Day 18: Origins of the OCR

                Obstacle course races (OCR’s) have become hugely popular over the past decade as casual gym-goers look for new ways to test themselves physically & mentally. Additionally, with the average person becoming more aware of the health risks posed by a sedentary lifestyle, many are searching for a new, exciting way to get their daily exercise. Whatever the reason, OCR’s have been tabbed as one of the fastest growing sports in North America & they are certainly here to stay.

Where did it start?

                Although the origins of the OCR are not clear, many experts point to the ‘Tough Guy’ race that was originally held in the UK in 1987. The Tough Guy event claims is it “One of the hardest events the body can take. Contests compete in this gruelling biannual event.” The event is still run twice each year, however it now trails far behind OCR giants such as the Spartan Race & Tough Mudder for the number of annual racers.

Who does OCR’s?

Perhaps the main reason OCR’s are growing in popularity so quickly is that there is something for everybody regardless of age, weight, gender or athleticism, making it a universally appealing sport. OCR’s vary widely in length & difficulty, ranging from races of just a few miles & obstacles, right up to the ‘Toughest Mudder’ which is a gruelling 24-hour mental & physical test of wills.nRegardless of the venue, you will regularly see racers young & old, fit & unfit, looking for a new way to test themselves while having a good time!  

How many types are out there?

                There are literally thousands of different types of obstacle course races being run today, however the two most popular races available in North America today are the Spartan Race & Tough Mudder:

Spartan Race:

Founded in 2010 by Joe De Sena, Julian Kopan, & Andy Weinberg, the Spartan Race is one of the biggest players in the OCR game, set to host 170 events this year in over 30 different countries. In 2013, the Spartan Race was able to attract athletic apparel giant, Reebok, to come on board as the official title sponsor, & in 2015 NBC created a Spartan-based television series titled ‘Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge.’ ESPN has described the Spartan Race as ‘a true test of will.’

Self-described as the most athletically challenging OCR today & ‘the world’s best obstacle race. Period,’ the race includes obstacles that are very athletic in nature avoiding the ‘pain for the purpose of pain’ obstacles that appear in other races. There are 4 types of Spartan races available including the Sprint (3+ miles, 20+ obstacles), the Super (8+ miles, 25+ obstacles), the Beast (13+ miles, 30+ obstacles), & for true gluttons of punishment – the Ultra Beast (26+ miles, 60+ obstacles).

Tough Mudder:

Founded in 2010 by Will Dean & Guy Livingstone, the Tough Mudder event has become synonymous with OCR in North America & abroad. Since it’s inception in 2010, Tough Mudder claims that over 2.5M people worldwide have taken on s Tough Mudder event. In 2015, Merrell, an American footwear company, became the title sponsor of the race, with other notable recurring sponsors including Old Spice, Shock Top, & the US Army.

The Tough Mudder describes itself as a physical & mental challenge rather than a race. Additionally, the Tough Mudder puts an emphasis on teamwork & comaradarie as opposed to a competition or a race. One of the more attractive options for nervous racers, is that they can opt out of any obstacle they would like without facing any penalties.

                The Tough Mudder feature three race variations: the Half (5+ miles, 13+ obstacles), the standard Tough Mudder (10+ miles, 20+ obstacles), & the World’s Toughest Mudder which is a 24 hour race that occurs on a 5-mile course. The winner is determined by who finishes the most laps of the track, & is awarded a prize of $10,000.

Obstacle course racing in the Olympics?

                On March 8^th, 2017, the International Obstacle Sports Federation (USAOCR), was recognized as the national governing body for obstacles sports & related disciplines in the US & the first National Championship will be April 30^th in Hialeah, Florida.

                Although this does not mean you are necessarily see an OCR in the next Summer Olympics, having a National governing body & a National Championship goes a long way in legitimizing the sport, vastly improving it’s chances of getting into the Olympics.

               

Is it Dangerous?

                Sort of. There have been documented deaths at OCR races, most notably a 28-year old participant named Avishek Sengupta who during the ‘Walk the Plank’ obstacle at a 2013 Tough Mudder event. That said, according to a 2016 research study, serious injuries are rare at obstacle course races, with only 1% of participants getting injured with most of the injuries being minor & 89% of those injured returning to the course to finish the race.

               

Should I do one?

                That is a question that only you, & possibly your health care professional, can answer. If you exercise regularly, or have more than a few weeks to train (& do not have any pre-existing medical condition), then I would say try your hand at Warrior Dash or a ‘lighter’ version of an OCR to get yourself warmed up.

                For me personally, signing up for a Spartan Race was the motivation I needed to begin living a more healthy lifestyle. Although I am only 16 days into my journey, I am feeling happier & healthier with each day that passes, & I know I have the Spartan Race to thank for that. Now here’s hoping that I feel the same way come race day!

100 Day Spartan

Day 17: 7 Habits from the JRE

                Since I already discussed the impact that Tim Ferris has had on my habits, I would be remiss to not mention the similar impact that Joe Rogan has had on me since I became a follower of his in my first year of University in late-2008.

The Rogan Board

                I first became familiar with Rogan’s work when I stumbled upon his message board in late-2008. The board, being about as NSFW as anything I had ever seen on the internet, was right up my alley. MMA, comedy, trolls, conspiracies, & porn – basically the best of what the internet had to offer a then 18-year old.

                The reason I stumbled upon the board was because I came across Joe & Carlos Mencia’s onstage conflict on Youtube, & I saw a ton of his message board posters writing hilarious comments which led me to check out his board. I was (am) a big UFC fan, & had watched my share of Fear Factor growing up, but I never knew there was so much to this interesting character. I was able to find a copy of his ‘Shiny Happy Jihad’ comedy special on Limewire (sorry Joe) & became a big fan ever since.

                Throughout University, I mindlessly browsed the Rogan Board day & night, which turned out to contain a lot of very interesting & intelligent characters discussing world events, providing a far different, & often more controversial, perspective than what you would read elsewhere (again I feel obligated to re-iterate NSFW)

Podcast

                As mentioned above, I was a regular contributor on Rogan’s board in late 2009 when he mentioned he was going to host a live stream Q&A with his friend Brian Redban on Christmas Eve. With nothing else to do, I tuned in & found the two of them to be quite hilarious. This one-time Q&A turned into a regular event where Joe & Brian recorded their conversations once a week, & soon Joe started inviting on his comedian friends & a podcast was born.

                Being in University & having far too much free time, I became a regular listener & although I have gone through 3 to 4 month periods of not listening for various reasons, I have been subscribed to the podcast ever since.

                The guests range from MMA athletes, to Scientists, to Right-Wing Fanatics, to Conspiracy Theorists, to his Comedy buddies. Joe has developed into an excellent conversationalist, with an ability to get the most out of his guests. I have listed some of my favourite guests below:

• Comedians: Joey Diaz, Bill Burr, Jim Jefferies, Joey Diaz, Bert Kreischer, Brian Callen, Russell Brand
• Health & Fitness: Jocko Willink, Rhonda Patrick, Chris Bell, Wim Hoff, Mark Sisson
• Interesting Minds: Tim Ferriss, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Gary Vaynerchuk, Kevin Rose
• Athletes: Justin Wren, Dominick Cruz, Donald Cerrone, Chael Sonnen, Brendan Schaub

Habits

                So now that you know about my love for Joe Rogan's Podcast, let me tie this back to fitness. Joe has helped shape many of my beliefs when it comes to health & fitness. Many people do not realize that Joe is a former taekwondo National Champion, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blackbelt, & a health & fitness nut.

                Below I list some of the healthy habits that I have taken from Joe & his podcast guests over the years:

1. Hot Yoga: Joe regularly discusses his love for hot yoga which he has taken up over the past few years. Yoga was always a practice that I thought might have some benefits, but always shied away from. Him & BJJ legend Eddie Bravo recently discussed the recovery & flexibility benefits of hot yoga on a podcast, & I decided that it was time for me to try it out myself.
    
2. Kale Shakes: Joe affectionately refers to his daily kale shake as ‘hulk loads’ & constantly preaches the benefits of starting off your day with a shake filled with nutrition. I have been drinking variations of kale shakes since at least 2012 & can agree that it is the best way to kick start your body. Although I no longer eat in the mornings, the kale shake is still the first thing that goes into my body each afternoon.
   
   
3. Keto Diet: Joe was well documented over the past few years of experimenting with the ‘ketogenic’ diet, which consists of avoiding all net carbohydrates (net carbohydrates = carbs in a food – fiber in that food), & primarily eating protein & fats. Joe raved about the weight loss & mental clarity benefits. I decided to give it a try & although after a few months I found it too restrictive, I have maintained a very low net carb diet to this date & feel great.
    
4. Intermittent Fasting: recently on a podcast, Joe & Rhonda discussed the benefits of intermittent fasting & shortly thereafter Joe took up the process & has been updating listeners since. After a few weeks of listening to Joe describe the benefits, I decided to try it out & have seen a world of benefits since. I will be making a blog post on this process in the near future, but am working on some background research so I can explain why it works. 
    
5. Fitness for Mental Clarity: Joe often discusses how much more mentally sharp he feels when he is exercising & eating healthy. As someone with an ability to hold an interesting conversation with a guest for 4 hours, I consider Joe an authority on mental sharpness & clarity & Joe attributes a lot of it to his healthy diet & regular workouts. Hearing him explain the difference his body feels really hits home with me which helps me to ensure I am making fitness a priority when I am getting stressed in other areas of my life, as the way your body feels often has a direct impact on your mindset.
    
6. MMA: I have been a big MMA fan since Tito & Chuck fought in 2006, & Joe has been the colour commentator since that time & a big proponent of MMA. One thing that I must credit Joe with however, is converting me from a ‘just bleed’ type fan, to what I would consider a well-educated fan. Joe has a great way of describing MMA as ‘high-level problem solving with dire physical consequences.’ I love this description because often casual fans overlook the complexity of what occurs in a fight. To tie this back to fitness, because of Joe I took up BJJ for two years in University, something that I am planning to return to post-Spartan race.
    
   
7. Curiosity: finally, Joe is a very curious person, evidenced by the endless range of guests that he has on his podcast. Once being very hard headed & set in my opinions, I have learned from Joe that you should always hear everyone out, because often there is a lot more to a topic that meets the eye. I am a big fan of how Joe manages to stay objective in dealing with his guests, even when he doesn’t necessarily agree with their opinion. To tie this to fitness, I try to incorporate this in my workout routines & diet. I do not just trust conventional wisdom, I try to research what is working for others & choose what works best for me.

                In conclusion, it has been a long 8-year journey since I stumbled upon his message board in 2008, but I have learned a ton from ‘the Fear Factor guy.’ It has been amazing to see how Joe has developed his podcast empire from the ground up, & I am delighted when one of my friends mentions they started listening to the podcast because I know how valuable it can be. I am very grateful for all of the health & fitness ideas that I've taken from Joe, & I can't wait for those yet to come.

100 Day Spartan

Day 16: Trail Run

                With yesterday slated to be the warmest day of the week, I figured it was as good a time as any to get out on the trail for the first outdoor run of my program. I downloaded the ‘MapMyRun’ app before work, & spent my day dreading the inevitable doom that was going to take place on the trail that evening.  

                I had a longer day at work than anticipated, so I did not set out for my run until 7PM with the latest Tim Ferriss podcast loaded up & only a slight idea of where I was going. For my first run, I decided I would aim for 30 to 45 minutes with no breaks to get myself warmed up for the longer runs to follow. I opted for a timed run as opposed to distance, as I had no idea what kind of pace I would be able to maintain, nor did I know anything about the trails that I intended to run. Although I live right in the middle of Toronto, there is a series of trails about 1KM from my apartment that I have never explored & figured would be a good place to start my trail running career.

Initial Panic

To my dismay, not even 200m into my run, I felt my groin start to tighten up. ‘How could this be happening already’ I thought. After all, I have been doing some running on the treadmill over the past two weeks, surely my body had adjusted at least enough to carry me for two blocks. In the past I would have considered calling it a day & trying again tomorrow, but I figured I would push through to see how it reacted, & if the pain sharpened, then I would turn around.

                As I pounded down the pavement, the slight discomfort in my groin seemed to subside & I breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately for me, the road to the trail is primarily downhill, so my confidence level was at an all-time high, not tiring at all & feeling as though I was setting a pretty good pace. My handy ‘MapMyRun’ app boasted that I had ran my first kilometre in just over 5 minutes. This running thing is easy I thought to myself.

The Trail

As I entered the heavily wooded trail, I noticed that it was quite muddy in spots from the snow that has been melting over the past few weeks. Quite appropriate I thought to myself. I began to move through the trail at what I thought was a decent pace, but with no trail running experience, the reality is that the numbers my app was spitting out at me didn’t mean anything.

As I continued to run the trail, I learned the design was much more intricate than I had first imagined, with many different forks leading off in different directions. Given that I started my run late & was racing the sun, I stuck on the path that appeared the most travelled to ensure I didn't get lost.

On my route, I ran past a park where I quickly eyed a set of monkey bars for future use, ran past a nice stream (a rarity in Toronto), & came to a long 200m wooded staircase that descended into a valley which was certainly much more enjoyable on the way down than it was on the way back up. I was planning to get to 5KM & then turn around, however when I got to the bottom of the stairs, the trail was temporarily closed so I figured it was a good time to turnaround for my first run.

Overall, the trail was surprisingly nice & seemed as though there are a lot of different paths that I can take on future runs. As my journey continues, I’m excited to explore every nook & cranny in this wooded paradise that I had not realized existed just a kilometre away from my apartment.

The Result

                Given that I have zero running experience, I honestly did not know how I did when I got back. I was proud of myself that I did not stop to take any rests on the run, however I did have the feeling in the back of my mind that my pace was quite slow. The final result was 6.3KM in 36 minutes which through a quick Google search I learned is exceptional… ly slow. Which is about what I expected.

                Perhaps the primary positive that came from this run was that, like getting the first week of my strength training program under my belt, I now have a benchmark to compete against. As I get out on the trails more, I will better learn how to pace & push myself, & the results will inevitably follow. I am grateful that I learned the importance of running outside versus running on a treadmill early in my journey, & am excited for the inevitable gains that I am going to make in my running abilities over the next 84 days.  

Takeaways 

1. Get off of the treadmill: I found my run on the trail significantly more challenging than running on the treadmill due to the uneven ground, & my complete ineptitude in setting a pace. Due to the simplicity of moving the speed of the treadmill up or down, I seemed to have lost touch with the speed my body can maintain. I varied between feeling like I was running way too slow, to feeling like I was going to burn out, evidenced by my pace varying from as fast at 5:09 (at the end of my run) to 6:40 in the middle. As mentioned already, by getting on the trails more often, I will develop a better ability to set my pace consistently.
   
2. Run hills: although there were only a few minor elevations on my run, the difference in how my body felt while running up them was far more significant than what I experience with the elevation cranked up on the treadmill. With the Spartan Race taking place on a ski hill, I must ensure I incorporate a lot of hill work to get my body ready for all of the hill climbing that will occur on race day. 
   
3. Just get out there: I was dreading going for this run all day. I was thinking about how uncomfortable it was going to be & searching for an excuse to push it to Thursday, but fortunately for me, the weather was too perfect to pass up & I forced myself to go. Once I started the run, I found it relaxing to be out in (Toronto’s version of) nature working out, as opposed to locked up in a gym. The key will be to feed off of this positivity, so that each time I try to convince myself to go to the gym instead, I throw on my running shoes & hit the trails.
   
   
4. Change my mindset: I have always told myself & others ‘I hate running’ or ‘I’m not a runner’ but the reality is that the reason I’m not a runner because (dramatic pause) I don’t run. That likely seems painfully obvious to most, but I believe I have created a mental block around running that I need to address if I am going to be successful on this race. Not being good at something is not a reason to neglect it, in fact, it is a good reason to steer into it & focus on improving, because it is likely the place where you are going to make the biggest gains. Moving forward I am going to look forward to my runs, because I know this is the area where I am going to improve the most.

 Next Steps

                Currently I have trail runs scheduled for one day per week in my program, however based on my results on the first run, I believe I will increase this to two days per week, even if one of the runs is shorter in duration & incorporates high-intensity interval sprints. By getting out on the trails, I really recognized the value in running outside where the terrain, elevation, & conditions change, forcing you to adjust, & helping you get ready for the great unknowns of a Spartan Race.

100 Day Spartan