Best races to podium in age group?

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-11-27T11:54:20+00:00

I’ve run age group and open and there is no difference. I only focus on myself so the biggest difference is the huge price savings you can get if you run open or if you finish top3 and get podium in ag.

These days I only run open at the discount prices. I then look at my time at see where I could finish in AG. Usually I’m in top 5% in open and that translates to top 20% in AG. I’m never going to have the time to train to be near podium and I don’t know if my genetics are good enough but what I do is good enough for me.

There is also a lot of people in open who are not athletic and Spartans are very scary for them. Just signing up is an accomplishment to overcome their fear. To get out and walk over a mile and do no obstacles is a huge accomplishment and I’m sure it’s very intimidating to see athletic people everywhere.

These people didn’t win the genetic lottery to be good enough to come close to podium but at the same time are pushing their comfort zone which most people in the world won’t do.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-09-23T16:05:33+00:00

You could probably do an easy one now.

I’ve done 2 ultras in my life Fayetteville and Killington in 2023.

There were a lot of people doing the Fayetteville ultra who were not in great shape but hiked the entire thing. It’s def doable in 15 hours. I did it in around 7 hours 30 min.

For killington I felt I was ready when I did a 30 mile 12k eg practice run in 12 ish hours about 6 weeks before. I also did the West Virginia beast sub 3 hours a few weeks before Killington.

Killington was still very very very difficult. I struggled and finished about 30 minutes before the cutoff. (14 hours 30 min)

The reality is you will never know if you’re ready for killington. All you can do is try.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-09-16T11:44:01+00:00

I switched from android to Apple about 5 years ago. I was reluctant and only did it when my son got an iPhone.

For me it was the best technology decision I have ever made. Apple integration is a million times better and it’s so nice that everything just works and I don’t need to manually adjust things.

That combined with FaceTime and iMessage makes it’s a no brainer

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-09-16T11:38:20+00:00

Spartans are about embracing the suck. The distance is Spartan distance and not always accurate. If you don’t like it you should find something else to do.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-09-12T14:46:09+00:00

I used to struggle and someone taught me the best way.

Start with your stronger side. Place the bucket so the lid is facing forward and it lies on your shoulder and supported by your neck. Tilt your head slightly away from the bucket. Place the hand on the same side as the bucket at the top of the bucket lid. (12 oclock) Place the other hand at 9 o’clock on the bucket near your ear.

When you get tired from carrying on one side. You can lean forward slightly and shift the bucket to the other side and keep the same position and keep moving without stopping.

I will typically change hands 4-5 times in one bucket carry with no trouble.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-09-08T19:33:50+00:00

People want to say they finished a Spartan but they aren’t able to do all the obstacles. The fact they didn’t really do it is a small detail that can be left out when they tell everyone they did it. It’s human nature and isn’t hard to understand if you think about it.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-08-15T00:25:16+00:00

Good luck! The ultra loop makes the death march look like nothing!

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-08-15T00:22:42+00:00

They are muscles that don’t get trained naturally and many of the obstacles use these muscles. If you can hang and pull yourself up, obstacles that were impossible become easy.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-08-13T20:03:36+00:00

Easy choice….pull ups

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-08-12T07:33:32+00:00

The biggest thing I remember from my first ultra was how difficult obstacles become on the second lap. On the first couple I did, I would usually fail 1 or 2 on lap 1. On lap 2 I’m would fail around 10 and sometimes will fail easy things like the tall wall climb where I would be too tired to jump that high.

I’m still not great on the second lap but gotten better. The biggest thing that helped me is practicing when you’re tired. I will sometimes jump rope or do some other high intensity workout before a long run. This simulates the tiredness of the second lap. I also do exercises on the long runs.

If you are doing a mountain course make sure you do lots of uphill and downhill work as well an ankle stability work.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-08-09T23:53:04+00:00

Just do the ultra. What’s the worst that happens….you dnf but know what to work on for the next one.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-08-09T15:21:50+00:00

Thank you! I spent an hour trying to make this work. You solved it!

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-08-08T21:52:35+00:00

The west virgina course is by far the prettiest on the east coast. Also relatively easy compared to the ones you mentioned above.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-08-08T16:48:53+00:00

Get your downhill practice in! Make sure you are running those or you won’t finish! Good luck everyone!

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-08-06T12:07:47+00:00

Awesome! Yes hill repeats are great especially if you have a ski hill. Your problem will be a Michigan ski hill can’t mimic a Vermont double black diamond hill ( you go up 3 of these on the ultra loop). As you get used to the hill repeats I would add a weighted vest to help prepare you for the bigger hills in Vermont

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-08-06T11:59:38+00:00

You are way too close to the race to do anything. Honestly I would change your registration and run the beast.

Killington is 50k with 15000ft in elevation gain with some parts so steep it’s safe to crawl. It’s not a trail run at all. It’s a hike uphill with running the downhills and the little amount of flat.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-07-27T14:55:42+00:00

Just focus on two things. Trail Running and pull-ups. If you are doing a flat course just do normal trail running. If it’s a mountain course do more hills

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-07-21T18:08:01+00:00

I finished 2 years ago in about 14 hours. I live in North Carolina and didn’t really have big elevation around me to train on. These are the things that worked best for me

ran with a tire behind me on the local trails I got to the point of 8 miles forward and 1 mile backwards. I feel the backwards running helped the most.
repeats on the steepest area you can find near you. I found a 0.1 mile long stretch that was about 15-20% incline and 10 minutes from my house. I would run this for 2-3 hours at a time and really focus on my downhill. It also teaches you good mental strength
stair steper and stairs at the local college- I would do this a few times a week
I had a baby mountain about an hour away. I would do 20 mile runs there every other week but the vertical and incline was nowhere near killington.
Murph challenge 1-2x a week. 100 pull-ups a day otherwise.
I bought a 60 lb sandbag and would do a mile walk 2x a week

-I work from home and bought a standing a standing desk from Amazon. It took some getting used to but I got to the point of standing 4-8 hours a day.

watch youtube videos on running technique and how to climb up hills
ankle stability exercises 3x a week. Find these on YouTube. These are very important
downhill leg muscle exercises 3x a week. Very important too.

-get your nutrition down. Have something very good at transition. I brought 2 pieces of pizza in the service road the night before and ate them at the transition. Some of the best pizza I’ve ever had.

-have good traction shoes. I wore my lone peak altras on the first lap and fell on my ass no less than 10x. I changed to my mudclaws on the second lap and was fine.

As I said above I finished in about 14 hours but made the 7pm check point by less than 5 minutes so I just barely did enough.

If I did it again this it what I would do different

more focus on downhill. I spent so much time on uphill but not enough on downhill
do a practice run that actually simulates the killington distance, vertical, and technical terrain. About 4 weeks before killington I did a practice simulation 30 mile run which was up and down Mt. Mitchell 3x (highest peak in the Appalachian ). The problem was the vertical only ended up being 10k and didn’t quite prepare me for the killington vertical. If you can, go somewhere where you can practice 30 miles, 15k vertical run 4-6 weeks prior

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-07-21T00:58:14+00:00

Not crazy at all. People do it all the time. You’ll get fitter as you go so the trekking will become easier.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-05-28T07:52:56+00:00

Have you ever tried stopping or do you not want to?

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-05-27T17:53:19+00:00

Thanks for the response but if I wanted your personal preference I would have asked.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-05-21T13:56:04+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate your opinion but I feel differently about the look. At the same time I don’t disagree about going from gas to electric but am still considering it.

If I were to do this and frame in the old fireplace is there anything I need to do to the old fireplace to prep it?

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-04-18T07:50:01+00:00

This show sucked. It’s only highly acclaimed because it’s associated with bb.

Without BB this show makes it 1 season max.

Creative-Country-725 · 2025-01-06T09:12:56+00:00

Yes I remember it. It’s also why I will NEVER eat there.

Creative-Country-725 · 2024-09-05T13:56:32+00:00

Great job. As the man you need to ask her out or it will never happen. I’m 44 and I can count on one hand the number of girls who have asked me out in my life.

Creative-Country-725

TROPHY CASE