Obstacle race training: how to beat any course, compete like a champion and change your life

163 Pages·2014·9.867 MB·English

by  Schlachter, Margaret

OBSTACLE RACE TRAINING
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dedication
This book is dedicated to my family—a special thanks for raising me to always follow my
heart and chase after dreams. It is your encouragement and unwavering support that has
allowed me to always go my own way. A special thanks goes to my mother who instilled
in me from a young age a love and appreciation of the woods—a love that continues to
this day. She is an amazing woman in a long line of amazingly strong women who have
broken boundaries and left their mark on my world.
Thank you to all who have contributed to the book: Chris Rutz, Andi Hardy, Juliana Sproles,
Chris Davis and Shelley Koenig for sharing your stories; Brent Doscher of Nuvision and
Jennifer Sullivan for your photos; Minna Urrey and Vanessa Runs for your editorial help.
Thank you to those who have read and continue to read DirtinYourSkirt.com, supporting
my endeavor as it has grown over the last couple of years.
My thanks to you, the reader, for picking up this book.
Finally, my thanks to Forest Call. This is book would not have been possible without all
your help, hard work, and standing by me along the way. You are my biggest supporter,
and truly the unsung hero in my life.
To my mother. Thanks for teaching
me the virtues of nature, and giving me
a lifelong love of the outdoors.
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OBSTACLE
RACE
TRAINING
HOW TO BEAT ANY COURSE,
COMPETE LIKE A CHAMPION
AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE
MARGARET SCHLACHTER
Hobie Call
With a foreword by
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo Rutland, Vermont Singapore
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Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus
Editions (HK) Ltd.
www.tuttlepublishing.com
Copyright © 2014 Margaret Schlachter
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without prior written permission from the
publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data for this title is in progress
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CONTENTS
FOREWORD – by Hobie Call 6
INTRODUCTION 8
SECTION 1: Introduction to the Sport of Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) 14
Chapter 1 – Obstacle Course Racing Explained 16
Chapter 2 – A Brief History of the Sport 21
Chapter 3 – Types of Races & Runs 25
SECTION 2: Where Do You Start 32
Chapter 4 – Choosing the Right Race 34
Chapter 5 – Starting A Training Program & Creating A Balanced Training Plan 38
Chapter 6 – Creating A Winning Diet 53
Chapter 7 – Mental Preparation 58
SECTION 3: Mastering the Course 62
Chapter 8 – The Obstacles 65
Chapter 9 – The Great Burpee Debate 89
SECTION 4: How to Get Through Your First Race 96
Chapter 10 – Pre-Race Essentials 97
Chapter 11 – Race Day Morning 105
Chapter 12 – The Race 108
Chapter 13 – Stories from the Course 112
SECTION 5: What’s Next 123
Chapter 14 – Post-Race Expectations & Advice 125
Chapter 15 – Recovery 130
Chapter 16 – The Next Race 135
Chapter 17 – Insider Tips 138
Chapter 18 – Continuing The Journey 141
APPENDICES 144 – 159
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Foreword
By Hobie Call
I
first met Margaret Schlachter at the 2011 Spartan Death Race. She liked to study
people’s workout routines and philosophies in training for this new sport of Obstacle
Course Racing. She was intrigued with the rock workout I used to train for the Death
Race, said she had tried it a few times, and was wondering how I came up with it, why,
and did I think it worked well in preparing me for such a race. I had joined the obstacle
course racing world that spring and was undefeated going into the Spartan Death Race.
She had watched me enter the sport and was eager to learn more about my background
and training.
Margaret has a unique perspective on obstacle course racing. She raced in the very
first Spartan Race, held outside of Burlington, Vermont in 2010, with only about 500
participants. She truly has been involved in the sport since its beginnings. She lived close
to Joe Desena, the founder of the Spartan Race series, worked and trained with him for a
couple of years, getting to know the behind-the-scenes side of the sport. She also really
enjoys getting to know the elite athletes in the sport, exploring their backgrounds, how
they train, their diets, the gear and shoes they choose to wear, and why. We became
friends quickly after the Death Race and we often talk about training, diets and nutrition.
In the last three years, Margaret has also built up quite the racing resume herself. She
has participated in almost 50 obstacle races from the Warrior Dash, to Superhero Scramble,
Spartan Race, Rugged Maniac, Tough Mudder, Spartan Death Race, Worlds Toughest Mud-
der, Fuego y Agua Survival Run, and many more. Her experiences led her to starting a
blog called DirtInYourSkirt.com, which was named the sports blog of the year by Sports
Weblog for the 2012 Weblog Awards. Today she is one of the top-ranked women in the
sport and enjoys sharing her knowledge with new racers. You’re sure to fall in love with
this sport as so many of us have, as Margaret shares the challenges, uniqueness and fun
of obstacle racing.
6
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7
Foreword
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Introduction
I
sat in the front seat of the police car and felt my world crumbling around me. It had
only been a few weeks since I heard the news that I would not only be unemployed
in a month, but I would simultaneously lose my home, having been a dorm parent
the last three years. The 2008 economic downturn had taken an extra couple years to hit
private education, but now I was becoming a casualty of budget cuts at Stratton Mountain
School. This wasn’t just the school that had employed and housed me for three years;
it was also my alma mater, the same school that established a citizenship award in my
honor. Since being made redundant I had numbed my emotions each night, looking down
a bottle, and then hiking away the hangover each morning as penance for my actions. I
8
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was literally spending days escaping from my problems to the only place I could think of:
the woods. I was out of shape, having spent my post-college early twenties working hard
and playing harder. I had packed on about 20 pounds since graduating, enjoying wing
night and $2 drafts in excess. It all seemed to catch up with me that rainy night.
It was early summer 2009. I sat in that police car in the pouring rain, about to take a
Breathalyzer test and most likely add another layer to my current troubles with a DUI. After
I blew into the device I tested just above the legal limit, but the kind police officer took
pity on me and offered me the chance to take a field sobriety test, saying, “I don’t trust
what these things say anyway.” As I climbed out of the police car I could feel my heart
ready to leap out of my chest. I carefully listened to the officer’s instructions and tried
to do as he said, while the two inebriated passengers in my car watched breathlessly. The
rain poured down hard on me as I took the test then rejoined the officer to discuss the
outcome: I had passed. I had dodged the biggest bullet of my life. It was at this moment
that I knew I needed to make a change.
In fall 2009 I started a new job at a new school, holding that experience close to my
chest and not revealing it to anyone. However, as I look back at that night, I know that
it was my brush with disaster that started me on the journey that led me to write this
book. Shaken after that period in my life I now refer to as “the black hole,” I knew I could
not continue to live that lifestyle, a time bomb that would eventually go off. I jumped
with both feet into the new job, stopped going out so frequently, and started to look to
other things in life for fulfillment. It was time to shift from one extreme to another; I just
didn’t know yet what it would be.
One wintery day in early 2010, I was browsing Facebook when a friend’s “like” popped
onto my newsfeed. It was for a new event called the Spartan Race. I felt compelled to find
out what this was. I Googled it and learned it was this new sort of race called “obstacle
course racing” and it would be held in May outside of Burlington, Vermont. At the time,
I was living less than two hours from the race site, in central Vermont, and thought I
would give it a try. I thought maybe this would be what I was looking for. I had been a
two-sport varsity athlete in college and it had been years since I was in competition for
myself. I spent my post-college life coaching other student athletes, but my own internal
fire for competition had gone up in smoke.
The Spartan Race was advertised as a 2-mile trail run with obstacles mixed in. The ad
said you would get wet and muddy, and that there would be fire. It was so new and so
different that I decided to try it out. I showed up on race day not knowing that it would
9
Introduction
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