Calm before the storm/s...Obstacle Course Race World Championships

In less than 4 days I will embark on the first of two obstacle course race World Championships (Warrior Dash World Championship, and OCR World Championship).   Although I am both excited and nervous, I don't feel as though I have anything to lose.  I certainly don't consider myself one of the favorites (think Hobie Call or Cody Moat), nor do I consider myself an elite runner.

It has become apparent that if you want to be at the top of this sport you must be able to run sub 5 min pace miles.  Insane as that sounds, several of the top OCR athletes are doing so.  Many come from a background of running track in college or from a trail running background.  Many of them have run sub 2:30 marathons as well.  Crazy!

I can only keep my head up knowing that I won't be "running with the bulls", but rather hopefully staying close and making up time on the more strength based obstacles.

As Hunter McIntyre says, "biceps win races".  Although that may sound ridiculous, the guy can also hang with the best runners, hence why he is one of the best in the game.  If you can possess exceptional speed and still be able to carry your weight (literally) you will have a very good chance of excelling in this sport.

I've always been one to want to compete against the best in whichever sport I am competing in. These two upcoming events will give me a good idea of where I stand in this sport.  Considering I have only competed in 8 races, I would still look at myself as a rookie.  I've heard some of the top guys have already done over 20-30 races.

I'm hoping for strong finishes in both races (top 20) and to be able to work on improving my running efficiency as well as building a few obstacles to regularly practice on for next season.

My strength has always been my endurance, so the longer the race is the better I usually do.  The Warrior Dash W.C is only 3 miles with 12 obstacles, so needless to say it will be over in less than 30 minutes.  The OCR W.C is 8.8 miles and will include over 25 obstacles so that will play more to my strength.  Anything is possible and you always have to be prepared for the unexpected.  That's the beauty of sport and why we actually play the "game".  Nothing is a sure thing.

Good luck to all those athletes who will be competing this weekend and next weekend.  Hope to meet some of you at each event.

Stay tuned for race reports and photos

Uphill training preparation for Warrior Dash and OCR World Championships

I am nearing the final preparations of my training for the Warrior Dash World Championships (Oct 18th) and OCR World Championships (Oct 25th).  Due to both course designs having lots of climbing, needless to say I have been trying to improve my climbing (running uphill) skills.  Some make it look so damn easy, think Matt Novakovich or Max King, while others like me seem to struggle with it.  

Running at an incline does require some specific running technique.  I have slowly been improving on some of these.  If you are curious about learning how to improve your uphill running skills, check out this link...tips for running uphill, or this link...efficient uphill running.

During a few of my recent workouts I focused on hill repeats and tempo runs. I added in some extra fun to increase the level  of difficulty and to help me become more comfortable feeling uncomfortable.  I dragged (well not really he offered to come along) my friend Ben Fong along for both workouts.  He is a young guy who has a tremendous amount of strength and is preparing to head off to the Navy.

The hill repeat workout took place near Shevlin Park on a steep gravel road (10-15% gradient).  After a good warm up of some jogging and light stretching, we did 8 hill repeats at a tempo pace of about 200m.  Each interval was followed immediately by 5 pushups at the top.  A light jog down the hill and a 30 sec rest between each interval.  To keep things fun, every third hill we ran over to a nearby pond and walked in p to our waists and then continued up the hill for more repeats.  The addition of extra weight from the water adds a tremendous amount of strength to the equation.  Ben found this out very quickly.  

When we finished the hill repeats, we took a 5 minute rest and then started the 2nd part of the workout.  This time we did 6 sets of 150m up the hill carrying a 45lb bucket filled with gravel.  I also chose to wear my 20lb weight vest.  I tried to jog with the bucket both up and down the hill, and was able to do so on most of them.  The twist on this workout was that every time we got back to the bottom of the hill we did 10 burpees followed by a 30 sec rest.  Good times.

The final part to this workout was doing 6 "scrambles" up a very steep and loose (sandy) hill that was covered with rocks and logs.  Running up this hill is the true example of a Mtn Climber.  I kept my vest on for this too which added an even more challenge for the stability factor.  Each repeat on this hill lasted about 200m.  Running down was just as difficult as there was no sure-footed traction.  

The entire workout took us just over 1 hour and left us both feeling ready to get some food.

The following week Ben and I did a similar challenging workout but without the hill repeats.   This time we started with a series of 400m of burpee broad jumps.  These are exactly like they sound, you perform a burpee (squat down, jump both legs back into a plank position, perform a pushup, jump both legs forward, stand up and jump) and then instead of jumping straight up you jump as far forward as you can.  This is a great combination of strength and power, not to mentioned incredibly challenging on the cardiovascular system.

These took longer than I was anticipating, 20 minutes for me and 24 minutes for Ben.  I'm not sure of the total burpee count, but I would guess we both did over 100 total burpees and jumps.

After catching our breath we jogged for 5 minutes before beginning our tempo run.  12 sets of 2 min hard followed by 1 min easy.  We ran these on a trail that was mostly flat and without too many tight switchbacks.  The goal was to put in a good solid effort for each 2 min interval.  

Most of the workout was in a steady rain with temps in the 60's.  It was a perfect fall day for working out.  So far Ben seems to be "enjoying" the workouts.   One more week of hard training and then I am going to taper the final 2 weeks leading up to the Warrior Dash event on the 18th.  I will be doing mostly recovering and resting in between each event since I will get home from Warrior Dash on Monday and then head out to OH on Thursday.  

How to train the body for an Obstacle Course Race

An obstacle course race, slightly different from a mud run, requires you to work at near max anaerobic capacity during the entire event.  What this translates to is merely working at a very hard effort (85-95%), followed by a short recovery and repeating this several times.

I have shared a video of myself performing a working  I do pretty regularly when training for an obstacle course race.  Normally I would include a 1 mile run (at tempo pace) after the 3 sets of burpees and again at the end after the bear crawls.  However, I do not include the running segments in this video.  If you plan to do a similar workout such as this, you could easily shorten the run to only 400 or 800m, that is unless you are fit and healthy and have been regularly running, then go ahead and run for the 1 mile.

This type of training is great for building your endurance (unlike going out for a long steady run), and for building the relative strength needed to overcome the obstacles in a race.

Here is the breakdown of the workout in this video...featured in the BendOr magazine

2 sets with no rest

10 TRX Inverted Rows

15 Pushups

20 Squats

Rest 30 sec

500m Row as fast as you can

Rest 30 sec

3 sets with 30 sec rest b/w sets

20 burpees (for an added challenge I use a 20lb weighted vest for 2 sets)

Run 1 mile

Rest 30 sec

2 sets with no rest

50 Jump Rope 

50 Bicycle Crunches

Rest 30 sec

2 sets with 30 sec rest b/w sets

30 KB Swings (50 lbs)

20 yards bear crawl

Run 1 mile

Inferno Race - Obstacle Course Race Report

Phew, once again I am impressed with another obstacle course race event.  Out of the 8 OCR events that I have competed in, I have only had 1 experience where I was left wondering; Did I just do a race, or did I just pay money to run around in some mud with a few backyard obstacles mixed in?

Today I competed in the Inferno Race and won the 6-mile option with a time of 1:28.  Not a very fast time by any means, but don't let that fool you, the course was no joke.   The race claims to never use mud in their event, and according to their website, "mud is not an obstacle".  I could go either way on that debate, but I like their philosophy. Ironically, today they didn't have to make a mud pit of any kind, Mother Nature took care of that for them. With the temps in the 60's and rain the entire race, several sections throughout the course were in heavy forested areas, and mud was flinging.

last obstacle - not sure what to call these, but difficult

The event was held in a remote area west of Salem surrounded by many vineyards.  The landscape was amazing and of course their were plenty of rolling hills.  Now in it's 2nd year, they have two options to choose from, a 13.1 mile route with 30 obstacles, or a new for this year 6 mile option with 20 obstacles.  I chose the shorter version since my upcoming priority races will be between 3.5 - 8 miles and I am trying to figure out the most efficient pace for myself.

rope wall climb

I started at 8:30am along with about 10 other people.  The total number of participants was still relatively low (compared to Spartan Race or Tough Mudder), but I am hoping that more people will spread the good word about the race and bring more competitors in.  It was obvious that  the course designer designed the course to make you suffer.  The obstacles were challenging and the terrain (rough pasture land and steep hills) made it difficult to get into a groove.  Oh, and to help make them stand out from all others, a 200m swim was thrown in at mile 3 of the 6-mile course.  I am not a swimmer, so this added an extra challenging element for me.

















               monkey bars


The course was a good mix of off-camber pasture land that made me focus on each placement of each foot. There were several times where I thought I was going to roll my ankle.  I even saw a few people that had their ankles taped or wrapped so I'm guessing they did the race last year and knew the chances of rolling an ankle would be high.  The trail sections through the forest areas was epic.  Lots of off-camber rooty, (and today muddy) singletrack.  Their was one very steep climb that was difficult to run the whole way up, and another steep climb that was manageable to run but kicked the crap out of me.  The downhill running was also very steep at times so it was a good mix of everything.

sandbag carry thru tires

The most challenging obstacle (of the 20 or so in my race) was the tire drag.  Normally dragging a tire is not a difficult obstacle for me, but this took it to a whole new level.  I'm not exactly sure of the distance, but I overheard someone say it was a 400m drag.  The tire was probably 60-70lbs and dragging it over rough terrain completely sucked all the energy from my legs.  And it just happened to be placed right after a 1/2 mile tire carry up and over a pretty steep hill, and 1 mile from the finish.
           

collecting the goods

The "bang for the buck" rating on this race is very high.   Very little expense compared to the big 3 but right up their and maybe even better than 2 of them in terms of their obstacles.  If you are looking for a race for 2015 I recommend you put the Inferno Race on your calendar.

Spartan Race - Pac West Obstacle Course Race Report

So I just completed my first Spartan Race Obstacle Course Race (OCR) in WA.  The race started at 7:30am due to NBC-SN providing TV coverage.  The race will be aired on NBC-SN (channel 627 in Central Oregon) September 13th.

Preparing for battle...

  or for a run with a bunch of naked guys

Compared to many of the other OCR Races, this on has more physically challenging obstacles (think 80lb sandbag carry uphill vs. polar plunge).  There aren't many Spartan Races located out in the Northwest region, so this will most likely be the only one I do this year, bummer.

60lb Sandbag carry

Several of the top ranked racers from the Spartan Race Rankings were on-hand to get more points as well as compete in what many say the best courses in the entire series.  Located in Washougal, WA at the Motocross track (also one of the better courses on that National Series too), the course is flooded with dense forest sections, steep up/down hills, several section on the motocross course consisting of many rollers, and lots of wet mud/dirt.  I would have to agree that the course was pretty epic, and very challenging, especially the steep uphill running.

Running on the motocross track

Slip-N-Slide (aka: water launch)

The course length was 4.75 miles and included 20 obstacles, consisting of wall hurdles, cargo net climb, inverted wall, lattice bridge, rolling barbed wire mud crawl, traverse wall, tall walls, bucket carry (60lbs) for 100 yards up/down hill, 300lb tire flip, hoisting an 80lb sandbag up and down 20 ft, a slip-n-slide (I launched about 10 ft. off the end), 60lb sandbag carry up/down hill over 200 yards, uphill barbed wire crawl (probably the hardest obstacle for me), rope climb, spear throw, 10 ft. angled wall, a fire jump and 3 other "classified " obstacles that I can't remember.

Climbing up the lattice bridge

Low crawling through the tough uphill barbed wire

Rope climb

Spear throw attempt...

Juuust a bit outside, Sh*t...and the penalty is?

30 Burpees

The tire flip was harder than I thought it would be because my hands kept slipping off the tire, but definitely the uphill barbed wire crawl was the most challenging.  It was about 300 ft long, up a moderately steep grade with loose muddy dirt as the surface.  The barbed wire was pretty damn low in a few sections.  I used a combination of bear crawling, low crawling and rolling to get myself up the hill.  To add an even greater challenge, the final 20 ft. of the hill was a running water stream and a volunteer sprayed you with a hose.  The good news is that there was a rope to hang on and use to help pull yourself up with.  Definitely didn't prepare for that in my training.

Brutal uphill barbed wire crawl

Overall I'm happy how I did, 17th in the Elite category (3rd in Age Group), however,  I still have a few areas I need to improve on if I want a shot at the top prize at Worlds.  One of the best things about obstacle course racing is that you can never truly prepare for what will come.  Each race has different obstacles, and as far as I know no practice is allowed on the course before race day.  You have to be prepared for anything and everything and that is one element of the sport I love.