About Episode
In this episode I chat with Curtis Fritsch about our pre and post-race experience running the Malibu Spartan Sprint. The pre-race interview is in the car on the way to the event, and the post-race interview was done via Skype a couple weeks later. We discuss a little of our training, but mostly we talk about the course specifics, our favorite and least favorite obstacles, and Curtis even threw in a great free plug for Shakeology.
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Transcript
Zack Arnold: My guest today is Alpha Dog Sound Editor Curtis Fritch, and we talk about our experience running the Malibu Spartan Sprint. Today’s episode is somewhat unique in that the first half of it was recorded in the car on the way to the race. We also recorded a show on the way back after the race, but that file was damaged and it couldn’t be used. So we ended up recording the rest of our conversation a couple weeks later via Skype, so my apologies for the change in audio quality between pre-race and post-race interviews. We’ll see how this baby comes out. This is going to be very interesting to experiment.
Curtis Fritsch: The recording or the race?
Zack Arnold: Both. I’ve never actually done. I’ve never done the three-mile Spartan sprint. When I did the Hurricane Heat, it was on similar course, but with Hurricane Heat, they basically they take you off course into like the backwoods, so you’re not really racing the the actual certified course.
Curtis Fritsch: Oh, okay.
Zack Arnold: So they’re literally just finding ways to torture you and do things that are off course, not even completely totally sanctioned. So I’m hoping that today is going to be a nice little respite from what I went through last year because last year was just miserable.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, I mean, I did a Warrior Dash back in 2010, right before I went to audio. Oh, that’s where all this started. Yeah, yeah. I just heard about it. I was like, well, it’s on my way down to when I went to the road trip I was taking through Arizona, and there was one in Portland. I’m like, all right, let me check it out because I didn’t have one in Seattle where I’m from, and it was not tough. I hadn’t trained, and I was probably good 20 pounds heavier, and I hadn’t worked out in a long time. And I made it through 45 minutes, not a big deal. Although I did not prepare for the mud, but
Zack Arnold: Well, for for those that are jumping in and listening and wonder what the hell we’re talking about? Why it sounds the way we do? I’m I’m sitting with Curtis Fritch. Is that how you say your last name? Yes, very
Curtis Fritsch: Good. I’m
Zack Arnold: Sitting here with Curtis Fritch of Alpha Dogs in Burbank. It is 7o’clock in the morning on a Sunday of all days, and we are driving to Malibu for the Malibu Spartan Race Sprint. We got super super lucky with the weather because I did the hurricane heat at this location exactly one year ago today. It was 35 degrees and it was snowing and raining. And today it’s already in the 50s and will be in the high 60s and sunny. So we’re we’re gonna have a I think a much better day today. But we’re on our way there, and then our voices are probably going to sound considerably different when we record the rest of the show on the way back. But this morning we literally just jumped in the car. I’m just drinking my bulletproof coffee as we speak, and we’re actually leaving right from my house. We’re only about 15 minutes from the rice venue, so I don’t actually have to drive for seven hours and stay in a hotel to go to this one, which is nice.
Zack Arnold: That is nice. but this is the first time you’ve actually been on the show, so why don’t you tell people just a little bit about yourself and what you do and how we found each other?
Curtis Fritsch: Cool. Thanks, Zack. Well, I am an audio editor over at Alpha Dogs in Burbank, like Zack said, and I’ve been doing that for about two, three years now, and they put on a event about once a month called the Editors Lounge, where they have different people from the industry come in and talk about different products, different hardware, software, things like that. And Zack just happened to be showing off fitness in post. And honestly, when I think they were talking about it. I thought it was something about just if maybe making more efficiency into your workplace or something like that. But no, it turned out to be fitness. I’m like, oh, this is interesting. And maybe five minutes into Zack’s presentation, I’m like, I’m sold. I’m ready to do this. And I started saving up money to get into the Shakeology. And as soon as as soon as he saw that I bought it, he’s like, Hey, why don’t you in a challenge group? So I’m like, okay, cool, and I I just took to it, and I gotta say the the Shakeology, wow, that is I had some this morning actually, and I was very upset because I didn’t I have my NutriBullet at work and I don’t get to I didn’t I didn’t get to get all the stuff I normally put in there, so I just had water, Shakeology, and chia seeds, but yeah, I gotta say I’ve I’ve had that, and all my sweet cravings were taken away, and just everything, and just the Shakeology program I know, which is different than your actual
Zack Arnold: Yeah you did just the the four week like Shakeology Shakeology challenge slash like clean eating group.
Curtis Fritsch: Correct. Yeah, it
Zack Arnold: Wasn’t even the full on challenge version, just more you know, learning something about diet and you know taking a different perspective on what we thought we knew about food and commemorating Shakeology and seeing how it actually makes a tremendous difference. And by the way, I didn’t put him up to this at all. I didn’t even mention to him until we jumped in the car five minutes ago. I was doing a podcast, so this is totally a free plug. I had nothing to do with this, I swear.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, it’s true. Well, that’s-I mean-that’s the thing. He-he really, he really, really preaches or does what he preaches, and it’s amazing because I-I saw the price, and I’m like, really? But it is so worth it. And those four weeks, you learn so much stuff. I had-I tried to keep up as best as possible. But you know, there’s a lot of stuff to go over, and it’s really a lot of good information. So if you really want a program that is, you know, fairly, there’s there’s a lot of good information in there, and if you want just just to kind of get an idea of what you could change just in four weeks, it’s really really good, and I highly encourage anyone to at least you know look into Shakeology and try it because if nothing else that stuff is crazy. I use it every day now and I don’t even think about the price or any. I mean, just like I need it. I need it in the morning. I use it as a meal replacement, and I’ve tried three different flavors and they’re all amazing. So I can’t, I can’t, I can’t thank Zack enough for turning me on to that and the program, especially.
Zack Arnold: Oh, I’m glad you brought that up because I had no idea what we were going to talk about when we were driving up to the Spartan race. So yeah, we got something to talk about.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah.
Zack Arnold: So I’m just going to go. Not going to go into a rant. I’m just going to sit and whine a little bit, which I usually don’t do. But I’m going to walk through what I’ve kind of gone through for the last week or so, just so you understand the state that I’m in for the Spartan race. I signed up for this. God, it was months ago that I signed up for this, and I could not have picked a worse day in the entire calendar year to be in a Spartan race. Totally, because I’ve been working ridiculous, crazy long hours. I literally was cutting all day yesterday and Saturday until about 11 o’clock last night, I traveled earlier this week. I was I traveled to Little Rock, Arkansas. I was a keynote speaker for an event for the Muscular Dystrophy Association to talk about my movie Go Far. So my time zone isn’t even correct right now, and I’ve been sick all week, which is why my voice sounds the way that it does because I’ve had a really bad head cold from traveling and working too much, and then when I’m done with the Spartan race, I’m literally driving right back to my house, dropping off Curtis, driving to work, and cutting for at least 12 to 14 hours until probably 2o’clock in the morning, and then I’m going to be repeating that for the next seven or eight days in a row. So I could not have picked a worst day ever to run a Spartan race, but I decided at the beginning of this year that my personal goal for the entire year was to get the Spartan trifecta, and that means that you run a Spartan Beast, a Spartan Super, and a Spartan Sprint all in one calendar year. This is my last chance to do it, or I wasted all my other races. So I just said, no matter what, I’m going to this race, so that’s that’s the mental state that I’m in today. I haven’t, I don’t even think I’ve exercised in the last week and a half. So this is going to be a really interesting mental test for me because physically, I’m not sure I’m going to be right in the the right place to to be able to run this thing optimally. So we’re going to see if I’ve got some mental grit built up from the other races that I’ve done. So this will be interesting.
Curtis Fritsch: Wow. Okay. That’s. Don’t worry. I’ll help you out. Yeah, I’m
Zack Arnold: Very glad that I’ve got a team member today. So that way, if I pass out in a ditch somewhere, somebody be like, “Ah, this guy needs some help. I’m with him, and he needs some help. So we’ll see what happens. So I’m. I may embarrass myself, and Curtis may be like, “Oh, dude, you’re so out of shape. So we’ll see what happens.
Curtis Fritsch: I’ll try and carry you. Well, that’s the thing. You’ve done a super and you’ve done a beast, and I’m just like, I’ll fire for the three mile one. Thanks. Yeah. Well, I
Zack Arnold: Think what I’ve never done this race before. I’ve never done the three mile version. Even the Hurricane Heath that I did on the same basic course, I still think ended up being about eight miles because they just run you ragged through the whole thing over and over. So I’ve never done one this short, but I’ve always trained more for the endurance level where I never worry about speed. It’s just about being able to make it over several hours, going up and down hills and handling the obstacles. So what I’m worried about is that I don’t have the endurance to do the sprint and be running at the pace that everybody else is running because they’re going to be running at a 5K pace in the mountains through obstacles, and I’m just not even remotely ready to do that. So we may be going at a at a 13 mile course pace, even though it’s only a three mile course.
Curtis Fritsch: Okay, well no worries. I mean, like I when I train for the triathlon. Oh, that’s another thing. That’s right.
Zack Arnold: Yes, we absolutely need to talk about that. This guy’s run a triathlon, so I’m totally gonna get embarrassed.
Curtis Fritsch: That was that was something Zack also helped me kind of realize. Like, oh, okay, you know, this is a really good. I just I forget why it was triathlon. Oh, that’s right, because one of my coworkers, she had trained for a triathlon, and someone had said, I don’t know if you got the discipline to do that. I’m like, oh, well, okay then. You know, it’s always it’s always a really great motivation when someone says, “I’m not sure if you can do this, and and yeah, as a personal challenge to myself, it’s like, “All right, let’s see if I can. And so
Zack Arnold: I love it when people say you can’t. That’s my favorite thing on the planet. Because as soon as somebody tells me I can’t do something, I say, “Well, we’re just gonna see about that. And that’s pretty much defined how I’ve gotten into the mess that I’m in in my entire life right now is proving people that I can.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, I love it. But yeah, when I was training for that, I did a lot of distance stuff, a lot of five, six miles here and there. You know, it was. I mean, I tried doing hit training, the high intensity intervals and all that, and that that seemed to work okay. But the problem is when you’re running down the middle of West Hollywood in the streets super fast, people tend to look at you funny. So it’s easier just to jog. But yeah, this is I’ve I’ve never done hills in my well. I’ve done small inclines in my training, but nothing like this. So I’m I’m looking forward to not passing out as well.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, we’ll see how we both do today. It’ll be interesting. I’m just glad that it’s not snowing in 35 degrees, and it’ll actually be decent weather because I’ve been petrified of the weather ever since I did this a year ago. So
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, yeah. Not to mention the fact that last weekend we Southern California got some pretty heavy rain for the first time in a while. So yeah, had
Zack Arnold: We done this a week ago, we would have been in a world of pain. They really would have been cold and just soaked and slippery and muddy, and that’s what it was like when I was at the Sacramento Super. It wasn’t terribly cold. It was probably in the 60s, but it rained the whole time, and it was so hard getting through the course because you couldn’t really run it because it was in it was like on a on a farm, so there are cow pies and mud everywhere, and it will just slip through the whole thing. So hopefully the the footing here will be better. But I know for I mean we’re driving on Mulholland Highway right now, and I’m just looking at these hills. I’m like, yep, he went to what we’re going to be running up today. So there’s almost no flat ground whatsoever on on these courses, which I think if anything will cater to my strength because I all the training I do is hiking in these mountains and you know mountains over a little bit further east of here and I’m hoping that there are no straightaways because the sprint on the straightaways I’m not ready for that but having to traverse up and down these huge hills is a little bit more my speed but talk a little bit more about your triathlon, like what what length was it, and for those that are really familiar with triathlon, just kind of break down the events and kind of what what that experience was like.
Curtis Fritsch: Oh yeah, for sure. So it was the San Dimas Turkey Triathlon. It was a couple. It was a yeah. It was about five days before Thanksgiving, and I decided about four or five months ahead of time to go for it, and it’s a half-mile swim, 14-mile bike, 4.5-mile run, and you know, I mean, for me, that was the running is the most difficult part. The biking, not so much. I mean, I kind of come from a hiking background, and my stepdad and I used to do the Seattle to Portland bike run, which is 200 or so miles, and you do that. You can do that in a day, or you did it in two days. He can do it in one day now. I usually did it in two, but it’s about 100 miles on a bike. So I’m like, ah, the bike is nothing. Whatever, I can do that. And I remember when my mom shipped my bike down to me, and I started riding it for I think I did it for six or seven miles the first day, and I’m like, eh, easy. I got this. I didn’t even feel anything, but yeah, I would get up at 6 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday and go swimming, and I would go. I think it was 35 or 36 laps to complete the half mile, and then I would train in and around West Hollywood, just running the neighborhood to try and get to try and get the salmon I would need because I remember that when I first started out I just said okay I’ve got to see how far I can do this and I remember after a certain point I could not go past a mile without slowing down power walking and just getting exhausted I’m like I don’t know if I can do this but I kept going I said you know what let’s just keep trying keep trying and before I knew it, I was running four and a half, five miles at a time, and it’s just little, it’s just small little increments. You just you can’t get caught up in getting to four and a half miles in the first little bit. Just say, okay, let me get to two. Okay, let me get to two and a half. And you know, the the best part about it is, after a while, I didn’t even have to start. I didn’t have to walk anymore. I could just keep jogging the whole time, and and at that point, even when you hit a stoplight, you’re just like, “All right, I’m just gonna jog in place. I just want to keep this momentum going. And you really you get past that wall, and it’s just amazing. And the day of the triathlon, it went really well, aside from the fact that I got a flat tire, so my time wasn’t as good as I would have liked. But my my swim time was much better than a lot of people in my age group, and my run time, considering I was near the end of the pack, I was passing a bunch of people, so that was really good too. So I’m looking forward to doing it next year and seeing if I can actually, you know, get somewhere up on the top of the age group, maybe that’s what I’m really hoping to do.
Zack Arnold: That’s good. Well, it’s good to hear that you were able to kind of do it incrementally, because that’s the thing that always freaks people out about exercise or you know signing up for an event like that. As they say, well, I just can’t do that much. It’s like, well, you don’t have to do that much on day one. You don’t sign up for a triathlon and then run it a week later. You have to do baby steps and make small changes and just do one little piece at a time. I mean, when I when I started this journey, I was nowhere near the shape that I am now, and just had to start one little piece here. And actually, started with P 90 years ago because I tried the whole jumping in and starting from square one. With P90X on day one, and that was just embarrassing. That was just sad. I’m really glad I didn’t videotape that because that would have been a really, really bad experience. So yeah, I just started really slow and built up. And you know, once once you get to a point where you’ve been through all that, then one lesson that I’ve learned this year, just considering my schedule, is that sometimes you just have to be in maintenance mode, like right now, I’m just in maintenance mode where I don’t want to go backwards. So you know, I’m not doing P90X every single day right now. I just don’t have the time to do it. I’m just making sure that I’m in maintenance mode, and I think this is where we park. Wow, we’re already here. All right. Well, in that case, we’re gonna cut the the first half of this show short, so I can figure out where to put my car. And when you hear back from us, hopefully there’s gonna be a second part to this podcast because we’ve survived. And assuming that we have, then we’ll be back with you once we are done with the race. As I mentioned in the introductory part of this episode, Curtis and I had this fantastic conversation that we recorded immediately after being done with the Spartan Race, and just talked about all this great stuff. And then we pulled up to my house and realized that the iPhone didn’t record most of it. So unfortunately, as much as I wanted to do this quick and dirty and just be completely like off the cuff and talk about it, I figured I would rather we just do this right, and we talk about our experience, and we have it all here. So you know, it’s it’s it’s a little ways after we finish the race, but we’re just gonna kind of get in the mindset. If we just got done, we just jumped in the car. So I want to talk about what your feeling was, Curtis, after finishing your first Spartan race.
Curtis Fritsch: Oh man, like like I said, it was it was pretty humbling because you know you run a triathlon and you’re you’re sort of just doing what you can to maintain it. And this this Spartan race was I really didn’t prepare because I had done a warrior dash previous to this, and you know there’s so much more involved. Like anyone can do a warrior dash. I feel like with minimal amount of training, but the Spartan race it just it beats you up. It really does. So, but it was it was amazing, and I mean, you you really get a sense of camaraderie with the people around you because you’re all going through this crazy, incredible struggle, and it’s and it really does feel like more of a team effort. So, yeah, it was it was one heck of an experience, and I got to say, after after doing that, I was like, I’m hooked, and I want to just, I want to get through all the obstacles without having to do any burpees on the next one I do.
Zack Arnold: Right. Well, we can now say in hindsight that you actually are following through with your words because you’ve already signed up for the next Spartan Sprint, which is coming up next month already.
Curtis Fritsch: Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. I was a little disappointed because they had a beast and they had a super, but I figured that I probably would not have enough time to train for you know eight and 13 miles on those respectively. So I just said, “All right, let me get a Spartan done, and then if I can, I’ll try and get the trifecta in 2015. If not, for sure, I’ll be doing it in 2016.
Zack Arnold: Right. Well, I want to go back to what you talked about some on the way to the race in the car, and just now you’d mentioned being in a triathlon. To me, what most people think when they hear triathlon is this is just somebody in peak physical condition that’s a complete and total athlete. And you just did one. It’s not like you said I ran a triathlon seven years ago. You just participated in one a short while ago. So tell me the big difference is just you know, on the ground, what’s the difference between what you did for the triathlon and the kind of things you encountered in the Spartan race?
Curtis Fritsch: Well, with the triathlon, I mean it’s it’s it’s very clearly laid out what’s going to happen. You’re going to do for the one I did was a Sam Demis one. It was a half mile swim, 14 mile bike ride, and then a 4.5 mile run. So literally, that’s all I was doing was just you know going through laps to the pool to try and get half a mile, going on a bike ride to you know just hit over 14 miles and then just run, and that’s it. It was just mainly endurance training with um with a Spartan race though. It’s it’s much more about getting your entire body conditioned for kind of whatever gets thrown at it, so you know I had to do push-ups, pull-ups. I was you know trying to get ready for something where I’d have to balance properly. You know, trying to increase the strength of my core, trying to get better at stretching. I mean, it’s it’s it’s so much more involved in your entire body than with a triathlon. I mean, granted, a triathlon that that lasted longer, but it was much easier in the time that it took. I would say because it’s it’s all about endurance, and that took me about two and a half hours. Whereas the Spartan race, I think, I think we finished up in about an hour, hour and a half. I forget exactly how long. Yeah, it was
Zack Arnold: Like an hour 20 minutes. I think.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, but it was all it was. I mean, it was a mile and a half of uphill to a grade where you were almost crawling because it was such a steep grade uphill, and they just they beat your legs up to the point where you know you were just numb within the first mile and a half, and then came all the obstacles. The bastards just decided to throw them all at us at the very end, and it was really really. Axing because you’re just using all of your lower body, and then all of a sudden, up here comes the upper body part. No rest in between.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, and there’s no doubt that they do that purposely because they’re saying, “What’s the? How do we just challenge these people the most and just dig in as hard and as deep as possible? And I’d never seen an obstacle course that was so backloaded with all of the obstacles, usually they’re pretty well spaced out. But I think that because they’ve been around for a while now and these are becoming more popular, they’re trying to challenge people more. And you think that oh well, you know, if the first two miles I’m not going to have any obstacles, that’s kind of nice. What you don’t realize is that the hardest obstacle on that entire course was the hills. They just never ended. Like literally within 50 feet of the starting line, you basically run into this little pocket in the woods, and then the little red arrows are pointing you to go straight left, which is straight up for over a mile. All you’re doing is climbing. That’s it. You’re not, you know, climbing over walls or crawling under barbed wire, you’re just crawling up a hill. That’s it, and you’re exhausted. You’re not even a mile in, and you’re completely and totally exhausted. So they they really really mess with you.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, it’s it’s crazy. And I remember one of the guys we were with. He said he did it the day before, and he’s just like, “Oh yeah, this is the only flat part for the entire course. You know, right after we turned this corner, which was about like you said, 50 feet in front of us, it’s all a hill, and it was no joke. It was just a straight hill up, like okay. And I remember we got, we we couldn’t have gotten that far, probably like 2030 minutes in, and I’m just like, okay, I I feel like doing network reading 75 pages of network deliverables is not that big of a chore now,
Zack Arnold: Right? And that’s the thing that we kept talking about, and the the whole kind of method behind my madness, and for those that have listened to these shows before, they they know where I’m coming from. But the idea is not about being able to say you climbed over a wall or you crawled under barbed wire. It’s about being able to say after doing this, working a long day really really isn’t that hard. And if you want to talk about putting your money where your mouth is, I was just telling Curtis that after the Spartan race was over, our heat was at 915 which means that I woke up about 630 in the morning, got in my car at seven, we drove over, did the whole parking and registration thing. We got done at about 1040-five or 11. I drove to work in Beverly Hills, and I worked until one a.m. that day. So I had a really really long day, and this was on a Sunday too, but what this does in your mind is it starts to rewire the synapses, so things are not as difficult as they seem. Because you can start saying to yourself, “Well, like you said, I have all these network deliverable notes, but I just ran a Spartan race last week. This really isn’t that hard anymore. So they’re a lot of fun, but there’s certainly a method behind the madness and a science to it as well. If you really want to learn much more about this philosophy, I highly recommend the book Spartan Up, which is by Joe Desenna, who is the guy that started the entire Spartan Race program and business, and like he’s he’s the man behind all the madness. And I’m a big fan of his and his book, so I’ll put a link to the show notes to that book. But on a total side note, we actually got to meet Joe. That was kind of cool.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, right at the beginning too. That was amazing. We just happened to rain, and you were just like, “Oh, hey, there’s Joe.
Zack Arnold: Exactly. So we got to meet him, and we got to meet Ben Greenfield too, which is really cool. And I’m going to have my first show, first podcast of the new year, is going to be my show with Ben Greenfield because I figure there’s no better way to start the new year than listening to this guy talk about health and fitness because he’s just an absolute guru and the fact that I got to meet him in person was really cool as well. But we’re we’re going off on a tangent. I want to go back to all the misery and all the fun that was the Spartan race. So talk to me about some of your favorite obstacles.
Curtis Fritsch: Okay, so I’m jeez, my favorite. You know, it’s it’s funny because I’d like to say that they weren’t my favorites. They were actually the most challenging. But when you go back, it’s like, oh, those were a lot of fun. I mean, I would I would say climbing the 10 foot wall was a lot of fun. The the monkey bars. You know what? Out of all the things, the monkey bars, and it’s not because like oh, I just I couldn’t wait to get to it. It was because that and the rope climb scared me more than anything else as something I couldn’t do, and I just just mowed through the monkey bars, and it wasn’t as tough as I thought. So that that probably was one of the highlights of the whole thing. Was just because I didn’t think I could do it, so I I trained for it, and it paid off. So I was like I was just super happy about that, that and just I mean every obstacle that I was able to tackle was probably my favorite. Probably my least favorite, I would say, would have been the barbed wire crawl because I got you. You just tore through people. You were like, “All right, I’m gonna find a path and go. And I had to. I got a little stuck behind a few people that were in front of me, and I didn’t want to be rude and just oh get out of my way, but as a result you’re you’re climbing up and you don’t you can’t stick your your back or your butt up too far otherwise you get in the barbed wires you really have to use you know your core and and your legs and your arms and elbows I mean I came out of that and my my elbows and my knees just looked like they had been run for. Meat grinder. It was really unattractive. It was it was bizarre. I mean, people looked at me like, “What did you do? And I’m like, “Oh, nothing. Just crawled under barbed wire through rocks. So yeah, that was that was a fun part. Yeah, for
Zack Arnold: Anybody that’s done any of the Beachbody programs like P90X, P90X three, T25, there’s a thing called a spider push-up, and the spider push-up is the best exercise on the planet if you want to get ready for crawling under barbed wire. Because basically, imagine you’re doing a regular push-up, and you’re down like you’ve you know you’ve pushed down your nose is at the floor, but you take one of your feet and you put your elbow or you put your your knee to your elbow, and you alternate. So you go down for a push-up, put one knee to your elbow, and then go down and do the other one. And they’re really, really hard. But that’s exactly the muscles that you’re using when you’re crawling under barbed wire because you can’t get on your hands and knees. You’re basically on your stomach, and you’re doing spider push-ups over and over and over. And because I’ve done so many of them, now I just kind of fly through the the barbed wire because I know correct form and I’ve developed those muscles. But a lot of people are just sitting there really, really struggling because they don’t have that core strength and stability to be able to use those muscles to push through. And most people have a hard time with it when it’s on flat ground, but they don’t just do it on flat ground. They put it on like a steep grade, and you’re not doing it on this nice, soft, supple mud. It’s like rocks and gravel, and like it’s it’s not a fun experience. So my philosophy is: the quicker you get through it, the quicker you’re done.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. It was it was tough going through that, and just because because I I remember it was it was fine for a little while, but then as soon as some people realized that oh, this is going to take a while, and they started slowing down, and you couldn’t start rolling through it like we started to for the first little bit. That was that was the interesting part. It was just like oh, let’s try rolling up the hill for a little while, and it worked, and it worked really well. And then all of a sudden, it was just like oh, wait, there are people in front of us now, and we don’t want to knock them off?
Zack Arnold: Yeah, exactly. Because when when you say it’s a race, yes, it’s a race. But unless you’re in the elite heat, it’s really a race against yourself and what you’re capable of competing and doing with within yourself. So that being the case, there is a lot of camaraderie, and it’s not just a bunch of meatheads that are pushing people out of the way trying to win. The vast majority of people, and when I say the vast majority, I mean like four to 5000 people race this in a day. They’re all just working as a team, trying to get through this obstacle course together. Which is one of the really cool things about it is that you’ll be going through, and you can like help somebody that falls over. You know, somebody’s trying to get over a wall, and it’s all about everybody trying to get through and and do it together at the same time, so I’m looking right now. I have a Facebook photo album up, and I will link to it in the show notes. But I’m looking at the actual map for the course, and I’m reminded of some of the really really fun obstacles that we had. So let’s talk a little bit about the spear throw.
Curtis Fritsch: Ah, the spear throw. Yes, that’s the that’s the one that gets even the most elite people. That’s the one that’s just a little tricky every now and then because before before I started, I guess they didn’t have a rope attached to it. So with that, it’s changed the trajectory a little bit. So yeah, that that was I was thinking that was going to be one of the. It was either going to be a hit or a miss easily, and we both miffed it. And the you know the worst part is that I think we both hit the hay just fine. It just didn’t stick. Yep, that’s what happened to me. Is that the the
Zack Arnold: First time I had had done it at the Spartan Beast and I nailed it, and it was at like mile 12, and I could even barely pick it up. I’m like, oh, whatever, and I just threw it, and it stuck. And then I did it at the Spartan Super, and it was pouring rain, and it slipped out of my hand, and I didn’t even hit the hay bale. So this time I’m like, well, it’s nice out. It’s 70 degrees. The weather is perfect. I’ve done this a couple of times. I got it in the exact perfect location, and it fell right out. And I was like, ah. So that that was a burpee maker. That was the only one officially that I had to do burpees on for this race.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, yeah. Those that was my introduction to burpees. I’m like, oh, okay. How hard can this be? And within like I would say 10 to 15. I’m like, okay, I need a break. It was I. I was surprised by how difficult a burpee was. I honestly did not think they would be that. I’m like, okay, you know, you do a push up, you jump up, what is it? And then within 10 or 15, I’m like, okay, okay, hang on. This is this is this is crazier than I remember.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, they’re the real deal. And if you just decide that you’re going to drop and do 30 burpees just while you’re at work. That’s really hard. But try doing 30 burpees when you’re two miles into the race and you’ve been walking and running uphill for the last 40-five minutes. You just have no wind and you have no legs left. So to throw in burpees at that time is it’s it’s it’s tough. They’re hard to get through.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, yeah, they really are, and I’m. I mean, I was so just. I was so humbled by that. I’m just. I’ve started doing burpees at work now. I’ve. I’ve made my way so that I can do 20 at a time right now without stopping. All right. Working. Yeah. I’m working up to getting 30, but I’m just like, wow. These are a lot. There. It’s. It’s not that they’re. I mean, they’re difficult, but they really do. Work everything, and I’m like, this is just the absolute perfect exercise to do when you’re in the middle of an edit bay, and there’s just you know whether there’s someone around or not, it’s just it’s fairly low impact, and you don’t have to have a lot of space, and it works everything you could possibly imagine.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, the burpee is kind of the perfect exercise because you don’t need any equipment whatsoever. It takes up a small amount of space, and it works more parts of your body and your lungs and your heart, and does the cardio probably more than any single exercise there is. So I think that’s the reason why Joe is such a big fan of putting it and making it kind of the the quintessential exercise of the Spartan race because they’re really hard, but they’re also really really beneficial for you. So now I want to talk a little bit about the rope. Let’s talk about the rope.
Curtis Fritsch: Yes, let’s talk. So I managed, or you managed to get up there, and I guess this would been your thing for a little while. You were just training and training on that guy for a long time, and you managed to make it up. And I got, I think, about halfway up, and my leg just cramped up, and I said, “Okay, well, I’m using the leg, my legs for supporting myself. So I just, I was like, “I don’t think I can do this just on my upper body strength. So I fell right back into the water.
Zack Arnold: And then you got the the good news when they said, “Sorry, you get one chance. Yeah, I know because you’re kind of standing there psyching yourself up to go again, and she’s like, “Sorry, you get to go once. And it’s like,
Curtis Fritsch: Oh, I know. Yeah, I mean, if they had given me a chance to go again, I would, I would have done it until I could have finished it. But then, ah, darn it.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, and I would say that of all the obstacles, at the end of the day, the rope climb for most people is if it’s not the hardest, it’s definitely in the top three of the hardest. And they put it about 50 feet before the finish line, which I thought was just absolutely cruel, cruel and unusual punishment to say, “Hey, you’ve run this whole race, and guess what? Before you can cross the finish line, you have to climb the ropes, and if you don’t, you have to do 30 burpees. And by the way, it’s just completely covered with mud. When we were doing those last burpees, literally, you would put your hand on the ground, and your hand was completely submerged in mud. It was probably three or four inches thick. So those burpees were hard.
Curtis Fritsch: Oh yeah, that was that was no joke. And I think that mud was actually covered in rocks too, little tiny pebbles. And it was like, oh, this is this is just great.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that that that one was definitely tough. But we got some we got some good pictures out of it. I’m I’m glad that that we went on the site because there I got a couple of really good badass pictures and you’ve got some as well. There’s some they take good pictures at this event.
Curtis Fritsch: They really do. Yeah, I I is the same here as with the triathlon. It’s like it seems like they they took more pictures of us. Like I had a couple really good posed ones when we were doing the the sandbag carry, but it seems like those didn’t come out, but the ones on the monkey bar and the ones on the dip walk-I mean, those came out really nicely. So I was super happy about that. And the ones that we took with your camera actually came out really well too. The ones pre and post race, I love those.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, this is the first race that I ever did where I didn’t bring my phone with me because I’ve-I usually bring it in the past so I can track my heart rate and just have all the the you know quantitative data, and I like to take pictures of the obstacles. And I realized that that was just very distracting for me. And I just wanted to focus on just the race. And I’m really glad I made that choice. So it’s the first time I didn’t have I had nothing with me: no water bottles, no phone, no nothing. It was just me and clothes and the obstacle course. And I really enjoyed being able to to do that because if you do a longer race, you have to have hydration with you. If you’re gonna do like the the beast, every two miles they have a hydration station, but still, like you’re gonna need more than that if you really want to make it through and not be miserable. So that’s always kind of a pain. But I’m glad in this one I didn’t have to carry anything. That was nice.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, yeah, because I can see that would be a little tough to just keep hydrating all the time. I mean, it’s not tough to be to hydrate all the time, but just the thought of okay, you have to carry you know an extra weight, and what am I going to drink at this time? And I have to remind myself at this time is when I drink, and you know you have to make sure you don’t get mud. I’ll open it, and it’s just you know it’s you know, and when’s a good time for our photo? And you have to make sure the camera doesn’t get crushed and all these fun little variables,
Zack Arnold: Right? Exactly. So if a coworker came up to you and said, “Hey, I heard this podcast that you did about this Spartan race that you ran. Where the heck would I start? Because you’re you’re not an athlete, but you ran a triathlon, so you’re in fairly good shape. But you obviously learned a lot from this, and this was your first race, so your experience is different than mine because I’ve now been running these for a few years, and I’ve gotten myself to the point where I’m in shape for most of the obstacles that are presented. But somebody that’s never done this, that does what we do for a living-you live in a dark room, and you know you’re a sound editor, and you know live the way that all of us do. What kind of recommendation would you give after having run your first race and saying, well, here are the things I recommend if you want to jump into your first obstacle course race.
Curtis Fritsch: I I would definitely say above all else, find someone else to do it with because if nothing else, there’s something about going through the struggle. And I I don’t want to make it sound like this is a super tough thing. It’s not easy, but it’s really not that tough. I think anybody. With a little bit of training, can do it, but go with someone else if possible because they let you split up the burpees. If you do it as a group, it’s you know you can help each other out with the obstacles, and it’s just you know if someone’s dragging behind, it’s so much easier if they just have someone else supporting them the whole way. I think that’s just I think that above all else is great. Just going in there as a team, and then in terms of like working out and other things, I would say, you know, you definitely want to try looking into what kind of course you’re getting into. Like ours was mostly hilly, so you know, I would say try training on hills. Just, I mean, the big thing is just getting out there and walking. Just get up out of the room, walk for about you know half hour a day if you can, and then if you have time you know try try doing running around for about 1030 minutes just just getting in a little light jogging just to get your legs moving, and then also if you can, I would say start trying to do some form of exercise like a P 90x like a T 25 any of those Beachbody ones, that or if you can’t afford that, or if you even can’t afford a ginger membership, what you can do is there are several parks. If if you live in the Los Angeles area, especially, there are parks everywhere that have like kind of workout courses everywhere. There’s one at Bob Hope. There’s another one at Verdugo. There’s one at Plummer Park in West Hollywood, and these all have like they have monkey bars, they have dip bars, they have chin up bars, and just you know see if you can go out there and do a couple of those. I mean that’s that’s what I did. I would just train at Bob Hope every morning before the Spartan race, and that really got me, I think, over the edge of complete inexperience and my muscles just not being able to do it to me being able to complete most of the obstacles without much difficulty. So I would say that was a big factor in doing that, you know. And just and just trying to be active during the day, if you can. I mean, even if even if you have clients, it’s just like you know, if they go for lunch, take you know 30 seconds and do as many high-intensity jumping jacks as you can, you know. Try doing 30 burpees over the course of the day. You know, five here, five there, something. Just just keep yourself moving and just, you know, get your body ready for doing a bunch of crazy stuff by, you know, not being sedentary all the time. That would be those. Those are my biggest things. Just try not to stand still, yeah, and and you’ll be and you’ll be better off for it.
Zack Arnold: And what was the biggest surprise for you as far as your lack of training? Because I know that I always go into these doing a lot of training, and then I get out of it. I’m like, oh man, I should have done this, this, or that. So somebody that have has had trained for a triathlon, what do you feel were your weak spots were going into the next one that you’re going to race in a month. What do you really want to focus on?
Curtis Fritsch: Definitely more upper body and strength training because I did a whole bunch of it’s you know it’s it’s endurance and cardio and using your your legs. I mean essentially for everything. You know I mean there was a little bit with the the swimming, but not nearly as much as I should have done for strength training for that, so as soon as I finished my triathlon, I immediately switched gears. As soon as I looked into what the Spartan race entailed, and I said, “Okay, I need to start doing pull-ups. I need to start doing push-ups. I need to start conditioning myself to have better forearm and grip strength, and just just things like that. I mean, you know, having having something that helps your grip strength in an edit bay can go a long long way to doing something like that because I remember the Hercules hoist was the big one where you’re just pulling up 130 pound bag of sand up I think it’s like 100 feet in the air and then you have to lower it down I mean your fingers are just never gonna forgive you for that moment at least for the first 10 minutes, I was like, “Wow, I don’t think I can use these ever again. You get over that, but yeah, it was it was pretty tough to to get that thing down and accomplish that. But it can be done. It can be done.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, that was my number one thing that I realized when I ran my first Spartan because the Spartan is very different from the tough mudder. I’d run a few tough mudders, but the Spartan is designed very differently, and I realized that my number one weak spot was forearm strength, grip strength, and finger strength. Because any obstacle that had to do with those things, I failed on. I couldn’t do the Hercules hoist and lift that sandbag. I couldn’t get up the rope. There was another one that was oh, there was one where you have to pull a tire up a hill with a rope, and I failed miserably on all those because I just didn’t have the grip strength. So that’s something I really focused on. And that’s there are a lot of different things you can do for grip strength. But literally, if you’re going to be in front of your computer all day, that’s one of the few things you can work on. You just get a grip strengthener, and you just open it and close it all day long, and just you know vary from one hand to the other. And I even have one in my edit suite. That’s that you can do the individual fingers, so I can sit there and do a grip strengthener one finger at a time. And after having done that for a couple of months, that’s the main reason that I got up the rope. It has nothing to do with having big biceps or strong legs. Like all those things are a part of it, and all those things I think were already fairly strong to begin with. But the reason I failed the rope the first two times I tried it is because I didn’t have the grip strength, and this time my grip was more than enough, and I got up the rope without any problem because I focused on that specific area. And for people that live on a computer all day long, I guarantee your forearms are going to be weak and your grip is going to be weak because you know your muscles atrophy because you’re stuck in one position all day long on your keyboard.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, I would definitely say grip strength is is a big big one. That and just I mean, if you’re not if you’re not prepared for the obstacles going into it, just do a bunch of burpees. Just be prepared to do burpees. So that would be a big key. Just you know, if if you can’t complete obstacles, you have to do burpees. So if you’re even if you don’t complete any of the obstacles, if you can do burpees really well and do a ton of them, I mean, you’ll do fine. I feel like the the running and and the actual, you know, getting through the three mile course of it was it it was tough, but it wasn’t as tough if you if you just you know you just put one foot in front of the other. You know, if it takes extra time, it takes extra time. You can still get that done. I feel like the obstacles are the bigger challenge in that in that equation.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, absolutely. And I just realized that we talked about your favorite obstacle, but I didn’t get to talk about my favorite obstacle.
Curtis Fritsch: No, yeah, please.
Zack Arnold: My favorite obstacle, which I don’t think most people would even consider that much of an obstacle or a favorite, but I kind of turn it into a favorite. I don’t even know exactly what it’s called, but basically you’re going through you’re you’re in paths in the woods. This isn’t an open space. This race was in the the mountains in Malibu, so it’s mostly very tight hiking trails. And they had this area where they had all these bungee cords strapped horizontally across these trees, but they were kind of diagonal. Like they’re imagine 20 or 30 long bungee cords strapped across, you know, your path, and you people were like kind of getting tangled up in them and didn’t know if they should climb over or climb under. And I just kind of said, “Screw this! I’m just going to go nuts. And do you remember what it was that I said to you before we started?
Curtis Fritsch: I do remember. You sort of announced to everyone right in front of the way, just sort of navigate, like thinking, “Oh, okay. Well, how am I going to do this? You just said I’ve got an idea, and you just dropped to the ground.
Zack Arnold: And I, mind you, this was downhill. It wasn’t a steep grade, but this was downhill down a hiking path covered in bungee cords. And I just said, I’m not dealing with any of this crap. So I just rolled as fast as I could down the hill, and I got through it in like 15 or 20 seconds. And there were people that were stuck in it like a like spider webs for like two three minutes, and I just went all the way through and barreled through, and I just I called it my my kamikaze obstacle. That was my favorite one by far.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, that was that was pretty amazing. Just I mean, you just said I’m gonna. This is this is not happening. I’m going through as quick as possible, and it was, I mean, you really did. I think you were waiting for me, and I, I had the same. I or I, I followed in in your footsteps, and I just said, “All right, I’m going to do that too. And even I wasn’t that quick. I’m just like, “Wow, that that took that that took some cajones to go through just rolling like that.
Zack Arnold: Well, and I ended up paying for it, and I’m actually still paying for it almost two weeks later, because I I didn’t feel it at the time. It didn’t take until like that night or the next morning. But I must have banged my knee right on the the patella, like right there on the the cap of the knee. I must have banged it on a rock or something, because I couldn’t even walk upright for two days afterwards. And even now, if I kneel down on the ground, I can still feel that like deep bruise in there. So I did pay for it, but it was still worth
Curtis Fritsch: It. It was worth. It was quite a moment, and I don’t think anyone that was around will forget that he, mr. Zack Arnold, decided. Oh, okay, I’m just gonna roll down, and it was, it was, it was amazing just to see you. Just all right, bam! Like you made a decision, you just committed.
Zack Arnold: Well, that’s kind of the way that I do everything, I certainly can’t say that nobody’s ever called me intense before. I’ve gotten that a time or two, and I’m now you can certainly attest to firsthand that you know whatever it is that that I’m preaching, I’m also practicing because I certainly am not one to get afraid to to get dirty.
Curtis Fritsch: Oh, absolutely, yeah. I remember when there was a mud path, and there were I think it was it was a couple, or maybe there was there was a girl who was like, okay, how am I going to do this? And you just like you know the easiest way to do this, and you just hopped on through like you were a kid in puddles. You were just splashing and getting mud everywhere, and she was just like, oh, and we just left them in the dust. Well, I just
Zack Arnold: Thought it was funny that somebody at a Spartan race, knowing what the what the course is all about, they were literally standing there. It was it was like one of those thick muds that go kind of goes up to like not quite your knee, but maybe halfway between your ankle and your knee. And they were standing there saying, “Well, how do we get around this? I’m like, “What do you mean get around it? You just run through it. That’s what it’s there for. Like I could, the mindset didn’t make sense. It’s not like they were standing there holding their Versace purse and their cocktail dress, going out for drinks. It’s like you’re at a Spartan race. You run through the mud. That’s why it’s there. That’s what you’re paying for is to run through it, not go around it. So yeah, I just thought. Was absurd. I’m like, well, here’s how you do it: plot, plot, plot, plot, plot. Like, durr.
Curtis Fritsch: Absolutely, yeah. That was. I was just. I mean, and she did not look like she was sort of new to this. She looked like she was pretty tough. She was. She was small, if I recall, but she wasn’t. She. She wasn’t like out of shape, or she. I mean, she looked like she could probably tackle any of the obstacles thrown in front of her, and then as soon as she got to the mud, she’s like, “Oh, what do I do?
Zack Arnold: Yeah, exactly. And I’m just like, “Come on! Like sometimes I’ll make that joke if I’m running past a volunteer or something, and be like, “Wait a second, I’m gonna get dirty. I don’t want to get dirty. You know, they just kind of look at you and they laugh, but it’s like you’re paying money to do this. Like if if you’re trying to get through it and stay clean and not get a scrape on you, then you’re wasting your time and your money. That’s what you pay for is to have fun and enjoy the experience. That’s what it’s there for. So yeah, that that was beyond me. I just did not understand that at
Curtis Fritsch: All. Yeah. Well, you know, if she doesn’t want to take take the easy road, that’s fine. That’s fine. I mean, she’s going to get dirty at some point, and she might as well confront it now rather than later.
Zack Arnold: Exactly. So, what after now that we’re post Spartan race more than an hour? Because when we originally recorded the version that didn’t didn’t record, we were right after the race. But now we’ve got some hindsight. So it’s a couple weeks later. And what what is doing the Spartan race changed for you? Whether it’s mindset or anything else? How’s how’s running the race kind of changed your viewpoint?
Curtis Fritsch: Well, it it honestly changed my opinion of how difficult obstacle course racing is compared to something like a triathlon or a half marathon because I see how tough it can be, you know, just packing three just packing obstacles and whatever you can throw into three miles as opposed to what I did, which was a lot more than that. So it certainly humbled me and how organized and how well thought out and how just taxing they want to make a Spartan race for you. But at the same time, how much more fun it is compared to a triathlon. And in terms of a mindset, I went into work the next the next day, and for that whole week, I had I had a show that had to be turned around in a week, and it was you know a good like I’d say 1015 minutes worth of material, which usually takes me about a week. It it depends how tough it is, but this I was going to say this was going to take me about a week’s worth of work, and they needed it done within three to four days, so I said, “Okay, I have to get in. I have to get buckle down and make sure I get this done. And I just I remember going into work and working through it, and I was just like, you know, this isn’t as bad as not being able to get up that rope, or this isn’t quite as bad as crawling on my hands and knees, getting all scraped up with rocks. It really was a lot easier to just take a step back and say, you know what, I got this. Don’t worry too much about the deadline. I’m going to be able to get this done. It it really does make everything else seem just just pale in comparison in terms of difficulty. Really had that effect on me. So I was I was pretty impressed with that because even the triathlon didn’t do that for me. I mean, I felt good, but I had been training for months and months, and I was like, I’m pretty sure I can do this. And the Spartan race, it just it was a huge mountain to climb after in in hindsight. But once you did it, it’s like, wow, I I did that. That’s incredible.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, it definitely changes your viewpoint of a lot of things, which is the whole reason that I do it, and I encourage other people to do it because it’s yes, getting muddy is fun, and yes, being outside is good for you. But at the end of the day, everything that I’m trying to do with the fitness and post program is make us better at what we do for a living. And running an obstacle course race is no exception. Because even though I ran that race and went right to work and was cutting reshoots for 14 hours until 1 a.m. that day, I just I felt really really good and I had the energy to get through that day. Whereas had I not been in as good a shape or had not run races like this, I might have been sitting there that Sunday thinking, “Oh, this is so hard, and I just want to be home, and I’m so tired. Like that’s the way that I used to think, and now that I do these races, that makes me better at what I do for a living, which therefore makes me more hireable, which therefore makes me money, which therefore puts food on my table and feeds my kids. So it’s it’s not just about trying to you know look good in a tight t shirt or have a cool picture of you know us with mud on us. This is about making us better people and making us better at what we do for a living. So there is there is a method to the madness.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I will. I will absolutely say that it just it makes everything a little bit easier once you get down back into your head at bay. You’re just like, okay, well, I’ve got to get this accomplished, and you sort of you sort of have a better mindset of, okay, I just need to do this, get that done. Okay, do this, get that done. I mean, it’s just you know those obstacles just sort of rewire you to think, okay, all I need to do is get over this. Then the next one happens. Then the next one. You just keep going and going, and it and it really doesn’t seem as difficult after that.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, exactly. And that that’s the whole idea. And for anybody that’s listening and saying, “Oh, you know what? I might be crazy enough to try and get in shape to do one of these, you can just go ahead and go to the show notes, which are just fitness. Post.com/28, and you will see a direct link to sign up for our next challenge group, which is going to be beginning in January. And that doesn’t mean a challenge group is all about training for a Spartan race. You don’t have to register for it. It’s just about finding ways for us to work together as a community in post production and encourage each other to get healthier. And one end game to have is signing up for a Spartan race because, like you had said, oh well, you’re going to the the Bob Hope Park every morning, going on the monkey bars. Would you have been doing that every single morning if you had not registered for the race?
Curtis Fritsch: Absolutely not. I mean, I would definitely have considered doing it. I’ve been like, you know what? I’ll I could maybe stop by, but I probably would have done just some of the push-ups and maybe some sit-ups. I would not have been trying to do as many monkey bars and pull-ups as I did if I hadn’t been in the mindset of okay, I need to be ready for whatever this thing needs to throw at me.
Zack Arnold: Yeah, and that it’s it’s just the best form of accountability because to say to yourself, I’m going to start an exercise program and I want to lose 20 pounds in three months. Well, that’s great, but the first thing you have to ask is why. Why is it important to you that you want to lose those 20 pounds, but then if you don’t have accountability at the end of that road, you have no reason to stick to it on a day-to-day basis. But if you just have the absolute fear of God put into you because you have now paid money and registered for a Spartan race, and you know you need to be ready for it, you’re going to be thinking on a Tuesday night after a long day, “Oh, I really don’t want to work out, but you know what? I have to because I’m going to be running a Spartan race. It is the ultimate form of accountability, and it’s it to me. It’s the number one thing that has changed my entire mentality towards exercise because I tried for years when I was going through a really rough patch in this business of trying to stick with an exercise routine, and I couldn’t do it because I was tired all the time, and I had no reason. I didn’t have a why, and having that why is so important. As soon as I signed up for my first tough mudder, that was it. I was off to the races, and now every time I feel like I’m in a bit of a slump. All right, time to sign up for another Spartan race, and that’s it. Then I’m exercising again because I have a reason to be exercising because I don’t want to embarrass myself or get hurt.
Curtis Fritsch: Absolutely, yeah, that’s what happened to me. It was just like, okay, you what what what got me to work out signing up for a Spartan race? What got me to do a triathlon? I signed up for a triathlon. Those were the two things that did it. It wasn’t like okay, I just want to get in. It’s like no, no. What held me accountable was paying the money and saying I’m going to do this
Zack Arnold: Exactly. So it’s it’s totally worth it on all levels. They’re not even that expensive, so I cannot recommend highly enough to people that if they’re really looking for a fun way to get into exercise and build a community with people, like come join us. I’m I don’t have a specific date yet for the next Spartan race that we’ll be running as a team, but I guarantee it’ll be soon. And I’m going to put out there right now. I can’t guarantee because of travel plans, but I’m making my goal in 2015 to race the Spartan World Championships, which this year are actually going to be in California. So that actually makes my goal a lot easier because this year it was in Vermont. So I don’t even have to put travel into the equation. So my goal is to run the the Spartan World Championships and complete it, and that’s like doing an ultra beast. I think this year’s was like 16 or 17 miles, and it took the average person like eight or nine hours to get through. So that’s going to be my goal for 2015 is getting through that because I I got I got my trifecta for 2014 I ran a sprint, a super and a beast all in the all during this year. So I have my trifecta medal, which I’m holding up covered in mud, in the photo album that I’ll have in the show notes. So this year, I think my goal is going to be training for the the Spartan World Championships. Because if I don’t have a really lofty, crazy goal to go after, then I’m just not motivated. Because having, you know, little daily like benchmarker baby step goals just doesn’t do it for me. Does it for a lot of people, but it doesn’t do it for me. So I’m going to go out there and commit to something crazy.
Curtis Fritsch: Yeah, that’s a good one too.
Zack Arnold: So, on that note, if anybody listening is interested in joining our challenge group starting in January, just go to fitnessandpost.com/fipchallenge, and you’ll see all the information for how they work, and you’ll see a link to RSVP and sign up. I just want to say it was an absolute pleasure running with you in the Spartan race, and I certainly hope that we’re going to be able to do more in the future because it was a hell of a lot of fun.
Curtis Fritsch: Absolutely, let me know the next one you sign up for, and I’ll sign up for it.
Episode Credits
This episode was edited by Kristin Martin, and the show was executive produced by Kanen Flowers. We are a member of the THAT STUDIO podcast network.
The music in the opening and closing of the show is courtesy of Dorian Cheah from his brilliant album ARA.