Tough Mudder...

[mgrover]

So being the idiot I am am doing this to help a friend or morale support or some other bullshit, currently am rocking a two day texas method split, tuesday volume, friday intensity.

unfortunately I have no prowlers to push around, is there any conditioning I can throw in that wont affect my "gains" too much and put me in some sort of shape for this 10-12 mile obstacle course?

cheers

[Tom Campitelli]

You are going to have to start running. No way around it.

[mgrover]

damn it, this is what happens when friends dont know any better.

cheers anyway tom

[stuffedsuperdud]

Can I chime in here? I'm no coach, but I was stupid enough to do this yuppie-infested money-grab a few years ago.

1. Physical strength is next to useless. The obstacles are designed with the lowest common denonimator in mind, i.e. female endurance runners. Most of them (the obstacles, not the runners) are really easy, albeit gross, e.g. some balance beams to traverse while a Marine volunteer laughs at you and kicks on it, wading through a dumpster of ice, choking on mud that a few minutes ago had been in another man's shoes and/or butthole, etc., or are extremely difficult to overcome without a buddy, e.g. climbing over a 10-foot wall, that skateboard pipe thing near the end, etc.). For the latter, if you can do a muscle-up or do a 40" running vertical, it might be handy, but otherwise, just have someone shove you over.

2. 99% of the course is a trail run, so run. You don't have to be a hardcore endurance runner, i.e. doing those cookie cutter Runners World programs, because worse comes to worse you can just walk the flatter parts when you get tired, but if there are lots of hills like the one I did had, you will want to die if you aren't conditioned for them. This is made worse by the fact that all the dirt roads will be very slick and muddy from the cold water dripping off of people, and your legs might be cramping to boot. Actually, several times, I honestly thought that I simply would not be able to make the climb, and would have to call in the medical cart to wheel me out. We (a bunch of 200lb lifters who thought we were hot shit) were all tasting blood for over a week afterward. So for the love of all the gods, run your hill sprints.

3. The one guy in our group who had an easy time was an extremely weak 5'8" 135lb guy whose only physical activity is a 10 mile bike ride every day to and from work. The running and hills were no problem, and he even got bored and would go back and repeat obstacles to try to gain more style points, including scaling that aforementioned pipe ramp thing on his own, with no assistance from the Marines at the top. Take that however you will.

4. Unrelated to strength and conditioning, but you'll be sucking wind in an environment in which thousands of people are kicking up dirt in front of you. Your lungs will be at DEFCON 1 for the rest of the day and you'll learn that it's capable of producing horrific amounts of mucus with the consistency of chewing gum in its effort to conveyor-belt out the crap you choked down without knowing.

[hollismb]

You are going to have to start running. No way around it.

To build on what SSD said, a friend of mine who did it a few years ago basically described it as a traffic-jammed clusterfuck, where you basically end up walking the whole damn thing and standing in line for the stupid obstacles, so I'm not even sure how important the running part really is. I was a long distance runner at the time, but I didn't do it because I thought it was stupid. He could barely run 3-5 miles, and finished it pretty easily, despite just being tired from being out there all day. So, I'd think that some hill work/sprints, and a few token medium distance runs would be the way to prepare for it, rather than building a huge base mileage like training for a half marathon.

[jwagner]

I did one of these for my 30th birthday a couple years ago. I will echo the others here with the running and add that it really only needs to be 200-800 meter intervals. The race I ran had an average of 400m between obstacles with the longest non-obstacle stretches being two 800m intervals at the beginning and end with a couple 200m intervals near the middle. Plan on your time being split at about 50/40/10 percent running/waiting in line for obstacles/doing obstacles.

Like superstuffed said, the obstacles are easy (the worst part was my mild fear of moderate heights). It's mostly running with about half the people just walking. Most of the obstacles are pretty boring, and then when you finish you get a medal and a shitty beer. Then if you want to hang out with other muddy people with medals and overpay for more shitty beer, there's usually a shitty band playing on stage to help distract you from the fact that you're standing in a big open field getting sunburned.

[Roland Conde]

Can I chime in here? I'm no coach, but I was stupid enough to do this yuppie-infested money-grab a few years ago.

1. Physical strength is next to useless. The obstacles are designed with the lowest common denonimator in mind, i.e. female endurance runners. Most of them (the obstacles, not the runners) are really easy, albeit gross, e.g. some balance beams to traverse while a Marine volunteer laughs at you and kicks on it, wading through a dumpster of ice, choking on mud that a few minutes ago had been in another man's shoes and/or butthole, etc., or are extremely difficult to overcome without a buddy, e.g. climbing over a 10-foot wall, that skateboard pipe thing near the end, etc.). For the latter, if you can do a muscle-up or do a 40" running vertical, it might be handy, but otherwise, just have someone shove you over.

2. 99% of the course is a trail run, so run. You don't have to be a hardcore endurance runner, i.e. doing those cookie cutter Runners World programs, because worse comes to worse you can just walk the flatter parts when you get tired, but if there are lots of hills like the one I did had, you will want to die if you aren't conditioned for them. This is made worse by the fact that all the dirt roads will be very slick and muddy from the cold water dripping off of people, and your legs might be cramping to boot. Actually, several times, I honestly thought that I simply would not be able to make the climb, and would have to call in the medical cart to wheel me out. We (a bunch of 200lb lifters who thought we were hot shit) were all tasting blood for over a week afterward. So for the love of all the gods, run your hill sprints.

3. The one guy in our group who had an easy time was an extremely weak 5'8" 135lb guy whose only physical activity is a 10 mile bike ride every day to and from work. The running and hills were no problem, and he even got bored and would go back and repeat obstacles to try to gain more style points, including scaling that aforementioned pipe ramp thing on his own, with no assistance from the Marines at the top. Take that however you will.

4. Unrelated to strength and conditioning, but you'll be sucking wind in an environment in which thousands of people are kicking up dirt in front of you. Your lungs will be at DEFCON 1 for the rest of the day and you'll learn that it's capable of producing horrific amounts of mucus with the consistency of chewing gum in its effort to conveyor-belt out the crap you choked down without knowing.

This sounds absolutely terrible.

Did you enjoy it?

[melody]

I ran a tough mudder some years ago. I had never run more than 4 miles and it was fine. Swimming in cold water was the hardest part. Practice running on hilly terrain and get to the head of the pack so you don't get stuck in a crowd.

[Tom Campitelli]

You guys are really selling me on doing a Tough Mudder. Sounds wonderful.

As someone whose primary physical endeavor used to be running, I would recommend the following: it would be wise for you to be able to run 4 or 5 miles without stopping. You need not be able to do it fast, but being able to run that far provides a level of aerobic fitness coupled with necessary conditioning of the legs and feet that will make your race day a more comfortable affair.

[Sean Stangl]

You guys are really selling me on doing a Tough Mudder. Sounds wonderful.

I can help you with that: CDC: Tough Mudder participants got diarrhea from swallowing feces-tainted mud.