Dragging Heavy Things Around with RKC Level 2 Laurel Blackburn

I spent this past weekend at Tallahassee Kettlebells with the only other female RKC Level 2 in the state of Florida, Laurel Blackburn.  It was pretty darned intense. We kept joking that she tried to kill us both with this sled dragging experiment and Florida would have found itself down to only 3 out of 5 RKC2s…   Thankfully we survived…. and talked form, strategy, business, life, strength, etc. ALL WEEKEND.   All in all, possibly 6 gallons of coffee were collectively consumed by the household along with 5lbs of steak, almonds by the fist full and at least 2lbs of bacon.

The first day, Saturday, I was really ready to get out of the car and MOVE – 4hrs or so of straight driving is enough to make me feel all cooped up – I’d stop at rest stops for bathroom and twitter breaks LOL – and that always helps.  It was also fun to check in on the friends and collegues at the RKC Philadelphia.    Anyhow – no thanks to Google maps… ahem… I finally arrived, noting all the nice hills and tree-shaded landscape of the area.   (Did you catch that foreshadowing?)

Both of us had some fairly pressing questions for each other on the “Am I doing this right? Does this look funny?” level.  And once again, I would really encourage all HKC and RKC instructors to get together for little pow-wows every now and then – not only is it fun, but we can all learn so much from each other – sharing cues, watching each other’s form, etc.   Laurel and I even shot some video and watched things in slo-mo – I can’t overemphasize how much of a useful tool that was.  We exchanged GAME CHANGING info this weekend, and I wish that you can have that kind of experience soon too.   Of course nothing compares to a workshop, but this was definitely way up there too.    After a little snack, we went down to her facility – a GIGANTIC warehouse – well over 5,000sqft by my estimate and filled with all kinds of great stuff – LOADS of kettlebells, TRX trainers, battling ropes, climbing ropes, sandbags, waternags, pull up stations, gymnastic rings, sleds, etc. etc. etc.  As far as I’m concerned a total fitness playground.

Little did I know what was in store for the afternoon… here’s a confession…. I’d never tried sled dragging or pushing a Prowler etc.  So when she loaded 50lbs on the yellow sled and 40lbs on the Prowler I thought, hmmm this shouldn’t be too bad.   She didn’t tell me where we were going to take the darned things.  I just assumed we’d go around the large parking lot etc.  OH NO, we were going to TAKE THEM AROUND THE BLOCK!   And this is Tallahassee… so there’s hills, BIG hills… not flat swamp land like Orlando and Winter Park!  We were going to switch off from time to time and basically see how long it would take to take these things around the block – the size of which I still had no idea.   We had a few stilted conversations between gasping and the loud scraping sounds of the metal sleds grinding away on the concrete and asphault.  The concrete sidewalk seemed to grab at the metal on the sleds, where as the asphault seemed to glide a *little* better – anyone else have this experience?    The Prowler, much to my horror was just ever so slightly wider than the sidewalk and kept grabbing the grass at the edges!!!!   But we managed to get them moving.  It was so funny though, each time we’d switch between the sled and the Prowler, we’d have the same thought “oh geez this is easier, what’s HER problem?!” then 30 seconds later… OHHHH… right….

Uuuhhhhhhhhhhhh. EVERY time and it didn’t matter which we were switching from – so that became really hilarious.   On the home stretch, the route took us next to a very large road – and I am slightly disappointed to say that we weren’t honked at THAT much – if I saw two crazy women shoving and dragging sleds etc up a hill you bet I’d honk out some encouragement. Suffice it to say though, that this was yet another instance where I was glad that I’ve continued the habit of checking all essential seams on all yoga pants before wearing them.   After 45 mins or so we returned to the gym – sprinting the last bits to get some momentum… WHEW!!!   Laurel’s heart rate monitor said she burned approx 267 calories, but I would say that’s a VERY conservative estimate… still in awe over some of those serious uphill portions… total distance 7/10ths of a mile.  The next day I knew we’d get things evened out as we worked on some of my favorites – heavy pressing, pull ups, rope climbs and more.   Thankfully it was dinner time and there was plenty!  YAY for steak!!!!!