Project Hoplite: Introduction to a Tactical Fitness Experiment

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In my Q1 update and retro, I mentioned that my team at work cajoled me into leading a them through a Spartan Race Super 10k at the end of October 2025. As part of the effort, I put together two physical training plans. One was for everyone else who signed up to do it with me. The other plan is for me specifically, based on what I have access to in the garage and enjoy doing. My plan runs for 25 weeks, starting on May 5th, 2025 and ends on the day of the race, October 25th.

To both keep myself accountable and share some thoughts on the training is going, I’m making a regular update to you. There’s value in that experience and what lessons I’m learning along the way. Why is that? Well, 25 weeks would be the longest I’ve consistently run any single program. Usually I start changing things up every 8 to 16 weeks. Actually, in that regard, it would be 20 weeks because the last few leading up to the race do change things up a bit- I’ll get to that in a minute.

Requirements for Success

I’ve never done a Spartan Race. The closest thing was a Tough Mudder 5k back in October 2023. I suspect the requirements are roughly the same, but given we’re doing a 10k this time it will just take longer. I think obstacle course races present a nice all-around physical challenge in line with my thinking about tactical fitness. From that article years ago, one of the oldest on the site, I highlighted these qualities:

• Speed and Endurance – You need to be able to run, ruck, and sprint depending on the situation. You will continue doing this for hours to days if needed.
• Strength and Power – You need to be able to carry gear, drag or carry your buddy, pick yourself up over obstacles, or move things out of the way
• Flexibility and Mobility – You need to move over uneven terrain, without injury, drop into awkward or tight positions, and quickly get back out again to sprint to the next position
• Muscular Stamina – You’re going to have to exert muscular force again and again and again. Bad things don’t stop happening just because you’re tired. 

This list still seems extraordinarily relevant, especially for a Spartan Race.

Now, in all honesty, I’m not trying to be competitive in this event. If it was just me doing it myself, I would probably be trying to get in the top 10% of my age bracket. But, in this case, there’s a team of about six other people who signed up to do it with me- each have different levels of physical capability and training backgrounds. If they followed the plan that I wrote for them, they’d be very well prepared- but that’s a big “if” and I’m aware that most people simply aren’t like me and willing to commit up to an hour per day six times per week to training.

My plan, really, is to have fun and set a positive example to the group as a forty-something corporate mid-level manager.

That said, success in this race involves endurance to run the race, climbing strength to get over walls and barriers, throwing strength, and more. I believe the Super 10k involves a healthy amount of loaded carries with sandbags, buckets, and atlas stones as well. So the training plan must cover all of these bases, especially grip strength, climbing strength, loaded carries, and endurance.

Also burpees.

Spartan Races are notorious for making you do burpees as punishment for failing any obstacle.

The Plan

My plan is a mashup of three other programs I’ve purchased over time. This runs counter to the advice of at least two of those program authors, but oh well. I’m justifying this to myself with the fact that the workouts themselves should be shorter than average for me, somewhere in the 20 to 40 minute range rather than the usual 60+ minute range.

The “base strength” portion of the program comes from K. Black’s Tactical Barbell. Specifically the “Fighter” program. This is supposed to be a two-day-per-week barbell program with waved loading each week. It runs in three-week cycles, and focuses on flat bench press, barbell squats, and weighted chin ups.

The second part of the strength program is Geoff Neupert’s The Giant X. I so enjoyed Geoff’s Maximorum last year, that I wanted to run another of his programs. Unlike Maximorum, which involved the double kettlebell clean & press, double kettlebell front squat, and kettlebell snatch, The Giant X is a purely double kettlebell clean & press program. My observations from running Maximorum last year was that I still wanted real squat and pull up work in there. So running The Giant X alongside Tactical Barbell seems like a way to accomplish that.

I expect that I’ll have very well developed upper body strength and shoulders by the end of this program.

I’m organizing these two programs into an A/B split. A is the Tactical Barbell workout, and B is The Giant X workout. I’ll run these in A-B-A-B-A-B format for 20 weeks.

For conditioning, I’m starting with Mike Perry’s Building the Engine. This is a pure fan bike program designed for three days per week over 8 weeks. To balance it against everything else, I’m running it for two days per week, which is why it extends out a bit longer.

After I finish Mike’s program, my conditioning sessions revert back to those found in K. Black’s Tactical Barbell II: Conditioning, with an emphasis on things that include kettlebells, running, and burpees.

Lastly, I’m using Saturdays for a bit of specialty training. Things like sandbags, relay sessions (simulating the race), and other work.

Deloads/Easy Weeks

Every seventh week, I’ve built in an “easy week.” The training volume cuts back dramatically, consisting of two short kettlebell sessions (Dan John’s Armor Building Complex, specifically) and a pinch of Zone 2 cardio (probably rucking). The goal of the “easy week” is to dissipate some of the training stress that accumulated over the previous six weeks. This helps recovery and better sets me up to keep making progress.

Personal Goals

Despite my pontificating about strength standards and stuff like that as reference points, they aren’t really my goal here. I’m less outcome-focused on this one, and instead want to be process-focused.

What does that mean?

In short, the goal is not to hit some arbitrary number on bench, squat, deadlift, or run time like I’ve done in the past. Instead, the objective is consistently showing up for every workout, performing it as prescribed, and following the progression method for improvement week over week. Along with that is ensuring that I get at least seven to seven and a half hours of sleep per night and eating as clean diet as practical.

I’ll note that I’m stating clean diet and not worried about trying to also lean out and lose fat. I don’t think this training program lends itself well to a calorie deficit. That would hinder recovery too much and I might progressively perform worse week to week.

If I can stay consistent with this, avoiding injury and egregious nutritional mistakes, then results come on their own.

What About The Last Few Weeks?

I mentioned that the bulk of the strength plan takes 20 weeks, and week 21 is another “Easy Week.”

For weeks 22-24, I am switching it up a bit. This three-week block leans hard on conditioning with timed runs, double kettlebell clean & push press ladders, pull ups, and a relay day every Saturday. What’s the relay day?

• 10 Burpees
• Run 800m
• Sandbag Load x 1
• Bear Hug Sandbag Carry x 75m
• Sandbag Load x 1
• 10 Burpees,

Repeat for 10 rounds.

Technically, I’m not saving these relay days for the end. I’m starting them on Week 15, and doing 6 rounds. Over time, I add more rounds until peaking at 10 rounds for weeks 22-23.

I don’t think I’ll lose too much in raw static strength for the squat and bench press in these three weeks. The conditioning surge serves as the cherry on top of preparation.

Week 25 is race week, and it’s also an “Easy Week” to let me recover before the race.

What to Expect

I’ll report back every month or so, reporting on progress and lessons learned by combining all of these fitness attributes into one big program. So what will I report on?

Here’s some starting stats:

• Weight: 188 lbs
• Est. calorie burn per day: 2490 (this is artificially suppressed right now and will go up)
• Bench Press 1 Rep Training Max (RTM): 220 lb
• Squat 1RTM: 310 lb

What’s a rep training max? It’s the number I’m using to calculate percentages from. I don’t actually test my real 1 rep max, especially on big lifts. On percentage-based programs like Tactical Barbell, you need a way to figure out a weight to use when it calls for something like 3×5 at 80% of 1RM. If I’m able to complete all of the required reps in a three-week cycle, then I raise the training max by 5 to 10 lbs and recalculate again for the next three weeks.

I’m actually a bit frustrated posting these starting points up, because they’re effectively the same as they were a year ago. Even though I’ve been training in the gym consistently, I have not been consistent about keeping the same exercises, techniques, nutrition and progression models. In programming terms, it’s known as a case of fuckarounditis. My goal for this program is resolving that.

Aside from progress here, I’ll report back on how I’m feeling as a 40-something doing this much work. I’m not 25, and can’t train foolishly. More on that another day.

So, until next time, this is your kickoff for Project Hoplite.