Check Your Ego

Being able to identify your strengths and weaknesses is extremely important in life, as well as within a training setting. If you and your coach are able to identify something as a strength, it will allow you to push the envelope and become more aggressive on the exercise. This is because as a team you both can ensure you have the correct motor pattern (I.E. your natural movement is safe, correct, and using the proper muscle groups at the proper times). Inversely – if you and your coach are able to identify something as a weakness, the training style will be much slower to allow for internal and external feedback to help build that movement pattern into a safe, effective habit.

This is a very important concept because it allows for the most effective training to maximize your time training and help get you to where you want to be. A big component of this is being able to check your ego at the door, and realize that you aren’t going to be able to do everything perfect the first time. It takes a very long time to break the terrible habits and postures that Western Culture puts us in, and THAT IS OKAY. You don’t have to load every single movement pattern every single week to see a result.

Sometimes in order to PROGRESS your training, you first have to REGRESS your movement patterns. If you try to build a house on a faulty foundation, it will crumble to the ground. Why then will you load aberrant movement patterns to their maximum capacity and jeopardize something much more important – YOUR HEALTH.

Surrounding yourself with the correct people and minds is extremely important in general – and especially with your health. It is okay to admit to other people – and yourself that you don’t know everything about a topic. If it is not something you spent years studying, no one expects you to be a master in the subject. Find the correct people to help put you into the right positions to succeed, not give you a cookie cutter program without ever looking at how you move or present. Once you have found those people, check your ego at the door and let them help you. Listen, collaborate, and watch your body transform into exactly what you want it to be. 

TM

Last Minute Advice - Spartan Race, VT

As many of you know, this weekend is the Spartan Beast at Killington, VT.  Some words of advice from someone who has done it before.  This isn’t the Tough Mudder x 2 or the Rugged Maniac x; this race is in its own category.  It will be more difficult than you anticipated but it will be far more rewarding when you finish!

1. Don’t rely on water on the course.  Spartan Race is notorious for inflating the amount of water available, number of stations, and locations.  Make sure you have your own source i.e. Camelbak, hydration bladder.  Definitely refill at the water stations along the way.

2. Have electrolytes on you and enough nutrition to keep you going for 8-10 hours.  Know your strategy in advance.  I can’t tell you your exact strategy.  If you don’t already know it and haven’t trained with it then you are in for a long day! Make sure your electrolytes are in a waterproof container NOT a ziplock bag!

3. Set a recurring alarm on your watch to remind you when it’s time to eat/drink.  Eat and drink even if you are not hungry or don’t feel well! This is essential.

4. WALK the steep hills!  Don’t be a hero and shred your legs on the steeps.  You can walk as fast as you can run on those sections so preserve your energy and your legs.  You will be climbing ALL day.  

5. Don’t trust the mile markers on the course.  They are purposely inaccurate to mess with your head.

6. You will have to swim at least twice in the race.  Blow into your hydration bladder tube then turn the valve off before entering the water obstacles in the festival area.  This will turn your bladder into a life preserver.   

7. Don’t watch the clock.  Trust me it will fuck with your head.  If you look at your watch and see that you have only traveled 1.5 miles and you are an hour into the race, thoughts like “at this pace we will be done at midnight” will creep into your head and wear on you.  Trust that there will be just as many downhill sections as uphill where you will have the opportunity to make up time.  

8. Keep moving forward.  You will be exhausted.  Keep moving towards the finish line.  Walk when you need to but KEEP MOVING FORWARD*
(*exception to above is on the sandbag and bucket carries.  Rest if you need to on those.  Create a strategy based on how you feel at that time. For example 20 steps, rest 10 sec then repeat)

9. Watch the trail markers.  It is easy to get lost on Killington especially on the single track sections.  The last thing you need is to backtrack miles to get back on course.

10. Help others on the course where needed. If you see someone who is struggling, give them some encouragement.  At some point you might need the same.

11. Don’t forget to have FUN.  I can promise you at some point on the course you will think to yourself - “THIS KINDA SUCKS!”  Don’t forget to enjoy the mountain and the experience.  

Last but not least - DFQ!