QuirkyDM takes his action

[QuirkyDM]

OK, this is the new challenge and right now my main goal is ....

 

waiting.

 

In 13 hours, I'll be running the Spartan Beast. After that, I'll be resting, recovering and having fun with my family and offline for a while. When I get back, then I'll set new goals based on how I did at the Beast because I'm running the Beast at the Spartan World Championships in 2 months. I'm basically bookmarking this challenge by a Beast on either side. The challenge this time through will be to figure out what to do to hopefully make the next Beast better.

 

It will likely include lots of running, burpees and PLP for starters. We'll see where it goes from there.

 

Not much of a thread so far, huh? Well, hopefully I'll have enough energy tomorrow to give a race report after the Beast. Or you know, I'd like to survive it, too. Yeah, surviving would be good.

 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 

... and now I'm back from vacation and ready to actually do a challenge. I need to take what I learnt from the Beast and get ready for the Vermont Beast.

 

What did I learn from the Beast? There was lots of running and LOTS of hills. Running, especially hills, is a priority.

My legs hurt for 4 days after the Beast, all in the quads. Hill runs should help that. But leg strength is also a priority so that I can still use my legs when I'm done.

During the race, I failed one obstacle which was all upper body. The second hardest obstacle was also upper body. I'd love to conquer all the obstacles sometime. Now could be that sometime, right?

 

 

1. You thought you ran before ...

• Run a minimum of 50K each week.
• Long run each week is at least 25K and can't be more than 50% of my weekly total.
• At least one run each week where the hills kick my ass. (hill sprints, long runs on hills, etc.)
• The only exception is the last week of the challenge, where I'll start tapering.

 

2. Legs like tree trunks.

• Daily burpees. You can't be a spartan and not do it. The goal is a set of 30 burpees everyday, but I might mix it up to do intervals or sprints of them just to keep it fresh.
• Another round of PLP. Starting this round at 10 reps. (on day 5 so far) I'm going to increase the lunge portion by doing jumping lunges instead of normal lunges.
• Starting Body Weight Progressions for squats. 2x per week as I still want to get to the gym at least once a week and lift heavy stuff.

 

3. Arms like boulders.

• Daily burpees. Love them or hate them, they work.
• PLP is here, too. Pull ups are the same, but I'll try to use fewer sets. Push ups are going to be elbows-in push ups to make them harder.
• Starting Body Weight Progressions for pull ups. 2x per week. OK, so far this is looking just like the legs goal. We can throw a little twist in there.
• Practice climbing a rope using only arms 1/week. I did it up a playground pole on vacation. This seems like the next logical progression. And it would be cool.

 

4. Spartan tech

I'm going to simplify the data streams into the house. At the end of the day, I don't know if it will make it so we watch less TV, but it should make it much cheaper to do so. I'm not looking to pirate or stream illegally. But even legally, there are a lot of options to cut down costs and still have a good setup.

• Cancel long distance plan (cell phone has unlimited long distance)
• Get a digital antennae
• Get a laptop, desktop, smartbox, whatever to stream media
• Switch internet to unlimited bandwidth.
• Subscribe to Netflix
• Cut the cable

 

5. Learning Tricks

I always like learning some new tricks for body control. The Starting Body Weight Progressions has some of these and a list of physical requirements you should have in place in order to try them out. When I work on my squats and pull ups, I'm going to throw these in, too- either work on the trick, or work on the prerequisite I need to learn the trick. First up, crow stand!

[Xena]

It will likely include lots of running, burpees and PLP for starters. We'll see where it goes from there.

 

I like where you are going with this.

 

Good luck tomorrow!!

[The Swedish Ninja]

Found ya!

Regarding the PLP. You have reached day 49 previous week, and should be up to 55 now, are you just going to keep going or do you plan to change it somehow?

 

Have a great run, I´m sure you do great. And as I´ve said before. PICS!!!!

 

Sub´d for awesomeness

[QuirkyDM]

I like where you are going with this.

 

Good luck tomorrow!!

Thanks. I knew you would.

 

Found ya!

Regarding the PLP. You have reached day 49 previous week, and should be up to 55 now, are you just going to keep going or do you plan to change it somehow?

 

Have a great run, I´m sure you do great. And as I´ve said before. PICS!!!!

 

Sub´d for awesomeness

I stopped at 52 because I really wanted to be rested up for the Beast today. My legs were very tired between lunges, running and daily burpees last challenge so I really wanted them to be recovered.

 

 

--------------

All week, I've felt pretty good going into the race. I had a plan, I've trained and I did some warm up races. I don't think I could be more ready. Well, I'm sure I could, but for now I feel pretty darn prepared. I'm doing this with a friend from work and he was having doubts about his readiness. He's a slightly better runner than I am and he's stronger, too. But hey, maybe he's just paranoid? Or am I overconfident? Probably both.

 

On the other hand, this is the Beast. You don't just walk into the Beast. (I'm sure I should be putting an internet meme down for this) And we've had lots of back and forth talks about water. I'm taking a slight risk maybe and only taking a 750mL water bottle on the course with me, with plans to fill up at the water stations. The only way this goes horribly wrong is if the water stations are placed too far apart or this run takes me far longer than I think it will. But hey, sometimes, you have to take a few chances and see what happens, right?

 

And then last night, I had a bit of a freakout. Yesterday they ran the Super on the same course as today's Beast, so there will be lots of similarities. My wife was on facebook and she saw a post of an obstacle that basically looked like something out of American Ninja Warrior. Uh oh. And then she saw that it took this guy over 4 hours to do the Super. Now, I have no idea what shape this guy is in, but I plan to finish the Beast in 4 hours. If I'm wrong about that ... well, it could be a very long day.

 

So yeah. Last night, I started getting pretty anxious. Or maybe nervous? Terrified?

 

It's the next day now and with a good night's sleep, I'm back to feeling good about this whole thing again. Easy, hard, or devastating, I know I'll still have a blast today.

 

Time to go out and do it.

[Phayze]

Ra Ra, FIGHT THE POWAH! Give it hell, bro. We're here cheering for you!

[Phytomancer]

Fight the BEAST!!

[sylph]

Awesome goals!

 

 

or, uh, I'm sure they will be, once you figure out what they are.

[Maledictus]

 

And then last night, I had a bit of a freakout. Yesterday they ran the Super on the same course as today's Beast, so there will be lots of similarities. My wife was on facebook and she saw a post of an obstacle that basically looked like something out of American Ninja Warrior. Uh oh. And then she saw that it took this guy over 4 hours to do the Super. Now, I have no idea what shape this guy is in, but I plan to finish the Beast in 4 hours. If I'm wrong about that ... well, it could be a very long day.

 

So yeah. Last night, I started getting pretty anxious. Or maybe nervous? Terrified?

 

It's the next day now and with a good night's sleep, I'm back to feeling good about this whole thing again. Easy, hard, or devastating, I know I'll still have a blast today.

 

Time to go out and do it.

 

Go get em!

 

I wouldn't worry about anyone else's time.  I took 4 hours to do my first ever sprint.   Granted, I fractured my foot five minutes into that but still...

 

Run you own race and don't worry about anyone that shoots off at the start.  Chances are you'll be overtaking them later.

 

 

Need to go hunt down that obstacle pic now.

[QuirkyDM]

Beast is done! Maybe that spoils the ending, but let's get the most important stuff out of the way first.

 

I'll be honest- I remember a lot of it, but it was also sooooo long that it's a bit of a blur, too. The order gets mixed up a bit. And the hills. They just never stopped. I handled them all well and passed more than I got passed, so that was good. But during different parts of the race, I also got passed by others, too. Which was good. It made me feel like I was running with a group of stronger runners. Which I was. There was no one on the course who didn't look like they weren't ready. And no one cheated the burpees.

 

Since it just ended yesterday, no pics yet. Here's various highlights of the race that I remember:

 

- Bag check was $2. Or if you didn't have $2, you could do 10 burpees instead. Ah, Spartan races, where burpees are an actual form of currency.

- my smaller water bottle strategy paid off. There were 7 water stations on the course and I filled up at each one. At some I had less than 1/4 bottle left, and at others I had over 1/2 a bottle. I'm glad I did it that way.

- the start of the course was set out very crowded. After 200m, our entire heat was shunted into a single file trail through the woods going uphill. There was really no room to pass and no point since we were all stuck in the same boat. I just figured I'd use it to go slow during the first part.

- Eventually the trail opened up and we went up the first monster hill. Part way up we went under netting. At the top of the hill was a single 8' wall. With the way we were bunched up, there was a line of 30 people at the wall. The course director let people skip for 10 burpees, but I came to do obstacles! Just more rest time.

- Down to the bottom of the hill. Rope climb, hercules hoist, traverse wall and spinning wheel all back to back. Small scare on the traverse wall when my foot slipped off, but I activated my G.I. Joe kung fu grip and held on.

- The spinning wheel that I was worried about from the night before was tough, but doable. They had one we could practice on before we started. It's a wheel with four monkey bar poles on it and you had to reach up to the next bar which pulled the wheel around and keep rotating the wheel. The practice definitely helped though because otherwise, I might have fallen off. It was tough enough as it is.

- OK, this is where the bluriness comes in. I remember more hills. They psyched us out at one point by bringing us down where we could hear the music and think "Great, next obstacle set!" At which point the course promptly turned us around and sent us straight up the hill. There were a couple of turn arounds like that in the middle of the hill, too, so I can't really say how many hills we ran up. But we climbed a lot that day.

- Just as you crested the second hill, you hit the atlas carry. However, no one was rolling these ones around in the mud and they were easy to lift.

- Other obstacles that shot by: cargo net, monkey bars, barb wire crawl, tunnels, short swim, over/under/through.

- Carrying obstacles. Quite a few, all in the last third. It started with a sandbag carry through the woods with fallen trees in our path. After a while, there was a Spartan pancake carry which wasn't too bad. A pail carry where we walked through the lake a bit and a tractor pull through the lake, too. An ammo box carry around a simple track that I actually ran. The hardest one was a water jug carry straight up the hill, which was also the heaviest object we hauled. I was taking the smallest steps of my life hauling that sucker up on my shoulder, but I refused to put it down and take a break. I almost slipped on the mud on the way down which was its own adventure.

- barb wire crawl along a stream bed. When the water was deep enough, you could float through. When it wasn't, you were banging your knees against the rocks. This is also where my honey stinger chews got a bath because I didn't have my ziplock bag done up all the way. It made my hands pretty sticky, but I figured that would help for the rest of the obstacles.

- About 3 hours in, I knew I wasn't going to be done in 4 hours. I didn't know how much was left exactly, but there were far too many obstacles left to encounter.

- Except when I couldn't pass someone, I ran the entire course, uphill and down, even if it was really slow. That was my one goal for the race. There was one exception. We ran down a stream that was very rocky and you couldn't see the bottom. As it was, I still fell a few times and bashed my knee against a rock.

- Near the end of the stream I see I have 4 honey stingers left, enough for 2 doses. And then I dropped one in the stream. Oh well. I pop all 3 in and keep going. The end should be here soon, right?

- Yep, just a few obstacles left. First, the platinum rig, which was a whole other level. High failure rate on this one. It was wide spaced monkey bars, where the last three were thick bars that you couldn't wrap your hand around and had to just place your fingers on top to hold on. Then you grabbed a ring and went on to two rings that were suspended down low that you stepped into and held on to the tethers. On to a rope. From there, a suspended cargo net that you had to pull yourself under hand over hand to another rope, (no legs allowed on the net) 4 rings and ring the bell. The cargo net was tough because as you grabbed on to the first part, your weight dragged the net down and pulled the rest of if up which made moving forward impossible because you couldn't reach forward since it was out of reach. There's a strategy for getting across, but I didn't get it figured out and fell off the net. And so I did my first 30 burpees.

- Spear throw immediately afterward, which was brutal because you already had almost everyone come off a 30 burpee penalty and most people still don't make the spear throw. But I'm not one of those people. Nailed it and move on. (whew!)

- Finally, slippery wall and fire jump. The finish!!!

 

4:29:12

 

Like I said, that was long. I don't think I can say enough that there were was so much climbing. I spent a total of 10-15 minutes doing obstacles, burpees included. Which means I'm really spending well over 4 hours on a hard trail run, with stretches of over half an hour between some obstacles. I would have loved to have more obstacle breaks because, well, they're fun! I have no basis to compare to, but we'll see how Vermont is set up and then I'll can judge properly. On the other hand, I understand the slopes in Vermont are even worse.

 

I definitely feel like this is the medal I want to show off. I didn't doubt going in that I would get through, but what you think before doesn't mean much until you Spartan the F*** Up and do it. I'm feeling good. And sore, of course.

 

One last thing to end this all off and then I'll be offline for a while on vacation. Before this race, I thought my next progression would be to do an Ultra Beast next year. And now I'm saying there ain't no frigging way. Run that beast twice, back to back? Ha! Hahahahaha!

 

No.

 

I'm freaking impressed with anyone who can do that, (Mal, AwkwardActive, I'm looking at you) but it's not me. At least not for a while. I'm going to stick with the Beasts for a while and work on going faster instead. Maybe if I get it fast enough, doing two in a row wouldn't be a 12 hour affair.

 

Take care, NF'ers. I'll catch up on all your threads when I'm back.

[Phayze]

Have fun storming the castle!

And nice work on that beast! I knew you'd destroy it.

[AverageJoe]

WOW!  That is the definition of AWEsome.  I am in AWE!  I read that and thought.."someday...Someday I'll do that".  Rest up and enjoy the glory of conquering the Beast!

[Maledictus]

 

- Bag check was $2. Or if you didn't have $2, you could do 10 burpees instead. Ah, Spartan races, where burpees are an actual form of currency.

- my smaller water bottle strategy paid off. There were 7 water stations on the course and I filled up at each one. At some I had less than 1/4 bottle left, and at others I had over 1/2 a bottle. I'm glad I did it that way.

- the start of the course was set out very crowded. After 200m, our entire heat was shunted into a single file trail through the woods going uphill. There was really no room to pass and no point since we were all stuck in the same boat. I just figured I'd use it to go slow during the first part.

- Eventually the trail opened up and we went up the first monster hill. Part way up we went under netting. At the top of the hill was a single 8' wall. With the way we were bunched up, there was a line of 30 people at the wall. The course director let people skip for 10 burpees, but I came to do obstacles! Just more rest time.

- Down to the bottom of the hill. Rope climb, hercules hoist, traverse wall and spinning wheel all back to back. Small scare on the traverse wall when my foot slipped off, but I activated my G.I. Joe kung fu grip and held on.

- The spinning wheel that I was worried about from the night before was tough, but doable. They had one we could practice on before we started. It's a wheel with four monkey bar poles on it and you had to reach up to the next bar which pulled the wheel around and keep rotating the wheel. The practice definitely helped though because otherwise, I might have fallen off. It was tough enough as it is.

- OK, this is where the bluriness comes in. I remember more hills. They psyched us out at one point by bringing us down where we could hear the music and think "Great, next obstacle set!" At which point the course promptly turned us around and sent us straight up the hill. There were a couple of turn arounds like that in the middle of the hill, too, so I can't really say how many hills we ran up. But we climbed a lot that day.

- Just as you crested the second hill, you hit the atlas carry. However, no one was rolling these ones around in the mud and they were easy to lift.

- Other obstacles that shot by: cargo net, monkey bars, barb wire crawl, tunnels, short swim, over/under/through.

- Carrying obstacles. Quite a few, all in the last third. It started with a sandbag carry through the woods with fallen trees in our path. After a while, there was a Spartan pancake carry which wasn't too bad. A pail carry where we walked through the lake a bit and a tractor pull through the lake, too. An ammo box carry around a simple track that I actually ran. The hardest one was a water jug carry straight up the hill, which was also the heaviest object we hauled. I was taking the smallest steps of my life hauling that sucker up on my shoulder, but I refused to put it down and take a break. I almost slipped on the mud on the way down which was its own adventure.

- barb wire crawl along a stream bed. When the water was deep enough, you could float through. When it wasn't, you were banging your knees against the rocks. This is also where my honey stinger chews got a bath because I didn't have my ziplock bag done up all the way. It made my hands pretty sticky, but I figured that would help for the rest of the obstacles.

- About 3 hours in, I knew I wasn't going to be done in 4 hours. I didn't know how much was left exactly, but there were far too many obstacles left to encounter.

- Except when I couldn't pass someone, I ran the entire course, uphill and down, even if it was really slow. That was my one goal for the race. There was one exception. We ran down a stream that was very rocky and you couldn't see the bottom. As it was, I still fell a few times and bashed my knee against a rock.

- Near the end of the stream I see I have 4 honey stingers left, enough for 2 doses. And then I dropped one in the stream. Oh well. I pop all 3 in and keep going. The end should be here soon, right?

- Yep, just a few obstacles left. First, the platinum rig, which was a whole other level. High failure rate on this one. It was wide spaced monkey bars, where the last three were thick bars that you couldn't wrap your hand around and had to just place your fingers on top to hold on. Then you grabbed a ring and went on to two rings that were suspended down low that you stepped into and held on to the tethers. On to a rope. From there, a suspended cargo net that you had to pull yourself under hand over hand to another rope, (no legs allowed on the net) 4 rings and ring the bell. The cargo net was tough because as you grabbed on to the first part, your weight dragged the net down and pulled the rest of if up which made moving forward impossible because you couldn't reach forward since it was out of reach. There's a strategy for getting across, but I didn't get it figured out and fell off the net. And so I did my first 30 burpees.

- Spear throw immediately afterward, which was brutal because you already had almost everyone come off a 30 burpee penalty and most people still don't make the spear throw. But I'm not one of those people. Nailed it and move on. (whew!)

- Finally, slippery wall and fire jump. The finish!!!

 

 

Burpees for bag check.  I love that.  Your courses always sound amazing.  Although you don't have mud (like we have mud).  I NEED to do those obstacles *twitch*

 

 

 

 

 

 

I definitely feel like this is the medal I want to show off. I didn't doubt going in that I would get through, but what you think before doesn't mean much until you Spartan the F*** Up and do it. I'm feeling good. And sore, of course.

 

One last thing to end this all off and then I'll be offline for a while on vacation. Before this race, I thought my next progression would be to do an Ultra Beast next year. And now I'm saying there ain't no frigging way. Run that beast twice, back to back? Ha! Hahahahaha!

 

No.

 

I'm freaking impressed with anyone who can do that, (Mal, AwkwardActive, I'm looking at you) but it's not me. At least not for a while. I'm going to stick with the Beasts for a while and work on going faster instead. Maybe if I get it fast enough, doing two in a row wouldn't be a 12 hour affair.

 

Take care, NF'ers. I'll catch up on all your threads when I'm back.

 

 

I thought that at the end and the beast/trifecta medals haven't actually made it out of my glove compartment in the car from last year yet.  I seem to prefer scars instead these days .

You say that now about not doing it but you'll be amazed at how that voice in the back of your head keeps nagging at you (mine sounds like a kiwi friend or occasionally like I imagine cline or ska sound).  

They don't hold an ultra beast here so you just have to run it twice.  Your time is better than my last one (but hopefully about the same as my next one).  But I know for a fact I can turn round and do another one straight after and lose maybe five minutes.  I'm not quick but I don't stop .  If you're not there yet, you will be (if you want to be).  

 

Many congratulations and here's to smashing it at the next one (for both of us).

[The Swedish Ninja]

Awesomeness!!!

 

Great job nailing the spear throw this time, practice makes perfect

 

 

One last thing to end this all off and then I'll be offline for a while on vacation. Before this race, I thought my next progression would be to do an Ultra Beast next year. And now I'm saying there ain't no frigging way. Run that beast twice, back to back? Ha! Hahahahaha!

 

No.

 

I'm freaking impressed with anyone who can do that, (Mal, AwkwardActive, I'm looking at you) but it's not me. At least not for a while. I'm going to stick with the Beasts for a while and work on going faster instead. Maybe if I get it fast enough, doing two in a row wouldn't be a 12 hour affair.

 

Take care, NF'ers. I'll catch up on all your threads when I'm back.

Haha, quick change there . I know you will do it someday, can´t let those Kaijus rest

[darkfoxx]

That is killer and completely inspiring (I'm running my first Spartan next spring). Subbed and can't wait to see what happens next! 

[tenaciousglee]

Congrats!

[Elder]

Well I am not the first one, but I made it here.

 

Spartan Beast....I am hoping to get over to one in Australia after I move but before that I need to make it through the Super.  After reading your run through of the Beast I am terrified and totally excited about my race all at the same time!  I want to leave work right now to practice my spear throw so I don't end up being "one of those people".    

 

The platinum rig, is that something they put in Supers too?!  I flippin' hope not!!!

What are honey stingers?

How do you carry your water bottle?  Belt? Hand? I have a camel back but I don't know if I really need that big of a rig for Super.  

 

Haha now I am thinking things like, "30 burpees a day isn't enough and I should be running 6x per week instead!"  It's alright, give it an hour and it'll pass.  

 

Awesome job on finishing the Beast, Vermont will be super fantastic!  And you will do super fantastic when you run it!  

[Mikroftt]

Nicely done on the Beast!  That sounds like an epic race!  I just did my first obstacle course race this weekend and had a blast with it.  You earned the vacation, enjoy!

[Anamal]

Wow it looks like you did really well! My beast took about 4hrs and 50mins. The funny thing is, that after I finished my beast in sub 5hrs I felt like with some more training I could handle the UB! But then again, my brain is not the most rational.

 

The wheel thing sounds so cool! I've never seen anything like that and it makes me think that the races in VT will have some really cool and new stuff.

 

Have fun on vacation!

[Xena]

Awesome! Love that you were saved by GI Joe KungFu grip :-) and so happy you nailed the spear throw.

 

@Elder...honey stingers are a sort of gummy chew that people eat during endurance races (similar to energy gels, but less gross)

[Phytomancer]

I don't know how you guys eat or drink during races. I always choke whenever I try. 

[Spark]

MAN you rock. I can't even imagine walking two miles right now, much less running Beast distance, and then throwing in the obstacles?

 

Wow. Just wow.

[Maledictus]

I don't know how you guys eat or drink during races. I always choke whenever I try.

Practice. For a long time I couldn't. Then halfway through a six hour OCR, you pretty much learn. Or curl up and die.

[Xena]

I don't know how you guys eat or drink during races. I always choke whenever I try. 

Since QuirkyDM is on vacation we can hijack his thread a little bit :-)

 

I'm not a super fast runner, so I usually walk through the water stops. Much easier than drinking while running. There are some tricks to it (like crimping the corner of a cup), but I've also spilled plenty of stuff on myself and choked a couple of times.

[The Swedish Ninja]

Hmm, is it only me who don´t drink? When I used to run (anywhere between 25-75 min) I never drank anything, and I felt no real need/want for it. I know it´s probably bad during longer sessions not to drink, but for me it worked fine.

[Xena]

No Swedish Ninja, you aren't unusual. I don't usually bring water on runs shorter than an hour or so. QuirkyDM was doing a 4 hour race, so he needed to drink. I'm a crazy distance runner, so I need to drink on longer runs.