Las Vegas Spartan Super - Overcoming obstacles

2007 World Champtionships

One of the reasons that I really love and admire Kara Goucher stems from an article that I once read about her.  For those of you in the dark - she is a Olympic athlete that has competed (and kicked butt!) in distances ranging from the 5000m to the marathon.  She came in 3rd place in her first marathon in New York, posting a time that had beaten the infamous Deena Castor the year before.  Here is the kicker.  Despite being arguably the best Female American Distance Runner of our decade, she constantly wrestles with self doubt.  When she steps up to a line, she still has negative chatter going on in her head.  Voices tell her that she isn't as good as the world class athletes that she races against. 

You can read the full article here - It's a good one!

Well here is my confession - I relate because I struggle with the same thing.  And I say currently struggle because I don't know that it will ever completely go away.  However, I have made HUGE strides in the last year, particularly in the last few months, and I think it's showing in my race results.  I started out the year with 2 x 4th place finishes, and moved up to a 3rd, then 2nd, then 2 x 1sts.  It seems as though the methods I use help me to shut out the chatter and be able to compete like I know I can. If she can conquer it, so can I. 

Spartan Family - Orla Walsh, Margaret Slatcher
TyAnn clark, +Amelia Boone

This year's Las Vegas Spartan ended up in my favor, and I'm thrilled with how my body performed.  Normally going into a race and knowing that I was going to have to compete with people like Amelia Boone and Rose Wetzel would leave me feeling completely nervous and nauseous all week.  Honestly it used to be that bad!  But I was actually relaxed and happy, not allowing the race to consume my thoughts.  Even Fri driving down, I was just looking forward to having a good time with the fam.  SO UNUSUAL!

I'm not gonna lie - I WANTED THIS WIN - BADLY!  Toquerville, UT is 2 hours away, so this was kind of my local race.   I had lots of friends, family, and support in the audience that day, and I wanted to do it for them. I was especially excited to see one of my trainees complete the course.  Click here for her story.
 Images of my kids watching influenced much of my performance!

After the ladies were sent off, a group of 10 or so pushed the pace and fought for running ground.  After the first mile, we were down to 4.  Rose Wetzel, Amelia, Boone, and KK Stewart were the other 3. 

One of the things that helped me in this race was experience in long distance running.  Having run more 10ks to marathons than I can count has helped me to know how much energy to expend in order to have some left at the end.  So when we hit things like the bucket carry, all 3 girls got ahead of me.  I tried to go strong, but not as though I'm finishing a workout for time.  I tried to evenly expend my energy.   Within the next half mile I caught back up.

The Painted Warrior loads his shoes with sand as he

 crushes it down the hill.

The course was actually a last minute change (not on Spartan's part -their last venue was cancelled for them) and I'm sure it won't be the one they use next year.  It was extremely rocky, and at many points we were jumping from rock pile to rock pile over small ditches.   My new Reeboks made specifically for obstacle courses performed amazingly, but nothing could keep out the sand that was dumping in from the top as you ran down hills.  Then we would reach a gravel/sand hill and have to climb.  Kudos to race designer Chad Brooks for managing to squeeze as many "hills" in as possible. 

At this point, we reached something called The Gamble.  We are told beforehand that the longer route is flatter and easier, and the shorter, harder.  I had already decided to go left (short) because it's served well in the past.   It seems I chose correctly because a mile later it was only Amelia, Kk, and I.  Rose unfortunately had gone right and we didn't see her for a while.  Amazingly she did catch back up to KK pretty quickly!


Amelia and I spent the next 6 miles trading off leads.  I would get slightly ahead of her on running, and she would catch back up in most of the obstacles.  I honestly had been hoping just for a place on the podium in this race.  I don't know if I ever believed that I would be on top of that podium.  So when Amelia and I were fighting for first and second, I decided I wasn't going to let her have it.  I was going to fight to the death!  My race mantras were "Be Epic, Inspire, and have Courage" and I kept repeating it.  If my pace on my garmin wasn't what I thought it should be I pushed harder.

We went through tire drags and pulls, tire flips, and a super gnarly barbed wire crawl.

Amelia throws first

At the heavy sandbag carry, Amelia gained some ground ahead of me as this is in her wheelhouse.  But I was right behind at the spear throw.  You can never be relaxed and confident that you've got it in the bag until you pass the final test (and I'm convinced that the spear throw is a mental challenge).  I may have been throwing some negative vibes Amelia's way because she missed it!  And gave us a few (understandably) choice words along with it.  I knew I was going to make it.  The hay bales seemed huge and practically right in from of me.  I delivered!

I seal my fate

One mile left, and I was pushing to the finish to leave no room for doubt.  One more sandbag carry, and Amelia had already finished her burpees when I finished the first lap.  Really??  I could see the finish line and see my friend Justin finishing up right in front of me.  I told him to help bring me in because my energy was failing and he pushed the pace for me. 

Last obstacle that could change my game - Traverse Wall.  You fall off - you get 30 burpees (and I would definitely lose first place).  I took it slow and steady, and made it to the end.

I couldn't suppress the grin on my face as I finished the last barbed wire crawl, water dunk and slippery wall.  I could hear my family cheering and tears came to my eyes.  This was a big win for me!  Amelia came in second and Rose with an impressive comeback in 3rd.

My rock and Love of my Life

Love my mom!

I got to spend the rest of my day watching all my peeps from my crossfit gym and obstacle training group come in.  So many first timers, and so many finding out what "You'll know at the finish line" feels like!

WANNA READ MORE RACE RECAPS?
Follow Amelia and I battling it out at the Atlas Race - Temecula, CA
 

Tapering - The best workout before a race

Tapering - reducing one's training in preparation for a race.  AKA being forced to do less of what one loves for an entire week.

After coming from the running world to obstacle course racing, I'm somewhat surprised at many of the racers' views (or lack there of) on tapering pre-race.  Most have a less favorable view of cutting back.  I get it - It can be the hardest part of your training.   However there are huge benefits to allowing your body to build during the week or 2 before the race.  Studies have shown that you can improve time by 2-8%!

Your goal in a taper week should be to reduce fatigue and maintain fitness- not to have any physiological gains.  You should not be trying to set PRs (personal records).


A running tapering schedule involves cutting out weight lifting up to 2 weeks before, and significantly cutting running miles.  This will not work for obstacle racing. 

The upper body has to have some sort of maintenance program before race day.  The sport is new, and there's not much out there in the way of programs, so I've had to experiment with different taper weeks over the last year. 

Take a look at what I do -
This may or may not work for you, but here is what I do.

***Remember that this is a scaled back version of my typical week. I typically run about 30 miles a week with 3-4 crossfit/strength sessions.  If this looks like one of your hard weeks, do not follow this to a "T".  Reduce miles, do less sets, etc.

***Trying to gain fitness this week will do you more harm than good - It's better to go in undertrained than overtrained. 

***Keep intensity, but reduce sets and reps.


Mon
Full Crossfit class - but will avoid anything that will make me sore (100 heavy deadlifts or something of that sort).  I avoid heavy squats and most leg work as a general rule as well.  I then add 2 sets of 8 reps of heavy Bicep curls, Tricep dips, Bench Press, Pull ups
Practice - spear throw

Tues 
Track workout after warm up, with equal time recovery - 6 miles total
Sprint 2x800m
2x400m
2x200m
Practice -spear throw

Wed
Run - 5 miles - stopping every mile to do 15 burpees
1 set of Pull ups, Tricep Dips, Bicep Curps, Bench Press, Bent over row
Practice - spear throw

Thurs
Easy 3 miles or rest completely depending on how I'm feeling

Fri
Easy 20 min - adding 3-4 x10 sec sprints

Sat
Race!

Remember to hydrate, sleep well, stretch out, eat clean, and relax as well.