Fun While It Lasted

Got an e-mail Wednesday that FitBrawl, the obstacle-course race that was supposed to inspire me through the next month until I could get my training schedule back on track, has been cancelled. Seems they couldn't get enough people to sign up.

I'm really not surprised. That Brawler workout was a bear, and I'm sure that most people couldn't complete that at all and that many who could wouldn't want to. I mean, I would've jumped at the chance to compete, but I'm nuts enough to spend a year trying to get ready for Ninja Warrior. But I can understand how people would rather roll around in the mud than do 50 burpees in a row.

So now what? Now I go on vacation for about two weeks. Plenty of time to rethink the training schedule, and to rest up my achilles tendons for a fall of running. And the brief experience with FitBrawl has taught me some valuable lessons about this training I've undertaken.

First, it helps to have goals. And yes, I've always had the overall goal of getting onto Ninja Warrior. But it also helps to have short-term goals, like a month out. FitBrawl was just that for me, and it got me moving when I didn't feel motivated. So know I need to invent goals every month, even if they're arbitrary things like 20 pullups or 100 pushups. Better yet, I should find more races like FitBrawl, even if they do involve wallowing in mud, because anything I can do to make this part of my life a more social endeavor is well worth it.

Second, some parts of the Brawler probably would be good to incorporate into Ninja Warrior training. You often hear competitors at Ninja Warrior complain about the cardio demands of that two-minute course. After trying to do 50 burpees in a row, I think I know what they're talking about. It's not like a two-minute sprint, but the cardio toll that a full-body workotu takes on you. I felt the same thing at Metro Dash; about two minutes in, while flipping the tire, I hit the wall -- the metaphorical one. So it'd be good to develop that raw cardio stamina, but how? Doing 50 burpees would be a start. Maybe do 2-minute sets of burpees and see how many I can get done. Maybe adding a pullup to the burpees would better simulate the total-body demands of Ninja Warrior. Could be fun for a month or so.

And now that I've got two 30-pound dumbbells -- bought second-hand from craigslist at half-price (score!) -- which I used for the FitBrawl Thrusters, I can incorporate them into my workouts and add a little variety. For example, they might actually make pistol squats easier, having that heavier easier-to-handle weight as a counterbalance.

So now I have two weeks to maintain and plan for the next segment. We'll still do endurance training, but I'm going to devise some end-of-stage goal, either a race or a rep test of some kind. Take something from every experience and use it.

And at some point I'm going to both review this season of ANW and start a podcast. Got to get the operation simpler and easier to crank out episode and I should be all set. All I need is a little time. See you all in two weeks.