Tag Archives: vermont

Spartan Race Workout of the Day

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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 :)

2-11-12: Basement Technology and Unicorn Blankets

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We were staying the weekend at my friend’s grandparents house up in Vermont because we had planned to ski nearby at Bolton Valley on Saturday (real life).  I slept by myself in their basement which was finished off with carpet, some sweet wood paneling walls, and several beds for family who come to stay the night (still real life).  I was showing off the basement to people because I had actually built it myself (now in the dream part).  I was very proud of being able to finish off a basement by myself, especially for someone else like my friend’s grandparents.  I showed everyone how I repaired the ceiling, put up the sheet rock/wood paneling, carpeted the floor, installed the washer/dryer, and assembled all the beds.

Above all else I was proud of having the entire basement wired to the internet.  Each bed knew how well that person was sleeping by measuring how much movement they had throughout the night.  In turn, the bed would compensate their movement in order to give them a perfect night’s sleep.  All of this was tracked over time and each person had their own settings.  Very cool.  It also had wireless internet and other technological accessories.

As I slowly came to consciousness in the morning I remember feeling silly thinking that I had constructed this basement by myself when in fact I was actually on a pull-out futon with a unicorn blanket that didn’t have any high-tech sleep monitoring features, bummer (real life).