other obstacle races
so i've been reading up on obstacle races. initially, looking for other stuff about specific techniques for dealing with specific obstacles. weirdly, there's not a lot easily findable out there. some reprints of military training manuals, a couple of breakdowns of ways to crawl under barbed wire (different crawling techniques for different heights), and some tips on how to train for running through mud. some youtube stuff about rope climbing techniques.
it's possible there's an unwritten ethos that you're supposed to just be ready for anything-- to do a varied workout and not expect to know what's coming specifically. (interestingly, one of the military training manuals seemed to have the opposite ethos, saying specifically that each soldier should be trained separately on each obstacle until able to deal with it competently, before ever being set to run the whole course. but recreational athletes and soldiers-in-training often have different goals-- and maybe that was just the methodology for one particular training course.)
there seem to be a bunch of places that offer training for obstacle races, and many of them talk about training on specific obstacles, but mostly they're close-mouthed about actual techniques. when they do talk about specific training techniques, as far as i can find, they're all prescriptions for workouts: do 5 chin-ups, 10 triceps dips, 20 burpees, 20 recitations of the catechism, etc.
there are some general movement-training methodologies, notably parkour and movnat. the latter seems to be the proprietary amway-style counterpart to parkour, and the only stuff they're willing to say about it online is about how awesome their philosophy is; to learn more presumably you have to pay for a class. parkour, you can find a world of lavishly annotated technique training videos on youtube.
but a few sources allege that specific obstacle races often put up maps of their courses a few days before the race, with details of specific obstacles (modulo perhaps a few "mystery obstacles"). the "tough mudder," one of the more hardcore obstacle races, seems to have a relatively stable set of possible obstacles, and reading about them is pretty entertaining. there seems to be a strong "swimming through ice water" theme. moominmolly, who used to go to polar bear swims and come back laughing about how all those other wimps needed wetsuits, will probably be fine with this; it rather terrifies me. the obstacles that seem more my speed, like monkey bars or swinging on rings, all seem to end with "... and it's 70' long and all the rungs are coated in butter."
naturally, moominmolly's talking about doing the one coming up in boston next year.
online reviews of the rebel race leave me pretty happy that it was our first obstacle race and that we were in the last heat in the way-back of the pack... because for us, it was pretty fun and there was lots of camaraderie and support and low pressure and apparently, a lot of the massive disorganization and complete lack of emergency medical personnel was fixed by the time we got there... sigh.
here's me on the rope traverse:
i'd like to think i knew better than to keep my arms bent like that, but apparently not!
and here's jojotbird on the same:
with moominmolly and me in attractive soft-focus in the background. :)
it's possible there's an unwritten ethos that you're supposed to just be ready for anything-- to do a varied workout and not expect to know what's coming specifically. (interestingly, one of the military training manuals seemed to have the opposite ethos, saying specifically that each soldier should be trained separately on each obstacle until able to deal with it competently, before ever being set to run the whole course. but recreational athletes and soldiers-in-training often have different goals-- and maybe that was just the methodology for one particular training course.)
there seem to be a bunch of places that offer training for obstacle races, and many of them talk about training on specific obstacles, but mostly they're close-mouthed about actual techniques. when they do talk about specific training techniques, as far as i can find, they're all prescriptions for workouts: do 5 chin-ups, 10 triceps dips, 20 burpees, 20 recitations of the catechism, etc.
there are some general movement-training methodologies, notably parkour and movnat. the latter seems to be the proprietary amway-style counterpart to parkour, and the only stuff they're willing to say about it online is about how awesome their philosophy is; to learn more presumably you have to pay for a class. parkour, you can find a world of lavishly annotated technique training videos on youtube.
but a few sources allege that specific obstacle races often put up maps of their courses a few days before the race, with details of specific obstacles (modulo perhaps a few "mystery obstacles"). the "tough mudder," one of the more hardcore obstacle races, seems to have a relatively stable set of possible obstacles, and reading about them is pretty entertaining. there seems to be a strong "swimming through ice water" theme. moominmolly, who used to go to polar bear swims and come back laughing about how all those other wimps needed wetsuits, will probably be fine with this; it rather terrifies me. the obstacles that seem more my speed, like monkey bars or swinging on rings, all seem to end with "... and it's 70' long and all the rungs are coated in butter."
naturally, moominmolly's talking about doing the one coming up in boston next year.
online reviews of the rebel race leave me pretty happy that it was our first obstacle race and that we were in the last heat in the way-back of the pack... because for us, it was pretty fun and there was lots of camaraderie and support and low pressure and apparently, a lot of the massive disorganization and complete lack of emergency medical personnel was fixed by the time we got there... sigh.
here's me on the rope traverse:
i'd like to think i knew better than to keep my arms bent like that, but apparently not!
and here's jojotbird on the same:
with moominmolly and me in attractive soft-focus in the background. :)