Baseline Accomplished

So having completed the Toro Loco, and having had a couple days to think about my performance,  I have a good idea where I stand w/ getting ready for my Trifecta and I have a long way to go.


Running - Although I can USE the treadmill for a long time (ie occasionally jog non stop for up to 45 min equating to 3.5 miles) that does not translate well to the real world. For the TLC I only made it about .53 miles before slowing to walk to rest.  Granted the dirt we were on was so loose one left 3/4 inch deep footprints where they walked, in a very sandy consistency for the first 2 miles of the route.  Starting the race with this just exhausted me.  Temperature also worked against me (as did my pants - more later).  So I REALLY needed water before the 1st obstacle.  At home on the treadmill I rarely drink until the workout is finished with no ill effects.  The solution for this will be longer workouts on the treadmill at more of an angle combined with 'real world' runnign, as much as I am not thrilled with that.

Note the footprints, very loose dirt not the easiest to run in.

Attire - In this race, as in the last one I wore pants (BDUs specifically).  My logic being, wit the crawling that tends to happen, either in dirt or 'mud'  my knees get pretty scraped up.  By using pants I have some level of protection.  Clearly they were unnecessary for this event where there were no crawling obstacles at all. The added weight & airflow restriction more than likely worked to make me warmer & more tired. Maybe I need to experiment with more of a knee length version.


Music - Although very useful on the treadmill. But not so much on the race.  If you happen to go with people, its a distraction and something else to carry around. Even with out people around, while making the videos the cord gets in the way camera visually & audibly due to the short cord. I plan on keeping this for the Super & Beast but need to rethink how it is used especially the track order.


Distance/Time - My time was approx  1 hr 38 min. 
BUt distance, that is an issue.  The race billed itself as a 10k aka 6.2 miles.
Looking at Google Earth, however it comes up as ~5.76 miles - Close to  a half mile difference in length. For my calculations I will err on the side of caution and use the shorter distance. Certainly due to the conversion of photos to a curved surface may cause some discrepancy. I saw some between the billed Spartan Race distance & measured route using the Google too. Of course there is a possibility that the race itself was not accurately measured, using what I saw from obstacle completion & general event management this is completely plausible. 

The TLC 10k race route.

Using this lower value for calculating minutes per mile puts my pace at 17.01 minutes per mile.   Almost as bad as the 1st warrior dash I basically walked through. Sure this distance was almost 2x as much, and I have learned from running at the track my mile times increase with every additional mile after the first one, but all in all pretty poor results as I see it.  When you consider that the Spartan Races will have obstacles with penalties, tack on another 3-4 min per obstacle I fail and ~25 obstacles for the BEAST that equates to a possible 100 penalty minutes + ~222 min for the race = FIVE and a half hours to complete at this pace. 

Granted if Google Earth is off and the race was indeed 6.2 miles then my minutes per mile is improved to 15.81 & it will only be 5 hours for BEAST completion.  Wow.  Definitely need to work on better time.


Upper Body - I know I should not have, but I have neglected my upper body during these last couple months.  I wanted to work on running stamina & losing weight.   Bad idea.  With more upper body I may have completed some of these obstacles I failed AND with Spartan will succeed & miss those possible penalty minutes doing burpees.  Not to mention how much more doing burpees will tire me and that it will take longer to complete them as I progress. One plan it to hit a rock gym a couple times before the 3 races, this will help w/ the upper body AND give me a bit more experience when it comes to the horizontal wall obstacle, possibly saving 30 burpees.  


To sum up I have A LOT of work ahead of me.  starting with more/ faster treadmil times planned.  More hiking & some running outdoors to boost that endurance.  And of course adding burpees  & upper body to the workouts.  

145 days will go by pretty fast with work school & misc holidays impeding workouts.  Hopefully I will be in better position come the Sprint.

Meanwhile the next thing on the calendar is volunteering at a race, the zombie buffet 5k in one month, who knows maybe I will be chosen to be a zombie & get to run some of it. 

Book Review

On my vacation I took some time to read the SpartanRace book they published. 

Joe Desena & Andy Weinberg

You'll Know At The Finish Line
A Spartan Guide To The Sport Of Obstacle Racing
Spartan Press 2012
404 pages FREE
ISBN-13:978-0615675183

Yup that looks fun 

I have to say it has its good point and bad points. 

First of all the book is FREE and is available for e-readers or in PDF format from the Spartan Race website so the price is great & the different format options are very nice.  I read the PDF version which I had some issues with. Being a PDF having the page size be 3.54 x 4.72 inches seemed very odd.  By using this format the PDF itself (in times new roman) seems to be oddly formatted when it comes to reading, from sentence & page breaks to the edge to edge text it is very distracting.  I Was reading this while travelling on both a net-book & on a home PC. But this is personal preference from a guy writing a random blog written in veranda for the most part. Still I would have preferred it in Word or similar format where I could adjust it more to what I like. It is possible a kindle version would have been easier on my eyes as well.

This is original size

The book itself has many sections to it with the history of obstacle racing , with a time line, to their philosophy, detailed information on training ideas and specifically for their events.  Each of the 10 chapters ends with stories from & about some of the folks who have helped in the events as well as just participated in them with some amazing stories of personal achievement.  To me these items were the most fascinating part of the book. To read about how much people are able to overcome & endure in their lives & translate it to these events, or to use the events to inspire them to change their lives is very remarkable.

But I do have a couple more criticisms of the work, which it is clearly stated i the first time the authors have done anything like this, and approached it by just diving in & seeing what happens.  Andy & Joe both wrote the book and it is obvious.  Paragraphs may start with "Joe:" or "Andy:" as if the book is the result of an interview.  In many cases a section will be mostly written by only one individual with their name at the start. Having someone edit the book in a way to massage their viewpoints together may have had a better flow.

Of course in reading the book, although I have done one Spartan Race, and intend to do more. I realize the book is not meant for me to be its audience.  Chapter 5 is all about training for the Spartan Sprint a 3+ mile obstacle course . On one hand they mention how the distance is good for everyone beginners on up.  Then go on to say work up to a five mile run at a moderate pace before attempting the Sprint.  Clearly these two items are not the same in my book. I see a  'beginner' as someone just getting off the couch and in to getting in shape/running/obstacle races to not someone who can already run five miles as a precursor to training for a 3.5 mile race. Yet further in the chapter they make it abundantly clear this is not for beginners. An 8 week workout regimen to train for the event starts on day 1 with jogging 3 miles after a 10 minute warmup and also includes: push ups, pull ups, crunches, and an additional 2 miles of running. From there it just gets more intense.  

So although great information on history, proposed rules for making these kinds of events more 'official' and some good workouts are included along with those outstanding personal stories.  I think They should go back to the drawing board for a second release & make the book & some of its contents more user friendly to the new Spartan Race initiate.