A montage from my December through January training. Foot sprain recovery has been tough, but I managed to get some good work done!
Weird ninja gym holds - CHECK
Christmas hikes - CHECK
Big grabs - CHECK
Additional sprains - NO
Thursday, January 30, 2020
This Is Spartan Ultra Episode 13
A montage from my December through January training. Foot sprain recovery has been tough, but I managed to get some good work done!
Weird ninja gym holds - CHECK
Christmas hikes - CHECK
Big grabs - CHECK
Additional sprains - NO
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Good God, Get a Grip, Girl
I have had a bit of a disastrous off-season. In mid-November I sprained my foot pretty badly, as I previously reported. Finally I feel as though my foot is (mostly) healed from the sprain, and just in the nick of time, I caught impetigo on my toes. After a few days of antibiotic cream, my feet finally don't hurt like hell. So perhaps I have moved on from the Hot Mess Phase, which started with my anemia in early September and resulted in a good 15 pounds of weight gain, and now I am ready to enter the Ultra Build Phase.
My plan to prepare for the Ultra four months from now is as follows:
1) Weekly 5-hour hikes/snowshoes to maintain bulletproof legs.
2) Try to lose some weight, because that will undoubtedly help.
3) Develop obstacle proficiency, mostly in the form of sheer grip strength.
In the pursuit of objective 3, I have been stepping up my workouts at the ninja gym to work on specific Spartan skills that have tripped me up in the past. I'm practicing platform mounts, which are very useful for Irish tables, Hurdles, and Vertical Cargo 2.0. Normally on these sorts of obstacles I pull muscles, so practice has been helping me develop more explosive power in my legs so I can jump higher and use less trapezius to pull myself up. I've been doing a bit of parkour to work on my agility in general, so I can scramble over tall walls and dirt/muddy hills. I'm working on Olympus skills with slippery feet, since I've heard they changed the slickness of that obstacle.
But the biggest thing is grip strength, so I've been hammering that in as much as the skin on my hands will allow (and thankfully my skin has held up well! Rips are much less common than they used to be). I've been working on different kinds of grip lines, which I will never encounter in a race but make me more well-rounded nonetheless. I've started working on lateral movement with sweaty hands. I'm so bad with sweaty hands (I chalk up a good amount) but I want to get better. Today spent most of my hour working on big grabs, with about 4 to 4.5 feet of distance between the grip elements. Skipping rings is a staple as well. My thought is that if I am still unable to do the ropes on a Beast multi-rig, I might be able to just skip them.
My plan in the next few months is to work more on rope climb and tyro traverse, if given the opportunity. Once it warms up I will double down on my spear throw training so that I don't miss twice in my Ultra. Ultimately my ability to finish will depend on keeping my obstacle failures as minimal as possible, and for that I need to get good at skill obstacles and develop gorilla grip strength. If I can get through this Ultra with 7 or fewer failures, it will be HUGE.
My plan to prepare for the Ultra four months from now is as follows:
1) Weekly 5-hour hikes/snowshoes to maintain bulletproof legs.
2) Try to lose some weight, because that will undoubtedly help.
3) Develop obstacle proficiency, mostly in the form of sheer grip strength.
In the pursuit of objective 3, I have been stepping up my workouts at the ninja gym to work on specific Spartan skills that have tripped me up in the past. I'm practicing platform mounts, which are very useful for Irish tables, Hurdles, and Vertical Cargo 2.0. Normally on these sorts of obstacles I pull muscles, so practice has been helping me develop more explosive power in my legs so I can jump higher and use less trapezius to pull myself up. I've been doing a bit of parkour to work on my agility in general, so I can scramble over tall walls and dirt/muddy hills. I'm working on Olympus skills with slippery feet, since I've heard they changed the slickness of that obstacle.
But the biggest thing is grip strength, so I've been hammering that in as much as the skin on my hands will allow (and thankfully my skin has held up well! Rips are much less common than they used to be). I've been working on different kinds of grip lines, which I will never encounter in a race but make me more well-rounded nonetheless. I've started working on lateral movement with sweaty hands. I'm so bad with sweaty hands (I chalk up a good amount) but I want to get better. Today spent most of my hour working on big grabs, with about 4 to 4.5 feet of distance between the grip elements. Skipping rings is a staple as well. My thought is that if I am still unable to do the ropes on a Beast multi-rig, I might be able to just skip them.
My plan in the next few months is to work more on rope climb and tyro traverse, if given the opportunity. Once it warms up I will double down on my spear throw training so that I don't miss twice in my Ultra. Ultimately my ability to finish will depend on keeping my obstacle failures as minimal as possible, and for that I need to get good at skill obstacles and develop gorilla grip strength. If I can get through this Ultra with 7 or fewer failures, it will be HUGE.
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