open late for the Halloween shows, so perhaps that’ll be the perfect opportunity.
9. Learn to Scuba Dive
   Another bucket-list item that’s taken a back-seat. Wouldn’t mind having a new hobby come next summer – which in Florida is really April – November. My brother is into diving, so it’ll be another activity we can partake in when I visit my New England friends and family.
10. Build and Launch a PVC Rocket
    Ever since reading Rocket Boys, I’ve had the compulsion to build a rocket and fire it off. After some research, PVC rockets seem to be relatively easy to make and the parts are relatively cheap. The trouble here would be finding a suitable launch site and also having something to protect against exploding or misguided rockets. And I don’t really want my car to be that thing. Don’t hurt the Camaro!