Tough Mudder

I have decided that I am going to participate in the Tough Mudder in Indiana in November.  It's a 12 mile race with lots of mud, obstacles, a bit of swimming, and all kinds of madness.  I am absolutely stoked to be doing it because from the way it looks on its website, it will definitely be the toughest race I have ever done   

In preparation for it, I am going to enter the Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend.  This is something I have always wanted to do so I'm pretty excited about that also.  I'm also going to incorporate a lot of trail running.  Cherokee Park, Bernhiem Forest, and Iroquois Park are all on my agenda.  

I was even thinking of getting in on the Urbanathlon in October but haven't decided.  If you are interested in doing that, let me know and I'll head up.  If I can't get anyone to run it with me, I'll just stick around here with my trails and strength training.  

Speaking of strength training, I had a great workout today and one that I will build upon in preparation for the Tough Mudder.  I went 1/2 mile, 30 pushups, 1/2 mile, 30 squats, 1/2 mile, 30 situps, 1/2 mile, 30 inverted rows.  I was absolutely spent.  Good stuff.  

So if you have done a Tough Mudder, Urbanathlon, or anything like that in the past, let me know.  I'd love to hear how you trained for it.  I have an idea of how I'm going to train, but I'm definitely open to suggestions on how you did.   

Warrior Dash

Since I have completed the marathon, I really haven't trained a whole lot.  For the 3-4 weeks after I really didn't do much.  I realized I was simply burned out both mentally and physically from training.  That marathon certainly took a lot out of this old sprinter. 

 

I started hitting the workouts pretty hard again about 2 weeks ago.  Even though my hip and shoulder are bothering me, I'm doing as much as I can with obvious modifications.  I started doing banded deadlifts, which is a nice way to add some intensity into a deadlift workout.  It's definitely a different feel and you definitely cannot do nearly as much weight as you are used to but it's a hell of a way to fry your back and hammies.  In addition to this, I have gotten reacquainted with my love for mud runs. 

 

Last year I participated in my first Warrior Dash with my friend Liza.  This race, not so much of a race but more of run with a lot of dirt involved, is roughly a 5k and they throw in obstacles such as a rope climb, cargo nets, running through a creek, jumping over fire, running through tires, and final jaunt in a giant mud bath that's about 100 feet long.  It's a lot of fun and it's generally not very competitive.  Most of the people running it wear costumes and there's a lot of camaraderie going on.  I guess you could make it competitive if you ran up near the front in the first wave of the day. 

 

Then later in the year I took a trip to Virginia Beach and ran the Mud Run there.  That was 5 miles, mostly on sand, with about 3 or 4 mud pits.  This was an insanely hard run due to the introduction of sand.  This land lubber from Kentucky really doesn't get a whole lot of running in sand.  Needless to say, my 22 year old nephew made me eat my words when we beat me by 4 minutes (I hate you Brandon!).  But the run was extremely challenging and even more fun. 

 

Last weekend I headed back up to Chicago and did the Warrior Dash again, this time with my buddy Justin and his roommate Linda.  Once again, this race proved to be not so much of a race but a run with an absolute ton of fun thrown in.  This year the run didn't have as much mud thrown in but it seemed like it was a little bit longer and had a couple of more obstacles.  The worst of which for me was the stupid horizontal cargo nets.  I felt like a 2 legged monkey trying to get through this thing.  I kept overextending myself and almost fell threw a few times.  Justin flew right threw like the ninja he is.  Fortunately for me he's a slow runner so we made a good team.  Most of the obstacles are fairly tame with the exception of that.  While it's not crazy difficult, it is a whole lot of fun as they also have music littered throughout the course so you aren't bored with your own thoughts very often.  The final obstacle is a 100 foot mud pit.  This year's was a whole lot deeper at the beginning than last year.  I jumped in feet first this year and got absolutely stuck.  For the life of me I could not get my feet removed.  I had to have Justin pull me out so I could finish up the rest of the 100 feet.  So after completing this, I went to the "shower".  I remembered this as a horrible experience from last year and this year was no different.  It's basically a guy standing on a platform about 15 feet in the air spraying a fire hose on everyone.  This really doesn't accomplish a whole lot.  Needless to say I did not get all that clean and wound up driving the 5 hours home with caked on mud from my knees down and from my elbow to my shoulders.  Nice. 

 

This run solidified my desire to run the Tough Mudder in Indiana in November.  I am absolutely stoked to do that.  That consists of 12 miles with even more intense miles.  Now this one will be all about survival.  I can't wait.  For more information on either of these runs, be sure to check out www.warriordash.com and www.toughmudder.com. 

 

Theft, injuries, and races

It feels like forever since I have written in my blog.  For those that follow this, I'm sorry, I missed you too.  For those that are stumbling on this for the first time, I give you a big hearty WELCOME!

About a month ago I got my computer stolen.  My house was broken into and the bastard thieves stole my computer, the kids Wii, and my wife's jewelry.  Violation and anger were the feelings I had for a few days.  So I had to wait for the insurance to send me the insurance money to get a new computer.  I couldn't get on this site at my work because the fascist pigs there seem to think they are paying me to do a job and not post silly blogs about me thinking I am still that 18 year old athlete I once thought I was.  Long story short, I now have a computer.  Got myself a shiny new Mac.  I still don't know how to use it but I figured out how to get on Safari (Internet Explorer for you PC peeps) and post a quick update to this.

Over the last few weeks I have been battling a slew of nicks and pains.  My right shoulder and biceps tendon have been bothering me off and on for about 1.5 years.  I got a shot in my bursa hoping that would make it feel better but it didn't.  Thanks Doc.  I'm still not positive how the problem occurred but I'm pretty sure it's from my lack of mobility in my t-spine while performing pullups and overhead presses.  See kids, that is why it is extremely important to ensure you look at your total functional capacity, including mobility and stability while training.  My lack of mobility in my t-spine caused my shoulders to take a brunt of the forces from that and they weren't prepared to do so.  So, they got injured.  No I spend about 20 minutes on the foam roller and other various mobility exercises found on www.mobilitywod.com.  Another thing bothering me lately is my left leg.  Obviously you already know a bit about the knee but my hip is causing great discomfort whenever I squat or jump.  Odd.

Anyway, enough about my theft and little pains.  I just wanted to get something out there to keep you interested and know that I didn't forget you.  Tomorrow I'm going to talk about the Warrior Dash in Chicago I did last weekend.  I also talk about some other upcoming events going on.  Stay tuned!

To be continued shortly

Sorry for the inability to post recently.  My computer was stolen and I have been unable to post anything in a while.  But don't you worry, I am currently collecting all kinds of thoughts regarding mobility/stability, Warrior Dash, shoulder bursitis, biceps tendonitis, failed business ventures, future business ventures, and much much more.  So stay tuned and be ready because it's all coming back once my insurance company sends me some moolah!