When you’re training for an obstacle course, you need to cover many areas. It will be difficult, it will hurt afterwards if you haven’t done anything like this before. There are many people who don’t mind jumping obstacles, I’m not writing this for you! I am going to write some articles on this topic and include workouts that you can follow for a few months of training. People who do triathlons and other endurance sports have an easier time with these. There are so many other things to train for because you go from anaerobic to aerobic back and forth throughout the run. Your grip will be challenged and depending on where the race is, your heart. In the NE of hardmudder on Mt Snow it was cold and they put us in the water at 38 degrees! We also had a mt of snow to sink our hands into and that got very cold and took a long time to warm up.
You need to run, but you don’t need to run long distances at the start of your workout. This is good news for many people who hate running or have trouble running. You can and should combine running with other things like flipping tires, pushing sleds, pull-ups, and other exercises to simulate running. Some of these races are done in the mountains and others on the flat, you should pay attention to this for your training.
You must train specifically for these events for 12 weeks if you plan to do well and have fun afterwards (most give away a free beer). You can train less, but obviously the more you prepare, the better prepared you will be for whatever they have. The energy you get from the group goes a long way and it’s great fun to do with friends and hang out and help motivate each other during the race.
You will need to watch what you eat to train for this event and it would be best to be as light as possible. Most of these events have you climbing ropes, walls, pulling your body through things and over things. You will have to run up mountains and being heavy is not good.
I like to train hard 4 days a week and recommend 1 good recovery workout and lots of mobility work and foam rolling on days off. As time goes on you will need to add days of pure racing and preferably on hills to prepare for the longer races. 5k races you don’t really need to run much if you don’t want to and if you doubt me try my workouts and a run and let me know.
