Nice!
Line breaks back to normal.
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8/16
Spartan day 1 of 2
Today was the kids races. I’m very proud of all 3 of my older kids, who ran the 1.5k.
I ran behind the slowest of the three, who was quite fast enough.
After, walking by all the merch booths, we found a pullup bar where they were keeping a tally of the record for the day. At that time it was 20.
My 9yo daughter did 5 - she’s a natural strength athlete.
I then did 23 - possibly a pr and felt like a badass, until the dude behind me jumped up and did 26 like it was nothing!
10k tomorrow.
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8/17/2025: 10K Spartan obstacle course.
This was a BLAST. I ran with a fit friend. It was my 3rd such race (2023, 2024, 2025).
I would really love to run one of these solo or with someone faster/better than me, to see what I can really do. I’m not saying I’d be #1 in my age group - I definitely wouldn’t be, with my current capabilities - absolute trail speed would be my limiting factor - but I’m a MONSTER at the obstacles.
The only thing I couldn’t do was the spear throw (which is so stupid. Anyone who’s done it would agree I think). I can climb a rope, scale vertical walls, whatever - with speed and agility that impresses me.
I’m thinking next year I’ll run in the “age group” competitive category and red-line it the whole way.
Of course there are other wants/needs to balance this out: my wife wants to run it again (maybe the 5k); the kids enjoyed the 1.5k and want to do that again next year; my daughter wants to compete in the competitive kids race…
And it would be SO FUN to run WITH my wife again.
So we’ll see what actually happens.
I’ll put up photos as they become available. My buddy took a video of me doing one or two obstacles, maybe I can get it on here.
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As I’ve done here many times before, i’ll spitball about training, options, possibilities etc.
I kinda want to do a spartan 10K solo (or with a partner who surpasses me and is “pulling” me the whole time) to see what I am really capable of.
I also kinda want to do lots of other things. And it seems kinda silly that my 4th race could be my 4th 10K having never done the 5k or the 21k.
The fastest times are right around an hour; I think under 90 minutes would be pretty impressive, and rank right up with the top few people in my age group. My buddy and I ran in 2:19; and while I was chomping at the bit to go faster, I don’t know how much faster I could have been.
Quick math: 25 obstacles. Let’s say they’re 1 minute each (averaging+guessing) - and about 6 miles of trail. I can run 6mph and do the run in 1 hour, plus 25 minutes of obstacles - that puts me under 90 minutes. Take some time off of that for training super hard and being extra fast, and add a little time for things that inevitibly will go wrong, and I could have a pretty decent showing based on my current level of capability.
If I were to improve my 10k running pace, that’s probably the most bang for the buck; and maybe figure out how to do the spear throw or at least have a better chance at it. On top of that I’d probably train grip strength, perhaps even with wet hands, to make some of the later obstacles less miserable. The “slip wall” slowed me down A LOT because of this.
OK, great talk. Thanks, keyboard!
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8/20/2025 Wednesday
OK, schedules are nuts, nothing is predictable LOL.
I’ve been enjoying a Wednesday gym trip but I know it won’t happen today, so planned on a mini-murph. Cut it a little short as you’ll see:
-1 mile run to park
-20 rounds EMOM of
(3 pullups
(6 pushups
(9 squats
-1 mile limp/hobble home
About 0.3 miles into the initial run I tripped, fell, fully flat out on concrete on a steep downhill grade. Took most of the impact on my right hip. I’m glad I pushed through the rest of the run down, but by the way home it didn’t seem wise.
EDIT an hour later to add:
When I wrote this I was back at my computer for work, still sweaty.
I hadn’t stepped into a well-lit room or looked at myself in the mirror.
WOW both my knees are bloody, blood down to my shins, my right hand has a big bloody scrape on it, my right hand is super sore, my right foot hurts and my right hip is JACKED UP.
LOL.
I don’t know how this is possible, that I landed in such a way that BOTH knees contacted the concrete, and my right hip, rear of the ball-joint.
Seems like it would be one or the other but I must have twisted hard on the way down.
Yikes.
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You look more Studly in pictures.
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@FlatsFarmer more studly than I come across in text form? Or is there some other base of comparison… like my miserable T-ransformation entries over the years…
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Yeah, than in text form.
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ROFL yeah a few sentences per week like “took a run”, “carried a sandbag”, “did some pullups” doesn’t exactly SOUND like a flipping badass who can outrun, outcarry, and outclimb pretty much anyone around… but it’s been working!
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@JOHNPABLO thanks for the kind comments. All those big changes started 2 years ago, and I haven’t been following that Wendler program in quite some time.
It’s good to be reminded where I was 2 years ago, because - on the major plus side - I don’t struggle with that shoulder issue.
The towel pullups were a good idea and I should bring them back!
Unlike 2 years ago, I no longer have a daily commute, and therefore I no longer have a gym routine. I train pretty off-the-cuff. Like this morning was a 2.4 mile run followed by a 2.4 mile walk back; and yesterday was calisthenics at the park.
Life is better now than it was when I wrote that introductory post, though, for sure!
Thanks for checking in, and feel free to keep following along! I wish you luck on your own journey too.
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6/26/2025 Friday
2.4 mile hilly run, 2.4 mile walk back.
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You wrote a very kind post, but I have a sneaking suspicion that John is an AI bot based on his avatar and the fact he wrote a post just summarizing your first post..
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I defo noticed the AI-ness of the responses. A lot of people I work with use AI to write their emails, and it has a “voice”. I don’t love it.
But I gave JP the benefit of the doubt as you noted.
I’m curious what anyone has to gain by creating AI bots to participate in niche forums like this?
You would be amazed at how many I delete per day. They usually link to other websites
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8/25/2025 Monday
30 minutes, as many rounds as possible:
-Half-mile run
-100lb sandbag carry, 100ft, 200ft, 300ft… increment every round.
How I did:
Crushed it beyond my expectations.
The 30-minute timer went off just as I was coming back from the 6th run (third mile) - probably 10 seconds shy of completing the lap.
I went ahead and did the 6th carry (600ft) as I’d pre-planned to complete the last round, but TBH I didn’t expect to be this fast.
Didn’t get a time for the 600ft carry (or any carry individually) but that would be neat to track.
All the carries were bear-hug.
@T3hPwnisher what were your thoughts on carry speed vs carry position? I assume shoulder would be a faster pace, though a bit more energy for the pick-up.
Also Pwn, bear in mind there’s a difference of kind, not only degree, for me, between a 100lb bag and a 150lb bag. 100lb I can just carry around. I’ve done it for a half-mile recently and for a full mile a few years ago. 150 would be absolutely monstrous, much more than 150% of the difficulty.
Some thoughts on repeating this in the future:
-Possibly fix the distance at 200 or 300ft, so every round is repeatable (for benchmarking purposes).
-Would LOVE to do a quarter-mile only and get more rounds. May be able to pick a different route but it’ll have a sharp turn.
-Want to experiment with different carry styles. The bear hug is a slow walk, and gruelling. Unsure what different stimulus/benefit can accrue from different carries.
Bottom line: Really, really enjoyed doing this, and was pleasantly surprised. Thanks, @T3hPwnisher , for the guidance on carry distance and the suggestion to increment it.
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Hell yeah dude! Awesome to hear. Regarding shouldering the bag: it’s more that you can travel much FURTHER with a shouldered bag compared to a bear hug. The bear hug places the weight onto your lungs and eventually suffocates you, while the shoulder allows for a very long carry without much issue.
I like all the different ways you’ve come up with to play with this WOD. It’s what pretty awesome with just 1 piece of equipment: you can come up with a LOT of ways to make it effective.
For the different carry styles, you can play with it within the WOD itself. Bearhug down and shoulder back. With that approach, you get the hard carry done when you’re the freshest and the easy carry done when you’re more fatigued, so it balances out. Or you could do bearhug for 100’ and shoulder for 200’ for a similar effect.
You can even mix and match the runs with the sandbags. Do quarter mile runs with 200’ bearhug carries, then the next round is halfmile with 100’ shoulder.
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Just throwing a couple of extra ideas in here. If you are prepared to add kettlebells / dumbells to this and want to really up the shoulder intensity consider alternating between the sandbag carry and a two handed overhead carry.
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@simo74 that’s a rockin’ idea. Can bring out the 50lb bell and do a number of swings as well, between run laps. The limitation is kind of inspiring.
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8/27/2025 Wednesday
The plan: 1 mile run to park. 20 rounds EMOM of climbing up and over the top of the monkey bars. 1 mile run back home.
YES! This was an ambitious goal and I crushed it. The bars are around 6’6" or 6’8" and bear in mind, I’m not using them as monkey bars at all - I’m approaching it as simply a high horizontal bar to climb onto and over.
During this I busted my balls once going over, and on another lap, I missed my footing jumping down and re-busted my left knee scab (from my recent fall). 2 hours later and it’s just oozing pus despite a shower and cleaning. Gross.
When the fall occured I said to myself or someone - as a kid, we skinned our knees all the time, and they just healed so quick. Now as a middle-aged man? Not so quick. Skin just doesn’t grow back fast at this age.
Super proud of myself for this workout - and not least, that awful uphill run at the end used to be SO PAINFUL I dreaded it, but today it was nothing at all. Didn’t have to psych myself for the last hill or anything.
6 Likes