TacticalBarbell.com

Goal - Complete a Spartan Beast in 18 weeks
2nd Goal - Continue fitness long after the race is over on a yearly cycle and get body fat below 20%

Current situation - 45 years old, 5'11" and 215lbs. Recovering from an injury to right foot (pretty invasive surgery). Haven't run in years and have never done serious weight training. Dabbled around with lifting back in the Army, but never with any real intent.

Stats 1RM (lbs)
Bench Press ~170
Squat ~ 200
Dead Lift ~200
Pull Up - 1x
Run - can right now
Swim - 1 mile in under 36 min

That was humbling.

The Plan
Starts on Friday April 28th
Phase 1 - First 8 weeks
Day 1: Strength
Day 2: HIC
Day 3: Strength
Day 4: Rest or E
Day 5: Strength
Day 6: Fun Run/Hike with lots of burpees and crarrying stuff
Day 7: Rest

Strength will be following Stronglifts (for a linnear progression and ease into lifting after so long)
Workout A - SQ, BP, subbing in PU instead of rows, dips, calf raises, planks
Workout B - SQ, OHP, DL, Chinups, hanging knee raises
HIC - will mainly be hill runs with burpees, swings, farmer carries, and bear crawls mixed in
E - will be bike or swim
Want to focus on diet and get myself around 195 so that when i start a return to run program in late May it will be slightly easier.

Still not able to do much running so I'm focusing on strength for first 9 weeks.

Phase 2
last 9 weeks leading up to race (week of the race is a taper)
Day 1: SE Tango Circuits
Day 2: E
Day 3: SE Tango Circuits
Day 4: Rest/Swim
Day 5: HIC/or climbing gym
Day 6: Long Ruck/Run with Burpees, carries, bear crawls, etc
Day 7: Rest

Open to any thoughts. Wondering if I should go straight SE through the race, but rationalizing that building somewhat of a strength base first will help with the SE.

Seabassius wrote:Goal - Complete a Spartan Beast in 18 weeks
2nd Goal - Continue fitness long after the race is over on a yearly cycle and get body fat below 20%

Current situation - 45 years old, 5'11" and 215lbs. Recovering from an injury to right foot (pretty invasive surgery). Haven't run in years and have never done serious weight training. Dabbled around with lifting back in the Army, but never with any real intent.

Stats 1RM (lbs)
Bench Press ~170
Squat ~ 200
Dead Lift ~200
Pull Up - 1x
Run - can right now
Swim - 1 mile in under 36 min

That was humbling.

The Plan
Starts on Friday April 28th
Phase 1 - First 8 weeks
Day 1: Strength
Day 2: HIC
Day 3: Strength
Day 4: Rest or E
Day 5: Strength
Day 6: Fun Run/Hike with lots of burpees and crarrying stuff
Day 7: Rest

Strength will be following Stronglifts (for a linnear progression and ease into lifting after so long)
Workout A - SQ, BP, subbing in PU instead of rows, dips, calf raises, planks
Workout B - SQ, OHP, DL, Chinups, hanging knee raises
HIC - will mainly be hill runs with burpees, swings, farmer carries, and bear crawls mixed in
E - will be bike or swim
Want to focus on diet and get myself around 195 so that when i start a return to run program in late May it will be slightly easier.

Still not able to do much running so I'm focusing on strength for first 9 weeks.

Phase 2
last 9 weeks leading up to race (week of the race is a taper)
Day 1: SE Tango Circuits
Day 2: E
Day 3: SE Tango Circuits
Day 4: Rest/Swim
Day 5: HIC/or climbing gym
Day 6: Long Ruck/Run with Burpees, carries, bear crawls, etc
Day 7: Rest

Open to any thoughts. Wondering if I should go straight SE through the race, but rationalizing that building somewhat of a strength base first will help with the SE.

Awesome, looking forward to following along. I think building a strength base first is the smart way to go. Build up massive amounts of general strength and endurance, and then taper/get specific 6-8 weeks out from the Beast.

Pre-week 1
Tuesday (Traveling)
Farmer carries - carried suitcase ~25lbs in one hand and briefcase in the other and then would switch through airport instead of rolling them.
Found the hotel gym - didn't use it, but it has a pull up bar.

Plan for Wednesday is
20 Airsquats x2
12 flights of stairs X2
burpees x2
1 Pull Up x5
10 OHP with Bands x2
30 sec Planks & Glute bridge x2

First day of the plan.

Strength Day (following stronglifts to begin with)
Squat 75lbs 5x5
Bench 75lbs 5x5
Assisted Pull Ups, assisted with 100lbs 5x5
Dips 3 x 8 some 25lbs assist for last 2 sets
One leg calf raises (BW) 3x20 for rehab - considerable difference in right vs left
Planks 3x30 sec holds
Finish with 10 burpees

Overall felt the primary lifts were very easy. Resisting the urge to go beyond the linear progression. Sub'd in Pull Ups instead of barbell rows, as I feel they will be more applicable to the Spartan Beast and I want to focus on improving them. Plan is to gradually reduce the weight assist linearly as little as possible in line with the other primary lifts. 10 Burpees smoked me after everything else. I might break that up into 3 x 5 and start increasing by 1 each week and add a set each month.

Tomorrow is an HIC day. All i know is it will include more burpees.

HIC Day

“CONNAUGHT RANGE 10 TO 1s”
Excerpt From: K Black. “Tactical Barbell II: Conditioning.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/6Som-.l

10 Burpees
Run 100 yards
9 Burpees
Run 100 yards
8 burps .... all the way to 1, although I might have skipped 5 when I couldn't remember where I left off.


I might have skipped #5, but not completely sure.
Finished with a few Farmer Carries with 45lb plate in each hand and glue bridges with some foam rolling and stretching.

First time running in almost 2 years. Was definitely aware of my foot but not what i would describe as pain. Was actually pretty happy with how I felt. We'll see how it is tomorrow. Tomorrow is supposed to be a strength day, but will have to see. May do easy swim and push out strength a day.

Yesterday
Strength
Squat 5 x 5 85lbs
OHP 5 x 5 45lbs
Deadlift 1 x 5 90lbs
Chin up 5x 5 90lbs assisted
Hanging Knee raises 3 x 10

All very easy except hanging knee raises. Hung from pull up bar and tried to get feet as high as I could to the bar. Could get them around chest height. Good grip work for me. Felt a little twinge in my left thigh on one of the squats. Muscle soreness in the back but. Itching to extreme.

Today
E 30 min easy swim with some ab wheel work.

Tomorrow
Rest day due to some work commitments. Maybe yoga in evening.

Foot was pretty sore after the previous running Saturday. Went and got a cortisone injection on my rest day. Better now, but might need to hold off runs for a while and do a very slow return to run progression.


5/3/2017
Wasn't able to make it to gym in the morning, so crammed a quick Strength day into afternoon before I picked up the kids.
STR (Stronglifts modified)
Bench - 95lbs 5x5 easy
Squat - 95lbs 5x5 easy
Assist Pull Ups 130lbs easy (sub in assist Pull Ups for barbell row, subtract my weight from the assist and keep increasing how much I lift. in this instance it was 215 - 85lbs, next strength session will be 215ish - 80lbs). Goal is to increase the net weight I'm lifting by 5lbs each sesssion, alternating pull up and chin ups per session.)

Nothing else since i was short on time.


5/4
HIC
Stairclimber level 11 for 3 minutes then jump off and do 10 burpees
Stairclimber level 10 for 2 minutes (went a little high on the first one) and then jump off and do 10 burpees x 3 more times

This one smoked the crap out of me. Pretty humbling that I was only able to get 4 sets. Keep telling myself I'm training for end of August, small gains.

I like the stairclimber/burpee combo for Spartan prep.

5/5 Physical Therapy - no work out

Moved Spartan race from the Beast to the Sprint based on recovery timeline and recommendation from Dr and Phys Therap.

5/6 Strength
Squat 5 X 5 100lbs
OHP 5 X 5 50lbs
Deadift 3 x 5 100lbs
Assisted Chinups 5 X 5 135lbs
Hanging knee raises 3 X 10

All pretty good. Feeling the weight now but wouldn't call it difficult, except hanging knee raises, those were tough, especially on the grip.

5/7
2 hours of easy tennis and a little yard work. Could definitely feel my foot during tennis, but recovered pretty well after.

5/8
Strength
Squat 5 X 5 105lbs
Bench 5 X 5 105lbs
Assisted Pull Ups 5 X 5 140lbs (215-75lb assist)
Glute Bridges 5 X 30sec
Plank 5 X 30 Sec

Hardest thing were the planks although the weight is more and more noticeable now with the other lifts. Ankle has been bothering me all day and just noticed it is swollen pretty well tonight. Must have aggravated an injury I've been nursing when I played tennis. Turning 45 is starting to suck.

Hoping for decent weather in the morning and taking the kids to the park before kindergarten and work to get some monkey bar work plus burpees.