Trail Runs and Treadmill Sprints

It has been 2 weeks from my first post. Since then I have been busy training, but I still feel very far from mudder ready. Part of me says, "Give yourself a break! You just got started and there are still 131 days until the race." The other part of me is more realistic about the passing of time and knows that 131 days represents only 19 weeks, a short amount of time to train up to a distance I never even dreamed of running. Besides, it's already the last week in June- WHAT? When did that happen? Well, I knew that I would need to take training seriously and get right to work when I signed up, so that is what I have been doing.

I'm following a half marathon beginner's training schedule to work up to the distance of the Tough Mudder. Because of my all-or-nothing nature, however, I couldn't just train for a half marathon. If I was working up to the distance I figured, "Hey, why not just run one of those as well!" So I signed up for a half marathon happening right in my own town just two weeks before the TM. (I included "crazy" in my blog title for a reason!) 

The training plan started out with a series of short runs with walking breaks. I found that the walking breaks were just too long for me, so I've been changing it a bit by shortening the walk breaks and spreading them out more. It also calls for me to run 3 days a week, but I will admit I've really only been doing two. I plan to be better about this in the future!

For one of my runs, I decided to do a trail run. After running the Warrior Dash at the beginning of June, I noted that only running on paved trails was not giving me the proper training for these obstacles races. I downloaded a trails app and mapped out a few unpaved trails in the area. The Triangle is filled with beautiful paved trails, but not as many well kept unpaved trails. I did find one short one very close to home. I read up on it, and it seemed interesting enough. It was shaded by trees, relatively flat, and ended at the lake. It sounded perfect for my first attempt. We had just gotten a lot of rain, so I expected it to be muddy. This was even more perfect. Certainly, I would need to train in mud for the Tough Mudder. :)

The trail was pretty. Here are some pictures of it (not taken by me).

It was also muddy, and the day was quite humid. That all was fine. The bigger obstacle in running this trail was the more-than-expected infestation of bugs. Now, I'm a camping and hiking kind of girl. I don't have a problem dealing with bugs when outdoors. However, before my husband and I had even started our run, he leans down and pulls a tick off of his leg. Great, I thought, looks like I'm in for a night of pulling ticks off ourselves and the dog when we get done.

Then we began the run. Not a fourth of a mile in and we must have hit about 50 spider webs drawn from one end of the path to the other. No spiders, thankfully.

All of that was fine. We put up with the webs, forgot about the ticks and focused on our run. That was, until, the HORSEFLY. That thing found us around the end of mile one and followed us for the duration of the run, attempting to land and take a bite every chance it got. We finished the run at nearly four miles, but that last mile must of been the quickest. Running from a horsefly will definately increase your pace. On top of that, we found that on our way back (it was an out and back trail) the spiders had rebuilt all of their webs!

Beyond being bug filled, the run was actually pretty nice! I found that I much preferred running on trails than pavement, and I plan to do it more in the future!

Another way in which I have been training for the Tough Mudder is with treadmill sprints. Specifically, these kind of treadmill sprints:

I did 10 of these with 45s on and 15s off. Let me tell you, it was hard! But, I knew that this exercise would be very useful in training for one particular Tough Mudder obstacle:

 They call it Everest.

Sprinting is not something I've really done before. In order to get up this beast I will not only need to acheive more speed than I ever have in my life, I will also need to do so after having run about half of the race. 

Looks like I've still got some training to do....

131 days. Let's go.

Am I Crazy?

So, last week I did what may constitute as the craziest thing I've ever done in my life. I signed up to run the Tough Mudder in November. In fact, I paid over $100 in order to do so. For those of you unfamiliar with the Tough Mudder, watch this video:

Essentially, Tough Mudder is an endurance race. It's about the length of a half marathon, but also features around 25 obstacles spread throughout the course. Some of the obstacles include rope walls, various baracades to overcome, tires to run through, cargo rope nets to climb across, monkey bars, mud to run through, heavy logs to carry for various distances, dumpsters filled with ice water to swim across, and electric shocks. (Yes, electric shocks.)

For most of you reading, the burning question now floating to the front of your mind is probably: Why? Why would you want to do this Allison? A basic race with obstacles I could understand, but why one clearly meant to torture you at some points?

The best answer I can offer at the moment is: I honestly don't know. For some reason, when I learned about this race just a few months ago I knew I had to do it. I didn't know why, but I knew that this was my new fitness goal. This is significant because I had JUST gotten the point where I could run 2 miles without gasping for air and falling over in pain.

I have never been especially athletic, but I have always wished to be so. At various points in my life I made strides toward general fitness- running, swimming, and some team sports- but I'd always hit a wall and rarely reached any sort of fitness goal before I'd give up. My biggest excuse had always been school. I would get too busy with school, get off of my workout schedule and never get back on.

When I graduated from my master's program last May with the intention of taking time off school to get myself back together, I decided to make the health and fitness goals I had always had a priority. I got involved in a cross-fit like fitness program at a local gym. At first, I really struggled with it. But I enjoyed it more than I ever had any other group fitness class. It was smaller by nature, and there was some accountability to it. Eventually, I found myself getting better at the class and feeling less like a beginner, especially as newer girls would join in. Maybe it was the fact that I was beginning to finally feel a bit athletic from this class that the challenge of the Tough Mudder appealed to me.

Another factor was probably my experience in the Rugged Maniac 5k mud run two years ago. I was nowhere near being in the kind of shape I should have been for it, but I still had a LOT of fun. I knew I wanted to do another one, but I wanted one that would push me to actually follow through with a training plan. (The distance alone in the Tough Mudder will be enough to do that for me. I still can not contemplate running for more than half an hour.)

So, I recently managed to talk a few other crazy people (including my husband) into doing the Tough Mudder with me this year. (I was at least smart enough to know that I could not do it on my own.)

I now have 145 days to prepare myself so that I will be able to complete the course without dying. That's not a joke by the way. According to recent events, that is a very real possibility:
http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2013/05/tough-mudder-death-is-1st-since-race-began.html

Once again, you probably are wanting to ask why. Is this worth risking your life over?

Well, no. And I have no intention to do so. Records indicate that (death-wise anyway) the TM is still safer than most other endurance events (including marathons). Also, I am not going in this alone, but with a team. We will look out for each other. We will not take unneccesary risks. We will come out bruised and tired but otherwise fine.

Also, and now I come to the point, I have this blog. It will be a place to post regularly about how my team and I are preparing for this race both physically and mentally. (And, given that I do have a degree in theology, I'm sure spiritual issues will also come into play.)

There is much more to write about as well as to do. I hope you will follow my journey here. I have already began training and will update soon!

~Allison (aka That Crazy Mudder Girl)

PS- It must not be forgotten that the Tough Mudder does not just exist to make a profit and attract crazy people like me with the promise of post-mudder bragging rights. They have raised nearly six million dollars for the Wounded Warrior Project- an organization dedicated to helping wounded soldiers. If you are interested in supporting me in this crazy journey you can best do so by donating to this cause through the link: https://register.toughmudder.com/tm/#event/18022/page/donate/fundraiser/r10183117

The more money I raise for the real Warriors, the more it will motivate me to keep going both in training and in the actual event. Please consider supporting me by donating!!

Thank you.