No matter how much I train, the Spartan race is
going to be hard. Really hard.
Running 10 miles up a mountain to carry stones &
jump over walls is insane. No amount of cardio training will fully prepare me for
the hell waiting for me on that mountain.
It is for this very reason that I believe the mental
aspect of the Spartan race will be just as challenging as the physical.
In this post, I am going to discuss preparing for the
Spartan race mentally, beginning with my idea of ‘mental fitness.’
Mental Fitness
To me, mental
fitness is the ability to maintain a positive mindset, outlook,
& sense of self, even through times of extreme challenge & adversity. I
cannot think of many things more challenging than the Spartan Race.
A major reason I want to complete this race is to challenge myself both physically & mentally. I am confident that the skills acquired in training for, and completing, this race will carry well beyond the finish line & transcend into other aspects of my life.
Naturally an emotional being, I am actively working to become more mindful of my emotions & to develop the ability to stay level-headed & composed, even under extreme pressure. This is one of the principle skills that I am looking to acquire on this journey to the finish line.
Meditation
Meditation is something I've always planned to ‘get around to.’ However being a person who always tries to maximize the utility of my time, meditation always seemed like a burden. After reading Tim Ferriss’ Tools of Titans, it became apparent that I was missing something.
Tim states that over 80% of the top performers he interviewed had some form of daily meditation or mindfulness practice that can be thought of as ‘cultivating a present-state awareness that helps you to be nonreactive.’
About a month ago, on the heels of this statement, I completed the ‘take 10’ 10-day meditation introduction on the popular app ‘Headspace.’ Take 10 involves taking 10 minutes per day to sit down & focus on your breathing. As Tim puts it, “if you don’t have 20 minutes to delve into yourself through meditation, then that means you really need 2 hours.”
To this day, I have stuck with the practice and am now using an app called ‘Insight Timer’ which offers more free content than its competitors. The results? I feel more relaxed & balanced throughout the day & it feels like now there is a buffer between my thoughts & my emotions. As Tim puts it, I feel as though I am 'cultivating a present-state awareness that helps me be nonreactive.'
More simply, this means that instead of flipping someone off when they cut me off in traffic, I have earned myself an extra half-second to decide if it's worth it.
Currently I meditate for 15-30 minutes first thing in the morning & I find it sets me up for a great day. I am confident that this practice of mindfulness will help me stay calm during some of the more challenging obstacles in the Spartan race.
Yoga
Like meditation,
yoga is another practice that I have been considering getting into, but never
quite pulled the trigger. This is an activity that I have not yet dove into,
but I fully intend to throughout my journey to the finish line.
My belief is that yoga will help me in numerous ways. First, I am not a naturally flexible person, & I believe the flexibility will help me in many obstacles on the course. Second, taking a few hours each week to truly stretch out my muscles will be a great recovery tool, allowing my body to decompress from all of my grueling workouts. Finally, the mental toughness that it takes to contort your body in such unusual ways will certainly translate into a better ability to withstand the extreme discomforts that come with running a Spartan race.
With limited experience, it is difficult for me to delve too deeply into the positive benefits of yoga at this time, however I am confident that there are many. My plan is to attend hot yoga at my local gym each Saturday to decompress from a week of challenging training. Once I get some experience under my belt, I will definitely write a post on the benefits that I am confident I will reap.
High-Intensity Interval
Training
Okay now that we’ve been through the warm & fluffy stuff, let’s make one thing clear – this race is going to be damn challenging physically.
One major aspect is going to be getting my body used to the extreme. I want my body to become accustomed to being taxed beyond it’s limits, & going a little bit further. It is this reason that I love high-intensity interval training (HIIT) versus the more conventional long distance & duration training. HIIT & hill training are going to be two of the biggest components of my training.
There is going to be a lot more posts discussing my training regimen to come, but I wanted to sneak in this paragraph to reassure readers that I'm not attempting to train for the Spartan race solely from a yoga mat.
Ice Cold Showers
What are the odds I mention my showers twice in two days? I am telling you, climbing into a freezing cold shower after a 20-minute sauna session is a religious experience, even for the non-religious. When I finish up these showers I feel like superman.
My strategy in the mornings is telling myself over & over ‘This is going to be the hardest thing I have to do for at at least 10 hours’ while longingly eyeing my warm coffee on the counter. My strategy after the sauna at night is ‘This is the hardest thing I have left to do today.’
This journey is
going to be as much about cultivating a healthy mind as it is a healthy body.
Come June 27th, I want to be more fit, more happy, & more
mindful. Regardless of my results on race day, if I can just achieve those
three things, then this journey will have been more than worth it.
100 Day Spartan
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