Last June I volunteered at the Spartan Race. I had heard people mention it, but didn’t really know what it was. A friend of mine wanted a group of us to sign up for the next years race (2016), so we volunteered at the 2015 race to get a free entry (if you volunteer at any Spartan race, they’ll give you a free entry to a future race, about a $150 value). Great way to save some money but also SO good to be able to go and check it out and get a feel for what it was before I completely committed to doing the race the following year (there’s only one Spartan race a year in Utah).
We ended up being on a water station (which was surprisingly exhausting–it was hot and super hard to keep the water cups filled with the amount of athletes coming through who were also super hot and super thirsty). We also helped with one of the obstacles which was pulling a cement block on a chain down a length of the mountain and back up. It was dusty. And hot.
But the entire time we were there, it got me more and more excited to do the race. I still can’t quite explain the race spirit (at any type of race–running, triathlons, spartans). There’s just a unique spirit and it makes me want to do whatever the racers are doing. Every time I watch Ironman on TV I just keep thinking “I want to do that SO bad”. And then I remember I’m afraid to swim. Minor detail.
We spent about 4 hours at the race, walked around a little after to check out some of the other obstacles and then set our minds on training for the race the next year.
Unfortunately, I procrastinated a bit. And this type of race is tricky to train for because there isn’t a set guideline of what to do and how to do it. There are 3 different Spartan races. A Beast (13ish miles and over 30 obstacles), a Super (8-10 miles and 25ish obstacles), and a Sprint (3-5 miles and 20-25 obstacles). If you can’t do one of the obstacles, you have to do 30 burpees. Man I hate burpees.
We’ll be doing a Super and I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around what to do to train for that. I enjoy running so that part hasn’t been excruciating to train for. But my strength is certainly lacking, particularly upper arm and grip strength.
I found a program called BBG that looked hopeful so I got the PDF versions of the workout (there’s also an APP–Sweat with Kayla) and I’ve been doing those over the summer. When you look at the workouts, they don’t seem so bad, but once you start doing them, I can assure you they are hard. I’m dripping sweat by the end and sometimes begging for mercy.
I can definitely tell my strength has improved using the BBG program and my abs are way stronger than they’ve ever been. I’ve also been walking/slow jogging on the treadmill to work on hills as well as bar hangs (hanging from a pull up bar) to improve my grip strength. I had my husband install some monkey bars in the basement and I meant to work on that, but it hasn’t really happened yet. That’s my focus this next week before the race–improve monkey bar skills. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. It just hurts my hands. Kids make it look so easy.
I’ve asked a few people who have done Spartans how to best train and nearly all of them said Crossfit. That’s just not something I’m wanting to do right now so I’ve tried to find other methods. I’ve found a few different workouts and pinned them on my Spartan Pinterest board. And I did go to the Crossfit gym close to me to see if I could learn a good technique to climb a rope (the owner was super gracious and let me come in real quick and try it). I honestly thought there was NO way I was going to be able to do that, but there’s a great technique where you wrap the rope on your feet and use mostly your legs. Once my friend showed me how I was able to climb the rope on my first try. I did get a little rope burn on my leg even through my long socks but I was relieved I was able to climb it. We’ll see how that translates on race day and how muddy the rope is before I get there.
If I’m being totally honest, I’m nervous. I have no idea if I’m well prepared or if I’m going to get completely wrecked. But I’m super excited at the same time. Race day is next Saturday, August 13th. Can’t wait to come back and do a recap. Hoping I have nothing but good things to say! Here’s to staying healthy in a fun way.
