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If you are like me, then you've stood at the start line of an Obstacle Course Race, laser focused, with just one thought in your head; "I'm going to crush this course!" The race begins and you are off in a full sprint like a cheetah that hasn't eaten in a week. Your lightning fast pace has you out in the front of the pack and feeling awesome! But, 1-2 obstacles in and you start noticing things are slowing down. You're breathing is getting very heavy and your legs are starting to feel stiff. The athletes who you flew by at the start line are now passing you. Frustration kicks in as you feel weaker and weaker with 90% of the race still left to run!
Why does this happen? The short answer is that you simply came out of the gates too fast and burnt out. The same situation can happen during workouts as well. This will happen most frequently when you have a lack of experience with competitive racing, you have not trained properly for the race you are doing, and/or your pre-race nerves got the best of you.
A large part of your training program should focus on teaching your body what paces are comfortable, moderately challenging, and very difficult. Knowing what those paces are and how they feel is essential to running a good race. This does take time to learn, but in the long run it will drastically improve your overall performance. The key is to hold a consistent pace throughout the race. If you are doing a Beast, it's going to be a much slower pace than if you are doing a Sprint, but in both cases, the pace should be pretty consistent throughout.
You can use this workout to help practice for a "Sprint" distance OCR course. Since there aren't any breaks during a race, the goal is to control your pacing that so that you can move consistently from the running through the exercises and back into the running without stopping. Record your total time. If you try this workout a few times, you'll most likely see your total time drop with each attempt. That's because your body is gaining experience and learning how hard to push.
(repeat this circuit 2x for 3 miles total of running)
.5 mile run
10 burpees
10 pull-ups
10 burpees
.5 mile run
10 burpees
30 lunges
10 burpees
.5 mile run
10 burpees
20 thrusters
10 burpees
In summary, to not be "that guy" at the start of the race, train your paces and run your own race.
Visit the Training Programs page in order to learn about the different custom programs we design for athletes in OCR.
