Spartan Training

B is being crazy again and he's signed up to run the Spartan Race this weekend with A's dad.  The Spartan Race is reminiscent of the Tough Mudder that B did last year.  The Tough Mudder was a longer course with less obstacles, but the Spartan Race is a shorter course (4 miles) with way more obstacles.  Both still involve a lot of mud though.

What's even crazier is that they have a Junior Spartan Adventure Race for ages 4 and up and we signed Elina, Eli, and A up for it!  For their age group it's only going to be a 1/2 mile course with obstacles in it.  I figured a 1/2 mile course won't be too awful for them.

With that said, I still thought it was a good idea to have the kids train for the race.  They've been really great and working out almost every other day.  The workouts are simple, but they definitely have things that my kids aren't accustomed to doing.  Each workout starts with running, then includes a combination of sit-ups, push ups, burpees, planks, wall sits, bicep curls, tricep dips, lunges, squats, high knees, butt kicks, etc.

This is serious stuff when you do it all back-to-back.  I love watching the kids do these things because sometimes (especially Eli) they are so awful at it.  They still don't have that full-body-awareness thing and it just makes me chuckle to watch them.  But I just like that they're trying it at all and keeping their bodies in motion.  I also like how Evie wants to participate in all the exercises.  Go, girl!  All of this exercise has definitely helped her counting ability!

For the most part, the kids have been pretty good sports about doing the workouts.  I reward them with Gatorade at the end if the complaints are kept to a minimum and that seems to keep them going.  Although we had a problem with Elina a few workouts back where she just outright didn't want to do it anymore.  After that I told her that I wasn't going to force her, so the next time she was too tired and wanted to complain, I'd just take her out of the race and she could just cheer on the sidelines with me on the day of the race.  That made her re-think her strategy and now she works hard and doesn't say a negative thing.  Phew!

I've also seen lots of improvement because we've been doing it all consistently.  Eli started the workouts not even being able to do ONE single sit-up and now he can do about 4 on his own.  That was a huge deal!  They're also running better and I can tell their stamina has improved too.

It's been fun doing these workouts and I almost feel like I want to keep it up even after the race this weekend.  The kids are sleeping better at night and I know they're getting a good workout.  It's definitely been fun training for this race.  Can't wait to see how they do this weekend!  Wish us luck!