Once registered, we were told which group we were in, Max then went through the introductions of days events. After yesterdays antics at Melbourne Altitude Training Centre, I would have to say that my glutes and quads were feeling the workout, so wasn't 100% confident that I would last the full 3 hours. Luckily as it was broken down in stations, so could you break it down into 30 minute slots. | 6 x 30 minute stations which consisted of: 1. Sandbags 2. Boxing 3. Obstacle training 4. Zuu 5. Ropes 6. Nets, hills and sandbags |

- Walking lunges (with sandbags)
- Sprint drills
- Overhead throws
- Sandbag burpee with push press
These included:
They included the pyramid from 16, so after each set, the person punching had to run to the path and back, whilst the other person had a choice of 1, 2 or 3 burpees. | After doing a set of boxing sets, we then included the tabata work as follows: Jabs - push ups Upper cuts - squats High punches - burpees After each puching set, each person would run in the opposite direction complete the body weight exercises, and then change partners. |
This to me was one of the most valuable sessions of the day, especially as it was being taught by the legendary Deanna Blegg #bleggfit and Amanda Steidle #turbofoods, both amazing athletes and obstacle racing queens. Lesson 1: Running up a hill: stay on your toes, take smaller, quicker steps. On the way down, landing on your toes reducing the impact on the heels and the shock that it then produces through your body reducing the braking effect. It almost looks like you start to lose control as you run down hill. |
Do a burpee: You can get stronger and more efficient by doing a burpee the correct way and not just flopping. Staying in control of all of the movements involved. Tucking in and exploding upwards, being in control during the pushup and when kicking out with your legs, thinking about the plank position. Also practice as much as you can, and there is no shame if you need to go onto your knees.
Smile - smiling can make such a big difference to your whole mind and body set, so doing a race with a smile will help. This is the great thing, when you love actually competing in obstacle races, that the majority of the time, you can't actually help but smile, especially when you complete something you couldn't do before.
Dead ball carry, apart from the weight and the overall shape of the dead ball carry its probably not the easiest to pick up and get on your shoulder. Starting in a squat position over the ball, put your hands underneath the ball, with straight arms and bracing your core - you lift. From here you should be able to use momentum to get it on your shoulder. Sadly the session was just finishing, so we could not practice, however I still got a lot out of the information.

There were 4 sets of each (20 secs on 10 secs off) exercises which included:
Double handed waves - burpee with star jumps
Alternate arms - push ups
Inner arm circles - burpees
Figure of 8 - holding the rope with both hands, using the ropes to create a figure of 8 - commando roll burpee
After each set, we then had to run around the section back to the start again. At the end, Kate also through in the run up and down the hill, once back, holding the plank until everyone in the group was back.

Starting off with the net, everyone held on tight, whilst we are holding on, someone would then crawl over the net. There was a lot of instability involved as you tried to get yourself across the net, so you had to distribute yourself evenly. Trying to stabilise and ground yourself whilst someone else scrambled across the net, of course there was no way of knowing weights, so you just had to keep yourself continually engaged.
Overview
Each of the stations offered something new that you could learn from, building a foundation of skills that you could take out onto the course.