Keeping Hands and Feet Warm For a Winter OCR

 

With the Abominable Snow Race fast approaching, I review my foolproof strategy for keeping hands and feet warm during a winter obstacle race! Good advice that will apply to all your winter workouts.

Physical Advantages/Disadvantages In OCR

 Obstacle racing is fabulous because there are so many different markers for success. One person might be slow, but very obstacle proficient. Another might be worse on obstacles but a fast runner. Obviously, speed and obstacle proficiency is always an advantage, particularly if you are competitive. But what about other, less controllable physical attributes? 

As a tall woman, I have heard many times "oh, you're so lucky, you have a natural advantage" when it comes to OCR or road races. But do tall people really have an advantage? Are there obstacles where height matters? Or weight? The answer is YES. Here we will break it down into Broke (meaning "this will work against you") and Woke ("you hit the genetic lottery").

Caveat: this is more of an "all else being equal" analysis. Anyone can train to overcome ANY natural "deficit" or disadvantage. Being tall or short or heavy or light by no means signifies an inability to do any of these obstacles. Technique matters, even on non-"technique" obstacles.

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Wall Obstacles (ex: overwalls, tall walls, The Box, Stairway to Sparta)

Broke: Short people do have a natural disadvantage when it comes to getting over tall structures. They have to have more explosive power to even grab the top of an 8' wall, and may use a larger range of motion (ROM) than tall folks. If you are short and heavy, you have two things working against you.

Woke: Height is a good thing here. You can use your strongest ROM for maximum efficiency. With good technique being tall AND heavy isn't as big a hinderance, but being tall and light helps.

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Grip Obstacles (ex: multi-rig, monkey bars)

Broke: With hanging obstacles, weight matters more than height. Being heavy means your grip has to be that much stronger to overcome it, and you have to have good technique to capitalize on your momentum.

Woke: Being tall is good because you have a longer reach (using less ROM), but it adds weight. Whether you're tall or short, if you can use your momentum to swing through the obstacle, you're golden.

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Technique Obstacles (ex: spear throw, rope climb, tyro traverse)

Broke/Woke: There are no advantages here. Practice, practice, practice. Some folks want to think that a rope climb is all about upper body strength, but those folks are wasting a LOT of energy. With good technique, weight and height do not matter at all.

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Heavy Obstacles (ex: herc hoist, bucket/sandbag carry, tire flip)

Broke: Being short and light are massive disadvantages in heavy obstacles. It takes mass to move mass, as any powerlifter will tell you. If you are tall, and especially tall and heavy, it will require much less of your energy to move this stuff around.

Woke: This is the only obstacle category where being all-around large is an advantage. Enjoy it!

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Crawl Obstacles (ex: Pipe Lair, barbed wire/paracord crawl)

Broke: Tall people are screwed here. Our center of gravity is higher, and our longer limbs mean that we are way taller even on our hands and knees than a shorter person. 

Woke: Short folks, these obstacles are your moment. And the good news is, being fast through these obstacles can give you a big time advantage over a lumbering giant.

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Stadion Calisthenics Obstacles (ex: weighted burpees, box jump, ball slam, rolling epic, etc)

Broke: In these sorts of things it comes down less to natural physical gifts and more to general training and fitness. If you do a lot of calisthenics, you'll be better at these, whether you're tall or short, or thin or fat. If your workouts are just about cardio, you will probably have a bad time.

Woke: In some ways, the Stadion is perfectly calibrated for the tall and buff athlete. This is why Ryan Kent wins so damn many of them.