Spartan Beast Tahoe 2016

Overall I had a good race except for failing the Herc Hoist and Rig for the second race in a row.  At least I know what I have to work on.  I ran the non championship elite heat on Saturday and placed 15th in elite men and 56 overall for men.  I'm pretty proud of this as well as how I ran and handled many of the new obstacles I had never seen before.  Grip and shoulder strength is still a week point but getting better.  At 15+ miles 36 obstacles and 4500 ft of elevation change with a base altitude of 6500 it was easily the hardest race I've ever run.

Spartan SoCal Sprint #2 (Pala)

New venue for the SoCal Spartan.  For the first time Spartan held a race at the Pala Motor Speedway.  It was a nice course, semi-technical but flat and fast (at least the sprint was) just under 5 miles and about 20 obstacles.  I had been training really hard for this race, and I felt good.  3.5 miles into the race I was sitting in 32nd overall and 3rd in Masters, that's when the wheels came off.  I failed two obstacles in a row, the multi-rig and about 50 yards later the herc hoist (again).  This dropped me way back to about where I finished, 62nd overall and 11th in Masters.  I ran really well and felt strong, the fail on the rig was technique more than strength (granted if I was stronger I could have overcome) the herc hoist was a bit heavier than before and I wasn't recovered from my rig burpees.  I need to keep working on my lats, biceps, and grip.  Though they are greatly improved, they are still a weakness.

Week of July 4-10 2016

Sun- Yancy Camp 177
Mon- Rest
Tues- 8.25 trail run 5 x 5 weighted pull-ups
Wed- Yancy Camp 178
Thurs- Rest
Fri- OCR run
Sat- YC 176
Sun- MROC

Camp Pendleton World Famous Mud Run

It was my first time doing this race, and I ran in the timed 10k on Sunday June 5th(Meadow ran the open 5k).  Aside from a minor strain/tear of my calf about 1.5 miles in I did about as well as I expected.  I finished in 56:29 (I wanted to break 55, but more on that in a bit) placed 18th overall and won my age group.  There was about 20 obstacles over 6.5+ miles and about 500 ft of elevation gain.  My goal was to break 55 minutes, but that was when I thought it was a 10k, my watch said 6.9 on completion, but it's not always correct.  There were a couple loops for the heavy carries and a steep climb loop that they say adds a 1/4 mile, so I figure somewhere between 6.5-6.9 miles.  The obstacles were all variations on climb over, climb under, heavy carries, and mud.  None were particularly challenging.  The biggest problem was I had no 5th gear after straining my calf.  Overall I did what I set out to do, run a race during a long break between Spartan races and win my age group.

Las Vegas Spartan Super 2016

Another disappointing finish, okay, disappointing might be strong, but I didn't reach any of my goals.  I wanted to break 1:30 on what I thought was going to be a flat fast course, and flat it was, or the first 7 miles of this 8.2 mile race was.  However, most of the first 5 miles were in sand or a creek with water as high as my hips.  The course was still pretty fast with only 18 obstacles spaced pretty evenly throughout the 7 miles or so.  Then came the last mile and a half... the hardest 1.5 miles of any race I have ever "run" in.  11 legit obstacles one right after another.  if you weren't doing an obstacle you were hiking up steep inclines or slogging over muddy woop-de-dos on the motocross track.  Other than slowing me way down I still did pretty well through everything except the "bucket brigade" (my hamstrings cramped up) and the final obstacle, the"herc hoist".  I hadn't failed this obstacle in over two years, and I got it to about a foot from the top when my grip just gave out after a string of 6 grip driven challenges.  At that time I was sitting somewhere around 10th in Masters and 60th in Male Elite.  My 30 penalty burpees dropped me to 15 in Masters and 78 in Male Elite.  I came up just short of all my goals, didn't break 1:30, didn't get at least 195 points (I got 189) and I didn't run a penalty free race.  Time to regroup once more or watch my goal of being in the Spartan 300 drift away.  The way I figure it, I will need to average 210 points per race in my last two.  This will be a tall order, but possible.

Spartan Sprint SoCal #1

So my second Spartan race of the season did not go as well as the first.  It was a fast, but wet/rainy course 5+ miles with 23 obstacles.  I felt and ran reasonably well, but failed 2 obstacles, the monkey bars and the Cliff Multi-bar.  Because it was wet I over thought the monkey bars instead of attacking them the way I should, spent too much time on them and slipped.  I probably would have failed the multi-bar either way, but the rain didn't help.  The biggest problem was that I got sick on a GU pack around mile 3.  I had hoped to place top 10 in the Masters division of this very competitive field, and ended up 23rd.  My minimum goal was to get 180 pts and I think I got 177.  So over all pretty disappointed, but already training hard and feeling much better about the upcoming Vegas Super.