Portland Rugged Maniac 2018

Portland Rugged Maniac 6/31/18:

As I am trying to venture out to the other OCR race companies.  As someone who had only done Spartan Races until the beginning of 2018 I was excited to try new races with different obstacles.  I will say that Rugged Maniac was by far the most fun race I have done to date.  Everything from the obstacles, venue and the announcers all just showed that this race was for fun and nothing else. 

The Portland Rugged Maniac is held at the Portland International Raceway (PIR).  I’m sure as most people hear a racetrack isn’t really the best place to have an OCR event, but thankfully PIR also has a motocross track in the middle of it.  This allowed for rolling hills and some elevation changes, however as far as OCR events go this would be considered a flat race.  I didn’t mind the flat course as someone who grew up watching racing and racecars it made for childlike laughter as I ran across the racetrack. Rugged Maniac counters this flat course with the fact that pack in twenty-five obstacles and many of them unique and different. 

With obstacles for OCR events, there are what I like to call the usual suspects.  Rugged Maniac had what most events have like barb wire or rope crawl through water and or mud, a hanging obstacle with rings or rungs, a few walls to climb over and a fire jump of some sort. 

It was the other obstacles that made Rugged stand out for me.  The Gauntlet and Frog hop where obstacles that had you run or jump on items that were floating on water.  Since they were only held on by a few points caused them to tip and flip which made for very entertaining falls into the water.  Antigravity was another obstacle that was unique as it had trampolines that had you jump from one to another and then grabbing onto a rope cargo net. 

The other standouts were off the rails and a warped wall.  Off the rails was fun as you had to run jump and grab onto a rope on a rail.  The rail was positioned, so you had to slide up and hit a bell before falling into the water.  If you didn’t get enough momentum you didn’t make it to the bell and would stall in the middle of the rail, but no matter what you were going to get wet because there were still several feet of water past the bell.  A warped wall from a certain TV show was always something I wondered if I could do.  I am happy to report that I was able to do it and what made it even better was that after you scaled the warped wall, you climbed a cargo net to the top of a huge inflatable water slide. 

The other impressive ones were the ladder tilt and the crag.  The ladder tilt was another TV show obstacle but was incredibly difficult due to the rungs being so slippery that they seemed to have been greased.  The Crag was another inflatable that had three levels at chest height that you had to climb over.  An adult sized inflatable is something that also gave me childlike laughter as I was able to bounce my way up and down the inflatable.

The Beasts OCR team was out in force for this race with over thirty-five members at the race.  Beasts OCR was proud to have lots of members in the competitive race and even had several places in the top ten or better top three.  Including first place finisher Jeremy Kaufmann, second place finisher Taylor Overmiller, Lorenzo Contreras in eighth place finisher, and Patrick Olson in ninth place.  Tasha Overmiller was the sole female top ten Beast with a fifth-place finish.  There were several Beasts that ran the course several times including Myke Thompson who was just a mile short of a marathon of Rugged Maniac laps.

In the end, this was by far my new favorite race to date.  It is a great race for beginners, elite level athletes and everything in between.  With the unique fun obstacles and even new obstacles this year and hopefully for years to come.  This will be a race that will have a permanent spot on my calendar every year.    If any Beasts haven’t done a Rugged Maniac, I highly recommend it.  Look at how much fun people are having.

Where did Average Joe Go?

Well I know it has been a while since I posted anything.  I still am Average, and I still am fairly Fit.  I will say that blogging took a back seat as my wife got hurt and was unable to do much around the house.  So I had to become a single parent essentially for a solid few months.  I also decided to get my Masters Degree, so that is also taking a lot of time.  At first, I didn't feel like I should do anything outside of the family, school, and the occasional workout.  Although now that I am solidly in the Master's program I know that I have more time then I thought I did.

So while I am not traveling to any OCR events this year, it doesn't mean I am not doing any.  I am going to stay in the greater Portland area and give love to local events this year and probably next.  I have done two already called My Muddy Valentine (Link) and Dirty Leprechaun (Link).  I have a lot more events that I have planned, and most I will say I have never done before.  Namely, Rugged Maniac (Link), Terrain Race (Link), and a Goruck Light (Link).  I will do two events that I did last year mainly the Spartan Race (Link) with the Hurrican Heat added on and hopefully Howl at the Moon.   Howl at the Moon's website hasn't updated so I can only hope they will host it again this year.

I am around and working and being fit.  Today was a rucking work out, and I also picked up garbage along the road that I run.

I will say that carrying a twenty-pound trash bag was a hell of a grip workout.  I probably still could have picked up more, but the bag was tearing, and I didn't want to dump it everywhere.  So I tied it up and hauled it the rest of the way home.

Check out my Instagram for more about my workouts at average_joe_fit772
Don't forget Mudgear and Rock Tape

Average Joe OCR Workout

Well I have talked about my workouts in the past, but I realized that I never really laid it all out for people.  So I'll talk about why I do certain things and how I think it will help my OCR goals.

Lets distill down what is involve in an OCR.  In the end it is a race and that involves running, but there are the obstacles as well which involve strength.  So there is no one thing that you can truly focus on to be good or even great at OCR.

When I started running I knew that I had to ease into it.  I had an ankle injury many years ago while playing football.   So I started small and short distance with breaks in between.  I knew that if I did to much to fast I would cause me pain and potential injury.  So I designed a way to run with breaks in between.  In order to train like a race I would need to throw some strength training into my running so that my body knows how to adapt to the sudden change.  I feel that this is what caused me to be so successful in my most recent race.

So as a start I would go only a half mile out and back for a total of a mile.  This was a good start as around my house has a lot of hills and this route had a large downhill, but also I would have to go back up it to get home.  Running hills is basically a must for OCR training.  I started to gradually add miles to my runs like many of the half marathon training schedules show.  Adding a mile every week so that your runs gradually got longer and longer.  What I did differently was add in what I called rotations in between my miles.  So that I would run a mile stop and do strength exercises before running a second mile.  This rotation continued until I was up to five miles and at that point I started to add miles between stopping.  The reason was because the longer OCR events had sometimes a mile or two between obstacle stops.  So my rotations stayed right around three strength rotations, but instead I would do two miles before stopping.

As my runs got longer I would continue to do more miles between stops.  In the end for my 13.3 mile training run I stopped and did a strength rotation every three miles.  So I ended up doing three rotations in between the running.

In the end I would run no more then three days a week.  Even that was only when I was trying to make sure I was in enough running shape to tackle a half marathon distance OCR.


So now that I have talked about the running part lets talk about the strength training part of the race.  Yes it is a race and running is important, but on most OCR companies failing an obstacle is punished in some way shape and form.  That punishment can be worse then the rest of the race combined.

So what kind of things should you train to do OCR?  Everything is really needed.  The best way to start is at least body weight exercises. 

Push ups with knees up or down will start building your push strength. 

Crunches help your core strength which will help support your back when carrying heavy objects.  

Burpees are a great full body workout that is required if you do Spartan OCR (its the punishment).

High Knees works your calves and hip flexors in order to aid in jumping.

Squats works your quads and gluts to also aid in jumping and the ability to move heavy things.

Lunges to work your stabilizing muscles in order to keep your legs healthy with all the running.

These are just a few of the exercises that can aid in an OCR race.  No if you noticed I didn't have any of the traditional lifting exercises above.  That is because these were the exercises that I would do in the middle of my runs.

Also during my runs every other week I would add either a bucket carry or a sandbag carry to my runs.  These were also planned to aid in my general strength and cardio conditioning to be prepared for the races.


Then I strongly believe that weighted exercises are very important to improve strength beyond body weight and also to improve grip strength.  Weighted exercises need to target muscle groups that you specially don't work with your body weight exercises.  Area's like biceps, triceps, back muscles and forearm muscles.

Bicep Arm Curls work the biceps which aid in pull strength.

Triceps behind the head raises that helps with your push strength like pushing yourself over a wall once you grabbed it.

Pull ups or Lat Pulls to work the back to aid in pulling yourself up to a bar or wall.

Dead Hangs to help grip strength so that you can hang from objects for long periods of time.

These are just a few of the exercises that I do in my workouts.  I do strength exercises at least twice a week.

In the end during the "off" season of my OCR training I did a rotation where I would run three days a week and lift two days a week.  Then the next week I would switch it around and lift three days and run only two.  I felt like this was great as it would keep my body guessing and caused it to have to adapt to changes faster.  I saw a great improvement from my last 2016 race two my first 2017 race. 

Of course I have recently seen a Stadium Race that I have signed up for in November and the obstacles look very different.  I am going to come up with a different training plan for this other type of race.


Please visit my affiliates:
Mud Gear AVERAGEJOE for 5% off at:  https://mudgear.com/collections/discount-eligible
Rock Tape at: https://shop.rocktape.com/?rfsn=537256.6bbe1

Average Joe Give Away: Free Mud Gear Compression Socks

I picked up an extra pair of Mud Gear compression socks for myself to use with my experiment for recovery.  Since I was buying myself a new pair I decided to pick up a few extra pair in order to give them away ($37 value) in a Give Away.  There are 2 pairs of each size and I'll give both pairs away if I have enough entries.  The Give Away will be from today to May 15 2017.  I'll try and record the drawing so people can see that I'm legit.

So how do you sign up for this give away?  Simple.  All you have to do is comment on this blog post with just like a name or nick name, a way to contact you (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, email etc.)(if you win) and what size you are putting in for. 

If you don't know what sizes there are then take a look at this picture or go to the Mud Gear website



Also the color that you are in the lottery for is the orange color that you can see here.


Now this isn't going to be a one comment is all you get, but if you want to increase your chances to win by sharing this post on Google+, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag of #averagejoefit.  If you look I have other posts in all four tags.  If you share on each of the four websites then you have 5 chances to win the socks.

Beyond General Fitness: Running: Recovery Experiment Final

So about a month ago I had read several articles about how compression gear could aid in muscle recovery.  The only thing was that the articles seemed anecdotal at best and didn't have me convinced that it was accurate.  So I decided to test it out on myself.  My first post about it was 03/22/2017, then I did a follow up post after testing compression gear 04/08/2017.

To recap my schedule from my earlier posts:

The test will be as follows.
Run 1:  7 mile road run on pavement or concrete.  No assisted recovery
Run 2:  8 mile trail run on packed dirt and mud.  No assisted recovery
Run 3:  9 mile road run on pavement or concrete.  Compression socks applied post run only.
Run 4:  10 mile trail run on packed dirt and mud.  Compression socks applied post run only.
Run 5:  11 mile road run on pavement or concrete.  Epsom Salt bath post run.
Run 6:  12 mile road run on packed dirt and mud.  Epsom Salt bath post run.

So I have finished the final run.  Now the final run was supposed to be a 12 mile run, but I ended up doing 13.3 miles as I thought about how Spartan Beasts were a minimum of 13 miles.  So I decided to do more.

The only thing that might have thrown off the results of my experiment is that I did do a Leg strength day on Tuesday before.  I figured I would have been recovered by Friday, but as the run was hard from mile 6 on so I clearly wasn't recovered.

To recap from my prior runs I was sore for several days post no assisted recovery runs.  With the Compression socks post runs I had little to no soreness in the calf and feet the day after the run.  Although I did have knee and hip soreness post 10 mile run.

Now for the longest two runs to date.  After both runs I felt pretty sore by the end of the day.  The soreness was from the waist down.  I will say that after the Epsom Salt bath on the 11 mile run I wasn't all that sore the next day.  A little sore, but nothing to bad.  Although after the 13.3 mile run even with the Epsom Salt bath I was very sore come Saturday morning.  The soreness was better after moving for a bit, but any time sitting for a while caused the soreness to return.  Now the second day post run I will admit that the soreness has gotten quite a bit better.  The soreness after sitting for a bit seems to have abated and mainly the soreness I feel is muscular in the quads, hams and calves.  Very little joint soreness is felt.  It seems that my prediction on the post from 04/08/2017 was mainly accurate.  It seems that any recovery assistance is better the none at all.

In conclusion what I have learned and what I will do from this point forward on all long training runs is a combination of things.  It seemed that Compression gear seemed to enhance recovery at the location of the compression only.  Epsom Salt bath seemed to enhance recovery as well, but as the entire lower half of the body is covered in a bath it seemed to also be location dependent.  Doing both might provide additional recovery, but the most important thing I learned was to not do a leg strength workout the same week that I am going to run 12+ miles.

Beyond General Fitness: Running: Heart Rate Training Test Final

Over the last few months I have been doing a heart rate training.  So I'll restate the theory around what heart rate training is and what we should expect.  I will also talk about why my test probably wasn't the best and why.

Now how does one go about figuring out their training zones? 

Well there are a lot of ways, but the most simple way is to take 220 and subtract your age.  This method does have some inherent error in it, but it is a good starting method.  I am going to use myself as example.  As I am nearly 36 I'll use that, so 220 - 36 is 184.  Now 184 bpm should be my maximum heart rate and we can now figure out the zones from that number.  The zones are historically 90-100%, 80-90%, 70-80%, 60-70% and 50-60%.  Now if you take 90% of 184 you get 165.6 so lets round up to 166 bpm so there is the highest zone or zone 5 166 bpm to 184 bpm.  The next zone is 147.2 to 128.8 so lets round to 147 and 129. 


I could figure the rest of the zones for myself, but TomTom has already done it for me, but now you know how it works.  You can see that the numbers aren't 100% exact, but pretty darn close.

Now for the training method.  For long distance runners it is touted to be best to train in zone 3.  This is the aerobic training zone that you burn more calories and elevate your endurance and cardiovascular fitness. 

In order to stay in zone 3 many runners will actually have to slow down.  I find this to be very difficult as I feel like I am going to slow to be doing any good.  Now this could be the fact that I was use to training in zone 4 instead of zone 3 up until this point.  It could also be that the 220 - my age isn't all that accurate for me.  (Italic area copied from Beyond General Fitness: Running:  My Adventure In Heart Rate Training.  Speed Test 1 on 03/19/2017)

Now since then I have read several articles about the accuracy of wrist heart rate monitors.  They can be off by as much as 20%.  Next there is the fact that the 220 minus your age has up to 20% error as it depends on your fitness level and other factors.  So I could be trying to do a heart rate training with an error that could be as much as 40% error.

Then there could be the fact that I have also been testing a run walk combo while doing heart rate training and something occurred to me while running today.  I might be trying to test too many things all at the same time.

Well on my blog post on 04/17/17 I posted that I was disappointed with the results of my heart rate training.  I had done the math and figured what my pace was slower then prior.  Although it seems that I was wrong now that I have placed the numbers on a spreadsheet.

Now that I have the numbers all together I can now see that I am progressing.  After two months of heart rate training I have dropped nearly 39 seconds from my original test and 12 second off my second test. 

The numbers speak for themselves and as you can see from the dates that I ended up taking a break from speed work and I even took an entire break from working out in November - December.  You can see that I was running at these speeds in the past, but my heart rate average was very different.  As you can see that I am doing the same speed and work at lower heart rates.

I also placed weather or not I did a strength rotation in the middle of the run.  So I would run a half of a mile out and then back and then do strength rotation.  Then running out at back again and if I was still getting that break in the middle of the run my numbers might be even faster.

I still am considering a VO2 test and a running gate test at some point and time to ensure that I am doing the correct heart rate and ensuring I am getting the most out of my training.  I also want to get my gate tested to ensure I am running correctly and won't injure myself.  I tend to worry about my knees.

I am going to continue the heart rate training now that I see the numbers together.  It seems to be working.

As per the usual please visit my affiliates:
Mud Gear use AVERAGEJOE 5% at https://mudgear.com/collections/discount-eligible
Rock Tape at https://shop.rocktape.com/?rfsn=537256.6bbe1

Motivation 04/21/17

Beyond General Fitness: Running: Recovery Test 2

Well it has now been four weeks since I started my Recovery Test.  Part 1 is there and just to recap my schedule is:

The test will be as follows.
Run 1:  7 mile road run on pavement or concrete.  No assisted recovery
Run 2:  8 mile trail run on packed dirt and mud.  No assisted recovery
Run 3:  9 mile road run on pavement or concrete.  Compression socks applied post run only.
Run 4:  10 mile trail run on packed dirt and mud.  Compression socks applied post run only.
Run 5:  11 mile road run on pavement or concrete.  Epsom Salt bath post run.
Run 6:  12 mile road run on packed dirt and mud.  Epsom Salt bath post run.

So now I am post Run's 1-4 and my schedule was altered because of life.  I was unable to do a trail run for my 10 mile run.  So the only thing that throws off is how I felt after Run 2. 

So after my first two runs I will say that I was sore.  My quads, calves and knees were sore for several days post run.  I won't say that I was in pain, but just sore like they had been worked. 

Now after runs 3 and 4 I have used my Mud Gear knee high compression socks applied post run and shower.  I will say that my calves and feet feel better then they did on the first runs.  I had no calf or foot soreness or stiffness even the day after my run.  I'm still having some knee and now hip soreness post the last two runs, but again it isn't pain.  The compression socks of course don't cover the knee or the hips so I am not really surprised that they would still be sore.

I am starting to think that my experiment will simply be that any post run recovery is better then no recovery at all, but as a fairly scientific minded person I'm going to see this test through.  So for my final two training runs I will finish the runs then before going to bed at night I will do a hot Epsom Salt bath before bed.  I'm not sure if this will throw off the results as I am not doing it directly post run, but I have a life and run in the morning.  I don't have time to do a soak until after my children go to bed.

We will see how the final few runs go.


I want to also plug my affiliated sites Mud Gear AVERAGEJOE for 5% off at https://mudgear.com/collections/discount-eligible
Also Rock Tape for all KT tape needs at https://shop.rocktape.com/?rfsn=537256.6bbe1

Beyond General Fitness: Running: Run / Walk Combo Test 2

Well after my last test at 9 miles I was excited to see what this 10 mile run would have in store for me. 

I decided to once again work at approximately the same times and so I walked at mile 2, 5, 7, 8 and 9.  It was a little more walking, but my leg muscles were burning by the end and I thought it was best to take two extra walk breaks. 


My walk breaks really didn't slow me down too much as you can see from the paces.  Of course mile 3, 6, and 9 where my slowest because those are after I do most of the hill climbing as I get out of the giant hole I jog down into. 


Even with those my over all pace was only 17 seconds slower then my 9 mile run.  I feel that is fairly successful especially since I also did 3 strength rotations after 3, 6, and 10 miles. I did a total 55 Standard Pushups, 55 Military pushups, 45 C-Sit Abs, 45 A-Frame Abs, 30 burgees, 60 high knees, 30 lunges each leg and 33 60lbs squats.  I thought I was going to not do the final rotation as I was physically tired, but not so tired that it stopped me.  Once I started my final rotation I knew I was going to finish it.

In the end I am pretty much sold on the whole run walk combo.  I haven't slowed down that much, it helps me keep my heart rate in the zone I am experimenting with and I feel good enough to crank out my strength rotations.  I will continue my experiment for my final three distance increases at 11 and 12 miles.

Beyond General Fitness: Running: Run / Walk Combo Test 1

I was doing some research on running for my next blog post when I came across an article at Runners World.  After reading both that article and the one linked at the bottom of that article I thought that I would give it a try.

I feel that this is a great test for an average runner who is attempting to going farther then ever before.  As I was not a runner to start I have never ran 9 miles before in my life.  I also know how I felt after the 7 mile and the two 8 mile runs that I had already done.  I felt completely wasted and drained for the rest of the day on both occasions.  So I expected as much after my 9 miles.

I didn't go to the extent of the writer of the article that I posted above as stopping every mile seemed excessive and I don't really feel warmed up and in the groove until after my first mile.  So I didn't stop to walk until I had passed the 2 mile mark.  I walked for approximately 60 seconds and I say approximately because I just looked at the clock time on my watch and walked until a minute went by.  After walking I felt fairly rejuvenated and powered up the large hill that I run when I do my three mile loop.  I then stopped at mile three to do one of my rotations.

Then I didn't walk again until mile 5.  I was at a different location this time and ended up walking down hill instead of up hill.  It again just gave me a recharged feeling and I was able to power through the hills again.  I didn't stop until I did my second rotation just after mile 6.

On my final loop I ended up stopping just before mile 7 and again at 8 miles as my legs were burning and my left big toe was hurting.  I had made the mistake of clipping that nail a little short at the beginning of the week and it was feeling better until this run.  In the end though I finished 9 miles feeling really good.  Good enough to do my finial rotation.  I also had nutrition after every rotation and never once felt queasy or had any stomach problems. 



As you can see from my splits you can't really tell when I truly walked.  Someone could speculate it was at mile 3, 6 and 8, but in the end it wasn't those miles at all.

I think this is a great way to train and to keep from getting overly exhausted.  I felt great for most of the day and even was able to play with my kids most of the day.  I didn't hit a wall of exhaustion until my son went for a 3:00 nap.  I was able to close my eyes a bit then.

I will be sure to try this again on my next run.

Plug for my Affiliates Mud Gear get 5% off with AVERAGEJOE at https://mudgear.com/collections/discount-eligible
Also Rock Tape for KT needs at https://shop.rocktape.com/?rfsn=537256.6bbe1

Beyond General Fitness: Running: Recovery Test Part 1

Well after reading several articles about long distance recovery strategies I decided to do the research myself.  I found that Epsom Salt and Ice baths both work fairly well, but the studies that talked about Compression gear aiding recovery didn't have me convinced.  It seemed anecdotal at best.  So instead of doing more research I just decided to test it myself. 

The test will be as follows.
Run 1:  7 mile road run on pavement or concrete.  No assisted recovery
Run 2:  8 mile trail run on packed dirt and mud.  No assisted recovery
Run 3:  9 mile road run on pavement or concrete.  Compression socks applied post run only.
Run 4:  10 mile trail run on packed dirt and mud.  Compression socks applied post run only.
Run 5:  11 mile road run on pavement or concrete.  Epsom Salt bath post run.
Run 6:  12 mile road run on packed dirt and mud.  Epsom Salt bath post run.

As planned after my last two long runs I have done nothing except Ibuprofen and playing with my children.  I tend to take Ibuprofen for general aches and pains anyway.  So after my 7 mile road run I was sore more of that day and the day after, but by the end of the week I was fine.  7 miles isn't the longest run I had ever done, but it certainly was the second longest. 

Today however was my 8 mile trail run.  This is now the longest run I have ever done and I am feeling it already.  I have stuck with the experiment and will not use compression or Epsom Salt bath or anything for recovery.  I hope that it is the same as last time and in just a few short days I was ready for my next run, but we shall see.

The next runs will test compression gear and a known recovery aid in order to compare if compression is better then nothing, but is it better then a known recovery assisting plan.

I know that as far as science goes a test group of a single person isn't the most accurate test, but it is worth putting it to the test.  I believe I am a perfect tester for this as I am running incrementally longer runs and I have never ran these distances before in my life.  This should be a good test as my muscles should be more sore and fatigued then others that might have been runner for years. 

I am dreading the next few days after todays run of 8+ miles and 2k ascent, but I will be interested to know how next week will go.

My OCR Schedule for 2017

As through my blog posts I have mentioned several times I am training for a half marathon distance Obstacle Course Race.  Now I am going to post which races I will be attending and what my goals are for the races.

As you can see from my schedule I am going to be doing all three distances in the Spartan Race.  I will be collecting my first ever Spartan Trifecta (doing all three distances in a calendar year). 

My first Race is the longest and thus the one I am currently training for the Beast.  The Beast is the half marathon distance race that has 30-35 obstacles through out the race.  The race is in Montana at Glacial National Park.  I anticipate that there could possibly still be snow at this race, but time will tell.  I will have a complete write up of the race with loads of pictures.

My second race is the middle distance that has 24-29 obstacles in it.  This is actually going to be a televised event as Monterey Super is on the Spartan American Championship Series.  This race could be hot as it is in June just south of the San Francisco Bay area.  The fact that it is a televised race, could make it a little more interesting as there might be more fan fair with it.

To finish off my Trifecta I will be once again running my hometown Portland Sprint.  This is the shortest race and only has 20-23 obstacles, but last year they had 25.  I hope that the crew I will be running with improve over the  year and we will finish better then our last years time. 

My final OCR race of the year is called a Stadium Sprint that is being held at San Francisco Giants stadium AT&T park.  These races are short distance and are extremely fast paced races.  This will also be my first race running alone and I will also be running Elite.  Running Elite means that I will be running with the professional racers and I could in fact win money for coming in the top 3.  I have no delusions of grandeur that I will in fact do anything like a podium finish, but it will be the first race that I will be able to run at my own pace.

This year will be an adventure no matter what.  I never thought I would even consider running a half marathon distance in any way shape or form, but here I am signed up and thinking about my 2018 season before my 2017 season has even technically started.

Beyond General Fitness: Running: My Adventure In Heart Rate Training. Speed Test 1

I have been doing a lot of listening and reading on running websites and podcasts.  There seems to be a common theme in training for runners and OCR athletes and that is Heart Rate Training (HRT). 


Now I have been wearing a fitness watch since Christmas 2015.  It all started with a Fitbit Charge HR that my wife got us.  It has a heart rate monitor and I wore it through every workout from getting it to causing it to explode in summer of 2016 (It wasn't under water for that long). 









After I finished my final Fitness Journey Goal of completing the Portland Spartan Sprint my wife bought me a new watch.  The TomTom Spark has a Bluetooth music connection so I didn't have to take my phone with me if I didn't want too.  I love it, but it also has a heart rate monitor built in. 







Now with both watches I didn't give the heart rate zones a second glance because I didn't think they held any weight in the slightest.  I also knew that to monitor the rate of your heart through your Radial artery is probably very inaccurate.  Then the more I heard about the HRT the more I trouble ignoring the zones my watch provided. 

Now how does one go about figuring out their training zones? 

Well there are a lot of ways, but the most simple way is to take 220 and subtract your age.  This method does have some inherent error in it, but it is a good starting method.  I am going to use myself as example.  As I am nearly 36 I'll use that, so 220 - 36 is 184.  Now 184 bpm should be my maximum heart rate and we can now figure out the zones from that number.  The zones are historically 90-100%, 80-90%, 70-80%, 60-70% and 50-60%.  Now if you take 90% of 184 you get 165.6 so lets round up to 166 bpm so there is the highest zone or zone 5 166 bpm to 184 bpm.  The next zone is 147.2 to 128.8 so lets round to 147 and 129. 


I could figure the rest of the zones for myself, but TomTom has already done it for me, but now you know how it works.  You can see that the numbers aren't 100% exact, but pretty darn close.

Now for the training method.  For long distance runners it is touted to be best to train in zone 3.  This is the aerobic training zone that you burn more calories and elevate your endurance and cardiovascular fitness. 

In order to stay in zone 3 many runners will actually have to slow down.  I find this to be very difficult as I feel like I am going to slow to be doing any good.  Now this could be the fact that I was use to training in zone 4 instead of zone 3 up until this point.  It could also be that the 220 - my age isn't all that accurate for me. 

Although it doesn't feel like much I am continuing to attempt to train in zone 3 for another month.  This is simply an experiment on myself to see if this works for me.   



However based on my most recent two speed tests I must admit the numbers look promising.  As I said in my workout post that the heart rate training theory very well might hold water.

The run on the left was my most recent run and the run on the right was nearly two months before when I wasn't heart rate training. 



Now this could simply be just a matter of I'm in better shape now then I was two months ago, but it does look promising as I shaved nearly 30 seconds of my mile pace, but also didn't feel totally wasted.

To Be Continued

Beyond General Fitness: Running: Cross Trainning.

Running works the legs so I don't have to worry about doing any other leg exercise right?  That is what I use to think and I know others have thought that as well, but we couldn't have been more wrong.  This post I'll talk about why cross training is important and how if you don't you could actually cause yourself injury. 


Running works several muscles in the legs.  This work causes those muscles to break down and you body will repair them stronger then when they started.  This is great new for people who want to build muscle to fill in the area's that they lost weight in it helps with saggy skin.  I used to think that with running I didn't have to do any other leg workouts because running works my legs muscles.  I couldn't have been more wrong.

As you can see from the picture running actually only works about half of the legs.  Now this doesn't include running up hills, but on flat surfaces.  Running up hills does work more muscles, but the majority of the work stays in the back half of the leg. 

Now if all you do is run, then you can and will build up a muscular imbalance in your legs.  That means that the back of you legs are much stronger then the front.  Having an imbalance of any sort in the body will cause problems.  Problems of coarse can and will lead to injury.

So the way to solve this imbalance of muscular strength is by cross training your other leg muscles and even doing some core or AB work will aid you running ability.

So lets lay out some cross training exercises that can help work the muscles that running doesn't work. 

Cycling:  Road or mountain biking will work some of the muscles that running works, but much less because it is a different mechanic to pedal a bike. 


As you can see from this picture the muscles used are a lot more focused on the front of the left, the backside and even a little in the hip flexor.  The hamstring and calf is still worked while riding, but not nearly as much as with running. 

Since cycling is also generally an aerobic exercise athletes wouldn't have to work to much about losing or not working on their endurance while still working different muscles to keep the imbalance at bay. 












Weight Training:  With weight training athletes are able to focus train muscles in order to build up the muscles that running doesn't use while taking a running break.  The benefit of weight training is that workouts can range from body weight exercises all the way up to going to the gym to do squats in a large rack.  Just a few exercises that you can do at home listed below.


Wall Sit:  As you can see from the picture to the left a wall sit can be done just about anywhere with zero equipment.

The exercise works all the muscles in the legs.  Generally speaking it is best to do wall sits for a prescribed amount of time like 30 seconds.  Then a small break before going down again for another round.  Doing this rotation three to four times will work the muscles nicely. 

Of course doing only one extra workout wont be enough to keep the imbalance at bay so I'll have a few other pictures below.
































Now these are only a few lifts that can be done at home.  There are plenty of other things that can be done in gyms that will work the muscles that need to be worked in order to keep the imbalance at bay.  It is very important to supplement these additional exercises into a running workout routine in order to keep your muscles balanced and the keep from injuring the body.

In the end it is important to keep a well balanced body.  Focusing to much on a single workout can and will cause injury.  While running is a great way to get exercise it needs to be supplemented with these other exercises.


Pictures from dreamstime, pintrest, Amazonnaws and rippednfit.