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Any fellow Spartans around? I finally did my first Spartan Sprint (Dallas 2014) and loved it! Can't wait for the next one. I'm shooting for the Trifecta in 2015.

Hello fellow Scouts! Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year. I had a ridiculous chest infection which is still hanging around unfortunately. Anyway my scouting plans for 2016 involve a half marathon in March, a marathon in May and a 10k at the London Olympic Village finishing in the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in July. That's all I've got booked at the moment but I'll book more as I go along. So the plan is Goal 1. Run three times per week as per my marathon training plan This is a long slow run on Tuesdays, fast 5km on Thursday and a steady 7-8km on a Sunday. The long slow runs are currently at just under 12km and I will be increasing this each week, with a shorter run every 4-5th week to rest. I also run with the beginners group as a leader a couple of nights a week, and some skills sessions on a Monday evening. These will be in addition to the three training plan runs. Goal 2. Yoga or cross training three times per week I will focus on improve my core strength which should help my running. I will either go to the gym and follow a program set by my PT or do a session at home from the Yoga Studio app. Goal 3. Walk 7000 steps daily I'm not very good at walking anywhere. I'm happy to run it or I go in the car. I got a Garmin Vivofit at Christmas so I will walk 7000 steps per day, in excess of any running steps. Level Up my Life. Take my anti-hypertensive drugs daily Fairly self explanatory. I don't take my meds because I forget. It's one tiny tasteless tablet each day. I think my brain refuses to accept that I have high blood pressure as I do not sit in any of the high risk groups. Hopefully having it as a goal on here will prompt me. No fancy gifs or anything at the moment. I promise to be more entertaining as we go through the 4WC.

It's inevitable. Zombies are coming. Between running with zombie moans and podcasts about rabies and conspiracy theories on my headphones I'm 100% sure of this now. So I better get down to it and start preparing. And to fully prepare, I'm enlisting in the AZAM - the Anti Zombie Army of Madness aka my very own bootcamp. I'm getting help from my friends and other sources and it's going to be epic. My next challenge will have a lot of things happening in my life that may help or hinder me and I'll have to find a way to work with and around that. For one, stud muffin is leaving May 2nd. He has a tremendous impact on my life in terms of motivation, adventure and accountability and I'm going to miss him like crazy. Remember how I first told you guys about him like... 2 or 3 challenges ago? Who would have thought it would ever come to this, huh? As I am writing this, I've got almost a full month left with him before he leaves for 9-10 weeks. He'll be back for a short while after that but it'll be rough. As of this moment, we've done an awesome 5k mud run together, have signed up for the Spartan Race in Munich that's on April 18th (so just after the start of the challenge!) and he's forced and helped me through many, many workout related but also emotional things. I'm incredibly grateful that he's part of my life and will be even after he's gone. There's also school & work. I'll have some exams coming up and while I'm currently at the start of a 2 week vacation, that's gonna be over when the challenge starts. I definitely do have to do some studying while I'm at it. Social life of course also mixes into it, but I've found many great people that I can spend time with WHILE working out so I don't foresee that many obstacles there So let's get down to it! MAIN GOAL: Survive basic training/get ready for the zombie apocalypse When you train to survive, there's a few things factoring in. Goal 1: Zombies, Run! Running is obviously one of the most important skills you need for the apocalypse. If you can't run away from them, they're going to eat your brains and I do very much enjoy my brains. So the running continues. Be it with the 5k trainer or the normal Zombies, Run app or with the help of the awesome races I'll be running doesn't matter. So long as I can be out there with the wind on my face and my heart beating fast and sweat running down my skin, I'm happy, and the zombies will be sad. This is all that counts. As for races, here's the current schedule: April 18th: Spartan Race Munich (5k mud run) May 17th: Urbanian Run Frankfurt (5k city obstacle run) May 24th: Viking Heroes Challenge (5k mud run) I'm concentrating on 5ks this year and I hope to add a few more over the course of the year but I think for this challenge I'm good. As a bonus I'm going to try and make a reward wall in my room. To hang my medals, race bibs and other paraphernalia to always remind me of how awesome I am and what I've managed to survive - also to scare off the zombies. They're not even gonna want to chase me when they lay eyes on that wall! Ha! Goal 2: Zombies, Work it! Sometimes running fails. And even if it doesn't, living in a post-apocalyptic world is going to be rough both mentally and physically. The mental things I don't need to worry about right this moment, but the physical things could definitely use some training. So this is where I'll build my workout. It's a work in progress as of right now and hopefully I'll have rewritten this part by the start of the challenge. I'm planning to find short workouts as well as longer workouts that I can just do without having to make up my mind before working out and thus losing precious time just bumming around on Youtube. So stay tuned for adventures in zombie strength training! Zombie sit-ups FTW! Goal 3: Zombies, Die! This one I'm super freaking excited about. I was talking to my friend Shred (the guy who ran the beer obstacle run with me) the other day about survival training and combatives and he actually sat down with me and made a plan for a bootcamp of sorts. I'll be learning lots of awesome stuff from him, he's gonna chase me across fields, up and down hills and through my house and it shall be epic and exhausting and so much fun. Quick overview: Kill zombies inside my house: - identifying and avoiding danger areas - clearing a room - clearing a corner Kill zombies in the wilderness: - proper use of cover and concealment - movement under direct fire Avoid being killed by zombies with mortars: - move under indirect fire Avoid being killed by zombies in hand to hand combat: - foot trap - attacking the eyes - pushing the core - throat stomp Keep yourself and your friends alive (medical): - stop the bleeding - transport a casualty - breathing - hypothermia prevention It will be both knowledge and actual physical stuff and I'm super super excited for it. I'm going to run around forests and fields making a fool of myself and getting workout, what could be better?! Diet/Life Goals: There will be none for this challenge. As pointed out above, there's going to be some difficulties in my life over the course of the challenge. Apart from that I really love my life the way it is right now. I'm doing alright with the diet and I don't want to overburden myself. There will also be no tracking. I'll wing it and get in as much as my life allows and be happy with that!

I'm looking to run the Ragnar Trail Cascades race in September. It's a total of 18 miles, broken into ~3, ~8, and ~7 mile loops in the Methow Valley. I've trained for long races before and am not worried about getting the training in to be in shape for the climbs and terrain. But I've never run a Ragnar! I know it's a long ways out, but are there any Ragnarians out there with tips/tricks/ideas?

Hey, if you want to do a Rock n'Roll marathon or half today is the day to sign up! There is $20 off all registration fees today! http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/