Come At Me Bro

As you might imagine, there is quite a bit of testosterone flowing at my office. Because of that a number of athletic challenges have sprung up, encompassing players, coaches, and staff members. The talk about competition is not a joke. There are daily free throw competitions, ping-pong tournaments and my personal favorite, endurance challenges.

Last week I got challenged to run one lap around our facility as fast as possible. I was coming off of the fall and calf issues from the UNG race, but when you get called out by the head coach and general manager...sometimes you gotta race.

One lap around our facility, beginning and ending at the flagpole at the front door is a touch longer than 3/4 of a mile. It starts out flat around the main building then has a gradual downhill behind the indoor facility and around the retention pond. About half way through you hit the dorms - used for training camp - from there it's a grinder of an uphill before a steep downhill to flat in the final 200 meters.

Coach ran it in 9 minutes. I wasn't real worried about that. Our GM did it in 5:30 something on his longboard skateboard. Notice how they don't tell me the actual time? The hill is such a grinder I knew there was no way that he'd be able to beat me on his longboard. Even if he skated the flat and downhills and ran the uphill I still think I'd be able to run it faster.

Tuesday morning I got to work early and ran my five mile route through Flowery Branch to get loose. After that I went right to work with my hot lap around the facility. I took it out hahhd, hammering from the start until I got about 100-150 meters in before settling down and letting gravity do the work on the slight downhill.

I focused on my form and breathing around the pond, trying to keep it together knowing that the climb was going to be tough after getting out that fast. I was 1:55 at the cul-de-suc and decided to go for sub 4. When we talked about it on Monday I figured I'd be able to get under five minutes pretty easily, but since I wasn't sure of the real distance I didn't really know what I could do.

I got up the first part of the climb and then tried to change gears to get through the final 150 meters or so of climbing, knowing that the end is downhill to flat. I think the hill workouts have been working because I got through the climb relatively easy then just tried to bring it home with some "wheels" (31 year old wheels baby!).

I hit the watch at the flagpole, finishing the lap in 3:54.05. You know that's what I wrote on the white board where everyone is keeping track of their times. That point zero five is kind of a middle finger to certain people who don't respect the amount of work I put into my running. It's a fun middle finger. Like, I'm smiling and we're all friends but at the same time...come at me bro.

It's only a matter of time before I get challenged to something on the bike and get worked, so I have to own these while I can.


These endurance challenges started last summer. We have a trail in the back of our facility. It's a tight trail but good for running or mountain biking, but it's not very long. I figure it's a shade over a mile. We have a few coaches that are cyclists and a few that run for fitness. I got challenged to see how fast I could run the loop and whether I could run it faster than our GM (a former Cat 1 mountain biker) could ride it.

He kept chirping at me about it, but when this challenge came about we were in the middle of training camp, which is not the greatest time for my running. I still get my runs in but they are normally short and slow. Oh yeah, it's also elevendy billion degrees here. Anyway, one day I get told that I'm running it after lunch. I jogged a lap easy to get a feel for how it runs and where I could attack. I was not feeling like it was going to be a fast lap. It was hot and I'd been on my feet for pretty much the whole day.

Thomas rode his lap first. He came through in 9:01. Despite not feeling 100 percent into it, I felt like I had a chance to beat him since there are a lot of quick turns and punchy little ups. On the warm up lap I noticed a couple spots where I was able to close on him and a few spots where he was spinning his back wheel.

After he went, I launched into my lap. I hammered it as hard as I could and fortunately, I was still in pretty good form, I guess those track workouts paid off. I finishing my loop in 7:55. What Up. The trail is really tight in some spots and there aren't many areas where you can really power out and make up ground on the bike. On the other had, there are plenty of quick turns and short ups where I could just plant my foot, change direction and go. I think the tight turns also meant it was easier for me to get back on the gas coming out of them. It also helps that I've been racing on mountain bike trails in Georgia for five years now.



The next day I ran it the opposite direction in 8:07, giving me the record in both directions. Both records stand still stand today.

The other endurance challenge we currently have going is the fan bike. It's basically just how fast can you do a half mile on the fan bike. It's brutal. I did it once a couple weeks ago, but it all honesty I wasn't really into it so my time is 1:08 but I know I can go faster. I'm not big on staying late at work to get into the weight room now that it's light out until 7:30 p.m. though. I'll run or ride my bike outside thank you very much. One of the advantages the South has on New England is that spring is a real actual thing. It's 65 and sunny as I type this on a Sunday night at 7.

The fan bike is a torture device from the pit of despair. It's a bike, with a big ass fan for a front wheel and the handle bars pump like an elliptical. When I did it the first time I was putting out 800 watts for 40 seconds, I know that's not good for a cyclist but I was gassed. The current record is 49 seconds by Paul Worrilow, a professional, NFL linebacker who also happens to be the definition of a gym rat. For real. Last year the power went out and home boy was still in there cranking out cleans. The fan bike is one endurance challenge that I probably am not going to win but I actually feel pretty confident that my lap around the facility would stand even if players gave it a whirl.

I know you're wondering about the other challenges. I've actually held my own when I've been called to shoot free throws. I think I'm 3-3, but my ping pong skills have diminished severely. I'm 0-fer on the ping pong table.

I'm usually much more self deprecating, but I was kind of stoked about the lap around the facility so I thought I'd share. It was a nice little confidence booster after being a little down last weekend.