The Captains Playbook: A Year of Elite Obstacle Course Racing

By Jeremy Kaufmann

I know firsthand that coming up with workouts week after week can sometimes be difficult, and many people stall out and get bored after doing the same thing for too long. With The Captain's Playbook, you now have 52 workout options to choose from.Each entry contains a single workout, possibly a tip on how to perform it, what was going through my head during it, or what was coming in the next weeks that I was working toward. There are also race recaps of my experiences throughout the year, running Spartan and other Obstacle Course Races.The goal I have set is to qualify for the OCR World Championships, an independent championship that athletes from around the world must qualify for, via other obstacle races. I am sharing with you what I believe will get me there, as you work your way through my first year of elite OCR.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365365508

Book preview

The Captains Playbook: A Year of Elite Obstacle Course Racing

THE CAPTAIN'S PLAYBOOK

A YEAR OF ELITE OBSTACLE COURSE RACING

JEREMY KAUFMANN

INTRODUCTION

I would like to begin by saying that I am one of seven children. My parents, Brian and Cheryl Kaufmann, had six boys before adopting a girl. One could only guess they had 6, because they kept trying for that girl. I wouldn't have it any other way. With four older brothers, one younger, and a younger sister it made for some pretty crazy childhood stories. The two oldest are twins, Ben and Josh. Then there is Andy, Matt, myself, Seth, and finally Mika. I have always been involved in one sport or another, whether it was soccer, baseball, football, or basketball as a kid, soccer and track in high school, and continuing on to the play soccer for fun in college. I would like to thank my parents for providing many great opportunities for me while growing up, despite being one of seven children.

So where was the start of obstacle course racing (OCR) for me? I ran my first race with my brother Josh and two friends, a Warrior Dash, in July of 2013. I ran that same race a year later, and at the finish I told myself that if I was to ever run another Warrior Dash I would run in the competitive heat vs the open heat. This would eliminate bottlenecking at obstacles and allow me to run a faster, truer race, making it more fun for me. I am competitive by nature.

I had no intentions of running another Warrior Dash in 2015, but instead signed up for a Spartan Race at Tuxedo Ridge, the Tri-state Sprint in May. In February of 2015 I moved to Pittsburgh where I still live today with Ben and his family. Together Josh, Ben and I along with one of the friends from my first race would be running the Sprint in May. Ben and I woke up almost every morning to train in the basement by doing things like stair jumps, lift weights, run on treadmill, and use a sandbag that I have had for a few years now. When the weather got warmer we took the training outdoors in preparation for the main event. We ran in an afternoon open heat, approximately 1 pm start time and I finished the race in 1hour, 31minutes, and 47 seconds.

During the race many volunteers were asking if runners were having fun, to which I replied absolutely not, I was in pain. The truth is I had never experienced a race like this before, my training had not been enough to push at the pace I had attempted at the start, and it crushed me. All I wanted to do was finish and have it be over with. However to quote Spartan Race You’ll know at the finish line the race may have taken its toll, but at the end of the day it had not crushed my spirit. In fact it did the opposite, lighting a fire inside me, a passion to do more, to work harder, and continue to race. When I arrived back home I immediately signed up for two more races in an effort to complete the coveted Spartan Trifecta. For anyone who does not know, a trifecta is earned when a racer completes a Sprint (3+ miles, 20+ obstacles) a Super (8+ miles, 24+ obstacles) and a Beast (12+ miles, 30+ obstacles) in a single calendar year. The three races that I would go on to complete were the Tri-state Sprint in one and a half hours, Palmerton Super in three hours, and Killington Beast in just over five hours. In September after the Beast my trifecta was complete.

At the time my girlfriend thought I was absolutely insane, but after the Super in July, she wanted to do her first OCR, but would get started the same way as me, by doing a Warrior Dash. I agreed that I would do the event with her, but after she convinced her family to do it as well, she gave me permission to fulfill my vow and run