Believe in yourself and you can accomplish anything!

“There are plenty of obstacles in your path. Don’t allow yourself to become one of them” I found this quote a couple of days ago and I have to say – it perfectly describes the past few days :)

Sunday, May 26th was the Spartan Race up in Morin Heights. I registered to partake in this crazy event back in January (or Feb?) and have used it as motivation in my workouts ever since. I have other motivators but this was definitely a big one! This would also be a huge step outside my comfort zone as I hate getting dirty and there’s a lot of mud involved.

Anyhow, I decided to attend bootcamp on Saturday morning, figuring I would just do half of everything and take it easy before the big day on Sunday. The WOD was too good to resist!!! We had to squat snatch 5000 pounds. Yup. 5000 pounds! To do this, you choose a weight you are comfortable with and perform the necessary number of reps to reach a total of 5000 lbs.

David capped us at 30 minutes. However, in that time I was able to squat snatch… 3045 lbs! I was so proud of myself!!!! I used 35 pounds and completed 87 reps. Couldn’t believe it! I didn’t think I would make to even halfway through.

After completing that workout I worried that I would be a little too sore the next day for the race. I was right – I was sore on Sunday morning. But, you know what? I didn’t care :) The Spartan Race was absolutely AMAZING. It was extremely muddy (gross, I almost cried every time I stepped in a huge mud puddle), exhilarating, challenging, and fun.

I ran in to a friend of mine from the gym at registration. We wished each other luck and went our separate ways with our groups. We were both in for a pleasant surprise as shortly after starting the race we found each other and since we are at similar levels we ended up doing the entire race together! And it’s not like we slowed each other down – we agreed that if one was slowing the other down we would just split up.

So.. we jumped over fire, climbed over walls, hoisted weight with a rope, lugged weight with a chain, carried sandbags, crawled through mud under barbed wire, crawled through tunnels, climbed up a 45 degree angled wall using a rope. What an experience!!!!!!! We were all exhausted at the end. And muddy.

I am impatiently waiting for the times and photos to be uploaded on the Spartan Race website. So until then I have no idea how long it took to complete.

Like the smart person I am (NOT!!) I decided to go to bootcamp last night, the day after the race!! Again, I went in planning to take it easy. I figured I would do half, or just skip it all together and hop on the elliptical for an hour. After thinking about it I realized I should at least give it a shot.. The WOD was as follows:

150 m row 1 handstand push ups 150 m row 2 handstand push ups 150 m row 3 handstand push ups ………. 10 handstand push ups 150 m row 10 push ups 150 m row 9 push ups 150 m row 8 push ups ……… 1 push up

I had never done handstand push ups before. With David’s help I was able to do them!! I was lowering my head to a medicine ball instead of the floor. But I still accomplished something I never thought I could do! AND it was after a weekend full of exertion. We didn’t have the timer on but I looked at the clock before and after and figure it took me 35 minutes to complete this workout.

Moral of this post – Don’t underestimate your abilities. You may surprise yourself!

p.s. I have back muscles!!! Wheeeeeee