Warrior Dash Washington 2011 Training Ideas

[Brometheus]

Someone else was talking about doing the warrior dash, so I thought I'd talk about my recent experiences...here's a link to the obstacles on the Washington course.

Couple thoughts on training (at least, based around my obstacles). I admit, I didn't run it. I alternated jogging and walking, and I did the 3.55 miles in an hour and 30~ minutes (lost my chip, kind of inexact time). The people that ran averaged 35-50 minutes, with the best time being 22 minutes (damn!).

Training tips:

Run in the mud. Yes, because if there's any chance of rain, and if you're in the later times (or on the second day), the course will be mud for at least 1/2 of it. If not more. Mine was ankle deep for a good portion of the course. Though I was looking on some youtube videos, and even the first waves on Saturday had a lot of mud.

Rope climb. Recommended for the 15 foot giant warrior wall. There's also a giant cargo net to climb at the end (30~ feet high), but it's easy as long as you ignore the height and focus on one foot at a time.

Bear crawl. To get over the giant horizontal cargo net (not to be confused with the other one you get to climb).

Box jump (or something like it). The fire was averaging 1.5-3 feet at the end.

Duck and crawl. You'll be doing it for a lot of the later obstacles. Know what you're in for

Oh, and keep an eye out for the sharp rocks in the mud pit. Don't chicken out, but get it done. Curse at the builders for their lack of engineering talent. :mad: Then pray you get a huge scrape like spezzy so you can compare "mauled like a bear" stories. Then go get sprayed off by one of the coldest showers you'll ever have. Celebrate with a cold beer

Oh, and costumes are awesome. But be prepared to throw everything you wear away. I thought that I did a better job in my vibrams getting through the mud (most people were losing shoes), but I tossed them after the race because of how disgusting they were. I know that one person wore jeans that were cutoff around the ankle. Which I thought was a pretty good idea. But most people wore shorts, and really, there's no reason not to.

Thoughts

I enjoyed it for the most part, and thought it was a good experience. I have a lot more confidence in my new-found mental toughness. I thought that the giant cargo climb tested my mental strength the most, because I HATE heights. I was about 3/4 of the way up and thinking that "this is a bad idea", but realized that I just needed to go a bit more, and back down the other side.

The obstacles did expose a lot of my physical weaknesses, and I'm realizing I'm a lot less "strong" or "fast" than I thought I was. While I don't like that fact, it was good to reinforce the idea that I have to work out, that I need to eat better, and that I need to get stronger and faster. That was worth the price of admission alone.

I probably wouldn't bother with doing it again by myself, but I think it would be a lot of fun to go with a group of people.

[Loren Wade]

Hey man, thanks for posting this! I am signed up for Tough Mudder, which is this on steroids... so this is some great information for me to prepare.

[Brometheus]

No problem. Though to really prepare for the tough mudder, add an extra special treat: "get zapped by a tazer". Because one of the more awesome obstacles (or just plain crazy?) is running through the "electro-shock therapy area". Which is probably the only reason why I would consider doing the tough mudder.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/tough-mudder-participants-tackle-rambo-esque-challenges-1219114.html

I find it interesting that you have to sign a "death waiver". Pretty extreme stuff...

*update* link to tough mudder waiver: http://toughmudder.com/waiver/