Team Human Cone kicks off 2014 with our third FitAthlon

Team Human Cone has big plans for 2014. We have 6 events planned (in orange below). And I have another 5 events (mostly CrossFit). Busy year! Love these challenges! 

Unfortunately, our first event, Color Me Rad, got rained out (well, for Team Human Cone, anyway). The event still went forward, but we opted not to do it in 45-degree rain because that just didn't sound like fun (lesson learned - don't sign up for races in April). So, since I wasn't running a 5K, I decided to go to CrossFit and do that WOD...which included running 1.5 miles in the rain (some of which while carrying 2 53# kettle bells!). Couldn't win!!! But now I feel silly wearing the Color Me Rad t-shirt I picked up... However, we then signed up for the Color in Motion 5K on 6/14 (same idea). So we'll get our color run in after all.

So, Team Human Cone reunited at FitAthlon as our first event, albeit a much smaller team than last year. One teammate was sick, and 2 others decided they were done with FitAthlons after last year's event. So, it was just the 3 of us this time.

This year, we decided to up the ante and signed up for the Challenger division. It wasn't too much different from the Beginner division that we did the first two times last year - just added a couple more rounds of push ups/sprint/burpees at the start and a little more distance to things like the lunge walk. Our team ended up in different heats since we arrived a little late. Brian and I ended up in a heat of only 5 people after our teammate's heat, which was a little silly. And I really felt like a dork when I was the last one on the field finishing up my final round of push ups/sprint/burpees while everyone was cheering me on. Oh well, I know I was doing the movements with proper CrossFit form, which takes a little longer.  

O M G, THE LUNGE WALK. It HAD to be a lot longer than previous years. It had to be at least 300 meters, and, as Challengers, we had to do an extra 20 yards or so. Brian and I both started the walk doing proper lunges - hands behind head, and knees fully to the ground. Our legs were burning after a while, so we had to take breaks after seats of 10 or so. But we slowly made progress. One of the volunteers even complimented us on our form. But soon the next wave of Beginners started catching up to us, mainly because the majority of them were doing some of the most pathetic lunges possible. More like just walking with a little dip. I stuck with my good form for about 3/5ths, and then I figured, if you can't beat them, join them. Even still, my legs were wasted from so many good lunges already that I was still slow. At this point, I envied the decision the other Cones made to skip FitAthlon this year!!!

I definitely felt stronger in a few of the events due to all of my CrossFitting. The tire flips were a breeze, as were the backpedaling chain pulls thanks to my better grip strength. And I found the rope slams to be really easy, and then I noticed that I was subconsciously really driving the motion with my hips to use more power (definitely Oly lifting experience at work there!). Climbing the 10 ft walls with ropes was a breeze too, although the fact that they were nice and dry helped a lot there too. I still wussed out on the 5' walls though - instead of trying to just launch myself over, I still used the little steps. But I definitely got over them more easily since I didn't end up with the huge bruises on my legs that I had in previous years. And, I did a lot more jogging between obstacles, so my endurance was definitely better. 

The highlight of my day was that I actually did the monkey bars!!! The volunteer there said he would help me, to which I replied, "You mean like I help my kids?!!!" Well, I wasn't about to let him do that! So, I did it all by myself! Woo hoo!!!  And at the end, I still had enough in the tank to do a really good sprint to the finish line (I even heard someone say, "Whoa, look at that girl go!"). Very proud of those 2 accomplishments.

I ended up finishing in about 1 hour 25 minutes. Although somehow, I missed the ruck sack run. Oops. My watch said I burned about 1120 calories. Not bad for a morning's work. 

I knew while I was doing the lunge walk that it was going to hurt on Sunday. And I was definitely right... My quads and glutes were already getting a little stiff Saturday night, and were KILLING me by Sunday morning. Once I got moving though, they stretched out, and I was able to handle the WOD "Annie" which is 50-40-30-20-10 reps of alternating DUs and sit ups. And I even chased my son around the soccer field a little right afterward (but should have worn knee sleeve since that really hurt my left knee - the knee sleeves are really making a huge difference in supporting my knees). But after taking a nice nap with him in the afternoon, they were a mess. And continued to be a mess throughout Monday and into Tuesday. Ouch. Did some major growing!!!