#ChallengeAccepted

I started Joe De Sena’s Beginner 30-Day Spartan Training Program today. I started with the baseline test to check where I am currently at with my Spartan fitness.

Day 0 – Test Day

The warm comprised of:

• 10 ankle circles and wrist circles.
• 5 minutes of jog, row, bike, or jump rope – I did the jog but honestly, I think the jump rope would have killed me.
• 2 rounds of the following. I was winded after one round so I stopped there – it says the warm-up is supposed to increase my heart rate and leave me warm. My heart was beating pretty fast and I was plenty warm before I was even done with one round so I already achieved what I was supposed with only one round.
  • 30m skipping
  • 10m bear crawl
  • 10m reverse bear crawl
  • 10m walking lunges (couldn’t do walking lunges so I did static lunges)
  • 10 squats

The Test: it says to complete all three fitness tests in sequence as if they were a mini Spartan Race. I did them in sequence, but there were breaks in between – especially the last two. My rationale was that I would probably stop to rest on race day, too. Okay so this is what I had to do:

• Dead Hang for as long as possible – I lasted all of 19 seconds.
• Complete as many race-form burpees as possible in 5 minutes – I managed to complete 49.5 burpees. Yes, I’m counting that half.
• Run as far as you can in 30 minutes – I managed to run/walk 2.69km. Maybe this wouldn’t have been so bad if I was fresh.

The Results

Hang Test: I clearly have a long way to go.

• Fail: <30 seconds
• Average: 30 to 60 seconds
• Aroo!: >90 seconds

Burpee Test: Okay, so not so bad.

• Fail: <40 reps
• Average: 40 to 65 reps
• Aroo!: >65 reps

Run Test: I failed this, too. Although, seriously, 5km in 30 minutes is already a stretch for me on a good day.

• Fail: <5km
• Average: 5 to 7km
• Aroo!: >7km

So my baseline test results are not great. That’s okay. The worse it is, the easier it is for me to do better.

Oh, and I found my old test results from the first time I started training for Spartan:

• Hang – 15 seconds (I already beat this one – woohoo!)
• Burpees – 30? I lost count but if this is as many as I did, then I beat this one, too.
• Run – 4km (okay so didn’t beat this one but that’s 2 out of 3)