Tips and Tactics

to get through Murph

1. Don’t make rookie mistakes! These include:

DON’T sprint your first mile: This is a recipe for disaster and will leave
you reeling for the rest of the workout. Find an appropriate pace and
stick with it.

DO Pace your sets of bodyweight exercise: Just like running it is not a
good idea to go all out in your first few rounds of this workout. Find an
appropriate pace that you can withstand for the workout. If it requires
you to see how long your rounds take and sticking to a certain rest
period each round, do so.

DO break up your sets. (look at listed options above)

2. Plan and practice it This training guide helps you build
closer and closer to the actual workout so you should have a good feel
of volume and pacing prior to doing Murph. That being said mentally
prepare and try to plan out your pacing for your runs and your round
times. This is key Pacing is everything. Read rookie mistakes above.

3. Hydrate This is always important but more so in MURPH.
Most likely you will be working anywhere from 30-90 minutes. Hydrate
heavily the night before as well as take salt tabs. The salt tabs will help
you retain water. Do this as well as in the morning. I recommend also
having lots of Gatorade or Gels on hand for this day. Try to replace
water at least every 10-15 minutes.

4. Fuel Do this heavily the night before with plenty of carbohydrates
and electrolytes. Try to eat clean as possible and make sure the food is
something your body is acquainted to. On the day of your competition,
I recommend fueling but staying a little lighter on the food. Being full
during the workout will ruin and crush your goal times. I typically will
eat a couple of bananas and a protein shake or bar 2 hours before the
event then it is go-time for me.

5. Set a goal time You may have never done this workout before
but it is always good to have a goal time in mind. If you have peers who
are similar to you and have done this workout before ask their times and
set yours based off of that. Another good way to test this out is to time
your mile runs and time 5 rounds of your circuit of pullups, pushups, and
squat. This can give you an idea of where you might finish at the end of
the workout.

6. Be honest Before embarking on this huge endeavor, do an
honest assessment of how well you can handle this workload, and
scale the exercises so you can get through the reps appropriately (see
options above.)

7. Stop 2 reps before failure This goes for all the exercises if
you feel like you are going to burn out and not be able to do another rep
stop beforehand. Going to muscular failure will break the body down
and will take you longer to recover. The take it down 2 rule will help you
last well throughout all your rounds and reps.

8. Handgrips No matter how you slice it, 100 pullups is a lot of
wear and tear on your hands. I recommends gymnastics-style
handgrips, which can help protect your skin from ripping painfully
Mid-workout.

9. Good Shoes For shoes, find a balance between a cushioned,
flexible running shoe and a shoe with a stable, supportive heel for the
Squats.

10. Your mind is the key This is a grueling and long workout.
Take that into mind in advance. If you had already set a goal time like
above you have an idea of how long this will take. You are strong enough
physically and mentally to do. Communicate between the mind and body
throughout the whole workout. Gauge where you are at. Remember this
is not the end of the world if you don’t beat your goal time your goal is to
finish! Stay steady, pace, and keep telling yourself nothing can stand in
your way to finishing MURPH!!