Obstacle Data Extravaganza!

Since racing is kind of on hold at the moment, I've decided to make myself useful and work on obstacle proficiency this year. The ninja gym is closed, but I've taken this opportunity to enhance my backyard setup and add additional obstacles and training gizmos. In addition to a spear throw station, I can climb over the side of my deck (4' and 10'), work on low crawls on the grass, and use my bucket and sandbags for heavy carries. For grip, I have my thinner monkey bars, plus I have made additional grips in the last several weeks - a horizontal steel bar (like the Super multi-rig), a baseball, a softball, two rings, and four adjustable-height thicker monkey bars. This variety will help me prepare for almost all multi-rig attachments Spartan has, plus obstacles such as Beater and Twister. My next project is to make a bootleg Olympus out of pallets, cheap slabs of flooring (to mimic the new slippery surface), and the standard holds from that obstacle. If I use two pallets, the plan is to make it reversible - one side can be Olympus, the other can be an easier bouldering-type traverse wall which my son or I could both use.

But the main thing I've been doing is thinking. Pondering the obstacles I've cleared and how I've cleared them. Making a plan for how to train for obstacles I haven't cleared, or haven't cleared reliably in the past. To that end, I made a master list of all the races I've done, then gone through and figured out which obstacles in each race I needed assistance on (and why); which I failed (and why); and which I cleared for the first time ever. Such introspection could be very helpful to you guys in your training, so I will post my results here. Turns out there were patterns to my improvement!

Stadion Lambeau 6/2017

Needed assistance: 6’ wall, 7’ wall, 8’ wall (no technique/strength)

Failed: rope climb (no technique/strength), Sprint multi-rig (no grip strength), spear throw (no technique)

Sprint Ohio 6/2018

Needed assistance: 7’ wall

Failed: spear throw (no technique), Twister (no grip strength), rope climb (didn’t attempt), Olympus (no technique/strength)

First time cleared: Sprint multi-rig

Sprint Minnesota 6/2018 DNF (thunderstorms – cancelled at mile 3.5)

Needed assistance: 6’ wall (wet/no technique)

Failed: Olympus (no technique/strength), rope climb (no technique/strength), spear throw

Super Chicago 6/2018

Needed assistance: 7’ wall, 9’ wall, Bender, Stairway to Sparta, hurdles

Failed: monkey bars (got bumped/ran out of gas), Twister (no technique), Z-walls (mud), Olympus (didn’t attempt – mud), rope climb (didn’t attempt – mud), spear throw, Super multi-rig (tired)

First time cleared: 6’ wall (solo)

Stadion Busch 8/2018 2 Laps

Needed assistance: NONE

Failed: Stadion multi-rig both laps (sweaty hands), spear throw both laps, rope climb both laps (no technique)

First time cleared: 7’ wall, 8’ wall

Beast Chicago 9/2018

Needed assistance: 7’ wall, 9’ wall, 8’ wall, Stairway to Sparta

Failed: Olympus (wet/uncertain technique), monkey bars (wet), Super multi-rig (wet), Bender (wet/sandy), Tyro traverse (cramps), rope climb (hands went numb), Twister (wet)

First time cleared: spear throw

Super Chicago 6/2019 DNF (thunderstorms – cancelled at mile 2)

Needed assistance: 6’ wall (mud)

First time cleared: monkey bars

Beast Ohio 6/2019

Needed assistance: Stairway to Sparta Beast mode (no technique), 8’ wall (wet/muddy), vertical cargo 2.0

Failed: Beast multi-rig (failed at rope holds), Twister (got through 1^st of 3 sections, ran out of grip), The Box (no technique), spear throw, rope climb (mud), Tyro traverse (gave up quickly)

First time cleared: Olympus, Bender

Sprint Minnesota 6/2019

Needed assistance: NONE

Failed: spear throw, rope climb (no grip – hands felt too smooth)

Super Fort Carson 7/2019

Needed assistance: The Box

Failed: monkey bars (slipped)

First time cleared: Stairway to Sparta, Twister, rope climb, vertical cargo 2.0, Super multi-rig

Sprint Chicago 10/2019

Needed assistance: NONE

Failed: spear throw

Stadion Wrigley 11/2019 2 Laps

Needed assistance: NONE

Failed: spear throw lap one

FIRST CLEAN STADION lap two

Super Arizona 2/2020

Needed assistance: The Box (almost got it), vertical cargo 2.0 (needed only slight help)

Failed: spear throw, Olympus (new slippery material)

Sprint Arizona 2/2020

Needed assistance: NONE

Failed: NONE

FIRST CLEAN SPRINT

So in this timeline, over the course of nearly three years, I progressed in a fairly predictable way based on seeing my first-time clears especially. The first obstacles I cleared were very basic obstacles that had simple techniques which were easy to learn (tall walls, rings). Eventually I started clearing complex technique obstacles like spear, Olympus, and rope climb. After a solid two years of racing I was able to clear the tougher grip obstacles including Twister. This led to my first clean races, which are short distances and therefore have easier obstacles. I know what I'd need to do to run a clean Super: be able to do the new Olympus. I have to figure out a few more obstacles to run a clean Beast. But since I know what I need to work on, I can formulate a plan!

For additional information, I made a few lists. 

Obstacles I Have Both Failed (or required assistance) AND Cleared – why?

Z-wall – muddy 1x

Twister – poor conditioning/technique 4x (CLEARED: 2x streak)

Monkey Bars – accidental slip 2x, wet 1x (CLEARED: 9x, includes 5x streak)

Multi-rig (Stadion) – sweaty 2x
Multi-rig (Sprint) - poor conditioning/technique 1x (CLEARED: 7x streak)

Multi-rig (Super) – poor conditioning/technique 1x, wet 1x (CLEARED: 2x streak)

Bender – poor conditioning/technique 1x, wet/sandy 1x (CLEARED: 3x streak)

Olympus (Original) – poor conditioning/technique 4x (CLEARED: 2x streak before New Oly)

Vertical Cargo 2.0 – poor conditioning/technique 1x (CLEARED: 2x streak)

6’, 7’, 8’ Wall – poor conditioning/technique until August 2018

Spear Throw – poor technique/error 11x (HIT: 4x)

Rope Climb – poor conditioning/technique 8x, muddy 1x (CLEARED: 6x streak)

Stairway to Sparta (Super) – poor conditioning/technique 1x

Hurdles – muscle pull injury 1x

Obstacles I Have NEVER Failed (That Are Fail-able)

Herc Hoist

Beater

Slip Wall

Tire Flip

Plate Drag

Inverted Wall

Obstacles I Have NEVER Cleared (Solo/Unassisted) – why?

The Box – poor conditioning/technique 3x

Tyro Traverse – poor conditioning/technique 2x

Olympus (New) – poor technique/too slippery 1x

Multi-rig (Beast) – poor conditioning/technique on rope holds 1x

Stairway to Sparta (Beast) - poor conditioning/technique 2x

Obstacles I Have Never Attempted (Not seen yet in my races)

Helix

Irish Tables

With these four lists, things were able to really come into focus. It's important to look at WHY we fail, so that we can either practice in those conditions or minimize those factors whenever possible. But it's also important to recognize our strengths and see which obstacles we don't fail. Many times there are techniques with those obstacles that we can utilize and shore up the weaker ones. I'm awesome at Herc Hoist, so maybe I should use more of a pulling technique on Tyro Traverse rather than trying to climb the underside of the rope like I usually do (and fail). I'm bad at the new Olympus, but maybe I can think about how I've cleared extremely slick slip walls and try to bring that to it. If we use our heads, I think we can come out of this insane 2020 with better obstacle proficiency than ever. And avoid the burpee pits in 2021.