THE Spartan Race has several varieties. In Cebu, we will be having the Sprint (six kilometers, 20-plus obstacles), Beast (13km, 40-plus obstacles) and the Hurricane Heat. How do we effectively prepare for these?
Everything starts with endurance, both cardiovascular and muscular. Your cardiovascular system must be equipped to work for a continuous period of time at an elevated heart rate, and your muscles have to be able to contract for longer than usual. What endurance standards should we look for when doing the Spartan Race?
Cardiovascular endurance. For those joining the Sprint event, it will help to be able to do a 10km run in under one hour and 30 minutes. For those who really want to perform well, it’s good to have a standard of 10km in under one hour, or five kilometers in under 30 minutes. This allows you to get running “out of the way,” so to speak. If you’ve been running, or trail running, this takes out the running variable of the event and effectively allows you to focus better on the obstacles.
How do we train for this?
a) Steady state runs for 30 minutes building to an hour and 30 minutes.
b) Long-intervals of one minute and 30 seconds, followed by a minute rest, starting with six sets and building up to 12.
c) Running three, four times a week.
d) Make sure you’re not doing too much as it can also impact recovery rates.
Muscular Endurance. Obstacles are predominantly upper-body dominant—carrying objects, hauling stuff, lifting bodyweight—among other things that need to be done. So it helps to have a good base of upper body muscular endurance for the tasks.
How do we train for this?
a) Doing high-rep push ups and doing as many chin-ups three, four times a week.
b) Crawling for time and distance.
c) Carrying objects like five gallon water containers for time and distance.
d) Carrying your significant other up and down the stairs (that’s good training, too).
e) Hanging on a monkey bar or playing in a monkey bar for time and distance.
These are general ideas on how to prepare best for the Spartan Race. For more detailed instruction, one can train at Spartan Race PH Official Training Facilities.
Here’s Epic Performance Coach Ernest Ybanez training with crawls at CEBU OCC at Crossroads. Coach Ernest will be representing Cebu at the Spartan Race Lima. We wish him all the best as he trains hard the next three weeks.