Quaker Strong Fall 2019 Edition

The people of the Steem blockchain,

I apologize for having been quiet for a while. I was busy traveling over the summer, training for a few races, revamping my personal website, and most recently having my reigning Quaker Strong title challenged.

If you remember, back in March, the then long-haired @dhimmel and I got this title (and shirt) for completing at least 10 out of 12 exercise goals specified by the Penn gym. We documented our effort here and here.

This time, the competition is even more cutthroat with 46 registered participants. The categories are similar to last time with two big changes:

• Meditation and Yoga are now combined into one Mindfulness category, and counted in “days” instead of separately in “minutes”.
• Burpees.

The former makes completing the challenge easier, and the latter much much harder.

Retrospectively, this challenge is probably less involved than the Spring one. However, when reading the rules, I thought about crossing out the biking portion. Riding 100 miles in cold, windy and dark November is no joke! If you didn’t notice Autumn in Philadelphia, that was because there was NONE AT ALL. My summer body rejects the sudden Philly cold front (and back).

Anyhow, to recap these amazing weeks and celebrate the coming holidays (and procrastinate my paper and grant revision), I thought I’d share our progress and say hi to you, my Steem friends.

Week 1

Week 1 goes by slowly and uneventfully. I attribute most of my immobility this week to this shoulder injury:

(photo taken one week after the injury)

You see, the day before the challenge started, on Sunday, we participated in a Spartan race. Toward the end of the course, I was faced by the dreadful multi-rigs, or ring swings. I knew I wouldn’t be able to complete it, but I wanted to give it a try anyway. As I reached for the third ring (no - I didn’t make it very far), my right hand missed it, and my left arm couldn’t hold on. I landed on first the elbow, then the shoulder. I felt like my right side exploded. I screamed and curled fetally onto the still-intact side. “Ughhhh how do I do 30 burpees with this arm.” - I thought. After a couple minutes, my breaths slowed, I was able to stand up and move around. Nothing seemed to be broken, and my Spartan group did all the burpees for me. Skipping the last few obstacles, I leisurely ran to the finish line.

So, wiped out by the race and also the pain, I barely do anything during the first week besides a few lunges.

The only highlight of the week is a local 5K - the Woodlands Gobble Wobble - in which I wobble to the finish line in second, AKA no turkey. I later learned that the first female, Liz Coda, almost outran @dhimmel and had run a 3:11 marathon the previous month. The 5K must have been a recovery run for her. No chance for me there!

The race day is yet the coldest day of the year (hence the trashbag pants), and we both get a little bit sick from breathing in hard the dense cold air of the cemetery. The four beers post race definitely do not help. Despite feeling unwell, the following day, @dhimmel persuades me to do a “small” 15-mile bike ride that turned into 26 (Fig. 4A) by the enticing “We can stop to get phở on the way back”. I can’t say no. At least we get to bike through some nice beds of leaves.

Week 2

We need to get serious. We’re a little behind, but nothing major. Now that my shoulder is stronger, I can start to do assisted chin ups, tricep dips, burpees and swim. I thank PennRecWellness for allowing me to use the incredible Penn Sheerr pool to complete my swimming portion. My technique is getting better. I think.

We increasingly put more and more strain on our bodies as the week approaches its end. By Friday, I can barely get out of bed. Fortunately, our weekend lights up by the visits of Daniel’s old college friends, the undateable Robert and limitedly liable Peter Chatigny. Robert bikes with us 45 miles on Saturday (Fig. 4B) and 14 more on Sunday to the Lincoln Financial Field to see the Patriots - Eagles game. During half time, in the freezing stadium, we do burpees to keep warm (and to get quaker strong) and get cheered on by everyone around us.

Figure 4. Bike routes, Greater Philadelphia Area.

Week 3

@dhimmel is very behind. He’s not even half way in a lot of categories, and most behind on burpees. I don’t know how he’s so calm. I would get so anxious if I’m this far behind. The week kinda goes like this:

Monday: “I need to do 25 burpees every day to be quaker strong.”
Wednesday: “I need to do 40 burpees every day.”
Thursday: “Oh dear I forgot about the lunges.”
Saturday: “I still have 5 miles to run.”

But somehow he pulls it off. I knew this procrastinator would do 200 burpees the last day if he had to. Meanwhile, I have 12/13 categories done by Friday, and only have 5 miles to bike through the weekend.

Here’s a sneak peek at some visualization I made from the incomplete google sheet log where I have given each participant a code name. I’ll let you take a wild guess to see which monster our procrastinator is.

code to be released soon

Two things I learned from the challenge this time:

1. Biking in the cold sucks, but if you have to do it, wear layers, a windbreaker and a buff to prevent windburn.
2. I don’t often talk about female hygiene products, but menstrual cups are revolutionary!!! Do NOT believe in rumors such as “It hurts to insert” or “I can’t use it with my IUD in”. These are FALSE. I use mine for running, swimming and backpacking, and it’s the most hygienic, comfortable, lightweight and eco-friendly option. Please please give it a try my fellow female friends!

We celebrate this round of Quaker Strong finish with all activities around the Philadelphia marathon weekend. I get to spectate a race for the first time and feel all the feels in the cold, wet and windy race this year. Congratulations to Dr. Jason Miller for finishing it strong!