NathanC TB log

[NathanC77]

This forum appeared at a perfect time. I'm heading out in a few minutes for a Spartan Race that I've been training for using Black Pro + Fighter for the last 4 weeks. I'll update this log when I get back with a report of my training these last couple months.

[NathanC77]

So I ran in a Spartan Race Sprint yesterday. It was 4.75 miles with 20 some obstacles. I ran with a bunch of coworkers and my pace was mostly dictated by them, so I never really pushed the speed. It was still a challenge, but I felt very well prepared. I ran basebuilding in the spring, took a couple weeks off earlier in the summer, and for the past 4 weeks I've been running Black Pro with Fighter. My cluster for Fighter was high handle trap bar deadlift, push press, and weighted chins. I also sometimes did a warmup of goblet squats, KB swings, adn light KB turkish getups. My HIC's were mostly standard issue hills, short hills, fast 5 tempo runs, and a couple of GCs with burpees in them(Brig Rat and Devil's trinity I think). Once a week I did a slower 45-60 minute trail run.

I felt great on the running portion of the Spartan, which had lots of hills and trails. Granted, I spent a lot of time waiting for some of the other people I was running with to catch up, but I definitely felt myself moving quickly up hills in a way that I definitely could not have done before running Black for the last 4 weeks. There were a bunch of different obstacles, and I felt pretty well equipped to handle all of them. The toughest one for me was carrying a bucket full of rocks with no handle up and down trails for around ten minutes. I had thought about including some loaded carry training leading up to this, but I didn't want to start adding too much too soon to the standard program. I finished the obstacle ok, but my heart rate was pretty jacked up for a while after. I definitely want to try and work in some loaded carries or sandbag work in the future. There was another obstacle that consisted of crawling/rolling under low barbed wire for about 100 yards which sucked, but I don't think there was much to do to prepare for it. Maybe bear crawls or something. There was a rope climb obstacle that was more challenging than I thought it would be(no knots in the rope, I used all arms since I hadn't practiced climbing a rope before). I was never in danger of not completing the rope climb, but it was more challenging than I thought. I'd like to try and do some rope climb stuff in the future; I've been reading some of Ross Enamait's stuff about it. I missed two obstacles and had to do 30 burpees for each. The first was a spear throw, which I'm not real concerned about, that seems like more a specific skill than a general fitness quality I'm worried about right now. The second was swinging from ring to ring, which I was doing well at until I got a place where they had replaced a ring with a baseball, which I wasn't able to get a grip on. I'm not too worried about missing that either. I'd probably practice it if I were to run another Spartan though.

The burpees sucked. I'd done a few HICs which included them earlier on, but I found myself gravitating more towards hill sprints later on. In retrospect, I think I'd have been better off working in some smaller sets of burpees as warmups, finishers, and throughout the day, in addition to using some more HIC's which included them.

Overall, TB Fighter + Black Pro was a pretty ideal prep program for this race. If I do one of the longer obstacle races, I'll probably go with Fighter Bankok + Green.

Starting tomorrow my I'll be taking some classes in addition to working, so my schedule is about to get significantly busier. I'm going to finish out my Fighter block, but I think I'll switch from Black to 2-3 LSS cardio sessions/week (jogging/swimming/hiking) . I'll probably keep them around 45 minutes. I don't have any particular conditioning needs or goals at this point, and I find the LSS cardio easier to recover from and fuel, as well as more relaxing. Plus they knock me out at night better than sleeping pills. I'll try and keep this log updated as I go. I took today completely off. I may take tomorrow off as well before I pick back up with Fighter.

[Train_Hard_Live_Easy]

Good man.

We've had a fair few clients go through the Spartan races (had quite a few trifecta people too)...... In addition to their regular sessions at the centre, we run Saturday Spartan sessions for the 10-12 weeks leading up to the event. Our guys generally run the kalispell course in May. These sessions last up to 2 hours..... But if they're doing the beast, there's additional work for those guys as the sessions progress including added cardio (inc LSS for aerobic work and recovery) throughout the week

Lots of specific skills training at the start of the Saturday session when they're fresh... Then we start off with strength endurance type work (circuits etc) then as the spring weather arrives, we head outdoors to trails for hill work, sandbags carried with us, lots of 'fun' runs, hill work......oh and a metric feck-ton of burpees

The TB books are outstanding for this type of training.

Look forward to seeing your journey progress.

[NathanC77]

Thanks for the comment. That looks like a great approach. Skill work + fun runs + burpees are definitely things I'll implement if/when I end up doing a longer race like this in the future.

[NathanC77]

8/30/16
Still a little sore from the Spartan.Mostly hips, glutes, traps, and elbows for some reason. The only one I was a little worried about was the elbows, but I decided to go ahead and do a strength day. This was week 4 of Fighter: 3-5x5 @ 80%.

Warm Up: KB swings 53x3xs, superset with goblet squats 35x3x3. Also shoulder dislocates.
Push Press: 115x3x5
High Handle Trap Bar DL: 250x1x5
Pullups-185(Bw of 180 + 5 lbs) x3x5

I usually do a full 3x5 for the TBDL but I figured I'd take it easy today. Once I finish this block I'd like to start using squats again as my lower body movement, so I can move easily between my home gym and a commercial gym depending on the day. I'm going to start doing goblet squats in between sets for the next couple weeks to groove that movement. Squats have always been hit or miss for me. I'll have some days where they feel great, and other days where it feels like my hips are made of gravel and there's no way I can reach parallel. We'll see how it works out. Pullups hurt my elbows a bit today. If they're still sore by my next session I'll probably skip the pullups. The push press was an experiment. I loved overhead press but have always wanted to try push press. My maxes for the two lifts were exactly the same, but the push press is just kind of uncomfortable to hold in a rack position. I'll probably use standard overhead press next block.

[NathanC77]

8/31- Off/rest. Elbows still a little sore
9/1- LSS run-easy-2.78 miles in 34:13 @ 12:19 min/mile

[Green2Blue]

Breckenridge Sprint? I did the Beast on Saturday, my first Spartan. That ring one you're talking about was definitely challenging. I missed the spear throw as well, it's definitely a specific skill. Going for a Trifecta next year.

Look forward to reading the log. I'll be starting mine on Monday.

[NathanC77]

Breckenridge Sprint? I did the Beast on Saturday, my first Spartan. That ring one you're talking about was definitely challenging. I missed the spear throw as well, it's definitely a specific skill. Going for a Trifecta next year.

Look forward to reading the log. I'll be starting mine on Monday.

Nah mine was the Washington DC race. I think it was the same weekend as Breckenridge. It was a lot of fun, I definitely want to tackle one of the longer ones next year. Maybe a trifecta as well.

Honestly, since the race, I've been kind of un-motivated, so I've been taking it easy conditioning wise this whole week. I'm ready for this block to be over as well. Just doing TBDL worked great when I needed to get my legs used to more and more intense running HICs, but I'm moving in between work, home, class, and volunteering and I'd like to be able to get complete workouts in on the campus I'm taking classes at, but it doesn't have a trap bar. I'm also ready to move back to regular overhead press from the push press this session. I can see the appeal of push press, but I definitely prefer regular press. My elbows are still sore so I dropped the weighted pullups this session. I know from experience when I get this sort of elbow pain that it doesn't go away unless I drop anything that aggravates it for a period of time. So probably no pullups for the rest of this block.

9/2-off
9/3-Warm Up: KB swings 53x3x10, superset with goblet squats 35x3x1,2,3. Also shoulder dislocates.
Push Press: 115x3x5
High Handle Trap Bar DL: 250x1x5
No pullups. Did 3x5 band pullaparts instead
9/4-off

[NathanC77]

9/5/16
LSS run-on asphalt bike path, pretty flat-3.34 miles in 43:02 @ 12:53 min/mile pace-easy
The bulk of this summer I've been running on trails in the heat, so this was a nice change of pace. It still wasn't cool but it wasn't deathly hot either.

[NathanC77]

9/6/16-Fighter Week 6
WU- KB swings 53x3x10; goblet squats 35x1,2,3; haloes-35 lbsx3x5/side; shoulder dislocates
Push Press- 127.5x3x3
TBDL-280x3x3
dropped pullups again to give my elbows a break. My pullups are probably stronger relatively than my other lifts so I'm not that concerned about dropping them for the rest of this block to avoid elbow pain. Did band facepullsx2x15 and band pullapartsx2x15 instead.