Well, it was bound to happen eventually. My buddy Wes has talked me into attempting...AGE GROUP. This is a competitive division with strict rules. Racers must complete all obstacles without assistance and perfectly according to the rules for each obstacle, or do all penalty burpees. Normally, I would avoid Age Group like the plague, since I prefer to have the option to get a boost on certain things, or if I'm in dire straights to modify the burpees or do a different penalty entirely.
But Wes made the excellent point that, in a Stadion race, there are only 15 penalty burpees per failure. I am also capable of running a clean Stadion, and did so at Wrigley in 2019. The obstacles are within my comfort zone and I don't require boosts. Hence, I have signed up for the Age Group division at the Notre Dame Stadion on July 9, 2022.
Before that day, I have some work to do. I refuse to show up and just wing it. I want to actually do something decent out there. I don't want to embarrass myself. Back in 2012 I did a competitive walking division wherein I came in second place, missing out on winning by less than one second, because of an amazing finishing kick on my part. So I know that I have a competitive side that can come out. My goal for this race is to finish in the middle of the pack for my age group.
Since every Stadion race is different, I analyzed the data from the last one I did (Wrigley). My fastest lap there was 1:03:51. This was by far my Stadion PR, and I failed one obstacle (spear throw) on that lap (it was my second lap, run more slowly and with a friend, that I ran clean). I completed in that time with minimal jogging, but a general effort to "hustle" a bit more than I usually do. I also had done very little stair training in advance of it. All this to say, there is a LOT of room to make gains in my time.
Which is good, because I looked up the results for the Female 35-39 Age Group for that same race. Podium spots were run in 41:09 to 42:44 (yes, fat chance of that, but it's good to know what winning times are). Middle of the 19-person division would require a time of about 50:30. Which means I have to shave about 23 minutes off my Stadion PR to make that goal happen.
With this information, I can begin to look at individual areas of improvement. I have pinpointed several, and estimated very approximately how much time I could save with each one.
1) Clean race OR fast burpees - 2 minutes
2) Great stair training/climbing - 5 minutes
3) Jogging (or god forbid RUNNING) the whole thing - 10 minutes
4) Improved flow in/out of obstacles - 3 minutes
5) Speed on obstacles themselves - 3 minutes
6) Skip aid stations entirely - 1 minute
7) Improve low crawl (flats AND stairs) - 2 minutes
So if I manage to optimize every single area, I could conceivably "run Wrigley" in 38 minutes. That would have absolutely destroyed my age group, so this is all highly optimistic and approximate, but it lays out a solid 7-point plan for training for Notre Dame. I will be training stairs on a weekly basis. I will be getting my running back to where it was in the summer of 2020 when I was jogging a lot. I will get my obstacle proficiency even better and improve my cardio so that I can enter and exit obstacles at a run without a problem. I'll get my weight down to my absolute ideal.
I have plenty of time and lots of motivation. This is happening, dammit. This Is Stadion Age Group. (New vlog series coming soon, LOL)
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