Spartan Pro Roster Athlete Luke De-Benedictis gives us insight into what to include in your obstacle course race training plan!

Most obstacle course races consist of running for a set distance like a 5k or 10k, then this is split up by obstacles or functional exercises that you must complete before continuing the run, so training for an OCR event does differ from regular road running events. Here are my tips to help you tackle the first Superhuman OCR event!

Running – given that running is a big part of OCR events, it would be ideal to make this the foundation of your training. As for your race you will need to be able to complete the full distance of the course and unlike a road running race you will need to do this while stopping and starting to run again after each obstacle/functional fitness station. This stop-start nature of running will really test your cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance.

So, you will need to be simulating this style of running in training to get a taste of what it will be like on race day. Add in a tempo/race pace interval session to your training with stops for exercises or obstacles if you have access to them:

Example Workout – Run & Exercise Intervals:

0.50 mil @ 06:30 minute per mile pace

10 Press ups

0.50 mil @ 06:30 minute per mile pace

10 Burpees

0.50 mil @ 06:30 minute per mile pace

10 Squats

0.50 mil @ 06:30 minute per mile pace

10 Pull Ups

0.50 mil @ 06:30 minute per mile pace

10 Lunges

0.50 mil @ 06:30 minute per mile pace

10 Crunches

• One of the key aims of this session is to get back to your ‘race pace’ target for each running rep.

Obstacles & Exercises – Most OCR Events have a mix between obstacles like walls, cargo nets or monkey bars and functional exercises like carries, box jumps and sled pushes.

Before Race Day it’s always a good idea to have experienced some of these obstacles and worked out what kind of technique you’ll use to complete them as a more efficient technique on the obstacles will help you save energy for the functional exercises. A trip to a local OCR training facility would be very helpful just so you can drill the movements required to complete some of the more common obstacles.

Most of the functional exercises could be completed in a gym or CrossFit box, so again it really is worth taking a trip to the gym, if you can fit in some running alongside these functional exercises, that would be even better.

One of my go-to exercises that are always in the training programme are Pull Ups, these are a great exercise to help develop the upper body and grip strength needed to tackle an OCR event. Another great form of OCR training is bouldering, this will help you learn how to control your body movements and again help develop the upper body and grip strength needed to tackle an OCR event.

Agility – OCR events ask a lot of your body from running, climbing to jumping and swinging around on obstacles, so with this in mind you will need to be able to complete the functional exercises that might require some explosive movements and also fly though the obstacles in a safe and efficient way. Adding in some plyometric exercises like full burpees, jump lunges, and lateral bounds will give you the necessary spring in your step to tackle the obstacles like walls or functional stations like box jumps.

Example Training Week:

Monday – Run & Exercise intervals

Tuesday – Easy Run 5k

Wednesday – Functional Exercises / Bouldering

Thursday – Run & Exercises intervals

Friday – Functional Exercises (Including Plyometric exercises)

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – Long Run – easy pace 10k+

Depending on your fitness level you can add an additional days rest in on Wednesdays and change the distance of the runs to suit your race length or progress up to the greater distances over time.

Written by Luke De-Benedictis

Instagram: @lukedeben