The Intrepid Civilian Military Combine

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you may be aware that on April 6th I woke up ridiculously early to head over to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in NYC to participate in the Civilian Military Combine.

If you’ve never been to the Intrepid, it’s pretty cool.  It’s a museum on a retired aircraft carrier.  I remembered visiting it as a kid and loving it.  So when my friend Lindsay from my Crossfit gym asked me if I’d be interested in participating in the event and that it came with free tickets to the museum, I was sold.  I joined Team Down Bottom Position (named after a popular phrase one of our coaches often uses) and signed up for the event.  Lindsay and our teammate Kristi even made us some great shirts to rock during the event.

The Civilian Military Combine is a competition that puts civilians against military personnel in a test of fitness.  It starts off with a Crossfit style “WOD” strength component, and then you move onto a 1/2 mile long obstacle course.

The PIT element consisted of as many rounds as possible in 7 minutes of

• 7 45 pound push presses
• 7 26 pound kettlebell swings
• 7 20″ burpee box jumps

So the goal is to get as many reps as you can in the 7 minutes.  I completed around 89 reps, mostly because I’m slow (or so my coaches tell me).  I’ve been working pretty hard to try to get faster during these types of workouts.  It really makes you have to push yourself outside of your comfort zone.

After the PIT, you were immediately sent over to the half a mile long obstacle course.  It consisted of a weighted sled push…

Carrying an insanely heavy sandbag up three flights of stairs and back down…

Monkey bars…

Rope wall climbs…

Scaling numerous walls…

Ladder type walls….

Carrying large buckets filled with water through a maze…

And this lovely obstacle at the end.  It was basically two rope meshes, one on top and one on the bottom.  You had to roll your way through it and pull yourself out the other end.  Holy ab workout.

We all finished and had a fantastic time!

Immediately after we finished, we got to explore the Intrepid Museum.  Although it was pretty cold out (it was in the 40’s!), we still had a crystal-clear perfect day to check out all the planes.

Have you ever visited the Intrepid or completed a CMC Event?  If so I’d love to hear about it!

*Special thanks to Chris for getting all these photos the day of the event.

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Pass Out in 20

Earlier in the week this week I had my first session with my new personal trainer.  I totally knew I was in for it when I was 5 minutes late (due to a doctor’s appointment), frantically getting changed in the locker room, and the trainer busted in yelling “Are you Corrie?  Come on let’s go I have another session after you!!”.  Ooops.

My trainer was notified about my marathon history by the owner of the gym, and while having me jump rope for 5 minutes to warm up had mentioned it was a good sign for me I had run marathons in the past that I should be able to rebuild my endurance back pretty quickly.  Considering I wanted to pass out after jumping rope for only a minute, I have my doubts but I trust her nonetheless.

She then had me do the most simple yet kick ass routine I’ve ever done.  It took around 20 minutes and I wanted to pass out/throw up/die after.

• 10 Kettlebell Lateral Swings
• 10 Jumping Jacks
• 10 Burpees.  I’ve run marathons and have never felt pain like a burpee.
• Jump Rope for 1 minute (trainer let me skip this being I was so out of breath but I have to build up to it during the week)

To complete the routine, after you finish a set, for the next set you drop a rep.  So for example, the first set you do 10 of each.  The next set 9 of each.  Then 8 of each, etc.  You continue all the way until you only do 1 of each, and then you’re finished.

The great part about this workout is it only takes 20 minutes and I have no excuse not to fit it into my schedule.  The bad part is I wanted to die I was so tired doing it.  I was given instructions to do this each workout this week and to email her with my progress so she knows I’m doing it.

Looks like I have my work cut out for me.