The Beast Report: December 2018

Issue 13
December 2018

By Kim Collings

1. Beast Profiles

2. Nutrition

3. Joe’s Corner

4. Looking Ahead

1. Beast Profiles

Articles and interviews dedicated to reporting on the amazing people and stories of Your Beast Team!

Pro team member Jenna Ravenscraft gets it done! Find out more about this super gal in December’s Beast Report.

What was your first OCR race and what made you decide to try it?

Boise Spartan Sprint, ran a local 5k and was told I should try a 10k or half marathon. I wasn’t into running for longer than an hour. So my friend found out about the Boise race and it was history after that.

How has OCR helped you overcome challenges?

It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. I think the HH12 I did really establish what it is to be pushed past the limit physically and mentally. Since then, the way I view or do things has changed.

What do you love most about the OCR Community?

How encouraging and supportive everyone is. I love to see my pro and competitive friends do well but I love the see the first timers and couch to Spartan racers accomplish great things. I have made some of the most amazing friends through this community and it has really enhanced my life.

Who inspires you?

There are quite a few for different reasons but if I had to choose 1 it would be my mom. She comes and supports and is the best team mom. And she has done some amazing things with her career a goals later in her life when it wasn’t easy to transition or reinvent.

What is your favorite OCR memory?

Racing with my brother and dad for their first one. This November my dad will complete his first trifecta a few days before he turns 70!

Tell us something about yourself that few people know, whether OCR related or not.

I grew up in one of the biggest fishing areas in Idaho but didn’t fish much until 8 years ago when I picked it up and now love it.

What are your goals for 2018?

I wanted to qualify for World Championship and I missed it by 2 spots so I ran the Ultra instead. I wanted to podium in all lengths but I am only at 2 for the Sprint distance. I have an ultra and a super left.

2. Beast Nutrition

Goji Berry Fun Facts 1

Goji berries grow in temperate regions in China, Mongolia and in the Tibetan Himalayas.

Legend says a man named Li Qing Yuen consumed goji berries daily and lived to be 252 years old!

A Chinese study published in the Chinese Journal of Oncology in 1994 found that 79 people with cancer responded better to treatment when goji was added to their regimen.

Some claim that the goji berry is a fountain of youth. The Ningxia Hui region of Northern China, where goji berries are grown and eaten on a daily basis, has 16 times as many centenarians as the rest of the country.

For their weight , a daily serving is only about 1 oz., goji berries have more vitamin C than oranges, more beta carotene than carrots and more iron than steak.

You can over do it! Goji berries are high in selenium: the right quantity helps to keep your liver healthy; too much can be toxic. For that reason, it’s good to stick to the recommended daily dose of 1 oz. or so. A little goes a long way!

According to several sources, goji berries’ ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) value is more than 25,000! (Kale is 1,770 and Prunes 5,700 for comparison sake.)

Recipe:

Goji Berry Salad

Try this super easy, healthy salad recipe packed with all your favorite super foods, including goji berries:

1 bunch organic green kale

1/2 cup sliced organic mango

2 Tablespoons organic chia seeds

1 0z. organic goji berries

Use a fruit vinaigrette to top it off

Photo Credit: Jenna Ravenscraft, Spartan Race

1. https://yogadigest.com/7-fun-facts-about-goji-berries/

3. Joe’s Corner

Heart Rate Training by Joe Loomis

I have been doing a lot of listening and reading on running websites and podcasts. There seems to be a common theme in training for runners and OCR athletes, and that is Heart Rate Training (HRT).

Now, I have been wearing a fitness watch since for a long time. It all started with a Fitbit Charge HR that my wife got us. It has a heart rate monitor, and I wore it through every workout; from getting it, to causing it to explode in summer of 2016 (It wasn’t underwater for that long).

After I finished my final Fitness Journey Goal of completing the Portland Spartan Sprint my wife bought me a new watch. The TomTom Spark has a Bluetooth music connection, so I didn’t have to take my phone with me if I didn’t want too. I love it, but it also has a heart rate monitor built in.

Now, with both watches, I didn’t give the heart rate zones a second glance because I didn’t think they held any weight in the slightest. I also knew that to monitor the rate of your heart through your Radial artery is probably very inaccurate. Then the more I heard about the HRT, the more I had trouble ignoring the zones my watch provided.

Now, how does one go about figuring out their training zones?

Well, there are a lot of ways, but the most simple way is to take 220 and subtract your age. This method does have some inherent error in it, but it is a good starting method. I am going to use myself as an example. As I am 27 I’ll use that, so 220 – 37 is 183. Now 183 bpm should be my maximum heart rate, and we can now figure out the zones from that number. The zones are historically 90-100%, 80-90%, 70-80%, 60-70% and 50-60%. Now if you take 90% of 184 you get 165.6 so let’s round up to 166 bpm, so there is the highest zone or zone 5 166 bpm to 184 bpm. The next zone is 147.2 to 128.8 so lets round to 147 and 129.

I could figure the rest of the zones for myself, but TomTom has already done it for me, but now you know how it works. You can see that the numbers aren’t 100% exact, but pretty darn close.

Now for the training method. For long-distance runners, it is touted to be best to train in zone 3. This is the aerobic training zone that you burn more calories and elevate your endurance and cardiovascular fitness.

To stay in zone 3, many runners will have to slow down. I find this to be very difficult as I feel like I am going to slow to be doing any good. Now, this could be the fact that I used to training in zone 4 instead of zone 3 up until this point. It could also be that the 220 – my age isn’t all that accurate for me.

Although it doesn’t feel like much, I am continuing to attempt to train in zone 3 for another month. This is simply an experiment on myself to see if this works for me and maybe what someone else might need.