Ruck a 'Hundy

In October of last year, as part of my training, I signed up for a challenge.  To ruck (defined: to ruck is to move with a rucksack, and implies action, energy and purpose) 100 miles in one month.  When I first signed up if I had done approximately 3.5 miles per day, I would meet my goal. However, like with many things, life got in the way.  My miles per day changed to: 5/per day and then 8/per day. As my time dwindled away, I was determined to finish no matter the difficulty.

And, it was crazy difficult.

My last few days looked something like this:

• 23rd: 5 miles
• 27th: 9.10 miles
• 28th: 20 miles (My daughter did all 20 miles with me. What a kid!)
• 29th: 8.2 miles
• 30th: 5 miles

Keep in mind this was October in Washington.  It was cold. It gets dark at 4:00.  On Halloween, I was doing miles around my neighborhood at ten o'clock at night, with my headlamp, in the rain. All with a weighted ruck. Oh yeah!

I earned my patch, which was huge to me because I made a commitment and I kept it. :)

PS  I'd like to say it was fun and that I'd do it again, but um, yeah, no thanks. 

Run, KK, Run

I've taken on some challenges this year. 

Mostly they're all leading up to a single challenge.

I want to complete a GRC.

What is it?  Honestly, that's a really good question.  It's a team event, not a race.Eight to ten hours, fifteen to twenty miles, and offers to under promise, over deliver. You can learn more about it here.  Watch one of the videos. I'll wait.

Intense, right?

I want to be one of those smiling people at the end. Exhausted, but rewarded. There's something that drives me that is difficult to express. It demands I be one of those people.

So, how do you get ready for this event that offers sketchy details at best?

For me, I'm weight lifting three times per week, doing my darnedest to increase my stamina, and taking on some other challenges along the way.

May - Capital City Marathon: Nothing too big here...a little 5 mile race. I'll be happy to just finish.

June - Goldsborough Creek Run: 7 miles. Just hope to have a faster time than the CCM.

June - Spartan Sprint:  If you've never heard of a Spartan Race, check this out!  For this one, I just hope to come out alive.

September - Tough Mudder: Assuming the Spartan Sprint doesn't break me, bring on the mud! Tough Mudder is almost four times as long as the SS with many more obstacles. Wanna peek? Click here.

And finally...

December - GoRuck Challenge: The pinnacle event of the year!

You may have noticed some time gaps there. I'm hoping to fill July, August, October and November with a race or challenge of some kind. 

I'll keep y'all posted!

A 5x5 Short Story

I've been reading more and more tweets. It's pretty entertaining if you can weed past the useless retweets. Anyway, I found John Avery and he tweeted about creating a 5 x 5. Basically, it's a short story.  A really, really short story. Five sentences composed of only five words that tell a whole story. Here's mine. Hope you enjoy.


Sacrifices by KK Sierra

"Please don't go," she plead.

Arms wrapped tightly around her.

"It is my duty, Babe."

They both had their obligations.

Love would bring them back.

Are you up to the 5x5 challenge?? I'd love to read your short.

It's All Fun and Games

Two of my very favorite games have finally come out for Android. I found them originally when I got an iPhone and I've missed them.

1) Scrabble -- I know lots of people don't like Scrabble but I love to play.  I love the challenge of figuring out where to put words. I love figuring out how to place them for maximum points. The only thing I don't like about Scrabble for Android is that it doesn't have a play offline feature like the original for iPhone did. This is perhaps because its a free version. They aren't offering a paid version yet.  I learned lots of word placement and unique words by playing the computer.

Remember Speedo Man? On another occasion when he wouldn't leave me alone I was playing Scrabble on my phone in the hot tub. Speedo Man was just as clueless then as the previous time.

2) Doodle Bowl -- This is a fun game that tries to replicate real bowling on your phone. You touch the ball to pick it up and then flick it down the lane.  If you've screwed up and react fast enough, a quick swipe across the screen will attempt to put a spin on the ball. The original alley is quite literally a drawing. The background is notebook paper and your ball and pins are doodles. When you toss the ball it crashes through the paper at the end of the lane. As you play games you earn credits and can unlock more alleys.  There's a fire alley, a "back" alley (get it? hahaha), and a space alley, for example.  There's even an alley under the sea where your pins look like they're made of air (much like Bubble Buddy from SpongeBob SquarePants).

I also enjoy playing Plants vs Zombies on my phone. It requires actual thinking to complete the game versus beating the ever popular Angry Birds.  I have Angry Birds in all its incarnations and I have to say that I don't really like it. It is difficult, in my opinion, to learn from your mistakes and position the bird just slightly from where it was before to reach your goal.

My all time favorite mindless phone game is Tetris. I have had it on my last five phones. The latest version from EA is by far the best, in my opinion. It is a great stress reliever and I enjoy it because it requires little brain power. Its just flick, flick, double tap, slide.

What do you enjoy playing on your phone?