@sbgalaxy said:

so i was at the spartan race watching my wife run it and thinking to myself, hmm, these guys train a lot. i don't desire to do a spartan race, but i do desire to rock my ass off at all 13 shows at MSG. so, my question is, what kind of "training" plan would you propose for getting "in shape" for the shows?

I'm thinking of putting on a show for myself every night and rocking out on my feet (no sitting down) for the whole show and seeing how many i can do before I miss a night.

where should i start my ear training? back in 1986? how do i choose my shows? just pick a random one each night, or should i go chronologically through my 210 shows that I've attended? There are only 122 days until the first show. So maybe I start with my first show 5/7/93 and proceed with every other one?

I see this being split into 3 separate training exercises.

1. Ear Training: I believe that you should pick 1 set at random every day from shows you attended. You must listen all the way through, no cheating, skipping. Rewinding is allowed to catch a great progression. Intent here is to work towards the pinnacle of live concert experiences - the right song call based on flow and feeling of the set in front of you. Simply knowing the song is for noobs

2. Mental toughness training: Remember, this is hours of intense stimulation. You can not hide from live, loud music. My recommendation is to force yourself to interact with people for 2-4 hours on a progressive scale. I would start at every 2 weeks and work up to every night for the weeks leading up to the BD opener. Have some fun with this. Easy way out is bar. Nah. Incorporate some randomness like malls. Requirement is to go to record store or music store and engage in conversation with the public. Style points is throwing in street vendors or hole in wall eateries you have never been to. This is training. Its meant to be hard so challenge yourself.

3. Dietary toughness training: As another poster suggested, this stretch may involve a 2 week meth bender. It may also just be days and days of drink, smoke repeat. If I learned anything in college, its that substance tolerance is expensive. Also, too much too fast is expensive. Plus you miss stuff "Tebowing" or passing out or tapping out or dying. This training requires some forethought and planning, much more than the other 2 but is just as crucial. Just like world class athletes you must train in increasing intensity. The key, and I can not stress this enough, is to taper. More on that later. So, your regimen should include varying your diet over the next 4 months. Each week seek out things you haven't consumed in the prior week but that you expect to encounter in NY. Hot dogs. Donuts. Smog. Meth or whatever tweaks your beak. Add them into your diet. We only have 12 weeks so this is going to be a challenge. Continue to add and vary each week.

Your taper should begin shortly after July 4th. World Class tapers are approx. 2 weeks in duration. The point of the taper is to give your body some time to come off the training while still expecting that daily kick in the shorts. If done well, come 7/21 you will be scarfing whatever food type product your day takes you towards with ease. Your ability to navigate between all socio-economic environments should be at peak surrender to flow dudeness. And your "I wanna rage with that guy" in the momentness will be of such high quality that Red himself will wonder how the hell you are in his head.

Do that and you will straight own BD.