Over the past
5 days, I have documented at length how I have progressed in my strength
training & cardiovascular workouts. I am proud of how far I have come,
especially in terms of burpees, pull ups, & chin ups, however in reviewing
my routine & researching the obstacles that the Spartan Race has to offer,
I have identified a few holes in my game. It is for this reason that I have
elected to switch up my training routine for the next 8 weeks of this journey.
Below I
review the existing plan, as well as the changes that I have made.
Changes to Existing Plan
I believe I
did a pretty good job putting together my first training routine which I reviewed
in my day 8 post on strength training.
My routine over the past 41 days has revolved around bodyweight exercises &
building muscular endurance. I put the routine together by scouring the
internet for OCR training routines & by asking veteran Spartans their
opinions, & am confident that I’ve put together a good starting routine for
any aspiring obstacle course racer.
It is for
this reason, that I am not actually going to remove any of the exercises that I’m currently completing. Instead,
I am going to focus on moving through the circuits of exercises more quickly. There are three major
reasons that I want to speed up the pace of my workouts. 1
First, as you
will read below, I am going to be adding an additional exercise to each
routine. At my current pace, that would represent a 25% increase in the amount
of time spent strength training which certainly ads up over time.
Second, there
are no ‘breaks’ on the Spartan Race. Taking long breaks in the gym will not
prepare me for success on race day, since one of the keys to success is going
to be to keep moving. At no point
will I finish an obstacle & then decide to stand around for 5 minutes
catching my breath & drinking water, so why am I doing this at the gym?
Third, this
training thing takes up a lot of time! Between getting to & from the gym, strength
training, cardio, the sauna, & showering, I spend about 2 hours per night at
the gym. When you’re working out 5 to 6 times per week, that adds up quickly!
Therefore, I want to make sure that I am optimizing the time spent in the gym,
as opposed to standing around!
Therefore,
the major change I’m making to my existing routine is to limit the time spent
between sets. The way I am going to accomplish this is by utilizing a timer
that I will set for 1-minute as soon as I finish a set, & as soon as it
goes off, it’s time to start another exercise (I am completing my workouts in
circuits). As I become more proficient at recovering quickly, I will look to
lower the amount of time spent resting between sets.
New Strength
Training Exercises
As mentioned
above, I am quite happy with the strength building exercises that I’ve put into
my routine, & in each exercise, I am experiencing incremental gains each
week. That said, in completing my post on obstacle-specific training,
I realized that I am missing a few key exercises from routine. For that reason,
I have added one additional exercise to each of my strength training days which
I discuss below:
- Bear Crawls: a new addition to my core strength training day, bear crawls
involve crawling on your hands & feet, an exercise that demands
coordination, mobility, core strength, & muscular endurance. I am always
looking for new ways to work my core, & as an added bonus the bear crawl in
an anaerobic exercise that will get the heart pumping, all while increasing my
coordination & mobility. Similar to the plank crawls, I will establish a
baseline number of lengths of the gym in my first week, & look to
incrementally improve week-in, & week-out from there.
- TRX Monkey-Bar Training: on my ‘long-run’ day, I pass a playground about 4km into my run.
On Saturday, I decided to attempt to traverse on the rings & found the task
very challenging. Primarily, I found my grip strength was not strong enough for
the exercise, but also that I was not very coordinated in swinging between the
rings. For that reason, I am incorporating TRX monkey-bar training into my
routine. In completing this training each week, I am hoping to improve my grip
& forearm strength as well as my coordination to ensure that I am ready to
conquer the slippery monkey bars & rings that the Spartan Race throws at me
come race day.
- Dead Hangs: another exercise aimed at improving grip & forearm strength,
I am going to add ‘dead hangs’ to my chest day. The exercise is simple enough;
it involves simply hanging from a pull-up bar for as long as you can. This
exercise is great for the grip & forearms, but also involves many other
stabilizing muscles, accustoms that body to hanging for long periods of time,
& as an added bonus is great for stretching out your shoulders & back.
I will begin by establishing a baseline for how long I’m able to hang on &
look to improve incrementally from there. If ever I begin to find the exercise
too simply (unlikely), I will switch to one-handed dead hangs. Stay tuned for
that one!
- Sled Work: the last strength building exercise that I’m incorporating into my routine will be sled work. The obvious obstacle that sled work will help me prepare for is the Sled Drag, however I also like this exercise because it works a lot of the similar muscles, & requires a similar mental toughness as a lot of the weighted carries that the Spartan Race has to offer. Sled work utilized the entire body to manipulate a weight while moving forward, similar to the Atlas Carry & Bucket Brigade. I will be completing sled work on each of my leg days moving forward.
New Cardio
Plan
Perhaps the most
significant change in my new plan is going to be the way I am conducting my
cardio training. Over the past 6 weeks I have been remarkably consistent with my
strength training, but one area where I have allowed myself to slack is trail running.
This lack of trail running is problematic because it is the biggest area of
weakness that I identified when I started on this journey.
To combat this
problem, over the next 8 weeks I am going to be getting out on the trails 3
times per week, focusing on hill training, sprint training, & distance
running. I have discussed the three different workouts below:
- High-Intensity Interval Sprint Training: for my first
trail run workout per week, I am going to be focusing on sprint training. The
reason I am going to focus on sprint training is because there are going to be
a lot of stops & starts come race day, so I want my body to adjust to
running at high-intensity for shorter bursts of time. At the end of each 200M
sprint (I will measure it out prior to beginning), I will complete 5 burpees,
walk for one minute, then repeat. As with my other training, I will look to
increase the number of burpees, & reduce the amount of rest time each week.
This workout will last about 30 minutes in total (5 getting to the trail, 5
getting home, 20 sprinting).
- High-Intensity Interval Hill Training: in what will likely prove to be my most
challenging run of each week, I am going to focus on hill training each
Wednesday. This hill training is about as straight forward as it gets; run up
the hill & walk back down for 20 minutes. The hill that I am using is fairly
long & windy with a good amount of elevation, so I believe it should replicate
race-day conditions fairly well. The major reason that I want to incorporate
hill training into my routine is because I’ve heard many veteran OCR’s discuss
how races are won & lost on the hills, & also that hill training is
among the most neglected training aspects for first-time racers.
- Long Run: finally, my week of training will culminate on Saturday mornings with my long run. Thus far, I have completed two 10km trail runs & was able to shave 3 minutes off of my time this past Saturday. I am going to complete my third trail run this Saturday, again looking to improve my time. For each Saturday after, I am going to be add 2km per week, ultimately culminating in a 24km run on June 16th; one week prior to race day. The major goal for my runs will be to add distance while maintaining a 5-minute kilometre time. I am confident that if I can run 24km in two hours come race day, I will be more than ready for the Spartan Race!
In conclusion, I am
happy that I took the time to conduct my research prior to jumping into an OCR
training plan, as I believe my existing plan has served me well over the past 6
weeks. For the next 8 weeks, I am going to look to supplement this plan with a
little more obstacle-specific training, & a whole lot more running. I’m
happy with how far I have come, however I am well-aware of how wide the gap is
between my running abilities & the abilities required to complete a Spartan
Super, so the race is on to improve my running by June 23rd!
100-Day Spartan
No comments:
Post a Comment