May 5
KBS-5x10 (each side) @ 20 & 24K (3:2) OTM
TGU-5x1 (each side) @ 24K & 32K (3:2)
May 6
Pre-race rest day. Sat in a car for about 5 hours to get up to Bigfork (where the race was held), then did a little OS work when we got there.
May 7
Alright, prepare for the data...
Objective
Spartan Beast-13.6 (ish) miles, with 3,400 feet of elevation change. It took our 4 man team 6 hours and 15 minutes to finish. There were 39 obstacles.
Subjective
-If it had been just me and one of the other guys we probably could have finished in about 5 hours, but taking it slower was kind of nice. The fastest male did it in about 2:40, so it's not like I would have even been close to that. The slowest guys did it in 8-10 hours, and according to the data from the website, we were in the 75th percentile for our age group. Not terrible considering only two of us were in that age group and the other two were about 5 years older. I was probably the second best prepared of the four of us; the first and third best prepared guys were both runners (or at least they did a lot more running than me).
-I think a few things that saved me were that the course was so steep that there was more hill walking than actual running, and thanks to my strength training only a few of the obstacles were actually difficult. Some people complain that their grip is shot by the end of a Spartan race, but grip was never an issue for me, it felt almost as strong during the last jungle gym obstacle as it did during the first monkey bar obstacle (and the jungle gym was right after one of the more difficult loaded carry obstacles). For what it's worth, I did exactly zero penalty burpees the entire race.
-All the climbing stuff, water/mud stuff, and short/heavy stuff was pretty much just fun speed bumps, but here's my list of the obstacles that actually added to the difficulty of the race.
- Sand bag carry- Around mile 2 we all carried 40 pound sand bags 240 meters up a hill (gaining 230 feet of elevation), and then back down. This was a pretty solid reality check early in the race.
- Sand bag hoist- This was the one strength obstacle that wasn't a breeze. We had to pull down on a rope that was threaded through a pulley in order to lift a sand bag. The catch was, the sand bag had to have been as heavy/heavier than me, because even with all my weight on the rope, I was almost getting pulled off my feet. Luckily there was a metal fence set up, so I could push against it with my feet to help pull myself down. Very awkward.
- Log carry-There were a few of these (most of them fairly short), but the first one was pretty devious. It was the longest (130 meters and 40 vertical feet down and then up), but it was also right after the sand bag hoist, which was right after a steep hill ascent, which was right after the sand bag carry.
- Barbed wire roll-A little after mile 12 we had to get under 220 meters of barbed wire. Some people crawled, but just rolling was way more efficient. This wasn't so much hard as tedious. At least I didn't get nauseous.
- Gravel bucket carry-Part of the reason this sucked so much was that it was less than 1/4 mile from the finish line. We had just come down a hill, then we had to fill a 5 gallon bucket 3 inches from the top with gravel and carry it back up and down the hill (125 meters and 65 vertical feet each way). There were no handles, so we just had to hug the buckets support the bottom. Anybody who's played around with loaded carries knows this is one of the suckiest ways to carry anything. It was also pretty taxing on the grip, so I think that's why so many people had trouble with the jungle gym that was 20 meters farther along.
Alright, now it's graph time, the legend is as follows:
1) Sand bag carry
2) First log carry
3) Barbed wire roll
4) Gravel bucket carry-The HR data is screwy here; I had to move my chest strap since I was holding the bucket against my chest.
I cut the last 10 minutes off of this graph, since the HR stuff was really wacky on the gravel carry.
It seemed like the grand scheme of the race was to use the big hills and obstacles to wear people out early, keep the middle part challenging but not crazy, and then end it with some stuff that really increased the suck factor so everyone had to grit it out in the end.
In regards to the time I could have gotten if we hadn't done it as a team (full disclosure, this was way more fun to do as a team), I would have been pretty solidly in the middle of the pack, so that fits pretty well with the norm for the training I did. Lot's of swings and a little sport specific practice seems to be all you need to compete, but not enough to really be competitive.
What I would have done differently:
- Replaced all my long weekend runs with light/moderate weight rucking on trails. Steep trails. Still in MAF zone, though.
- Replaced one of my 10-20 minutes running practices during the week with a loaded carry.
- Started doing 1-2 high intensity sessions per week, starting 5 weeks out. I think 4-6 sessions total would have been better than the 2 or 3 that I ended up getting.
- I would have tried to not get sick two weeks out from the race...
What I think I did right:
- Doing light, easy "running practice" for 10-20 minutes a few days a week. In retrospect, this is probably all the running I needed.
- Doing lots of A+A swings during the winter. Definitely this.
- Keeping A+A swings as the core of my program. Maybe not the most ideal training, but the most accessible and there was plenty of carryover.
- Keeping my heart rate in check while training, especially after my son came along a sleep quality/quantity declined. Much easier to recover.
- The rucking and trail work I did do was good, I just should have done more of it.
Well. I'm impressed by anybody who read that whole thing...
May 8
Rest day. Did some OS stuff in the morning, went for a walk, then drove back home. My feet felt a little beat up, every muscle above my pelvis felt perfectly normal, and everything below my pelvis just felt like I had gone for a long hike the day before. Not bad.
May 9
Rest day again. Thought DOMS would get me, but I feel about the same as yesterday.