Race
Season coming to an end L
As the 2013 race season
is coming to an extreme end with World's Toughest Mudder 2013 in 25 days I
wanted to take some time to look back at my training and where I picture myself in the
next year. First and foremost my day to day training has been with World's
Toughest Mudder in mind. Ultra distance running has consumed me for the last
year. I went from no marathon experience in early 2012 to 4 marathons,
and have ran 50 miles 3 times now. My mind is constantly thinking about
training mainly because my full time job consists of me coming up with workouts
for 9 classes per week in the GRC Fury Fitness Training at the Gypsum
Recreation Center. I am always coming up with new concepts and ways to
get results for the athletes that coach. I typically test the workouts on
myself first to see what I can add or subtract to make killer workouts for
them. This has brought me to doing 2-3 workouts per day sometimes.
In
prep for WORLDS TOUGHEST MUDDER 2013
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| 30# RUCK TRX pushups |
Top priority for me is
to gain maximum endurance and mental toughness. High mileage is not for
me...well at least not in a consistent training plan. I found when I was
running 75-90 miles per week that my body was breaking down and not recovering
very well. My focus then shifted to lower impact means of cardio like the
rowing machine and spinning. I also follow CrossFit Endurance's running program
which consists of lots of sprint repeats. I've found these to give me an edge.
Anyone can do it, but few do.. That’s the cold hard truth! It’s so much easier
in my opinion to do a 10 miler than to do (10-15) 400m sprints repeats.
My ability to control my breathing on the longer runs has come from pushing
myself to failure in these sprint repeats. This also gives me a mental
advantage because a 6-7 minute mile pace for 10-15 miles now feels comfortable
and easy due to the sprints that I have been doing for the past 17 months.
Hills have also been huge in my training's. Running fast up-down hills builds
the leg strength needed to run ulrta marathons. I am a huge believer in Olympic
lifting as well, It builds strength that cant be duplicated any other way! So
as prep time gets smaller and smaller I am really focused on making sure my
body is 100% for WTM. Rolling out, stretching, and icing have been very helpful
in getting ready for battle in New Jersey. I firmly believe in the “taper”
before events like this. We train and train breaking our bodies down, but we sometimes
forget to let them build back up after long months of races and rough
training's.
What
will be faced November 16th-17th
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| WTM 2012 LAP 4 |
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| WTM 2012 LAP5 |
Worlds Toughest Mudder
is such a unique event. Giant obstacles, freezing cold water, electric shock,
and ultra marathon distances make this one of the hardest races around. To
train for this race you need to bring in unique methods to match up for what
you will be facing for 24 hours. You must be comfortable being uncomfortable!
I've done a few GoRuck Challenges and a 24 hour version called a GoRuck Heavy.
These events force you to build mental toughness and push your body out of its
comfort zone. These events lasted 13, 17, and 24.5 hours so they let me know
what my weaknesses are, and what I need to do to be in shape to run through a
freezing cold obstacle course for 24 hours. These GoRuck challenges give you a
small taste of what our heroes and military go through. They know how to make
warriors, and that's what you need to be to survive WTM! So I have really
enjoyed getting to know the GoRuck community and all it has to offer. I like it
so much that I will be doing GoRuck Selection which is a 48 hour challenge in
June of 2014. It has proven to be the toughest challenge out there to pass with
a 10% completion rate!!! Before I get too excited about that let me keep
talking about World's Toughest Mudder prep. I live in the mountains of Colorado
so I utilize the terrain for lots of my workouts. Its steep, and the elevation
is high where I like to train at 7,200-8,400ft. I love going down in elevation
to run races and yes it does make a huge difference! I played college
football in Kansas and for the first weeks of 2-a-days I always noticed the
incredible endurance difference. After you get acclimated it goes away, but
hey.. Ill take a few days of stellar performance over none.
Leslie
St. Louis:Colorado Obstacle Racer, Spartan Pro Team, and
VPX Team Xtreme Member had some questions for me so I will answer those
here:
How have you been training
for WTM this year? Focused on ultra
distance running so I can make it further than I did in 2012 (50miles) I also
do lots of Olympic lifting, climbing, and follow the running program of CF
Endurance. I do 95% of my running on trails with lots of elevation
gain-change.
How would you describe WTM
to someone who's never been? Worlds Toughest Mudder is all alone in its own category. No other
obstacle race matches its length as a 24 hour race. Obstacles are harder than
your average Tough Mudder. Sounds like they want to add more obstacles to the
course this year. Last year they had 32 obstacles per lap and it was 10 miles
per lap. The idea for this race is to complete as many laps as you can in
24 hours. Sounds pretty straight forward, but the cold quickly changes that!
The cold is what makes this event the hardest obstacle race just based on temperatures
alone. During the nighttime most everything freezes. The open water obstacles
temp was hovering just above freezing at 37 degrees. To survive this race you
must have a wetsuit and that alone won’t guarantee your survival. Luckily the
guys at Xterra Wetsuits hooked me up with suits, so I am well taken care of in
that aspect. Your survival relies on how you handle the cold mainly. If
you can keep a good pace and keep your bodies core temp up you have a great
chance at lasting the full 24 hours of this race. To give perspective on what
you see during this race is something like a war zone with minor-major injuries
plaguing the battle field. Medical tents are empty during the day time hours,
but as soon as that sun goes down the real race begins!!! Many were victim to
hypothermia and injuries induced by the freezing temps. There were a few aid
tents that had tiny heaters in them...these were traps to lure people into a
"false heat" My advice to those who plan on trying a WTM is to NEVER
STOP MOVING! Once you sit down your bodies temp drops and that tiny heater they
offer wont keep you warm enough. Once you have to hit the course again it will
be very hard for you to keep your core temp up and I witnessed this dozens of
times as people dropped out. My buddy Bryan Shane uses a great quote that makes
a lot of sense in these hard situations. "Slow is smooth and smooth is
fast." Lots of racers jump out of the gate as if they were running a 5k
mud run, but you have to control that adrenaline and slow your pace if you want
to last the ultra distances and 24 hour duration of the race. You must save
energy for the night time hours because it’s those hours that will try their
hardest to Break you! You will hear voices telling you to quit, but you must
ignore them and keep pushing forward. The best advice I can give to anyone
thinking about doing WTM is get yourself a wet suit I can get you a 60%
discount on that :), wait for winter temps of 35 degrees and below....then jump
in a lake or natural body of water and swim around to see if you can handle the
cold. Couple that with running in the wetsuit for 24 hours and navigating
frozen obstacles and you have Worlds Toughest Mudder.....Oh yeah I forgot to
mention the shock obstacles.....they suck at regular Tough Mudders, but now you
have to multiply that for 24 hours straight.
What are yourgoals this
year, and what’s your strategy? Goal is 80 miles and to make top 10, but if time allows for more
we will go for it! Did 50 miles last year @ WTM, and have became a
much better runner this year, but I recognize that there are better runners
than me out there. The question is do they have as much heart as me to stick it
out through the elements??? Strategy is to never surrender or give up
while moving forward no matter the cold or obstacles ahead. Bringing a
tent to store gear in, but don't plan on sleeping or resting in it. Pit stops
will include feet check, re-fuel and repeat. Plan on racing with my best friend
T.J. Ricciardi, and my brother-in-law Brian Lisac. These two are some of the
toughest people I know so I am thankful to be running with them for this race. Brian
has been stricken with a lower leg injury that has been very painful to train
with, but he keeps pushing through and will give WTM his all! His military experience
will be a valuable asset for this race! I am very proud of these 2 and all they
have accomplished this year!
What do you think about
the new rules and did they change your goal plans? Honestly Tough Mudder struggles with communicating
what exactly will be on the course-how long it will be.. so the goal of 80
miles does revolve around how the course is laid out. Rumor has it that they
want to make more and bigger obstacles than last year. This concept naturally
cuts your mileage goals down, but factoring that in we still think 80 miles is
possible if we take minimal pit breaks and keep a consistent pace. They offer
you the chance to have a pit crew this year from 10am-10pm in the pit area....I
don't think this will be a game changer as pit crews can only do so much. You
still have to saddle up and get out on the course to take care of business
yourself. It will be nice however to see my wife, kids and family in the pit
area, my only worry is that the pit area will be too crowded with families which
will make pit stops a little more challenging. I do like the new mileage prizes
that they are offering and I have that 60 mile season pass award in mind
especially since they will be offering 2 Tough Mudders in Colorado next year. I
find it strange that they offer awards for 40, 60, and 100 miles....what
happened to 80????
New Mileage
Awards
1. 40 miles –
World’s Toughest Mudder Brown Lap
a.
Awarded – Free
Entry to any regular Tough Mudder
a.
Awarded – The
Brown WTM Bib**
2. 60 miles –
60 Miler Award Orange Lap
a.
Awarded – 2014
Tough Mudder Season Pass
a.
Awarded – The
Orange WTM Bib**
3. 100 miles –
100 Miler Award Gold Lap
a.
Awarded – Free
entry to WTM 2014
a.
Awarded – Gold
Tough Mudder 100 Kettle Bell
a.
Awarded – The
Gold WTM Bib**
New Category
Winners
1. BLACK OPS –
For the most laps completed between the hours of (10pm) and (7am). Only laps
started after 10pm and completed before 7am will count towards winning the
“Black Ops” award. Regular WTM lap completion rules apply. Nighttime rules
apply.
a.
Awarded – The
Black WTM Bib**
a.
Awarded – Free
Entry to WTM 2014
2. FASTEST LAP –
Awarded to the participant completing the fastest first (1st) lap.
a.
Awarded – The
Green WTM Bib**
a.
Awarded – Free
Entry to WTM 2014
I've heard
the "real" race begins at nighthave you found that to be true and
why? This is true because of the cold; it takes a very strong willed
athlete to keep pushing through the dark hours and the cold. Just to keep
moving is hard at night and your vision for the obstacles gets sketchy!
What keeps
you motivated during such a long event? My kids and wife!
They sacrifice a lot for me to do these crazy races and go through all the long
training days etc. I owe it to them to finish again and not give up!
What will
you be wearing and eating this year? I will be wearing wetsuits
by Xterra. I have the volt, the vector 4, vector pro, and vendetta suits
which will be more than enough to keep me warm though-out this race.
I wear poly fleece base layers underneath. Shoes I will be bringing my Inov8
Trail Roc 245s and 255s. Head lamp, and Smart wool socks for the feet
and that's that. I eat a mixture of whey protein
and electrolytes throughout the race, I have experimented with real
food, but I get sluggish in 24 hour events so I will stick to the 350 calories
per protein-electrolyte shakes. I will eat on course via the stations
like bananas and sharkies if I feel I need it.
What races
have you done in 2013? GoRuck challenges in January and
April, Tough Mudder Beaver creek 2 laps one with 40# tire, Gypsum Dirty Dozen
1st place age division, 3rd overall, Devil's Dash 5k 1st place 20-29 male,
Leadville Trail 100 run DNF due to missing time cut off by 20 minutes, Gypsum
Daze 5k1st place age division, NOGOA GoRuck Heavy, and Worlds Toughest Mudder 2013 TBA
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| Tough Mudder CO 2nd lap 40# Tire 2012 |
I always get the question..."WHY DO YOU DO THESE CRAZY EVENTS?" My answer:"Struggling and suffering are the essence of a life worth living. If your not pushing yourself beyond the comfort zone, if your not demanding more from yourself-expanding and learning as you go-you're choosing a numb existence. Your denying yourself and extraordinary trip!"
