Because I Can

 
 I have mentioned him before, but this time its all about him.

"Do you want to know why I can break 2:00 in the marathon? Because I believe I can." 

                                                                              - Hobie Call


    Hobie Call, if you don't know of him, is an obstacle racer, and has a 2:16 marathon under his belt. Hobie is not new at this, and if you run his name in Google you can see just how intense this guy really is. His intensity is both inspiring to those of us over 30 and intimidating at the same time. If you only ever looked online and saw the pics of Hobie, and Spartans like him, who have already spent years training for this it would seem like taking on Bam Margera on a half-pipe 6 months after buying your first skateboard. (Bam, I am not against this and would totally give it a shot, but could you at least take me to the ER afterwards in the Lambo?)
    Yes, it seems like the first mile is the hardest. But, the most important part is starting. People have been going back and forth on the Spartan Facebook pages about shin splints, and the various techniques to train. I read Hobies recent interview and saw some really good points from the man himself, using what he does to train, in his own words.

"It starts with me running a mile...
I start with the mile because a body adapts to faster speeds with shorter distances easier than long distances."

    A mile... that's right, he said it, just A mile, one, single mile. If starting with one is good enough for him, why shouldn't it be good enough for me? Or anyone else for that matter? I started walking, yes, my first hiked mile was a walk speed. But I did it, and for these past two weeks of heat wave weather I have still been doing it. If it is 106 degrees on any of my race days, I will have trained through that and be prepared!


   

  "You find a sub-2:05 marathoner or a sub-3:50 miler and put a 40-pound vest on them. If they can break 4:40 in a mile then I will declare myself ignorant. "

    Hobie uses a 40 pound weight vest while he is running, this pushes both his endurance and stamina to further heights than running alone. On Race Day this prepares him to keep up, push forward and do it FASTER!! His haters and even Runners World magazine's writer don't give him enough credit in the article I read. His training schedule to break the 2:00 marathon looks a lot like my mental plan for training for Spartan Races, he starts with a mile and keeps believing.

"I have not suddenly become a genetic marvel, I am not better than anyone else, and I'm not just looking to put myself in the limelight. In all my years of studying and trying new things, I believe I've come across a new way to train that will get superior results."

    So how do I know that my training and ideas are working? Because I believe I can finish my Trifecta in 2013 and I believe I can finish the Death Race in 2014. Merri believes too.. and after all BELIEF is what started this. I believe in her, she will win her Death Race too, because she has to.. I will finish mine because she believes in me, and my stubbornness.

 Original Article