Sparta Revisited – Ange’s Spartan 300 Challenge #3 – Wk 12 Major Milestone

Today was my 12WBT Major Milestone that I have been working toward: an event that demonstrates how much progress I have made during my first round of Lean & Strong. For my Major Milestone I chose to do my 3^rd and hardest Spartan 300 Challenge to date.

In Week 4 of this round I did my first Spartan 300 Challenge as a Mini Milestone and repeated it with hugely increased difficulty and in a faster time in Week 8 again as a Mini Milestone.

My goal for today was to repeat the Week 8 Challenge with increased level of difficulty in the sit ups – 50 v-sits instead of butterfly sits – and to do it all in a shorter period of time. Increased difficulty AND increased intensity / pace.

The challenge involved 300 reps broken down as follows. You cannot move on to the next exercise until you complete all the reps in the current exercise.

25 pull-ups; 50 dead lifts at 60kg; 50 push-ups; 50 single arm snatch at 10kg (25 R then 25 L); 50 box jumps at 30cm/12inches; 50 v-sits; & 25 pull ups.

I completed it in 19:08sec! I burnt 201 calories in that time!! That was an enormous 4:54 faster than last time, 3.5 weeks ago, and with the increased level of difficulty in the v-sits. I am stoked! Almost 5 MINUTES off my Week 8 time!!!

I started off a tad annoyed that I forgot my gloves… blisters from the 50 x 60kg dead lifts were on the cards. Then the single arm snatches were incredibly hard today especially with the right arm, as my shoulders were not cooperative! That made me really cranky; I was concerned I was losing time as I struggled with them. I wanted to curse but I dug deep and found that inner mongrel Mish talks about.

Part way through the 50 v-sits which were killers I said to Mason “I’m going to vomit!” He replies with something along the lines of “Yep. THIS IS SPARTA That happens.” in a chirpy, matter of fact but suck-it up-princess-way. I replied, while almost losing a lung, with an exasperated “But I don’t have TIME to vomit!!”

Sitting here now I cannot believe I said that. Hahaha. Just goes to show the change in my mental attitude to training and the tenacity I have developed.

Driving to the session I thought “Hmm it would be sooo cool to get sub 20 mins but is that realistic?” Seems that it IS realistic and setting Big Hairy Audacious Goals is the way to go… and maybe getting a little cross with yourself…:) Nothing like bringing out that inner mongrel to get a PB!!

A gigantic thank you to Mason for proposing the idea of Spartan 300 to me and for pushing me hard in training to smash these challenges!! Cannot wait to see what challenges are in store in the months to come!

Well deserved salts bath coming up for me tonight!

THIS WAS SPARTA: IT WAS MADNESS. I came. I saw. I conquered.

And it wil not be my last visit to Sparta….

Xx Ange