Product Review: Navel Oranges

Everyone eats fruit. Well, everyone should eat fruit, and oranges are often an easy go-to. 

A medium sized orange has about 80 calories, 250mg of Potassium, 14g of sugar and 130% of your DRA of Vitamin C.

From the Sunkist webpage

But more importantly, Oranges taste good and they're pretty refreshing. Usually...

Because I had nothing to do the other day I thought I'd review some Navels that I got at my local Kroger.

Typically navel oranges are available from November through May, with peak supplies in late winter. So maybe buying them in September wasn't the best idea.They weren't a recognizable brand name either, just a knock off brand.

Sometimes you want to peel an orange. And these actually peeled quite well and easily. There was a low-moderate amount of that white skin stuff. 

A reasonable amount of skin left after the peel is gone. 

Sometimes you just want to cut your orange into slices. If you have a sharp knife, this is easy enough to do and you can see here that these kept a pretty uniform slice and didn't just turn into pulp.

However, slicing them actually yielded less available edible fruit. You can see from this picture the wasted orange.

And it gets stuck in your teeth.

But it really all boils down to taste. 
These were actually Ok. Almost the kind of orange you would expect to get with your bill at Chinese Food. They'd also make a great garnish orange. For the money (2.99 a dozen), they definitely weren't a bad deal, but if you want an orange with some real pizzazz, you may need to spend a bit more. 

Slices vs Peeled. Also, please notice the gratuitous product placement. The Reebok All Terrain Supers I want to review (Those are Heather's) and my coveted O2X/Dunkin' Donuts cup.

The convenient carrying size of an orange should also be considered. Notice how readily a Navel fits inside a Reebok All Terrain Super.

Heather's Reebok All Terrain Super. I'd run the living piss out of these.

Fruit is gamble. You can get a great apple on Monday, then a crappy apple on Tuesday. 
So make sure to ask your local Produce Expert what kind of fruit is best for you. 

But in the meantime, I'll continue to bring reviews on all sorts of things. Until I get a job, then you're on you own.

My first Naked 5k with Lyme Disease

I'm from Vermont. There's woods and lots of it. Unlike South Carolina, the trees aren't out to get you. The bugs aren't bigger than your thumb, there's very few poisonous snakes, no gators, all in all the woods in Vermont are pretty cool. Other than goddamn Deer Ticks.

My mother and sister have both had Lyme Disease. Both have told me it was the worst experience of their lives. And thank god, both of them were ultimately treated in time to hopefully prevent further complications.

After my Myrtle Beach GORUCK, I came home with a sore lower back. No big thing, it was GORUCK, you're going to be sore. Sunday however, the pain got worse, to the point I thought maybe I had thrown a disc. It hurt.

Sunday night, I am so uncomfortable I can't sleep, the pain is so bad, my head hurts so much and I'm so dizzy, I have to crawl to the bathroom. And when I get there, I can't decide if I need to sit on the throne or pray to the porcelain god. I honestly thought I was going to die right there in the shitter. I can barely think straight, let alone see straight. I'm now thinking I broke my back, or my kidneys are highly infected. I probably should have gone to hospital. If I'd insurance, I would have.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I slowly get better. The pain in my back subsides, I am able to walk. My headaches lessen, I'm able to read again. But my body temperature is still out of control. Cold sweats, when I could sleep I would wake up with soaked blankets and immediately start freezing.

Friday. I've got to get this looked at. After researching the long term prognosis of untreated Lyme, I decide to spend the money I don't have and go to Urgent Care. They test me for the Flu, makes sense. Look at the symptoms. Flu test is a negative. And thank christ, my doctor is cool and prescribes my Doxycycline.

It's been my understanding, and this happened with my Mother, that many doctors don't want to treat for Lyme without testing. The general public is now so suped up on antibiotics for little things that all of our bacteria are starting to become immune to antibiotics! But here's the damn catch. It's A) SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to treat Lyme than test for it. B) the long term prognosis is fucking horrible. The doctors at Brattleboro Memorial refused to treat my mother for Lyme on her first two visits to the ER.  My doctor was efficient, empathetic, and thorough. I'm taking Doxy.

Months ago, somewhat on a whim, Heather and I signed up for Sunbare Whispers 5k. I forget how we heard about it, but she said it was on her bucket list, so we went for it.

Nudity is weird thing for a lot of people. I won't lie, I don't understand why it has to be weird. Everyone is naked under their clothes, right? If we're supposedly all made equal, where's the damn problem? Well anyway, I won't carry on to far with my runaway train of thought, because honestly, I've been training for this for years.

Back in my thirties I was an avid white water kayaker. Show me a kayaker that won't drop trow on the side of the river, road or anywhere just to get out of a urine soaked wetsuit or prevent hypothermia from paddling in the winter. You just do it because you have to and you get used to being (not staying) naked outside the comfort of your home.

I'm also a Hasher. Hashing never requires nudity. But after you play umpteen games of Strip Cup or Slippy Cup, after you've done a few UGHs, after you've been to a Camp Hash, you get quite used to being around all kinds of naked people. And it doesn't bother you, like lots of things in life, you get used to it. Many Hashers, myself included, often run regimental under our Kilts. So you get used to your boys being free to do as they will while running.

I woke up Saturday morning not sure what I was going to do about this race. I've got Lyme disease and pushing a 5k race pace just doesn't seem wise. But I'm mobile, my back no longer hurts and the Doxycycline hasn't started it's evil side effects yet, so I decide to run, NOT race this thing. I mean, c'mon! I'm sure I'll get to do another one of these, but I paid 30$, it's a great weather and Heather wants to give it a go.

Here is a link to Earth Wind and Fire's September. This is such a fantastic song.

Whispering Pines is located in Ocean Isle, an easy hour drive north from Myrtle Beach, about half way to Wilmington/ Cape Fear. It's a small gated community of permanent mobile homes, RV's, etc.

Respecting the rights and rules of the park, it's members, the competitors, and race organization, we took no pictures in the park, of other racers or at the event itself. Any pics referring to this event were re-enacted shortly after at a nearby location.
 

Once inside the gate, it's naked time. I mean, you get to park your car first. So our parking guide, who was also the park owner is completely nude. As it's still an hour before race time, we see just a few other folks about, drinking their coffee, talking with friends and neighbors, totally naked. It's pretty cool.

We park our little SpartanMobile and I step out wearing my kilt. No sooner do my feet hit the ground when from behind me I hear "A man in a Kilt isn't wearing pants".  YES!! My kinda place already! I turn around and immediately get to meet the Race Director (I feel like an ass because I can't remember his name), who is incredibly friendly and notices our Vermont plates, striking up a conversation about a race they used to put on north of Burlington.

Side note, a friendly RD (race director) can make a good race great. See my review on the Francis Marion Dirt Dash. 

At this point my girl is out and about, naked. And I won't lie, I'm pretty damn proud of her. She's not a prude by any means, but I honestly didn't know if when race day came, she'd have the stones to bare it all. Well, she did, and once again proved how cool she is.

We walk over to to the rego table, and I'm a little curious about bib numbers, chips etc. But no bibs or chips, or even Sharpie'd numbers, they're using an old school Carding system. We walk around the park a bit, it's really kind of nice, reminds a bit of Mohawk Campground where we used to GAP when we lived up north. All in all, I can tell this going to be a good morning.

The RD is also the Race MC, and he's doing a great job. He gives us some stats of some of the previous races here. The course record is 14:47.  That's a 4:45 mile. What the ffffuuuuckkkk. People are amazing. Can you imagine being that fast? I couldn't even ride my bike on this course that fast!

Well it's finally race time. 10am and we're going to start right on time. We line up in the corral. I'm just running, remember? But my girl is racing so she's right on the start line, where as I'm casually kicking around in the middle.

Hey, ya know how you go to a race or event and you casually side eye and check out the competition? Well, that changes a bit at a Naked race. Think about it.....there ya go. But we had all kinds of people doing this race. People from the community, which was awesome, and some people, like Heather and me, that drove in just for the experience.

A brief description of the course, and we're out of the gate. And it's AWESOME! I'm not sprinting, I've got godamn Lyme! I'm running maybe an 8:30 and it feels great. I mean everything feels great. There's no awful bouncing, no chaffing, no helicoptering, no clapping sounds. It's awesome. Awesome, awesome.

My first lap (1mile per lap), I feel great, almost forgetting I'm sick. Second lap I start wondering if I was dropped on my head as a child. Third lap I fall apart and occasionally have to walk.

As mentioned the course is 3 laps. There's no pavement on course, most of it packed dirt road. The exception being what the RD called The Sand Pits where the course moved on to grass briefly. In fact in the Sand Pits you could see some of the obstacles they use for their OCR (I gotta do that). There are volunteers in golf carts along the course. There's a water station and the very best....there's a gentleman with a garden hose ready with a fine mist if you want to cool off. And it was a nice warm morning, so this was an especially nice touch.

I wish I had felt good for this race.

But hey, life's a bitch right? At least I didn't have Lyme for my GORUCK.

I finished, running over the line, without dying on trail. I'm counting that as a win for this day.

There's some bananas, fig newtons, water and Yuengling at the finish. Btw, Yuengling makes a fantastic recovery drink. And even though I probably shouldn't have alcohol, I am a Hasher, and I did just finish a race. So eff it. I had one. And it was great.

We hung around a bit afterwards and cheered some other competitors thru the gate. We also had to kick around because Heather came in Second! Yaaay! (Here is her recap)

We did have to roll out soon after the awards, but the park offered some food and beer and a nice general post-race atmosphere. In fact, next year I am going to be sure not to schedule anything after this event and stick around for the day. In fact, In fact, next year I am going to try my best to convince others to come join us for this event. People have a lot of hangups with nudity, and sometimes jumping into the fire is a great way to get rid of those hangups. So if you're reading this, consider yourself invited.

Thank you Cape Fear H3 for taking this re-enactment photo!

Myrtle Beach GORUCK Light Sept.5 Class 927

The first GORUCK I did, back in October 2014 was also a Light. But it was also a Mogadishu Mile, something a bit more special in the GORUCK world. I didn't do a re-cap, but damn straight my girl did.

Myrtle Beach in September is significantly different from Portland in October. A) It's a helluva lot warmer. B) The beaches are sand, not rock. C) It's a helluva lot warmer. D) There's a ton of people in Myrtle. E) It's a helluva lot warmer.

And this event was also significantly different from my experience in Portland.

My Portland GORUCK was pretty much an "Embrace The Suck" kind of thing. I am in no way knocking it. It's GORUCK. You sign up, and you get what the Cadre and the environment give you. This is important to know. I've attached pictures of both events to try to show the difference.

But my Myrtle 'ruck was actually fun. Ya, there were some moments when I would rather have been sitting on the beach than marching around with sand in my junk carrying a big ass water container, but it was still fun.

(Unless noted otherwise, all photo credits to two of our shadows, Tammy & James Vretis. Thank you guys so much)
 

Class 927

I'm not going to go into too many details on what GORUCK is. But the basic premise is Team Building and carrying shit around. Although I understand some people like the Team aspect, Team has never been a word I use often. I really just like the physical aspect of these things. 

As noted above, there's a good chunk of people in Myrtle Beach, especially on a nice Saturday on Labor Day Weekend. Well, our start point was at a popular beach head right down town. And although parking kind of sucked, I've never minded making a spectacle of myself, and I'm pretty damn sure a bunch of folks hanging around in a beach parking lot, in the sun, 80degrees, wearing backpacks made a spectacle.

GORUCK is team thing, so you introduce yourself to people when you show, because you're all going to be relying on each other soon enough, may as well get to know your buddy now. As we kick about the Team Weight shows. An ammo box with some gear in it, and a bottle of Captain Morgans. Nice. Then the team flag shows. Thank Christ, I was most worried about this, because YOU WILL have an American Flag when you do a GORUCK. The fellow that brought the flag was a badass who had also done a longer GORUCK event the night before. (You'll meet these crazies when you do a GORUCK). Unfortunately, I guess the flag pole wasn't up to par, so the current pole was taped to this big heavy ass metal rod. Rumor was it was now 27#s. Can't confirm or deny that one.

After getting the flag squared we trudge down to the beach and line up. Yep, this is military styled event. Stay in formation until told not to. Rucks off, rucks open in the sand, Cadre is gonna check out your weight/gear.

Look at those smiles! 4 out of 5 Dentists recommend GORUCK

There are currently a few different options for what kind of weight you use, but essentially I was carrying 4 bricks, 2+liters of water, headlamp, batteries, ID and twenty bucks. I knew I wasn't going to need any extra layers on this adventure...it's freeking 80 degrees. 

Have you done a GORUCK before? Well let me tell you, your Ruck can make a huge difference,my GOLITE pack was designed with Adventure Racing in mind, not lumping bricks. When I get the funds, I will be looking into a GORUCK Pack. It makes a difference, TRUST ME.

Packs on. Two rows facing each other.

Front leaning rest. It felt like we spent 15 minutes bear crawling backwards and forwards while introducing ourselves to each other, again. (Hint, practice push ups and bear crawls for your GORUCK.)

Pack on your belly. Two rows back to back.

So now we're leaning against each other doing squats. I hardly squat anymore because of all the damn running, so this kind of sucked for me.

Pack on your back, face your buddy.

Do more squats,but it only lasted as long as the country song that Cadre played over his mega-phone. I love country music. My partner however, was singing along. Which was cool, motivation and all.

Then...then, the much dreaded Buddy Carry. I HATE THIS. I'm a tall skinny guy, trying to get underneath some two hundred pounder is brutal on me back and knees. But, perseverance, and using a smaller partner helped. 

Grab the Team Gear, time to go!

Staying in formation seems pretty hard for civilians, especially when you now add in the weights of the ammo box, 2 five gallon (filled) water jugs, and an army duffle full of something...
So we shuffle down the beach, I'm loathe to call it marching, with our Flag Carrier in the front, team weights behind. Now, at this point my bad memory gets even worse, but I believe Cadre gave us fifteen minutes to cover about a mile of beach. Now, 15min per mile is no big thing on pavement, but lumping in the sand is a different story. Our destination is the Ferris Wheel on 11th. Our "Platoon Leader" and "Assistant Platoon Leader" are tasked with getting us there in time. 

However, neither of them have done a GORUCK before, and neither of them are carrying a forty pound water jug. So when they ask for a jog....the formation gets a little sloppy. Trying to double time carrying some of the team weights can be challenging.
But hey, we make the cuttoff and we make a real great scene because this is where the beach is really damn busy. You'll now know what a GORUCK is when you see it, but the general population has no idea what to think about a squad of civilians carrying random things with an American Flag up front.

Remember how I keep mentioning it's in 80s? Well Cadre now brings us into the water. The nice cool, beautiful ocean...Hydro Burpees were introduced to me. Pretty fun actually, and not real easy when wearing a pack that has a highly buoyant yoga block in it. We may have done some flutter kicks here as well. We also played "Duck, duck, dolphin". This involved one poor sod staying underwater for the duration it took the rest of us to run out of the water, up the beach, around a water jug, and back to Cadre. I'm not a huge water guy, and thank christ I never had to be the dolphin. 

Myrtle Beach

Portland Maine, Oct 4th 2014. Photo courtesy of Lauren Hines

Back on the beach.

We're given another rally point, 2 different leaders, another time cutoff, and an option. Fill one of our canvas duffles with beach sand (250+ lbs.), or take a casualty. 

Work smarter, not harder. And we were given the choice. And we had a few girls under 130lbs. So guess what we chose to do? Ya, we took a casualty.

One of the veteran badasses carrying my girl.

The scene we made with general population before? Well now we're doing that same thing except we're all taking turns doing the newly learned buddy carry down the beach. 

Our crew had some decent size dudes in it, and we took turns lumping a couple the girls down the beach like sacks of potatoes. Being the casualty is actually pretty damn painful, so big kudos to the gals that took one for the team here.

Making the rally with time to spare, Cadre has us sit in a semi circle. Of course I'm thinking it's about to get ugly. But instead, we got a GORUCK exclusive experience (O2X Summit Challenges offers another fantastic similar experience at their Base Camps). Cadre talks with us about his time in the Special Forces. He explains the importance of team work in day to day living, and how the ability to overcome problem A can often make overcoming problem B easier, even if in round about ways.

I mentioned earlier I am not a big Team guy, but if you wanna learn about Team Dynamics, learn from a Special Forces Vet. Damn right they know what they're talking about.




 

I would maybe guess we sat for 15min. So getting back up on freshly locked up muscles was interesting...Back down the beach we go. At this point the crowd on the beach is getting used to us. We here random shouts of  'Merica! or chants of "USA,USA,USA!"
We even have people approaching to ask us what we're doing. Strangely however, nobody wants to join us...

At our destination we have an interteam competition. 2 squads face off, no packs. We have 2 lines running parallel North/South to the beach facing each other. Everyone belly down in the sand. The plan here is to get the Southern most person to the Northern most point of the formation. But this person has to roll on their belly under the rest of them who are planning on doing a plyo pushup over the rolling person passing underneath. Pretty easy if there's only 3 of you, with 7 or 8, it becomes more of a mosh pit with arms, asses and elbows flying about everywhere. But it's still pretty fun, and physically taxing. Let alone all the lovely beach sand in your eyes.

Myrtle Beach

Portland Maine, Oct 4th 2014. Photo courtesy of Lauren Hines

After this bit 'o fun, we're given our last rally point, but the caveat is we only have 7 minutes to cover a mile. Not an unimaginable feat solo, but again, we need to stay in formation, on a crowded beach, with weights and some participants are starting to feel the day. But this is a GORUCK, not a book club. So we start off.

Myrtle Beach

Portland Maine, Oct 4th 2014. Photo courtesy of Lauren Hines

This is where my own feelings towards GORUCK get squirrely. If Cadre designates Platoon Leaders, it becomes their job of organizing the mob into formation and moving it along. But what often seemed to happen (at my 2 events at least), is you get some Alphas in the pack that start yelling "Go, go, go" because they can't see the poor folks struggling off the back, and they can't hear the PLs yelling "Slow up".  It quickly becomes a mess, any hint of a formation is gone, and we look like a random drunken beach party making our way along.
 
I really do appreciate the team aspect of GORUCK, but I'd think one of the first ideals of a team is no man left behind, right? 
It might be the only damn thing I remember from my time in the Army, but you keep the formation together until directly ordered not to. I'm a little surprised we didn't have hell to pay for this stretch.

After the 7min ruck we change things up a bit. Platoon Leaders are now carrying some Team Weights, everyone else pack off. This event is pretty hard to describe, but it involved the guy in the back of the line handing his bag forward, while everyone else also handed their bag forward, and the last place guy sprinting to the front. Then the whole thing starting again. This was an interesting way to get a feel for some of the other peoples packs. And damn, we had a couple hardcore sumbitches packing at least 40lbs for a Light (only 20lbs reqd if you weighed over 150lbs). 

Finally getting back to our start point. It's pretty warm out. I just felt my water bladder 86. Shit, now I need to drink my tepid backup bottles.

But wait, back into the water. This was a releif as we were starting to have some real casualties. We weren't asked to do anything to crazy, just link arms and fall back into the water.

I really love Myrtle Beach.

Cadre let us linger in the water long enough for team recovery, then brought us back on the beach for some more...fun.

But it wasn't bad nasty burpee fun, it was plain simple fun. The kind of thing you may see 8yr olds doing.

We take our rucks and make a circle then march around them while Cadre plays another of my favorites, "Girls" by Beastie Boys. And we played Musical Rucks. March until the song is stopped, then dive onto a bag. If you don't get a bag, you're out. So grab a ruck then go to the "pit" and do the wave til everyone gets bumped. It was hilarious!

Then we were done!

What, done? But I was having fun man. It's only been about 4hrs, let's just go another 2hrs, this is the shit. Ok one more hour. Damn. 

Line up, two rows face to face. Cadre busts out the pack of patches and walks done the rows shaking each participants hand and offering a sincere word of congratulation to each of us while handing us our patch.

Look at that smile!

Three members of troop had already done 2 other events with Cadre Heath and they were issued his own personal patch. Pretty cool.

This was only my second GORUCK. I am not claiming to be a pro at this shit. There are alot of badasses out there that do these. And I've only done Lights. Although I personally do HIGHLY recommend everyone do a GORUCK, find some GORUCK vets and get their feed back. 
I can't honestly tell you when or what level GORUCK I will do next. I'll absolutely do the Myrtle Light if it comes back next year. But I really need to look into a ruck. 
Here are some more contrast pictures. Because you never know what you're going to get.

Myrtle Beach

Portland Maine, Oct 4th 2014. Photo courtesy of Lauren Hines

Myrtle Beach

Portland Maine, Oct 4th 2014. Photo courtesy of Lauren Hines

Myrtle Beach

Line up! Portland Maine, Oct 4th 2014. Photo courtesy of Lauren Hines

Staying cool in Myrtle Beach

Staying warm, Portland Maine, Oct 4th 2014. Photo courtesy of Lauren Hines

Heather enjoyed Myrtle Beach GORUCK

Portland Maine, Oct 4th 2014. Photo courtesy of Lauren Hines

On a comical (?) side note! My first ruck I mentioned, I had just started cyclocross training 2 weeks prior and had some saddle sores. No big, you get a saddle sore, you keep it clean and it goes away. BUT, if you get a saddle sore then spend 5hrs in the 50degree rain, in and out of the freezing Portaland ocean, you may end up with a thumb size abscess on your taint. Like I did. It hurt like hell, I couldn't walk and I had to have it surgically attended to. TMI?

Well a week after this GORUCK I am being treated for Lyme Disease. Ya, seriously.

These two ailments are in no way caused directly by the GORUCK, but whats going happen if I do a Tough? Leprosy?
 

Anyway. Start training and get out there and GORUCK. This link really does take you to GORUCK. I lied on the others because I can't stand country music or beastie boys.

MOG Mile Patch from Portland, Light Patch from Myrtle Beach. Now I need a Heavy?

It's really damn hot.

As of this writing (8-28-15) I still have no job, so I get to run a lot more and go to the gym a lot and do whatever. After picking up after Heather and the cats, I have lots of free time. So she, yes she decided we should train for this next Ultra we want to do.

Damn, I wonder if we're even rego'd yet. I'll be disappointed if rego is closed.
(We just rego'd, it cost 69 dollars. Snicker,snicker)

I guess I did run a good chunk in New England....

Training for The Seven Sisters Trail Race.

Between the hashing and racing etc., I did run. But man, nothing like this kind of mileage. I remember once reading that mileage should only be increased around 10% a week. That makes sense. So if I was only running 10 miles a week, I could safely bump up to 11 miles.
No problem.
Starting the last week of July, I did 27.5 miles per week. (mpw)
First week of Aug I ended with 28. That's easily within 10%!
Second week of Aug I ended with 36. Hey...that's closer to 35%...
This week I bailed early on a run but  I should end (with a race on Saturday) with 39. Cool, back within 10%
Next week I'm scheduled for 47! Shit. That's a lot of running. 18 on Monday, 11 on Tuesday then some shorter runs toward the end of the week.

I like running. I really do. But I am not a natural runner. My damn father was (Sub 2min half mile!) but I don't have that in me. I fight for my mileage, like I think many of us do, and I don't always get my mileage because I feel like shit.
Here's a couple of reasons:
We recently moved to South Carolina from Vermont, and it's really damn hot. It's awesome. But it's hot. And freekin' muggy. Holy shit, breathing sometimes...it's like having a wet washcloth over your mouth.
 Step outside for a run at 6am and you're sweating by 6:00:10, your shirt is soaked by 6:05 and you hope the vat of Vaseline squished into the crotch of your shorts will hold out til the end of your run.

16miles into an 18miler. I was already soaked in sweat anyway. 

We're also skint. Being unemployed gives me lots of time to run, but not lots of money to re-fuel properly. And even worse, as a Vegetarian, I'm always hungry. We eat pretty healthy, and thank god for Heather's contacts, but there is never enough real food.

So those are the two big things that I feel are really holding me back. Heat and Food. Heat and Food. Now, one of them, the heat, is slowly going to become a non-issue. I've been told it will cool down here sometime in late October. But I will still be out doing 30 mile training runs in the mid-70s.

The nutrition thing is going to be a work in progress. We have Cliff, About Time and Vega products kicking around for days. PowerBars (the original ones) work really well for me mid-run.
I've decided that water will be the only thing going into my CamelBak, there's always water on course, but not always Heed or Cytomax, so I don't want to get used to any drink then not have it available on course.
I kinda figure if I can get this dialed in for that 30mile training run, then I'll be good to go for Dec 5th.

In the meantime, if you know of any part time work, let me know. There's a ton of other things out there I need to do.

Race Review: Francis Marion Dirt Dash 2015

Getting up at 330am for a race can be kind of harsh. But you do what you gotta do, because you love what you do and that's why you do it. Doodely do.

A new friend in my local running group posted he was giving a free rego to the Francis Marion Dirt Dash. (I cant find a dedicated web site on this, only the FB Page.) So I figured "What the hell, I haven't raced this month."  Heather helped me secure the entry and off we went.

Awendaw, South Carolina is about 90min south of us, just north of Charleston. As I mentioned we woke at 330, got Heathers ankle biters out of bed, and made it out the door by 410.

Our plan was to hit the Dunkin Donuts just outside of town. I need that for an early morning road trip such as this. In fact, DD is a (disgusting) part of my pre-race fuelin'! But alas, and I should have guessed, the Dunkin was closed.

Now I'm under caffeinated, and there's at least one whiny little kid with no donut in the back seat. At least I didn't have to pee.

 There's no Dunkin's open before 6am between Myrtle and Charleston, by the way. Just a helpful FYI for ya there.

Parking for the race was kind of interesting, and very well done I must add. Just of Hwy 17 is the Seewe Visitor Center. It was dark as a pocket when we got there at 545 but the shuttle to the race showed up shortly after we got there. The shuttle took us down the hwy a bit to a dirt road which we walked down, in the dark. It was kind of neat actually, maybe a quarter of a mile. I probably could have done without the 6yr old's screaming, but we made it to the start line without me finding out if South Carolina bears eat little kids. 

 The race organizers were a couple of minutes late getting everything set up, but no biggy, this was a pretty laid back event. My rego transfer was tit. My buddy grabbed the rego he was giving me and all I had to do was let the Time Official know that I was no longer a 30 Something Female, but instead a 45 year old male. Good to go. No hassles at all. You really gotta appreciate that.

 We were originally scheduled for a 7am start, but as mentioned earlier, things were running a bit behind so I believe it was 710 or 715 when we finally got running.

 Jesus Christ, it's raining buckets right now. As I write this! Not at the race, it was really great weather for the run actually.

Start of the Eagle Endurance Dirt Dash

A video posted by Heather Gannoe (@relentlessforwardcommotion) on Aug 29, 2015 at 4:18am PDT

                                 (My girlfriend took that video, btw)


There were 2 different races going on. A Half Marathon and a 12k (7.5m). Both starting at the same time and partially on the same course. I'm doing the 12k and the course is "F" shaped, only backwards. (I don't feel like trying to find an image of a backward F.) 

 We run down a dirt road, take a left and turn around at big oak tree. We run back to the original starting road and take another left. Up the road a bit and a left. Down this portion of dirt until we come to the safety tape marking the turn around. Turn around and then make a right on to the original road all the way to the finish.

 No single track on my race, all cart road, but quality cart road. The course was indeed very well marked, in fact if you got lost...you deserved it.

 Unfortunately, this was a new course for the 12k, and the mileage wasn't dialed in correctly. We only ended up with 5.5 instead of 7.5 miles. Again, no biggy, this isn't the damn Olympics, it's a local race, shit happens. 

 I'd heard rumors of two to three hundred people rego'd for this. I haven't checked that but for a local race it seemed pretty popular. The race director knew a few of the racers by name and was very friendly with everyone.

Post race swag was pretty good for a local. Yuengling  was actually a sponsor of the race, so racers got a beer or a Mimosa (I had both) along with fresh orange slices, bananas, M+Ms, crackers and such. The volunteers were nice and had some flyers for another race coming up soon.

 After the race, we hopped on the golf cart to take us to the shuttle bus to take us to our cars. Sound complex? It wasn't. They did a great job moving participants from A to B.
The T-shirt is pretty damn cool too. It's tech, which is freeking fantastic, and has a really cool pattern on it.

2 of my cats. They appreciate what I try to do. Crappy camera huh?

This was a good race to get started with this organization, Eagle Endurance. With any luck, Heather and I can race the next one together. There's a good amount to choose from.

Me, the non-screaming kid and a Yuengling Recovey Drink.

Product Review: Ryte Mojo Plus Pack

I originally started taking the Ryte products in January 2015 when I was mostly working on gaining some muscle, not weight loss. 
I substituted my normal Pre-workout for the Ryte Spark, my normal Post-workout for the Ryte Fuel and added the Ryte Rejuv to my overall program.

Thats my cat. She's really cute, old too. But this gives you a gist of the size of the boxes

I was taking the Spark around 3pm, 2.5 hours before my normal gym time.
Now, I typically get cranked on nasty pink sugary Pre. I normally get this Walmart stuff that I actually really like. It's sweet and gross, but works pretty damn well. So when I cut this and substituted the Ryte, I had some reservations.

But hey!  The Ryte is alright! There was NO hyper-activity from this. No racing heartbeat or sweats or anything. There was however, just a nice feeling of alertness. Ya know, like that feeling you get after a 10-15min run. Nothing over the top, but enough to get you through a 2hr gym session.

The Rejuv stuff however, that knocked me on my ass, as it was marketed to. Now, keep in mind I took this around 930pm, after working out. I normally sleep pretty good anyway, but this stuff really knocked me out. I did however, often wake up at 4am to pee, then stayed awake, entirely alert. This may have something to do with my natural sleep patterns or the horrible cabin fever we're all suffering. Or maybe I only need 6hrs of sleep....dunno. But this stuff will PUT you to sleep in less than 15min.

The Fuel: Not too shabby. Not too shabby. If you keep a mixer ball in your water bottle, it'll mix up all nicey-nice. No chunks. The flavor is pretty decent. No chalky taste, no over the top sweetness. I wouldn't want to drink it while running though. Its got that milky consistency.

In January I was weighing in around 200lbs or so. I was taking all this gear and basically eating anything (vegetarian) that I wanted. There was very little cardio going on.

THEN: Heather signed me up for a Marathon. Weight loss time.
I am now taking a packet of Ryte at noon with lunch, instead of 3pm. This does a pretty good job of curbing my appetite for my typical 3pm snack.
I am also eating a good bit less of dairy. I have tons of veggies for 10am breakfast, and noon lunch. I have a bar of some sort around 5 and try to keep the cheese to a minimum.
I am back taking my normal Pre and doing a boat load of cardio to train for this damn marathon.
In the past 5-6 weeks I've dropped down to about 190lbs. And I feel pretty damn good. I don't get any kind of mid-day crash and I hit the gym motivated.
As I don't really have any trouble falling asleep, I've stopped taking the Rejuv for a while. I do still occasionally take the Fuel, but am also mixing in an Amino Acid bevvy for a Post.

As with most products out there, you need to exercise and eat right to really see any benefits.You can take all the crap in the world, but if you don't put in the effort you shouldn't expect much. I think this Ryte product line up is great if you're putting in the work.

Here's some stats on this stuff: No GMO's. Not Artificial junk. Safe for Glutards and Veggie Caps.
All good. If you want more nitty gritty, go to their site http://www.ryte.com/

Another pic, with my cat. This shows envelope size.

The products absolutely do what they claim to do. They're easy to consume and digest. The little packets are nice to carry in a pocket, although perhaps creating a bit of extra waste as opposed to a bottle of 30caps.
Is a 30 day supply of this gear worth the 200 bones listed on the website?
I say no. This is good product, don't get me wrong. I'd take it year round if I could. But 200 bucks?!?! You know what you could do with that? I mean c'mon, thats 2400 a year!
I feel you'd be better off hiring a Personal Trainer and a Dietician. Take that moolah and do some races or fun-runs. Hell, go by a new gym wardrobe.

Ryte is basically a pyramid scheme concept, simalar to Beach Ball Body. Don't ask me exactly how it works as I am not interested in the actual marketing.

I've really been enjoying In Absentia from Porcupin Tree today. Good music.

The long and the short of Ryte products!!! I'd pay 50$ a month for this gear. Maybe up to 75$ if I really needed to drop some weight. But I could cycle some steroids for 200...

Please remember however, the source of this review. I don't really have any weight issues, I sleep like a baby most nights and I'm already very active and eat a vegetarian diet.

If you are struggling with motivation and weight loss, please try to find some more Ryte reviews written by people of situations similar to your own. This seems like a good company trying to make a product for your average joe, not your anarchist gym rat.