Why Am I Doing 24 Hero Workouts in 24 Hours?
By Mike Simmons
This event had always intrigued me ever since I had first heard about it when CrossFit New England did it a few years ago. I had always wondered if I could make it through 24 hours of hero wods. The thought of being able to complete 24 workouts in 24 hours almost seemed impossible to me at the time. Then I had to wrestle with the question is my mindset strong enough to be able to start and finish an endeavor like this. I have always tried to be the type of person that if I start something, I finish it. To me it all comes down to one very simple question I had heard a while back: “What am I capable of?.” That is the crux of my thought process. Am I able to make my body endure the stress and pain of working out 24 times in a row.
Once I made the decision that I believe I have what it takes to finish this event I started training. I have been slowly working on training my brain along with my body in order to prepare it for dealing with the stress of being “on task” for 24 hours. As the seed of this event sort of grew in my brain I tried to calculate what I would really have to do to be able to make it through all 24 Wods. I figured out from talking to some people who have done endurance training events before that you need to consistently do about 40% of the event's total movement time during your training. So, I figured that if each work out took about a half an hour, that's 12 hours total workout time. To be somewhat prepared to complete the event I would have to train a couple days a week for 4-5 hours. I have taken the approach that on the weekends I will slowly try to increase the volume of work to just around 4 hours. The next thing I will have to figure out is how to taper my training so that on the day of the event I am fresh and ready to endure all 24 hours. This will probably include a major cut down in volume 5-7 days out from the event and an uptick in restorative practices like stretching, rolling out and contrasting showers.
Another question one might ask is why now. Things are just starting to open back up and more people are starting to come back to the gym. Maybe people may not be ready for this. My answer to that is this: There is no perfect time. One of the pitfalls I have fallen into my whole life is waiting for this perfect moment to start something. “I will start after the holiday” or “When things lighten up at work” etc. There is no better time than the present. Sometimes you just need to start. The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Usually, in my experience, it's the start that stops most people. I stare at the bar during a workout and mutter to myself “just get one.” You just have to start, it doesn't have to be pretty or perfect you just have to move forward.
I was asked the other day which WOD I was looking forward to the most. I have to say that would be “Juicy.” It's a workout where you have to average the weight of three people, yourself and your two partners and then add that weight to the bar. It has a bunch of clean and jerks at that weight and some other stuff but the part I am really interested in is the barbell carry for 400 M and a sled drag for 400 M all at the average body weight of your team. It just seems super fun to try and figure out how we are going to make that all work. On the flip side of that coin I am seriously not looking forward to the WOD called “Spehar.” This one WOD consists of 100 Thrusters (135), 100 C2B pull-ups and a 6 mile run. This one might throw off the timing of the whole event for me. For me to even attempt that I would have to have at least 1.5 hours available which would mean we would have to start putting time in the bank early in the event. We would have to save 10 minutes here and 5 minutes there to try and ensure we stay on track for the rest of the event. We shall see how it all plays out the day of the event. Mike Tyson once said “Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face.” I think that WOD is looking to punch me in the face.
This is my first time writing content so thanks for reading. I would love to see you at the event whether you want to participate or just hang out and cheer us on. Maybe you are great organizing stuff and could help us with the logistics. Maybe you just want to make a donation and contribute that way. I will include the link below if you would like to make a monetary donation to the cause. I will leave you with the same question I have struggled with since I heard of this event a few years ago. “What am I capable of?.” Growth, as everyone knows, comes through being uncomfortable. So, if that's true, if you can make yourself uncomfortable longer, you can grow more. Well then I encourage you to see how much you can grow from this.
Burn the Ships CrossFit is using this event to raise funds for the Navy SEAL Foundation. A GoFundMe has been set up in support of this event. To make a contribution, you may do so here by clicking this link. The 24 Heroes Event will take place on June 19, 2021 at 9:00am and run through 9:00am on June 20, 2021. Questions and other inquires related to the event may be directed to mike@burntheshipscrossfit.com.