Spartan Race - What if You Skip EVERY Obstacle
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Spartan Race - What if You Skip EVERY Obstacle and do penalty loops instead? Is it faster / more efficient (and better than burpees)? Our friend @ManBunMetalHead tried it and has the info on why you should or shouldn't skip obstacles. See for yourself, it's SCIENCE! Links and info below:
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Man Bun Metal Head
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Really informative. Race always favors the runner but nice to see skipping obstacles isn't an overall benefit
Right on!
Thanks for letting me do this video with you guys. I hope I never have to do a penalty loop again. 🤣
Thanks for doing the work and gathering the data, it came out great! And this really opens up a good discussion as to what penalty loops / no burpees means for Spartan Race.
I'm curious, what were the penalty loop times for Olympus?
@@tbiol001 I timed myself at 96 seconds.
@@ManBunMetalHead Definitely not a bad tradeoff.
I’m checking out you channel. I’m a huge metal fan. Thanks for a great analysis, I did ATL and hope to see you at a future race. Ultra on the left!
Must have been tough avoiding dem obstacles! For SCIENCE!!
Ha, yes, SCIENCE!!
Good info on this. My two reasons for choosing the loop are if there is a line to hit the obstacle, or if I have hit a physical limit of fatigue that would cause me too much time in an attempt.
Sounds like a good strategy. We are hearing this more and more, esp. if there is a line at the obstacle(s).
really interesting study, I really hope Spartan reconsiders the whole penalty loop thing
It really is good data. Hope it gets maximized in its use.
Skipping the obstacles is basically an extra long Spartan Trail. 🤣.
Ha, love it!
Great content as always. Thanks guys!
Thank you my friend!!
It’s like boot camp “the fastest way outta here is to graduate on time”
Nice! Hope to see you in NJ at the end of the month.
Very interesting info!
Thanks for watching!
Very interesting. When I saw the title I immediately thought of the crowd factor. I have skipped because I don't want to wait for the crowds. There's some things I just can't do. I don't have the hand strength I used to.
This opens up an interesting idea we hadn't consider before. If there are huge crowds or wait times at obstacles, maybe taking the penalty loop to move things along is not a bad option?
For sure. I have waited close to ten minutes to do an obstacle. I do it for the fun. Time is not my priority.
Do you think it will become something where something like Olympus …the PL will be just as difficult. To make it a real choice on the loop vs. taking a shot at it?
It's weird, this year there seem to be more burpee penalties. I guess they heard us, and started phasing out penalty loops? That's at least as far as we've seen this year. We'll need to get more input from other folks out there at the races. With the loops in the past, especially at Ultras, we saw people just giving up on the obstacle entirely and heading directly to the loop because it was way easier. I think burpees would motivate people to at least make an attempt at the obstacle. Just my opinion though.
The rope climb penalty loop went through a pretty thick muddy area.
Interesting. In a case like that, better to attempt the rope climb and complete it, no?
@@OCRKings I think it depends on the situation, I was FREEZING, it was less than half a mile since the dunk wall and it was less than 35°. In that case I'd take the penalty loop all day.
@@blainedowns6152 The rope climb penalty loop was real tough for sure. But with the dunk wall so close to it, so was the actual rope climb. I couldn't feel my hands for the rest of the race.
As always, Great Content, or in this case, "Great Data ", not to mention I have heard like many others the penalty loops were not adequate...The Data doesn't lie...Good Information and Thanks Everyone!
Thank you!!
Super interesting, I ran my last two races a little sick and it killed me in the end making me even more sick. It would have been worth it to skip Olympus and the Rope Climb for me and just save myself the strength. This was in Vegas a few weeks ago both the 10k and 5k.
I am wondering now if people might skip one obstacle more than others, meaning Olympus really seems like it is an obstacle a good number of people would rather not do. Wondering if that might mean an obstacle needs to be considered for replacing if it's skipped a lot?
Interesting video. I’d be interested in the time it’d take to do each obstacle in an open heat rather than age group. As you know there can be a wait time for some obstacles.
I can tell you the line up for the A-Frame during the Sprint on Saturday was stupid long. Timed it just over 3 minutes.
Great suggestion!
3 minutes?? Crazy!
I have done Jax and ATL, here is my take as an age group runner. Running a clean race gives you a shot at the podium. Any penalty (burpee or loop) is gonna put you at a disadvantage to podium. I personally want to do every obstacle, cause they are fun and I like the challenge. But on some days taking a loop instead a specific obstacle is strategic, but not an advantage. I think this was a good idea but that is my opinion as an average age group.
Right on. As always, thank you for your input, sir!
Better to just do a 5k instead? ..which I am just considering doing anyway.
Never a bad idea to do a 5k. We’ll be running some of those this summer.
does big joe do penalty loops or burpees
haven't personally seen him do either
Dude, Olympus sucks with the new angle and material. I'd take the new material if they reduced the angle or the angle of they'd make it plywood again.
I think there are a lot of folks who feel the same way!
I def heard unanimously.... 30 burpees for a real ass kicker penalty.
This is true!
In a hypothetical theory, yes, they can skip every obstacle in the open race. But that’s why they also have a trail running races for those people.
True!
This is great stuff. I appreciate him doing it for “science”
Ha, thank you!
The penalty lap maybe is slower. But if you need to stand in line for the obstacles maybe its faster to just continue running and never stop. But it's boring to run an obstacle course without obstacles
Agree on both points. We hadn't considered doing the loops to avoid the wait times. It's an interesting idea. Doing no obstacles though would be boring. Might as well do a road race at that point, no?
that's some pretty interesting stuff. wonder if spartan will see this and bring back burpees?
Who knows!
See it, yes. Heed it, no. Just a guess.
I think burpees for everyone is best. It's what made Spartan, Spartan.
Fair point!
This is awesome! Thank you to this guy who was willing to sacrifice a race to answer the question many of us have been wondering. Always a great and informative video.
Thank you!!
This was great. Thanks for sacrificing your runs to collect this data. I was really disappointed with the idea of replacing burpees with the penalty loops. This goes some way to allaying those concerns. Still not entirely convinced that Spartan hasn't been significantly watered down. This was brought up in the segment but what about the impact of the wait times at obstacles? If you include the wait time might the penalty loops be faster?
I have skipped a handful of obstacles in the last couple years because of wait times. Usually doesn't happen in the age group heats, but very common in open.
Glad you liked it! We are not entirely sold on the idea of no more burpees, as we too have concerns of Spartan getting watered down. In an Ultra, on lap 2, it might be a nice option to skip some of the arm killers like olympus and twister and take the penalty loop - maybe. Sort of divided on the thought.
@@OCRKings Same here. Olympus has become the hardest obstacle by far. Does one skip it because it is so hard or do it because it is hard? Tough call.
Nice presentation on the data slides!
Absolutely!
Great info. I'm still disappointed they eliminated the burpees. I usually do the Arizona races in February but skipped this year due to the changes. I think that the Age-groups should at least require an attempt at the obstacle. I'm all for the Opens doing whatever they want, skip whatever they want, help each other, whatever, keep it fun. Most obstacles are very doable with some training so I'm guessing most won't be doing too many loops, based on your data. Bring back the burpees for the Age-groups. Yes burpees suck but "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone". Do Hard Shit.
Totally agree!
How do you add the obstacles to your watch? I have a Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar. Wouldn't you need to know the course way ahead of time, try to plot it out on Garmin Explore adding the obstacles as waypoints? Then on race day you'd have to enable the activity (Trail Run probably until the official release update comes out that has OCR as an activity), and then hit the lap button when you get to the obstacle? I'm not sure what that would do, maybe pause the activity to do the obstacle would work better. But I don't know. Probably that OCR activity will be perfect for doing these. But still, trying to plot out the course ahead of time seems impossible because the races tend to make their own trails in between established routes, ski slopes, access roads, open spaces, etc.
Now it would be amazing if when they're setting up the race, they actually track the route (on a Garmin or GPS tracker), add the obstacle waypoints, and then distribute the file as a GPX for people to download in addition to the typical course map that comes out a few days before a race!
That would be awesome and super helpful!
That is a great question - that info came from our ocr friend @ManBunMetalHead and we'll have to reach out to him about how he set all that up on his watch.
We usually uploaded our race to garmin connect and follow the timing and course and spend time looking at that data. Usually we just track time and pace on your garmins.
That is a great idea about course builders and a GPX for all to use. We would love that!
great experiment!
Thank you 🤗