I spoke with elite OCR athlete Alexandra Walker this week all about her experience at TMX, Toughest South, and how she trains to keep up with the elite field.
Alex tells me how she got started in OCR, how and when she started training competitively, and what it's like to have Yancy Culp as her personal coach. That leads us into a short discussion about the importance of coaching when it comes to training.
She shares with me her experience at TMX in Sacramento and what it was like being in the "pain cave", and she talks about the transition between TMX and then Toughest just a few weeks later. I ask her to compare the competition between short races and endurance races, and to compare an ultra marathon to an endurance OCR.
Alex tells me about what distance she considers her speciality and why, and shares some tips about how to prepare for wet obstacles.
Lastly, she tells me what some of her favorite races are, and we naturally talk about the epic Battlefrog rigs.
This week, I spoke to Veejay Jones, Spartan's youngest pro-team member and a strong contender in their championship series.
We start with Veejay telling her all about the championship race in Chicago where Veejay placed second, conquering all the mud out there and beating out some top contenders. That leads us to discuss the different challenges of each of the races in Spartan's championship series, and Veejay tells me what he's expecting with Tahoe and how he plans to tackle it.
He also shares what has helped him climb the ranks over the past two years, and he talks about the importance of recovery and his methods for it.
I ask him about his plans for the next several years when it comes to OCR, and he tells me how he plans on maintaining his trajectory.
Veejay tells me about how he's got his eye set on the North American OCR Championship race, which leads us into a discussion about mandatory obstacle completion and penalty loops.
Lastly, he shares his goals for 2019, and talks about the lessons he's learned with nutrition and how he's changed it up to be better prepared for races.