OCR Training Circus Makes a Pit-Stop at Rock-Zero

OCR Training Circus Makes a Pit-Stop at Rock-Zero

WORKOUT SUMMARY

Today marks the official start of Obstacle Course Racing Season with the Spartan Race Arizona Sprint underway (good luck Mario!… this just in…. he placed #12 in Competitive Heat and #2 in 25-29 age group. BOOM!!!!), and what better way to prepare for the upcoming OCR season here (Spartan Atlanta – March / Spartan Carolinas – April / Savage & SC Mud Run – May) than with some specific OCR Training.  Three Spartan circuit regulars (Flipper, Kid Rock, JRR Tolkien) showed up for a 3.2 mile “mosey” pre-workout run. They were joined by 12 more men looking to transform their soft touch hands, into calloused fists of rage, and polish their obstacle course attacking abilities, to make 15 in total.

THE THANG

Quick mosey across the parking lot over to the Calvary playground area.  Plank while waiting for the 6, circle up, quick instructions and disclaimer given to PAX by YHC while in plank position throwing in a few “up” / “down” merkins on my cadence. Partner up by size/ability and start at any one of 8 stations.  The WOD today ended up being a solid 50min HIIT workout (8 total stations: 2:30min work + :38min sprint & recovery… Repeat circuit 2X for 16 stations total).  Plan was to partner up and stick with your partner through all the stations to completion of all 8 stations, two times.  YHC changed it up today, and the 38 seconds between stations sometimes reserved for rest were used for AYG sprints from the gear to the second basketball hoop and back… resulted in turning a near 0.0 workout into 2.9 miles of running. Not too shabby for a gear workout.

Stations:

1. ~240lb Rogue Dog Sled Push: The same sled used in the Crossfit games. Pushing the HIGH vertical bars is a little easier than pushing the LOW horizontal bars.  Flapjack.  Sled pushing is great for fixing running form. (legs/hips/total body really)
2. ~85lb Heavy Bucket Carries: One of the many obstacles in Spartan Race. Walk around parking lot without putting the bucket down to rest, or else you owed 3 burpees each time. (legs/core/grip)
3. Standing Heavy Rope Row Pulls:  P1 provides resistance while P2 reels in thick rope to the end, flapjack.  (total body/grip)
4. Reverse Burpees: With 25lb or 35lb kettlebells lay on your back, extend kb above head, extend it beyond knees, squat, stand…. unwind movement (core/legs/triceps)
5. Fingertip Farmers Carries: With 35lb or 45lb plate or 45lb kb walk with weight around cone and back with each weight. Throw in some shoulder shrugs, and remove fingers from the weights to increase grip strength (shoulders/grip)
6. Hanging Toes-2-Bar w/ Pullup: at the kids playground, don’t stop hanging! Working on grip strength further, alternate full-length pulp and a toes to pulp bar touch (abs/grip/back) 
7. “Spear” Throw: practice throwing the wooden dowel spear through the target hula hoop to avoid doing three burpees (mind).
8. Supine Thick Rope Pullups: Shorter thick rope body supine pull-ups and negatives with rope chained to the top of a fence (back/biceps/grip)

All of the stations today should have sapped the grip strength out of you and forearms should be on fire… Spartan Race obstacles that the exercises were intended to prepare you for were: rope climb, plate drag, bucket carry, 8″ wall, z-wall grip, monkey bars, the metal rig, spear throw, and the running

MOLESKIN

Great morning for a workout. Sun was up, and weather was warm enough in the 50s to wear my prize racerback F3 tank top. Heck YHC got to sleep in a few extra minutes instead of posting at the EPIC SOB 6am Stonehenge workout, where YHC is Site-Q (#shamelessmarketingplug).  Bonus for the day was that YHC didn’t even chip a tooth this time posting at RockZero (2 chipped teeth in 2 separate occasions at Day Zero… hey it claimed to be a High Intensity workout).  Anyway, if you liked the workout, thank YHC for bringing something new…. if you hated it, blame Flipper for inviting me, and Hoover for specifically asking for some Savage Race/Spartan Race training.  Couple of musings from this morning: Hansel & 15 Gretel….err, YHC means Nemo (16yrs) and Umizumi (15yrs) were pushing hard to get their hairless 8-packs polished for Spring Break so that the girlies can take notice of them at the pool…. while they play Minecraft on their iPads.  Both did a great job with the heavier weights today especially the 85lb bucket carries which easily were more than half their body weight. YHC tried to light a fire in them youngster, by betting they would place Top 5 in the upcoming Savage Race which they plan to enter…. kids race that is.  Kid Rock rolled up early this AM, and pulled his monster truck up next to my F-150… dude, YHC is Asian you can’t do that, there’s already enough insecurities! Kid Rock & Flipper both were in the zone with the workout gear this morning, except the spear throw which needed a LOT of work! #30burpees Marlin got War-Daddy for the day as the oldest and only Respect here today, but age did not appear to be a factor at all for him and the “older-crew”… in fact Joker & Witch Doctor, a pair of 45yr old stallions, were going toe-to-toe with Nemo & Umizumi on all 16 of the sprints. It was very very impressive to see them go as hard as they did this morning, and they definitely came to play.  Ickey Shuffle didn’t seem to get the Slack memo that High Tide was posting with a bum calf hampered by injured calf, as he tried to drag him across the parking median in the standing rope pull aka Tug-O-War.  Disregarding the Q’s instructions for the exercise, the two looked more like ‘Lady & The Tramp’ reeling in a shared spaghetti noodle towards each other, maybe ending in a kiss. You decide who is more the lady, and who the tramp. Hoover is big dude, and was slapping the basketball backboard at the turnaround point for sprints, which impressed YHC…. but then YHC noticed he didn’t need to jump to do that. Carry on. YHC could see Boerwors & Dingo crushing the low sled push across the way.  YHC has some good convo this morning paired with McGee who seemed to be in good spirits which was great to see.  He found a way to get his 100 burpees a day in as per his 100-4-100 Challenge, which YHC has been participating in showing solidarity for a fellow F3 brother.  Also great to work out with someone YHC had never worked out with in Private Benjamin who pulled like an ox in the standing rope pull, and pushed like a tractor in the Rogue Dog Sled push. Great meeting you brother.  Lots of other musings, apologies for the omission but getting ready for the F3 Dads Checkers Hockey Game tonight with a few things in-between. Sound off in comments below with them…

Thank you Flipper for the invitation to Q RockZero, and for the takeout today. It was a pleasure to lead as always, and YHC enjoyed working out with some guys YHC doesn’t normally get to.  Looking forward to posting with you all again soon.  Have a great weekend all!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Two 5k’s coming up for great causes…. talk to Marlin about them (sorry, YHC brainfarted on the names & dates).  Sign up to support local causes and challenge yourself along the way.
• Several regions have decided to make The Savage Race OCR in Concord on 5/13/2017 a CSAUP…  use ‘GCF317’ to get 15% signing up under team ‘F3 Nation’… Its the weekend BEFORE the traditional SC Mud Run, run Savage or run BOTH.  Savage Race Website:  http://savagerace.com/event/charlotte-2017/?gclid=CNr5r8yQ29ECFYY8gQod4P0MQQ F3 CSAUP Preblast: http://f3nation.com/2017/01/27/preblast-a-savage-departure-into-the-unknown-aka-spring-mud-run/
• As always, you are welcome and invited to come post or Q the legendary Saturday SOB workout Stonehenge located A The Vine American Kitchen in Ballantyne (YHC is co-site Q w/ Wild Turkey) followed by coffeeteeria @ Einstein Bagel. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090d4aaba729a46-stonehenge

SYITG ~ JRR Tolkien