Backblast: Spartan Race Sprint “DAY ZERO” Edition

Backblast: Spartan Race Sprint “DAY ZERO” Edition

Apologies for the late backblast… the least I could do for my tardiness was make it a worthwhile bathroom read IMHO. Enjoy!

THE THANG:

Since the Spartan Race Sprint was being held this weekend in Concord, YHC thought it would be a great idea to make an obstacle course out of the DAY ZERO AO @ McAlpine Elementary School for those who were too cheap to sign up had family commitments and couldn’t go to the actual race. YHC promised to deliver a free Spartan Race but with NO free t-shirt, NO finishers medal, NO free beer at the finish line, NO photos, No prizes, and NO muddy female racers in lulu lemons and sports bras.

The PAX must have missed the “NO” part of the prior sentence, because 18 beasts showed up for the workout / race looking for muddy female racers in lulu lemons and sports bras beers, but got a self-imposed you vs. you AMRAP beatdown instead, perfectly fitting for DAY ZERO which is known as being a High Intensity Workout.

THE THANG: 

YHC challenged the PAX to complete 3 laps of the course (sent out in preblast, and only slightly modified) and keep going until time was called, which would mean completing 900+ yards of 85lb bucket carries, 35-45lb hairburners, and 65-75lb log carries. #THISISDAYZERO

Short 5 minute instructional warmup lap around most of the obstacles, and split up into 4 groups, each starting at a different point along the course.  YHC failed to disclaim “I am not a professional and exercise at your own risk” probably because YHC has been called unprofessional for most of my 38 years of life #selfexplanatory and sometimes YHC wonders if what we do can even be called ‘exercise’… I digress.

Stations / Obstacles

(0) Memorization: As PAX arrived at the AO, YHC instructed them to pick out of a bag a small piece of paper resembling a fortune cookie message. Ok, it could have been a fortune cookie message, since it had lucky numbers on it, but it wasn’t. You’ve gotta believe me, just cause YHC is Asian, it doesn’t mean YHC stole the fortune cookie inscriptions from the family restaurant Golden Duck Palace! Ok I did, but just a few. PAX had 1 minute to memorize the words and numbers, which were words straight out the F3 Lexicon (like JELLY LUBE, LEAKAGE, PEACOCK WEDGE, SNOT WOGGLE) and a random 4 digit number, which PAX were required to repeat correctly during COT or do 10 penalty burpees for failure to memorize.

(1) Bucket Carry: PAX were required to carry a 85lb Home Depot bucket filled with pavers down the bus lane to almost the end of the road from the basketball courts and back, a distance over 100 yards. PAX could not use the handle, or carry bucket on shoulder. #gripandcorestrength

(2) Hair-burners: PAX were required to push 35lb or 45lb plates across half the parking lot on THE ROCKIEST ASPHALT PARKING LOT EVER down & back, a distance over 100 yards.

(3) Log Carry: PAX carried 60-75lb logs above their head with arms extended down the second half of the parking lot, and were instructed to throw/flip (players choice) the logs back to the starting point, a distance over 100 yards.

(4) Dome Traverse: PAX were instructed to climb over a steel children’s playground dome on the North side of the AO which oddly enough ended up being one of the most treacherous obstacles of the day (refer to Strawberry comments below).

(5) Monkeybar Traverse: PAX were instructed to traverse a very low set of monkey bars, requiring them to lift their knees and bend their arms into a half bicep curl across the bars. *Touching feet to ground resulted in a penalty of 30 Spartan Style Chest-to-ground burpees.*

(6) Spear Throw: PAX had one chance to throw a shovel handle replacement spear at a target 15-18’ away and hit the target. * Missing target resulted in a penalty of 30 Spartan Style Chest-to-ground burpees. *

(7) PAX ran around the running path around the soccer fields roughly .3 miles and perform 10 box jumps on a 36-inch high retaining wall followed by 10 reverse burpees (similar to Turkish-Get-Up) on the field (squat / roll on back / roll back on feet / stand up / jump / repeat).

(8) Monkeybar Traverse:  PAX needed to scale two sections of monkey bars, one with small swinging rings, and the other with pullup bars, and do 3 pull-ups at end of the rig without ever letting feet touch ground. * Touching feet to ground resulted in a penalty of 30 Spartan Style Chest-to-ground burpees. *

(9) Pull-up bar climb over 7ft tall: PAX were required to find a way to climb over the tallest pull-up bar without help and without getting injured. * Failure to complete the obstacle resulted in a penalty of 30 Spartan Style Chest-to-ground burpees. *

(10) 10 hanging Toes-To-Bar on the pullup bar: #sixpackbuilder #beachbody

Rinse and Repeat until YHC calls time! 7:05am – 7:55am

MOLESKIN:

Originally, YHC thought the most balanced PAX (speed/strength) would get 5 laps + in, but sorely misjudged the course. Well, maybe obstacles 1,2,3 had something to do with it, because the most any PAX completed was 3 laps + 2 obstacles (buckets & hairburners) in time (Frazier, Fletch, YHC, and others?) while most completed 2 laps which was a strong achievement.  The big guys dominated the heavy carries, and even did an admirable job getting over the ‘more nimble’ obstacles.

– Hairball (DZ site Q) showed up promptly and scouted the AO, noticing all the orange cones, as a good site Q should but he had a funny look on his face (not his face!… the LOOK on his face). After the workout started, I think he saw there were no females in lulu lemons, ran around the AO to double check twice and went home disappointed before COT. It’s ok Hairball because you are gonna crush theRacefest Half Marathon this weekend in 1:35 or less… YHC challenges you before all of A51/SOB. There will be lots of lulu lemons there, YHC assures you.

– Snowden showed up looking for the free beer, and after a while left also before COT. YHC thinks Snowden was disgusted there were no water obstacles, and left for daughters swim meet to find some.

– Outback rolled up right at 7am for what would be his THIRD workout of day, #1 was running a fast 5k at 5:30am, #2 a difficult Stonehenge Champagne Q AMRAP at 6am, and #3 taking on the DZ Spartan Race challenge at 7am back-to-back-to-back. Unlike Dikembe Mutumbo (remember him?) who says he is 47 but is really 74, Outback’s states his age is late 40s, but his fitness is more like mid 20s. Keep up the good work young fella, but start using that wrinkle cream.

– Mighty Mite powered through much of the course, both strength AND agility obstacles.  At one point, YHC saw he climbed over the monkey bar with ease and my initial thought was that he was bending the bar like Superman to get over, but that was not the case.  Apparently he saw a tiny mouse next to the obstacle, and leapt like a cat up over the bar to get away.

– Spackler did 10 perfect burpees in COT before we got to his turn, for not remembering the lexicon phrase & number during COT. The course police were a bit surprised, since they did not see many proper burpees for failed obstacles on the course, which may or may not be true.

– In the excitement to start the workout, YHC remembered I forgot to give the standard safety disclaimer, and started to do it on dome traverse. But literally, no less than 2 seconds after starting it, Strawberry fell and bloodied his shin on one of the bars #nearcompountfracture #manupprincess. Being the warrior he is, he kept on pushing through the course solidly, without ever getting a Hello Kitty Band-Aid.

– FACTOID: The bucket carry was an estimated 63% of Frasier’s 135lb body weight.

– Fletch was an absolute animal pushing hair burners. Every time YHC would pass him, he would blow by YHC at the hair burner obstacle.  It was a familiar sight, and YHC is getting used to seeing Fletch’s backside all too often, like at the finish line of the Joe Davis 5k earlier this year where the man easily broke 20min 5k.

– YHC has a pretty good memory and remembered Beeker didn’t run the Charlotte 10 Miler Race in Ballantyne a month or two ago on account of a sore throat the flu.  But he looked fully recovered out on the course today, and even better at the coffeeteeria after!

–  “I don’t know who you are dude, but I hate you.” – McGee, just before COT.  Nice to meet you too brother.

– Apologies for not being able to troll the rest of you in the Backblast because YHC wasn’t able to match a name with a face, or you were too fast and YHC did not see you on the course, but YHC promises to do my best next time.

It was a pleasure meeting some new F3 Brothers in A51, and working out with the regular guys in A51/SOB.  Looking forward to throwing DZ in the mix of workouts where YHC posts, and getting to know you brothers more as well.  Special thanks for Hairball and Prohibition for giving me the keys to DZ, as YHC truly enjoyed it, and very much appreciates the support from all who posted.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

• Lots of races coming up… F3 Fast 5-5k (see pre blast on website), Charlotte Racefest Half/10k/5k next weekend, Battlefrog OCR weekend after, Quarry Run, GoRuck, SC Mud Run at end of month, the list goes on. Sign up for something to push and measure yourself, and join your F3 Brothers in doing them.
• If any of you are interested in running in the Ragnar Trail Relay on 10/7-10/8 at Anne Springs Greenway, let YHC know. Worth reading the link below to see if this is something you would like to be a part of… A lot more 2^nd F than running (16 miles 3 legs) IMHO.  YHC is not officially coordinating this for F3, but garnering interest and definitively forming a team. https://www.runragnar.com/event-detail/trail/carolinas_sc

SYITG ~ J.R.R. Tolkien