Obstacle Course Race - Sept 2021

I competed in my 2021 "A Race" last weekend - an 11.63-kilometer Obstacle Course Race with 694 meters of elevation.  

This is my fifth obstacle race and I have become stronger on the obstacles (but weaker it seems on the run).  

Remarkably I find myself PASSING other competitors on obstacles and being PASSED on run sections (at least the steep downhill sections).  

In the previous races the 20-year old, ripped, shirtless  "gym rats" around me would blow past me on obstacles only to have me catch them on longer run sections.  

On last weekend's mountainous course, ancient, craggy "mountain goats" with full hydration systems and clad head to foot in Patagonia capilene wilderness gear glided by me on descents, but I could muscle past them on the obstacles.  

I finish 15th out of 95 guys in my over 40-year-old wave.  I suppose this is respectable given that at 58 years old I am among the most geriatric participants.   

However I am disappointed that my time of 2:06:19 is slower than my time at the similar OCR event two years ago.   I hope to have chance to do better next year.  

The new cross-training: Dancing

I am always seeking to vary my exercise routine --  cross training to mitigate my high injury risk and to work different muscles 

More broadly it simply seems good to try new things 

- even during a pandemic and as I get older and fall into an entrenched routine 

-- and good to try activities that I am a beginner even if I am spectacularly inept*

Dan Lieberman (of Born to Run fame) points out in his new book that our hunter gatherer running ancestors NEVER trained - no one in the Stone Age ever practiced running for months or years to prepare for long persistence hunts let alone to compete in a 10k race.  Rather Lieberman believes hunter gatherer training consisted of a combination of hours and hours of walking combined with... yes, dancing ** 

So when teammate Harrisson leads a dancing routine after our hill sessions,  I join and encourage the other guys,  I mean if I am willing to dance, any one could try. 

Unlike most dancers in 2021 I am not at all interested in sharing videos of myself on
Tik Tok.  Rather  like our Stone Age ancestors I am interested in the exercise itself - the physical and spiritual aspects and real time group experience.

Of course videos were released on social media and the haters and trolls poured scorn and derision on my clumsy efforts. Nonetheless I hope to continue my dancing efforts (and it turns out some of these same haters have been sidelined from endurance sports with overuse injuries that might also have been mitigated with activities like dancing).  

* Earlier in life I made a number of earnest and energetic efforts at ballroom, salsa and tango dancing -- all that resulted in the instructors quickly taking me aside to dance one-on-one with me and ostensibly help me (and more importantly spare my  female dance partner customer from having a frustrating and wasted evening).  I was discouraged from returning for second classes.   My dancing inability seems rooted in some genetic lack of music skill, try as I might I could never discern the musical beat.  I recall  my 4th grade music teacher gently asking me to only pretend to play the recorder at the big parent/school concert and so I moved my fingers and pretended to blow into the instrument.. later kindly Sunday School teachers would ask me if I would sing Christmas Carols as quietly as possible during performances...  

** "Dancing isn't running, but it's usually more fun and such a universal, valued form of human physical activity that we should consider it another gait akin to running... like long-distance running, dancing can go on for hours, requiring stamina, skill, and strength... and both can induce altered states" (from Exercised)  

 

5k Obstacle Race

I manage to make it through all the obstacles I attempt* at last Saturday's Spartan Sprint.  

It is satisfying to realize improvement since my first effort a few years ago when I lacked technique and power for some of the hoisting and lifting obstacles and slipped on some of the walls.   

At the earlier Spartan Sprint the Hercules Hoist seemed simply impossible for someone of my weight and level of strength, but with a bit of confidence and technique I was able to pull the weight to the top.  

The atlas ball carry seems particularly tough this time - leaving me exhausted by the short explosive burst of effort. 

According to my watch I take 46:04 to cover 5 kilometers and some 18 obstacles which seems like a respectable effort given my age and enfeeblement.  The winning time in the morning age group wave was 46:15 among 17 guys, so presumably I would have been on podium if I had competed in the age group division rather than registered for the afternoon open division wave with my teammates.  

*I don't attempt the spear throw and just take penalty   

Winter / Spring 2021 races

 It was another rough winter 

I remind myself to be grateful for being able to race and train at all.  But after easy success last autumn, I had expectations that some focused training would allow me to run a strong age-adjusted time.  

Instead tweaking my training seemed to lead to a steady decline.  

I entered 3 more of the MxK events I did last December.  Each one this year saw me start out at goal pace, before dropping off pace somewhere in the middle, and then largely giving up:

January 31 - 18:30 (stiff wind) 

February 23 - 18:25 

March 14 - 18:41  

The 5k is a tough event for me (everyone I suppose), but still I berate myself for lack of mental tenacity, since I pride myself on gutting out a reasonable effort.  In fact on the latter two events the idea of dropping out completely actually crossed my mind to avoid posting abysmal times.

The tightly seeded nature of these track races and my aspirations of hitting 17:45 mean that I suffer the ignominy of finishing in distance last place.  And there is no consolation of being on an age-group podium.  

These events have only served to increase my admiration for age-group runners who remain motivated year after year, decade after decade only chasing a time - particularly as they get older and times begin to slip.  (As anyone who has read this blog before knows, I gave up on chasing PBs and absolute race times decades ago). 

Since March I have felt too fatigued and too demotivated to even bother entering the handful of time trial type events on tap.  

But as summer approaches and I revert back to my high-intensity / cross-training oriented sessions I feel stronger and hope to find opportunity to mix it up in some competitive challenge...