Training for an obstacle course race is a key factor in achieving a personal best time, or even in finishing a course. However, when you live and or work in a city or urban area, it may seem difficult to get any relevant training in address the demands of your favourite event.
Obviously a running programme is the basis of your training. Improving your cardiovascular fitness and running ability will go a long way to ensuring you finish the course in good time.
But there are plenty of other training options to help you build up stamina and strength to take on the toughest of races. Many obstacles require other abilities such as upper-body strength, balance and explosive power. Here are three opportunities for city-dwellers to work on these elements before their next event.
1. Make complete use of your local green space.
Local parks and green spaces offer off-road terrain that mimic the surface of many obstacle races. Soft surfaces such as grass and dirt absorb far more of your energy moving forward than any pathway or treadmill.
Any hills or inclines should be sought out for some sprinting intervals. Sprinting is great for building strength in the legs as well as for cardiovascular fitness. And do make use of natural obstacles you find, such as fallen trees along your running route.
You may be lucky enough to have a trim trail in your local park. These exercise sites - often installed by the local council - may feature obstacles such as monkey bars and pull up bars so yo can practise you traversing. However there are also wooden walls, hurdles, benches and balance beams. Create a circuit that mixes up the obstacles and challenges your fitness.
2. Follow a ‘task-specific’ bodyweight conditioning exercise programme at the gym, at home or outdoors.
The basic movements for obstacle course runners to develop are the push-up, pull-up, squat and lunge. However, don’t overlook other abilities that need to be trained and will prove most useful during your favourite obstacle race.
Plyometric exercises (developing explosive power through the legs) are essential for leaping across chasms and over walls. That means hops and box jumps. And balance can be practised along a balance beam, a bench or simply along the ground.
Don’t forget grip strength which is essential for holding on to horizontal ladders. You can increase your strength in this area by hanging from a bar or simply holding weights for 30 seconds at a time.
Finally, don’t overlook floor work for those times when a race forces you to hit the ground. You can practise crawling and rapid ‘get ups’ and ‘get downs’ to add yet more skills to your racing arsenal.
3. Use street furniture to help build endurance
Many urban public areas afford obstacles such as metal and stone benches, low walls or those tubular steel cycle stands. And railings can be ducked under. All of these features can be found in your local area and really add effort to a run and develop your stamina.
- Park Benches
- Barriers (be very careful of any traffic)
- Cycle Storage Stands
- Kids Playgrounds
- Bus Stops (pull ups)
- Football Goals (pull ups)
I hope we’ve shown you that the cityscape can offer plenty of opportunities to train for you next big Obstacle Race. You just need some creativity in looking around at your environment.
About Muddy Plimsolls
Muddy Plimsolls specialises in bodyweight conditioning training in the outdoors. Based in central London, their trainers make use of parks in all seasons with creative, cutting edge and tough workouts for all levels of fitness.
Visit us at www.muddyplimsolls.com