A little thing called Eisenhower...
The nine of us had traveled from as close as LA, Sacramento and Vegas and as far as PA, NJ and SC on the East Coast...and Melbourne, Australia. What better way to shake off a 6 hour drive, or 24 hour flight, than to storm the beaches at the Torrey Pines Gliderport for a little workout known as Eisenhower.
But we arrived well after sunset and hiked down the steep grade with loose footings and unpredictable drop-offs. Tide was low and the surf was a good 200 meters out, complete with a dark orange crescent moon hanging low over a single star. Right away we knew this was going to be an epic workout.
Joe welcomed us to Eisenhower and explained how we would be storming the beach and breaching the high-ground...with 9 x 25 reps of other exercises thrown in, plus low crawl/sand sprints, chilling ocean dives and "running" to the top with and without our sandbags. The record finish time is 57' and our fastest came in just over an hour...the rest of us tried to keep the FML's to ourselves as we pushed to finish below 1:30. The mid-workout ocean plunges were actually a refreshing opportunity to take in the awesome-ness of the workout and realize you were surrounded by your favorite brand of Crazy. This was the first of many times I would be humbled over the next five days, as I was surrounded by eight great athletes, each with a ridiculous amount of heart--a Gut Check Pre-Requisite.
Thursday Morning...welcome to the Caveman Workout
Again, I found myself pushed to my limit and dealing with the stress of feeling slow and weak. I don't often near that point in my workouts--even when I think I am working hard I am now fully aware there are many more levels to push through in order to be the athlete I want to become. Once I finally arrived at the top of Chin Scraper and the rest of the gang was already out of site, I began the descent. Amazing how "just running" feels when you've been moving at less than 1 mph. I felt light and quick and capable...and then I had to climb back up the original hills and recover my rock so I could return it to it's home. Can I get a STAR BUCKS??
And then???
We spent the next two days learning a ton about Gut Check Fitness, intermingled with practical application exercises and more Gut Check signature training...sprints and burpees and more up Hell's Hill and classic playground favorites. All while knowing we were building up to the Gut Check Challenge on Saturday, where we would see how we stack up against the locals in their environment. It's safe to say that by Friday night we were all ready to get some rest to hopefully recover from the travel, training and all around fun-having. | |