2017 Season Preview and Start

This year I plan on running Spartan SoCal #1 Sprint, Pendleton World Famous Mud Run, Spartan N.Y. Military Sprint at West Point USMA, Spartan World Championship in Tahoe, Spartan SoCal Sprint #2 in Big Bear, and Spartan Sprint L.A.  I hope to break 1050 pts this year and get on the Masters podium again (already did it once this year)

The first race of my season was a Spartan Sprint at Lake Elsinore.  Easily the fastest, flattest course I've ever run.  It was about 4.6 miles and 20 obstacles.  My additional upperbody training really paid off.  I didn't really struggle with any of the obstacles except the new 400 lb tire flip, and I did better on that than most.  In fact I would say that is why I got third in masters.  I was in 7th or 8th prior to the tire and the spear toss.  I saw a ton of people doing burpees at those two obstacles and I nailed both, and pretty quickly.  With less than a mile left there wasn't much chance for them to catch me unless I failed an obstacle, and I managed to run the course clean.  Definitely one of my top 3 races.

 

2016 Season Recap

I finished off the season with the Sunday L.A. Spartan Sprint in December.  The season shifted this year to the calendar year.  While I was a little disappointed by my finish at L.A. (mainly due to failing the spear toss) I still finished 6th in Masters and 33rd in Men.  Some highlights of the year were getting on the Master's podium in L.A. 2015 (technically this season), getting over 1000 pts in the standings, running at (although not in) the Spartan World Championships in Tahoe and finishing 16th in Master's Elite (non-championship), and winning my age group at the Pendleton Mud Run.  Here's to another season of improvement.

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.