My second day in Utah, another action packed day. The day started off with lunch with many members of the Call (as in Hobie Call’s) family. After lunch we headed out of the city and out to Erda. Hobie and Irene Call recently moved out there and have the perfect place for Obstacle Race training.

The more time I spend with the Call family the more I find it hard to say anything negative about them. The entire family was extremely welcoming and when I got out to Erda it was if I was part of the family. We spent some time catching up as we hadn’t all seen each other since Spartan Race World Championships in Texas back in December. Hobie is getting ready to head out to Indiana for the weekend so he led Irene and I through a pretty fun upper body workout.

We started off with the signature Call warm-up, which if you haven’t seen the video Hobie Call’s How to Train for Obstacle Course Racing, check it out as it details the whole warm-up. As doing it for the first time I can easily say for many it is a workout all of it’s own. It is definitely something I will be incorporating into some of my own warm-up routine.

Then it was time for Irene and I to enter Hobie’s world. I thought I was headed out for a nice fun afternoon at the Call’s instead Hobie turned it into let’s workout Irene and Margaret. I secretly think he was just trying to make it harder and harder for us. Well not so secretly really. We started off carrying sandbags, many low crawls, burpees, spear tosses, climbing walls, pull-ups, medball slams, really you name it Hobie put it into the workout. Irene and I looked at each other at one point and I said, I thought this was my vacation and Irene laughed as we carried buckets full of gravel around the house. The local fire department drove by as we ran around the house. I can only imagine what they were thinking. But what a better way to train than with the tools used in the races. So we pressed on each with our own strengths and weaknesses.

Highlights of the workout were the buttered (thanks to their son Hunter) posts, which had cement cased on the bottoms that we dragged to the end of the driveway and back. This post had just been dug out from the old chicken coup to make it ready for  the new chicken coup. Not so hard on it’s own, add butter and it made for a slippery time. The other big thing was Hobie just installed a Tyrolean Traverse in the backyard. The ease at which he does this particular obstacle and the skill he demonstrates shows why he wins races. It’s ridiculous.  Here are a few of the pictures from our workout a YouTube video is to follow as soon as Forest is done editing it.

After the training was over I got to join in on the family as they got lambs for two of the boys to raise for 4-H. They recently got chickens as well for the kids to raise. It was wonderful seeing the smiles on their faces of the new animals in the house. At the end of the days the Call’s are so kind and loving. I was happy to be able to spend the day with them. Best of luck to the boys raising the lambs! Thanks again to Hobie and Irene for a wonderful workout, afternoon, and dinner. Great times with great people. This trip just keeps getting better.