Spartan Race Workout of the Day

Posted on June 1, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Typically my weekly fitness routine involves at least 2-3 days of running so throughout this fitness month I’ve been jonesing to get out there and do some running. I found the chance when I came across a specific Spartan Race Workout of the Day or “WOD” as it’s affectionately referred to in the Crossfit Community. I’m a local marketing affiliate for the Spartan Races (read: do some volunteer promo stuff and get free race registrations) so I get a lot of their emails. This month I subscribed to their daily Spartan Race WOD. It’s a little intense to get one email every day but once in a while one catches my eye. Today it was a workout that involved running so I jumped on it. This particular workout had a total of three miles of running with some upper body stuff mixed in between each mile. Here’s the workout I did during lunch at work:

Warmup – 5 Minute Jog and 20 Pushups
Run 1 Mile at Race Pace (approximated 7:30 pace for me based off my pace during Ragnar)
25 Burpees
Run 1 Mile at Race Pace
15 Pullups
Run 1 Mile at Race Pace
Burpee Pullups to Failure (10)
50 Crunches
2 Minute Plank
Stretching

It was an absolutely fantastic workout with a lot of intensity. I liked breaking up the run with some upper body exercises, I felt like I was getting more of a full-body workout that way. Also, having done the 2011 Spartan Beast in Vermont (13 miles, 22 obstacles, up and down Killington) this workout was perfect training for that. So I like the fact that most of these Spartan WODs accurately reflect the type of movements you’ll need to do during the races: run, climb over things, carry sand bags, and do burpees. Burpees are a major difference between Spartan Races and the other obstacle course races out there; if you don’t successfully complete an obstacle then you have to do 30 burpees. In the other (not Spartan) races you’re simply allowed to go on with no punishment, weak-sauce in my opinion. The workout lasted about 35 minutes and my heart rate min/max/average was 99/163/144 so I was certainly pushing myself pretty hard with breaks only 30s or shorter between exercises. I prefer these daily, bodyweight workouts to the beachbody workout videos like Insanity and P90X because they’re short, intense, practical, to the point, and help to build functional strength (usually) without weights. While joining a Crossfit gym would be awesome, if you’re part of the 99% it’ll likely be out of your price range ($250/month for 2 workouts/week in downtown Boston?!?!?!) I highly suggest checking out the free WODs that you can do for free. They even have a 30 day WOD challenge, perhaps I see another fitness experiment in my future :)

Active Recovery Day

Posted on May 16, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

I got home Sunday afternoon from two days of Ragnar with the full intention of going ice skating at a local rink as my exercise for the day. My calves and hamstrings were pretty sore and I was super tired from the sleep deficit that comes from a 24 hour relay race. So I decided that today would be a great day for some active recovery. ”Active recovery can be loosely defined as a low-intensity activity (such as submaximal cycling or low-intensity weight training) used to enhance the recovery process between training sessions or competitions” (evidencebasedfitness.com). This is different than a rest day in that you’re still using your body, just at a super low intensity as a way to get the blood flowing and also helping speed muscle recovery.

Today I was somewhat of a zombie (mentally and physically) and decided that if I tried to go ice skating I might actually hurt myself with overuse. So far it’s been 14 days and I haven’t really taken a light day yet. So I chose to head to the Boston Common for a full hour of some yoga, stretching, and foam rolling. It was a beautiful day so I’m glad I got myself outside in the “fresh” Boston air and my muscles surely needed some attention. I feel like I don’t do enough of these types of days when I’m training. Every coach I’ve ever had has preached the glory of rest as a way to increase performance. For some reason I never listen even though I know it to be true. It’s tough to say, “I’m going to not exercise today”. I like exercising and I can generally alternate workouts so I’m not hitting the same muscles day in and day out. However, your heart-rate doesn’t need to be through the roof 7 days/week in order to be training well. This is where active recovery should come in. Instead of total inactivity after a race you tend to recover faster if you do some kind of low intensity cross-training exercise (less than 130bpm), massage, and/or stretching.

Here’s an example of an Active-Recovery Training Plan that I found on Men’sHealth.com which is intended to be used after a long race like a marathon or a century bike ride.

Active-Recovery Training Plan
First week after race-day:
If there is any unusual post-race pain and soreness that does not go away after your race, or flare up during your post-race training, consult your doctor.

Day	Activity
Mon	Rest day, take the time to re-charge.
Tue	Schedule a sports massage – it relieves the soreness and enhances recovery.
Wed	Cross train to keep your muscles active while they recuperate.
Thu	Rest day for more muscles recovery.
Fri	Active-recovery slow run. Duration: 20-30 mins. Going beyond 30 mins turns the run into a training session. Be aware of how your body feels.
Sat	Resume training with a slow run. Duration: 30 mins. If possible, aim to cover half the distance of your shortest training run.
Sun	Slow run. Duration: 45 mins. If possible, aim to cover half the distance of your long training runs.

Second week after race-day:

Day	Activity
Mon	Rest day.
Tue	Active-recovery slow run. Duration: 20-30 mins.
Wed	Rest day.
Thu	Endurance run. Duration: 30 mins
Fri	Rest day.
Sat	Cross training.
Sun	Long slow run. Duration: 45-60 min

24 Hours, 12 People, and 176 Miles – Ragnar Relay Cape Cod

Posted on May 15, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Ragnar is 24(ish) hour running relay race with twelve people, two vans, and a whole lot of stoke. I’ve heard it described as a slumber party except that you trade sleep, pillows, and deodorant for running, getting lost in the middle of the night, and theme songs played endlessly on repeat (Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen). This is the third year that I’ve done Ragnar New England with my friends from College and it’s one of the traditions we look forward to all year long. This year Ragnar changed up the course from New Haven to Boston in favor of Plymouth to Provincetown. In previous years it’s been more like 194 miles total but this year it was 176 so the mileage per person was reduced by close to two miles each. The way it works is that runners 1-6 hop into Van 1 and runners 7-12 hop into Van 2.

Our Van 1 was actually a four-door Dodge Ram truck. No worries though as it has seen 4 Ragnars. It was surprisingly roomy all things considered, we just kept all of our gear in the bed of the truck. Me = calm before the storm, Ryan = the storm.

Starting with runner 1, each runner runs their leg and passes the baton (read: reflective snap bracelet, brilliant idea) to the next runner. Meanwhile Van 2 is just hanging out or cheering on runners from Van 1. When runner 6 from Van 1 finishes their leg, they pass it off to runner 7 of Van 2, reaching a resting point for Van 1. This continues until each person has run 3 legs where a leg can range from 3-9 miles.

Here's a professional-level example of a Ragnar Relay Handoff and yes I'm wearing jorts and a pilot helmet. It turns out that pilot helmets are extremely hot and awkward to run in, thank God one of my teammates grabbed it two miles into my five mile leg, I was about ready to throw it into the woods.

My first leg was around dinner time on Friday and I ran 5 miles at a 7:20 pace. My heart rate min/max/average was 125/171/157. I definitely felt like I was hustling but I probably could have run faster had I not worn a Japanese fighter pilot helmet from WWII for my first two miles. We were going for the Top Gun theme so I had to go all out on the first leg, subsequent legs I probably wouldn’t have had the energy to be in a ridiculous costume. Totally worth it though.

Me running along the coast. Most people cut off this section and ran through the parking lot but I wasn't going to pass up the chance to run near the ocean.

My second leg was also 5 miles but it was in the middle of the night, pretty much a straight shot down route 130. I managed not to get lost because of how simple my route was, but other legs are a bit more complicated and getting lost is likely to happen. There are blinking signs at most confusing intersections but it wouldn’t be an adventure if you were well rested and knew exactly where you were going the whole time. My heart rate min/max/average was 83/166/152.

A blurry and disoriented nighttime photo.

My third leg was pretty early in the morning on Saturday and it was only supposed to be 3 miles so I decided to run it hard. I’m convinced that it was actually longer than 3 miles (distances are often approximate, “1mile to go” is more like “1-ish miles to go”). It took me 25 minutes and I should have finished in 22min due to my pace and my min/max/average heart rate of 116/179/161, not bad for an early morning run off 1 hour of sleep.

My total mileage came out to be bout 14 miles which in itself is not terribly bad because I run pretty frequently. However, running 5 miles, stopping, waiting 4-5 hours, running another 5 miles, waiting 4-5 hours, sleeping 1 hour, and running another 4 miles is pretty taxing mentally and physically. Especially when you’re eating nothing but cliff bars, brownies and PB&J sandwiches. After you finish each leg your body thinks you’re done so getting it restarted again is tough but the energy of your team and the teams around you make it easier to man up and restart the engine. When you gear up for your middle of the night run you just have to think to yourself, “Holy crap, this is so cool”. It reminds of me of this great blog post on semi-rad.com about Enthusiasm.

I definitely recommend signing up for one of these races. The logistics can be tough and you’ll need a good team Captain who’s committed and organized but it’s all worth it. It’s a ton of fun and also happens to be one hell of a workout. I don’t think there’s any other time of the year where my heart rate hits 166-179 beats per minute in three separate workouts within 24 hours. EPIC. Sign up for one now http://www.ragnarrelay.com/

2-5-12: An Unprepared Marathon

Posted on February 7, 2012 by The Young Urban Unprofessional

Dream: I was signed up to run a marathon even though I had hardly trained (very similar to real life where I recently signed up for a snowshoe marathon in Vermont, yikes). The last time I had run was about 6 miles and now I was signed up to do 26.2 (also similar to real life). I could do it right? I was in a large parking lot before the race with Sarah, one of my roommates and my little brother. We were stretching and eating bananas in preparation for the race. I just remember in my head thinking it was going to be fine, I mean, it was only 4-ish hours, you can do anything for 4 hours. The race started and I went out way too fast. We were running down a neighborhood sidewalk which reminded me a lot of running Ragnar. I got to a point where There was a fork and I didn’t know which direction to go in (very similar to Ragnar). My brother had caught up with me and so we debated which way to go and decided to go left at the fork. Soon enough we learned that this was the wrong choice. We were running through neighborhoods and backyards and then we had to scale a 20+ foot hedge. We definitely could have turned around but we had also run 2-3 miles in the wrong direction so we wanted to keep going and try to meet back up with the race course. We scaled the hedge, followed by Sarah and my roommate. It was then that we saw the lead runners coming in the other direction, somehow we had ended up at mile 20. We had cut off a significant portion of the race and didn’t quite know what to do from there. That’s when the dream ended.

In real life, I signed up for a snowshoe half marathon in Vermont a few months ago. This will be the 3rd year in a row that I’ve done this race with my friends. However, last weekend one of my friends convinced me to sign up for the full marathon with him. We then got two other friends to sign up with us. We won’t treat it like a race, we’re just going to hike it which should make it more manageable. But still, I’ve hardly trained and 26.2 miles is a long way no matter how you slice it. I think we’ll be fine and that it’ll actually be a lot of fun (read: type 2 fun, not fun during but rather fun after it’s over).