Conditioning for obstacle course during LP?

[Kevin Pavon]

Hi Andy. I am 230lbs 30yo approaching advanced novice stage with LP. In two months I have an obstacle course for my job (SWAT team test). It is only 5 minutes long but involves running with a 50lb ram and a 200lb dummy drag for short distances, as well as running up and down stadium stairs and several obstacles. How do I program this? I had thought of doing a heavy-light-medium for Squats, keeping everything else the same, but adding running up and down stairs at the end of the workout each day, building up slowly until i can run up and down stairs for 5min straight (I can do about two minutes now before legs feel like jello).

Current numbers for Squat are 330 and 385 for Deadlifts.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

These types of things are very specific and so if you can train for a certain event directly, you should do that. Otherwise, a prowler is the best general conditioning tool available. HLM is good, start the week off with heavy squat/deads, while fresh.

[Kevin Pavon]

From talking to a few of the guys on the team, the running up and down football stadium stairs fatigue the hell out of your legs, making them feel like jello for most of the course since they are done at the beginning. And the 200lb dummy drag seems to be everyone's biggest complaint. So the plan was to do stairs and sprints with 30lb dumbbell in each hand for conditioning and keep my pulls and PCleans progressing without over training. Everyone on the team finishes the course somewhere between 4 minutes and 5:30, and if I take longer than 5:30 I fail.

How does this look:

Option1:
Monday/Wed./Fri.: Chins at beginning, H-L-M Squat, Press/Bench, Power Cleans Monday/Friday with Deadlifts Wednesday
Tues./Thurs./Sat.: Flights of stairs in 2-5 min intervals, Sprints with 30 lb dumbbell in each hand

Option 2: Day 1 Lift, Day 2 Conditioning, Day 3 Off, Repeat.
Option 3: Run Starting Strength as normal MWF, with intervals on the elliptical for conditioning, which won't eat recovery as much but isn't very event specific.

Which option do you think is best? Any modifications will be welcome.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Not option 3.

I'd probably go with 1. If recover is an issue, go with option 2.

[Kevin Pavon]

Thanks man! I'll let you know how it goes.