Now What? Post-Spartan ULTRA … and Beer
Here we are on Mother’s Day 2022 and one week removed from my 32+ miles at Mountain Creek Resort in Vernon, NJ. I entered the ULTRA as a “one and done” because honestly, it seemed a bit ridiculous and I wanted to see if I could do it. With a background in ultra-running followed by functional fitness and a Spartan Trifecta under my belt from 2021, I figured I was at least, a little bit prepared. 10hrs, 47min later and 67 obstacles, I finished. I was saying last night how I didn’t train at all for the running of a 50K plus…but it’s amazing how the body remembers it’s training from years ago. I had some regret in the few weeks prior to the event about that but now that I’m on the other side of it, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. The time spent away from home to put in the miles wouldn’t have been worth it. I’ve lived that life and don’t ever plan to return to it.
In the past week, I have found the craziest scabs form and bruises appear. Some, I still have no idea where they came from. But overall, I am unscathed and even my feet didn’t have so much as a hot spot, much less a blister. With the water crossings, mud and technical trail terrain, that is testament to how I protect them on race day from hundreds of miles before me in the past few decades. I had nothing but a positive experience in Vernon and our time in Warwick NY where we stayed and even our few miles on the Appalachian Trail the day after. If there is any negative, it’s this: my wife, Marjie, spent the entire day alone, trying to see me on the few opportunities there were but due to Spartan’s horrendous lack of a tracking system, she couldn’t. For me, it’s an epic fail on the part of Spartan. We are all wearing chips and cross over timing mats from time to time so the technology is very much there and one that’s been used for MANY years in racing. Well over a decade ago in my marathon and ultra-running days, live-tracking was a norm, not the exception. She would still tell you today, though, that she had a good time but given that we do everything together these days, it did suck being on the distant sidelines while I spent time in the mountains.
So today, we committed…together…to show up at the starting line together this fall ON her 50th birthday in Virginia. Together, we’ll do the Virginia Super on her birthday and the Sprint the next morning. Arrington, VA is a town south of Charlottesville, VA and north of Lynchburg and Amherst. From the few videos we’ve seen, it is a MUCH more “mild” Spartan event free of crazy elevation gain but full of the changing colors of Fall and plenty of mud. We stopped by a playground in our town last night to swing around on the monkey bars. I wanted her to get a taste of what that felt like and also to lay some groundwork of work to be done. For these events, we’ll be in the Open Division meaning that we can try more than once at each obstacle AND help each other and others over them. Last week, I was in the Age Group and I was solo all the way and got one shot only to accomplish the obstacles. The photo below is us at the WV Trifecta last August. This October, she gets her own black headband AND her chance to get covered in mud and go underwater in that awesome mud-filled dunk wall. Oh yea!
We’ve got work to do…both of us. A lot of it will have to do with grip and moving our own bodyweight horizontally and vertically off of Planet Earth. We also plan to dial in our nutrition together. We’ve both seen success here in the past and know how to do what we need to but there is this thing called AGE that does slow things down. However, we are living proof of what happens when you care for your body: it can do amazing things and will recover after to enable you to do it again and live a full, healthy and mobile life.
Alcohol: I make no bones about it… I do love craft beer. I don’t have an issue and never over-indulge. I simply enjoy it…love it, actually. A juicy, hazy IPA just hits the spot and the occasional barrel-aged quad. However, over the past week I have struggled with this question: what is it that I love about it? Is it the flavor? The feeling of alcohol hitting my bloodstream? The social aspect? And what is it that I don’t like? Body composition impact…impact on fitness…impact on how I feel the morning after…quality of sleep? We have discussed this topic at length at home and had options of shelving it altogether, limiting it, etc. If it were an addiction, this would be a whole other conversation. However, it’s not. It’s more about how to enjoy it and let it co-exist in my life while not impeding the things that are important to me. Can the two co-exist? I believe they can and Marjie had a fantastic idea yesterday.
Yesterday, my first two 6-packs of Athletic Brewing Company beer showed up on my doorstep. They are the first brewery fully dedicated to the brewing of NA (non-alcohol beer). They have built two breweries here in the U.S. One in Stratford, CT and the other in San Diego, CA. Their process is proprietary but essentially, they hold true to quality craft beer and its ingredients yet stop short of the alcohol produced in it. The result is the taste and experience of craft beer absent of the alcohol and honestly, the heavy load of calories and carbs. The hazy IPA we got yesterday has 70 calories and 16 carbs in it. So here’s our plan: no more alcohol in the house. I recognize I am weak and very often reach for it while watching some tube at night or soaking in the hot tub. I still can but it’ll be an Athletic Brew. When out, we love to visit and support local craft breweries and local restaurants that offer local craft. We also seek them out when we travel as we did in Warwick last weekend. It’s something we LOVE to do! Quality food and drink, to me, is one of life’s great pleasures and sharing it with my bride of nearly 30 years is important to me … to us.
So that’s the plan…for now. Of course, it’s subject to change but I am hopeful it will work. Here’s a link to Athletic Brewing Co. if you want to check them out.
A few other random thoughts the week after my first Spartan ULTRA:
- The Duro 1.5L pack by Osprey is incredible. I broke the cardinal rule of trying something new on race day but didn’t regret it. Absolutely perfect, minimal hydration pack that never moved, held liquids well as well as nutrition items yet never impeded a single obstacle that I challenged.
- I said to many that this ULTRA was “one and done.” I’ll just say this: I’d consider another. Not Vernon or Killington, though. I’m not shopping for one but in the future (2023 and beyond), I’d consider it.
- Life is better with her. Period. I hated her being alone while I raced last week. I can’t let that happen again. After years of ultra-running and marathons that took me away, I don’t ever want to return to that.
- Podium is the real deal. CrossFit Games’ champ Mat Fraser’s creation of this company with the Buttery Bros and other knowledgeable folks in the industry really made a product that fits perfectly. In endurance events when the loss of salt out-peddles the ability to replenish it along with hydration, their Hydro-Salt product was perfect. I didn’t cramp ONE SINGLE TIME post-event which is just absurd.
Thanks for reading and a very Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!
