Pick any two of the following in any order for time:
1 Mile Run
2 Mile AirDyne
2K Row
Rx+ is all 3
We hear a lot about functional fitness from the blogs and the magazines on CrossFit, and I often ponder how do I use my strength for a purpose? Then sometimes opportunity knocks, and gives me an open door to try new things.
Last weekend the Sierra Club had called together a new type of work party. This was not going to be a short run in the woods and then a nice lunch next to a cozy wood stove. See, a nasty building inspector had condemned one of the most popular cross-country ski huts in the Sierras last spring, and they needed it fixed by this Thanksgiving. After months of having the lawyers put their mark on every contract, and every liability form possible (you know who you are…), they were ready to have a crew of human-mules bring in flat steel plates to place along the beams, just interior of the roof line. “Why not use snowmobiles?” is the common-sense thought here. But, the Peter Grubb hut is in a wilderness, so you cannot bring any mechanical equipment, not even a bike inside its boundaries. All work has to be done by human power.
The engineer the Sierra Club hired had decided to custom-order 5-inch wide steel plates that are like large rubber bands. They weigh about 75 pounds each and are 14 feet long. I guess wanted to make sure the roof could take the heavy snows that the Sierras are sure to bring this year, and for the next 100 years, because we had to carry around 50 of them in. The first hill climb is a real doozy. It is like scaling a 20 foot building, and was full of snow and mud. If the picture gets posted with this, you can see three tiny people, on the first 1/3 of the slope…and it only gets worse as you go up.
I really appreciate that Justin spent some time discussing the possible solutions to getting the plates into the wilderness and also allowing me to take a few sets of the nylon straps (the same ones we all love to use during our sled workouts). And Lene even volunteered to modify any workout on Saturday that would require sleds so that they would not be missed. In the end, these straps helped carry at least 10 plates into place and those plates now sit in front of the hut, one mile in from our trucks. Thank you from the Sierra Club for the help!
