The Amazing Race "crossfit style".. june 26th 2010

The day of “The Amazing Race” had arrived saturday june 26th,and I was off tomy home away form home gym SPC Crossfit early in the morning, arriving about 8:30AM. When i arrived the parking lot was already almost filled up with all the cars. I suspected at that point that the response to “The Amazing Race” might be more than all of us at spc had expected.

When the final count was in I there were 22 teams of 4 people which means 88 CrossFitters were getting ready face whatever would come with “The Amazing Race”.

There were no prizes, no awards, just the opportunity to try something new, work hard, meet other CrossFitters and face the unknown. Also, it was an opportunity to donate to a popular CrossFit cause, “The Wounded Warriors Project”. i met up with my fellow spc crew of Dan, dan and joe, we gathered all the needed equipment that we would need have to haul to the locations ( weights, 45lb bar, 2o lb med ball, gymnastic rings, abd mat, and off course are bad ass selfs.

The race consisted of 5 WOD (work out of day) for those of you infamilar with crossfit you do one WOD each day you go to the gym but only 3 a week , we would doe 5 total WOD as team, and this was all our fourth day of the week. here we go....oh boy oh boy....

The first WOD happened in the parking lot. 7 snatches, 20 push ups, 30 squats, 3 rounds. 3 team members work, one rests as you rotate through the movements.

Once we finished the WOD we were able to get a clue for the next location. Then is where the real work started.

CLUE 1 : You have just started your DAY down the TRAIL of HAPP(Y)NESS. We figured out that we needed to go to the Happy Day Lodge area in the Cleveland Regional Park System. We figured all that out and actually made it to the venue.


When we arrived at the venue we were pointed down a path and told to run the 3mile trail, and with a “Run Forest, Run” we were off. Big fail on my part because at this point i knew the trails but forgot my team members were not runners my bad we regrouped and of we went.


As the run progressed (and we were moving as fast as we could) we started to get an every increasing feeling of doom. The first problem was no one else was passing us. Could we already be dead last? Then there was some confusion and a fork in the road. As I have statistically proven throughout my life the probability is that without clear direction I will pick the wrong way. Nothing has changed with that.

Long story short we took the extended loop which we didn't have too and were both pisssed and suprised when we emergerged to a pack of runner from other teams, whom we thought had missed a turn and them out and told them they missed a turn, or so we thought...

Eventually we were able to hear traffic and then actually see a road to the left of Us, dan,dan and joe never looked happier! IT IS Route 303 JOE said thank god! Ie truck so my teammates would have to find me to move on.


we came to learn later that getting lost in the woods was one of the most popular part of that WOD and that my team and I were not alone in not being able to find their way down a path in the woods.

Recovering what little dignity we had from our error

we now earned the right to see Clue 3:

1st things 1st, the MAIN reason for this event is community. I was able to come up with “It has to be at 1st and Main”. But what city? we all said must be hudson since the gym is there. off we went and w ended up in a little community park at 1st and Main St, Hudson, Ohio.
Poor residents and shoppers must of thought What the heck is going on here, as this is what conclcusion i drew from their expressions.

This was another suck fest of a WOD. It was handstand push ups and burpees. I can’t remember the number or reps or how we broke everything up, but I do remember dan and dan did the most handstand pushups of us four. basically it went like this 15 HSP, then 50 burpess, repeat HSP and 50 burpees till 75 HSP were completed, then get your clue and get the heck out of dodge.

Once we finished that we had the next clue which almost did us in. We had a cage fighter, poker player, , a Teacher and a me a nurse to figure out the following:

The key to unLOCK the workout is in the equation:
15 X 3=___+20=___-7=___X2=___/4_____

Although it seems impossible to believe all four of us were able to come up with 4 different answers, none of them correct. The actual answer was 29 so we finally figured out we had to get to Lock 29 on the Erie Canal.

We made it to Lock 29 along with the other CrossFitters and every fool in town with a bike, all in a parking lot that holds about 30 cars. I found a parking spot in the over flow area and dan,dan and joe took the equipment to the workout area. At that point the team had learnede j that we got to start this mess out with……a run. Straight up a mountain aka intiation hill. Well, it seemed like a mountain, after these workouts so far, but at least i was on familiar ground. then on to the WOD number 4:
Workout 4: Lock 29
* x 100 Power Cleans . .
x 100 Wall Balls . .
x 50 Muscle Ups
* This is where things got a little sketchy. The “park po po” showed up and shut us down, sort of. We had to bring the rings down (so we improvised and had to do 150 dips). Next time ,i hope toby at spc will get a permit for us. t

WOD 4 done now the pesky CVNP train.. well decided to park and block the drive,s o i ran inthe ditch along side o f it to get the car , when i got back we threw the equipment under the trian to me i loaded, then as you have it, the train decided to move finally after what seemed like hours, (when actually it was just about 20 minutes) but come on now we are in a race! team loads in the car and off we go.


Final clue: was a number scramble with a meaning

this thing thre wus for a loop but we ended back up at spc crossfit for the last WOD,
cant recall the last WOD excpetit involved 200 30 inch box jumps, 100 pull ups and 100 sum sor tof clean lifts. we gave it our all had a blast and met a ton of cool people.


Then the reward was food , fun and pictures afterwords in the parking lot.

Misc thoughts and catching up.... crossfit, running, my baltimore trip and life in general

hey everyone i know it been a while almost three weeks, which is way to long so where do i start....

Crossfit update: now going into my sixth week, its has been hard and punishing but well worth the effort. i am already starting to see the benefits of this total body workout, especially in my running form, and the way my body feels and reacts to the trails. well for those of you whom don 't know crossfit has two weeks that start the summer out, that they deem "hero and bitch" week.

the "bitch" part are all workouts named after female with names like fran, annie, mellissa, julie, etc. these workouts are intense ,they push you to the edge and then you realize why they are called "bitch". i survived that week and did really well but the next week which finished today, would be the most challenging. the "hero" workouts.

the "hero" these are named after service men killed in the line of duty and these make the bitch workouts seem lame and easy. its hard to explain these except as hell but once you've tamed them it feels great, here is a link to the break down of these workouts, read on to appreciate the toughness of these!

http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/faq.html#WOD1

and please if you want info on crossfit please check out the main website: http://www.crossfit.com to read and get more info and lastly a huge thanks to Toby and all the gang at SPCCROSSSFIT.com in hudson for the support and pushing me through these workouts , even when i want to stop, they motivate me to continue. thanks to all of you.

Burning River 100 training update:

its hot outside and still trying to get acclimated to the heat and humidity but so far so good, no complaints, my miles are a bit less than i would like but they are quality over quantity at this point don't want to get injured bf the revenege takes place on july 31. i mean revenge bc this race beat me last year and i DNF'd did nothing fatal and has to call it quits at about 84 or 86 miles its a bit foggy to me but watch out here i come!

And lastly my baltimore trip.
i have a good friend from college whom live in baltimore MD and i had the chance to go visit him around june 11- 14th. the drive was rather easy about 7 hrs and beautiful, i made great time, and got in about 8pm. he showed me around his place and off to the harbor we went which was only 2 blocks away. Awesome views and great restraunts everwhere.
son on friday jeff had to work but told me of this harbor trail which is a collection of brick paths and boardwalks that follow the harbor from one end to another so i thought what the heck sounds great. so i geared up and off i went follow said path, i thought it was shorter but round trip back to his house 18 miles! along the way i saw the many great water front neighborhoods, attractions and tons of boats, absolutely breathtaking. Just to much was seen ,i could go on for a long time but, i managed to kill a friday jsut being outside and seeing sights all while running, it was so peaceful.
even more strange was that the people were friendly, they all say hi and hello as you pass and i even managed to runa few miles with some random runners really fun.
Friday night was uneventful, just hung out and check out some local bars with some of his friends called it an early night.
Sat: this was the day of the crab cake! wow incredible we had a crab cake that was all crab no filling number one in Baltimore for 12 yrs in a row still going strong and voted best in maryland at a little place called G and M here is the link
http://www.gandmrestaurant.com/, awesome and i jsut found out they do mail order, i think i might be in heaven. after lunch we went to clipper city brewing company loved the tour so much fun and met lots of great people there also. sat night wasinteresting we had a cook out then did local neighboorhood bar crawl, it was rough but so much fun, it was organized by the local bars and jeff even met some of his neighbors that he never met, but one bar stood out.

it was call JP's i t was the biggest hole in the wall but the name got me! nothing special but it is a great pic of me outside of this bar.
Sunday: relaxed, harbor, some sights and a water taxi tour and that was it, a short but very exciting weekend.

today: am run 5 miles, before the heat, crossfit, rest, lunch run with my friend brett for 6.5 miles, then the fun stuff lounging by the pool for a few hours, not to bad of a start to my weekend, to bad i have to work the rest of it. till next time....

what a week!

first off thanks to all of my family and friends who support me through all my adventures, even if they do think i am carzy at times.

#1 finished my second week of crossfit which has not been easy but i have found that i enjoy the challenges it teaches me and how i can push my self through pain. this in return thus far has helped me in daily life with a better attitude daily towrd challenges and also with my training for my 100 mile race which is approaching very fast July 31 will be here all to fast. for those who don't know what crossfit is, please google it, as it is very hard to explain, BC when i do people think i';m crazy but they may be right...... the jury is still out on that one.

#2 the heat and humidity

that's right the heat and humidity have made a come back to good ole ohio and boy has it been a bear.... coping with it again is like learning to walk or drive a car from scratch. slow and steady is the way.
i found this out on my first couple of short runs and crossfit workouts,hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, is all i can say or you'll pay.

#3 Night owl 50 mile fat ass

on friday night may 29th, i met my running friend Jerry for a semi organized/unorganized 50 mile fat ass night run. it was gonna be a blast and it was.
So i showed up at 8pm at happy days like discussed and was pleased to see about 10 people total! what a plus. some i knew some from running and some i would meet for the first time. all i can say about first timers is way to go. one in particular was a girl named lindsey this girl ran with us the first 17 miles and she never took the smile off her face it was awesome, it was also her longest run and first night run. great job to her.
in my usual sherpa fashion i showed up like a traveling aide station 3L golite rush hydro pack on, and two bottles of my favorote endurance drinks,one of clip and one of amnio both gret products ( from the makers of s caps). i also had my headlamp, sternum lamp, and a bunch of s-caps, and misc goodies in my pckets. i took the jokes form the crew and we headed off, into the night
the pace was fast and furious for the first 17 miles mostly due to the rabbits aka fast runners whom joined us. us slow ultra folks later paid the price for this but boy was it shaping up a great run.
happy days to the Xc trail, to the sound of music hills to the parking lot, refill rest. by this time i was soaked bc of the humidity and so was everyone else. then off into the woods to salt run loop and back to the lot. then off to the wet more trail that was...supposed to be accross the lot but we seemed to have a hard time finding it, maybe it was the darkness, who knows so that took a hot second, but we were like bloodhounds and found the trail. so off into the woods we ventured again, this time on wet more trail. they call it wet more for a reason, the thing never dries out, but to our suprise it was not that bad, lucky us. we made are way to the covered bridge and then the fast people called it a night and the die hards pressed on.
we departed onto perkins trails which was muddy dark, humid but other wise enjoyable, we mostly walked or slogged through this portion though. back to the covered bridge to get some much need water, and food then off to oneil woods. we heard the frogs singing, and boy what a chorus.then the mysterious fog rolled in, it was thick, and mysterious. we made it to oneil woods and now turn ed around to repeat it all over until back to happy days.
The Return:
was slow , and even painful at times due to our fast pace at the start but we adjusted. we made it back to the covered bridge where my wife had agreed to meet up with pizza and it was like an oasis! it was so good and just the pick me up we needed. then departed and off we slogged, as the dawn came we noticed features of the trails we had not noticed earlier bc of the dark, but i was enjoyable.we felt aches and pain ups and downs. i overcame some nausea and other overcame hallucinations and just plain tiredness.
i made it back to the car in 12 hours 30 minutes tired, muddy and dirty. but i love a good muddy trail! this run was a confidence booster i needed, no injuries , and only tow blisters one on each of my small toes. not to bad. thanks jerry for organizing the run, and to everyone else who showed up to run, it wouldn't have been the same experience with out you all. now back to training for the BR 100 this july. it will be here before i know it.
Lastly happy holiday everyone , and hope you enjoy your memorial day.

HOW your dollars are spent for MS

How Your Fundraising Helps
i run for MS right now so that future generations won't have to. i runfior MS because this is a battle we can, and should, win. it's through your support and participation in my run MS event that men, women and children stay connected to the dream of one day finding a cure. i RuN for them, for their families and caregivers. this is what your money goes to:

$25 will provide a reacher for someone with MS.
$60 will provide a shower chair with a back for one individual with MS.
$150 will provide a cooling vest kit for someone with MS.
$240 will provide a day of respite care for a family affected by MS.
$500 will provide a manual wheelchair for one individual with MS.
$750 will provide a portable ramp for one individual with MS.

please help out.

www.main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/jonpaul

Misc thoughts about how my training for the 2010 BR100 is coming along

as yo may or may not know, i have set out to complete and compete in this year Burning river 100. this race is a 100 mile endurance race that cover 100 miles on trails through NE Ohio. this year it is also the USA track and field 100 mile championships which is pretty cool! great way to get the word out that NE Ohio has a great trails to run on and an even greater community of dedicated trail runners.
My motivation for the race this year is mostly of revenge for unfinished business from last year's BR100 that i DNF "did nothing fatal" i had to drop at 84 miles bc of stomach issues. this year is different. i run with more passion better prepared but also for a cause. my cause is for MS. MS has touched my life personally this last year and it is now what keeps me motivated to keep moving and to keep running.

Infact it MS has opened my eyes about things we take for granted and bc of this and my connection i am using the BR 100 as a fund raiser to raise funds for MS research. i also am touched bc one of my best friends from college, his mom had MS and recently passed away, so this race will be for her and all those people living with MS in their life.

my fundraising page can be found at :

www.main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/jonpaul

BR100 training update:
nutrition: better thought out and targeted and also tried and tested at old pueblo 50 miler in Arizona that was in march... success

Mileage: on target and happy with averaging about 45-60miles a week a bit low but very happy. focus is on quality no quantity this year. feel great about this, especially since i am a night owl and work 12 hr nights training can be hard to get sometimes.

injury: none to speak of nock on wood healthy this year no aches or serious pain or injuries. Blisters are my only foe, and have ataget these issues with new socks and better foot prep so far so good,thanks to the book "fixing your feet" a must read for any endurance athlete.

Equipment: tested and got a new hydration pack golite Rush lots of storage with 3L capability and has waist pockets for goodies and two bottle holder on pack. this is great for my Amino and clip 2 drinks. ( both by succeed! the makers of s caps)

new sternum light works great, shoes sticking with and love the inov8 flyroc 310's last a great time and excellent tread life.

to be tested still kineysis sunscreen got sponsored this year seem s like a good product so far will post more later.


Cross Training: started a crossfit endurance (cross training program) so far so good i ache but it is a good ache, its only the second week but feel i will see great returns if not by the BR100 but for future utlras. huge thanks to SPC crossfit in Hudson OH and toby the owner. its a solid program!

"survial" the end of my first week of crossfit

i am very excited and proud of my self this week as it is the end to my first of many weeks/months to come of my a crossfit training program. this first week was by no means easy but very rewarding, i found ways to be sore that i never new existed but overall had great satisfaction in knowing that i could do this. crossfit is nothing special but totally unique for me, especially as being a runner and only doing the typical running and some cross training to keep in shape that runners require.

this week i gues coild be summed up as a total ass kicking for me, bc of the pain and soreness that i felt,unlike typical aches and pains from running. i must say that i do look forward to these 3 to 4 workouts per week and can't wait to go back for and start my second week will start monday!
best of all everyone there are from all walks of life and everyone is totally supportive of each other and very motivating, i may be a beginner but i already feel like i am a regular and fit in. this is very important to me!

thanks to everyone at SPC crossfit in Hudson, see you all again soon

My newest adventure "crossfit"

recently i was browsing the local running store's message board and under the training section and came about a very intersting link. the local crossfit gym in hudson had issued a challenge of sorts to all runners, that went something along the lines of this. we will train you for free, for your next race, improve your overall conditioning, speed and well being and if you aren't satisfied the owner would buy you any pair of shoes from the local running store for free. Not a bad deal i thought but the catchwas this was only open to the firstperson to reply to the post.
So i thought well why not so i replied on may 9th , thinking no way i was gonna be the first, well i was wrong the next day may 10 i had a reply and i was indeed the first.
So on the that firiday i headed down to SPC crossfit in Hudson to their gym called "the barn" to get the scoop of what i was in for. I was now really excited but at the same time a bit anxious. but we will have to see how it plays out!