- All right. We're back,
back again on the road to Spartan.
I don't know what number this race is,
but I do know that the last one I did,
I said I would retired Spartan racing
after the absolute disaster that race was.
But we are back on the road,
headed to Virginia Spartan, we're doing the super today
and the car behind us,
we have two of our comrades
and they're going to be joining us here,
they'll be on our clips, doing the work.
Headed to Arlington, Virginia,
doing the super, which is a 10K.
So it's about 6.2 miles, 28 obstacles, I believe.
So I'll give you a little rundown of what it takes to prep
for a Spartan race.
But if you're wanting to do a in super
and you're interested in doing a super
or you haven't done one before,
you just want to see what it's all about
this video will cover all of that and then some,
so stay tuned, let's jump into the video.
All right, so Spartan racing,
there's really a couple of different ways you can go
about jumping into a Spartan race.
So, first one is just saying, "You know what,
"I'm in relatively decent shape,"
or "I've been running a little bit here and there
"and I just want to test out my fitness level
"and just go out and attempt to run a Spartan race
for fun," basically.
You might bring a couple friends, do it solo,
if you're just saying, "I just want to see where I'm at."
And ultimately you go out there
with the expectation you just want to finish,
that's one way of going about it.
The other way of going about it is prepping for it
and actually using the Spartan race as a target,
like a checkpoint in your year,
a fitness goal that you really want to knock out
and you actually set aside three to four months
to get prepared for the Spartan race.
So I may cover a couple of basics
that I suggest everybody do
before jumping into the Spartan race,
whether you're doing it for fun or competition,
or you just want to finish,
these tips will give you not only a leg up
on the competition but help you prevent injury,
help you get out there and actually enjoy it more
because you're a little more prepared,
so let's jump into that.
So, the first and probably the most obvious part
of doing a Spartan race
is the fact that you're going to have to run.
You're going to have to run,
the shortest Spartan race is a 5K,
so a little over 3 1/2 miles.
The big thing about running
that a lot of people don't realize is that running slow
and building up your endurance is really the key.
A lot of people want to get out of the gate
and start just going out there and pushing one mile,
two mile, three mile runs as fast as possible,
and ultimately what ends up happening
is you never really build up your endurance
and aerobic engine.
You set yourself up for injury, you get overly sore,
your body can't handle
that increase in miles out of nowhere.
So I suggest number one, purposely running slow.
So, feeling comfortable during your run,
even if that means running at a very slow pace,
just to start building up your engine.
That's also why I suggest running at least three
to four months out of your Spartan race,
starting to incorporate some runs on a weekly basis.
Maybe it's one or two runs a week,
and then ultimately three or four
as you get closer to the race.
Whatever your target mileage is,
ultimately you want to throw in some runs
that keep you on your feet for that length of time,
so it's not so much the distance.
So let's say for example, today I'm running a super,
in my head, I'm thinking it's probably going to take me
anywhere from an hour and 20 minutes
to an hour and 40 minutes to complete,
but that whole entire time, I'll be on my feet.
So, I want to throw in a couple of runs at a very slow pace
that allow me to be on my feet for an hour and 40,
hour and 30 minutes, roughly.
So, I'm not going out there and trying
to run as fast as I can,
I'm just getting used to being on my feet
for that period of time.
You might start at 30 minutes on your feet, 40 minutes, 50,
and then eventually you get to an hour and a half,
but run slow on purpose.
Occasionally when you've built up
a little bit more endurance, throw in a run
that's a little bit faster,
but don't go to the point every single time
where you finish you're running exhausted, sore
and wondering why the heck you're even doing this.
You should feel comfortable during the run.
It does take some self-control,
it does take an awareness of your breathing
and your heart rate and all that stuff.
I did a whole running video, you can check it out up here,
breaking down some more running tips,
but ultimately running should be at a slower pace
most of the time, that's tip number one.
All right, tip number two,
which I think is probably the most important part
of a Spartan race in particular,
it's hard to train for obstacles,
because unless you have like an obstacle course
in your backyard that you've probably built
because these obstacles are specifically built by Spartan,
they're not something you can find on a nearby playground
or something, these are literally specially made
for Spartan race.
So, I don't know if that's a word about it, special.
But needless to say, regardless of what you have access to,
it's a really good idea to train your grip strength,
but also train your grip strength in a situation
where you have to change grip placement.
So, the best thing I can suggest you find is a pull up bar
that has multiple grip options.
So, maybe like a neutral,
palms facing grip pull up station, a wide grip
and then maybe the one that has like kind of an angle,
like a 45 degree angle,
where you could do underhand or overhand
and hanging from that bar and switching your grip.
So switching to inside, to out, to in, to back again,
getting comfortable being up on that bar,
holding on with your grip, with your biceps flexed,
for up to 60 to even longer,
60 seconds to maybe a minute and a half,
switching grips the whole time.
If you can get really good at that,
your grip strength is obviously going to improve a ton
and you're going to do so much better on these obstacles
because most of the tougher obstacles
require a lot of grip strength.
It's not like you have to be great at jumping.
I mean, yeah, there's some things you got to jump over,
but ultimately it's really just about popping up
and pulling yourself over.
Once again, grip strength.
You start to throw in some running,
mixed in with some grip strength work,
you're going to be set.
I'll throw into number three,
but tip number two is make sure you work
on your grip strength, doing that hand switching,
hand placement to really get comfortable
being at different spots.
(soft music)
All right, guys, tip number three
if you're training for a Spartan race,
make sure you do a lot of incline runs.
So if you're on a treadmill, set the incline 10, 14%,
get used to running uphill or even just walking up hill
makes a huge difference because a lot of Spartan trails
have a lot of uphill portions
and you want to condition your legs
to be able to handle that.
So I would spend at least half your time
on at least a moderate incline.
So six to 10%, just get so much more comfortable with that
it'll pay off tremendously in the race.
(upbeat music)
- [Cameraman] We need a temporary Spartan training.
- So you put one foot in front of the next
and then you just keep going and then you see a hill
you're just like, "Let's go baby."
So that's the tip, another tip is seriously,
one foot in front of the next and you just keep going
until there's no more obstacles
and then you get across the finish line.
So, anytime you see some with any distance at all,
it doesn't matter if it's 240, doesn't matter if it's 6.2,
it doesn't matter what the distance is,
one foot in front of the other and when you're just like,
"This sucks," you just keep rolling, that's it.
And then you're on to Cincinnati after that,
know what I'm saying?
He knows what I'm saying.
(upbeat music)
- All right, guys, that wraps up the Spartan super 10K
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