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Tag: training

In my previous post I gave an overview of Kokoro Camp 25. In this post I’ll review what I did to train and offer some ideas for anyone considering Kokoro.

Personal Fitness Standards

Coach Divine recently updated the fitness standards for Kokoro and they are the following:

  • Minimum 50 push ups (40 for women), 50 sit-ups and 50 air squats in 2 minutes each.
  • 10 dead hang pullups for men, 6 women
  • 1 mile run in boots and utility pants on road in 9:30
  • Body Armor (aka Murph) with 20# pack (15# for women): 1 hour and 10 minutes minimum
  • 10 mile run in less than 1:20 (recommended)
  • 20 mile ruck hike with load in less than 6 hours (recommended)

This is me speculating, but I think because of the growing popularity of Kokoro Camp, Coach Divine is putting a renewed emphasis on the basic skills of running, rucking, and body weight PT to make sure attendees have those skills.

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I haven’t blogged about this, but my buddy Junior and I have been training for months to participate in Kokoro Camp. The date is finally here…we’re leaving for California tomorrow morning and will be at SealFit HQ by Friday at noon. If you haven’t heard of it, Kokoro Camp is a 50+ hour military-style camp modeled after the infamous BUD/S program that Navy Seals go through. I’m anticipating an extremely high reading on the Suck-o-meter with lots of me getting my ass kicked.

From the SealFit website:

As the world’s premier training camp for forging mental toughness, an Unbeatable Mind and a warrior’s spirit, the camp is an intense crucible experience modeled off of the famous Navy SEAL Hell Week. The difference is that Kokoro is built to teach through experience, rather than try to make you into a quitter.

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Here’s a description of MetroDash from their site:

“…We combined 30 elements into one insane obstacle course that will surely push your physical and mental limits…The Metro Dash course is set up in an area the size of an NFL football field. Competitors will sprint a total of about 600 meters while climbing, crawling, jumping, swinging, and scaling their way through 30 challenging obstacles. The fastest time wins.”

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Here’s a quick training post for those guys and gals preparing to rock out a GoRuck Challenge. In one of my past posts I recommended strengthening hips, knees, and legs in preparation for handling the loads of GoRuck, which is a crapload of running with a weighted pack. If you’ve never run with weight on your back before, you’re in for a surprise, because the weight does weird things to your body. Expect extra stress on your joints, your stride going to hell, and quicker muscular fatigue.

Here are two workouts you can try together or separately that will go a long ways towards forging those Robocop legs you’ll need.

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Over the weekend I had the pleasure of interviewing Todd Garrett, a recent veteran of the San Diego GoRuck Challenge, class 033. Todd is 46 years old and lives in Los Angeles. He’s normally a marathon runner and can do a 3:40-3:50 marathon while training 30 – 35 miles per week. I connected with Todd after he found my initial GoRuck review and inquired about training and the overall difficulty level of the Challenge.

I often get emails from guys who are wondering the same thing, so I’m hoping this interview will shed some light on the endeavor and encourage more guys and gals to sack up and drink the GoRuck kool-aid. I remember I was in the same position…I was curious and wanted the hardcore experience, but I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to handle the physical punishment of carrying weight a marathon distance, so I dilly dallied for a while before finally being talked into signing up.

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Building on my post about periodizing CrossFit, I want to explore an idea for adding heartrate training into the sport. Just to give a bit of background, I’ve been a professional rowing coach for many years at various levels (high school to elite), and specific aerobic training is critical to our performance. I’d like to see if heart rate training can be a benefit to CrossFit.

NOTE: Glassman on the definition of fitness and training, where he rips on heart rate training…full videos if you have a Journal account. John McBrien also addresses this on a conceptual level in this Journal video: CrossFit Endurance, Intro to Programming.

To kick this off, we need a quick primer on the energy systems and how they apply to training. There are three energy systems: aerobic, anaerobic, and ATP-CP. Common knowledge, right? But, what you may or may not know is that the energy systems break down into smaller bands–by bands I’m referring to % of heart rate max (HRM)–and each of these bands can and should be trained. Most importantly, all three of the energy systems are intertwined and need to be trained in specific ways in order to get the most benefit.

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I plan on participating in the Tampa GoRuck Challenge the weekend of November 19. To see the exact Challenge dates, go here. Prior to GoRuck, I’m also signed up for the Megatransect ultrahike on October 1. Never heard of Megatransect? Neither had I until recently. Mega is a 26 mile run/walk/hike/crawl over Eagle Mountain in Central Pennsylvania, limited to 850 entrants. My batshit crazy friends, the same ones who roped me into GoRuck, got me to sign up for Mega. We’ll be rocking it with our GoRuck packs and hats.

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I’ve been getting a lot of emails since I published my GoRuck St Augustine Review from guys and gals who are looking for advice on training for the GoRuck Challenge. In this post, I’ll review the training I went through, what I thought worked and what didn’t, and offer some suggestions.

Here’s a summary of the workload for GoRuck Class 007 in St. Augustine, Florida: 23 – 24 miles of distance, most of which was done Indian-run style. Running was done primarily on sidewalk or pavement, with a couple of bridges thrown in, and about 6-7 miles were on soft beach sand. All participants had a GoRuck pack loaded with 3 bricks (approx. 20 lbs) and whatever extra gear and food/liquids they needed. I estimated my pack, fully loaded and dry, weighed about 32 lbs.

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