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Spartan race: Cause why not

Doing great. Down another 5lbs. Workouts are still tough but doable. I added in some workout to mowing today by wearing a 35lb ruck while I mowed and doing 10 burpees everytime I emptied the bag. Motivation sometimes is hard to come by but @martym keeps me accountable each morning.
 
One of my neighbors is always training for the Spartan race. He’s retired but in great shape.

I have been on a weight loss journey for a little over a year. I’ve lost 28 pounds and reached my target weight. I’ve shifted my focus from weight loss to getting in shape to go backpacking in the Sierras. I hike every morning on weekdays and hike longer distance at least once each weekend. A friend and I have the same bucket list hike idea. We hike together on weekends. I started with 16 pounds in a backpack. After 4 weeks I’ve added more. So today was my first hike with 25 pounds in my pack. 25 pounds slowed me down a bit I won’t lie.

Its good you have a buddy to help motivate each other. When I hike with my friend on the weekends we are in similar fitness levels so we push each other. I’ve made some good gains after we started exercising together.
 
I've done a bunch of spartan races. Sounds like you are doing the sprint, the shortest one, so there will be a LOT of folks just like you starting their (return to) fitness journey that use it as a milestone. Plenty of folks walk it, stop and take breaks, or skip/fail obstacles and do the burpee penalty (or not). No one is gonna force you to do ANYTHING you don't want, as the "race" part of it is first thing in the AM so you will most likely be on the honor system.

The spartan obstacles are a good mix of brute upper body strength (carry stones, buckets of gravel, pull up a sand bag) with more body weight stuff like rope climbing to hit a bell, over head bars, net climbs, etc. The running, other than a usual longer run in the beginning to spread out the pack each heat, is just short bits between obstacles, you won't need to run a whole lot in a stretch unless you have hard geography that is an obstacle in and of itself. Also, there is a LOT of mud in these things, and often barbed wire and the like to crawl under, so prepare to have your clothes ripped, soiled, and generally destroyed. I always wear shoes that are about to get replaced.

You don't have to bring water/guu/electrolytes, but a small runners pack isn't a bad idea, though on these shorter races the distance between pit stops is usually pretty good and they typically have a lot of stuff to hand out.

FWIW, the best thing you can do to train up is jog with a 30 burpee stop every 1/4 mile or so, do as many pull-ups as you can, and farmers carry. That seems to be the most like the pace of the event for me at least. Also, if you can fit, turn perpendicular to the wire and ROLL under it rather than try to crawl. Assuming they didn't make it an all uphill mud slog (which they will if they can) that is a much faster and easier way to navigate the wire IMHO.

Good luck! Make sure you have a total change of clothes, an old towel, a trash bag for your race wear, and some replacement fluid for post race recovery. The free beer is nice as well (if they still do that).
 

martym

Unacceptably Lasering Chicken Giblets?
Let me give y’all an update.
@BSawhill has not missed a wake up call since he reached out to all of us. Just that is a huge accomplishment.
 
@martym - thanks for the kudos sir. There have been mornings where it has been challenging to do the work. I just keep reminding myself that I get to choose my hard. As in, "Being in shape is hard and being out of shape is hard. Choose your hard." It helps too that I get to see my kiddos recognize in their own ways the work they see me doing to get healthy. My daughter has started asking me to do "burbees" with her and my son drags my ruck around the house and tells me he's "training to be like daddy." If that isn't motivating to stay disciplined I don't know what would be.
 
It's been awesome to have @martym partner with me each morning to get my backside in gear. At this point I've completed the Couch to Spartan training plan and am working on my cardio by doing the couch to 5k plan. Also, the offices for the company I work for are reopening and we have a full gym onsite with a trainer that you can reserve time with twice a week. I'm going to work with them to help me build functional strength and mobility. And the great thing about the 5 am wake up time is that I will still be doing that so I can get to the office and hit the gym in the morning before I start work. It's all coming together really well. Also, at this point, I can confidently say that Burpees suck. I also understand why bears are so angry all the time because when I have to bear crawls I get angry too!
 
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