I am so excited. Today I registered Kyle and I for a Tough Mudder May 19th in Chicago. This is a serious commitment. Never in my life have I been fit enough to believe I could do something like this, but right now I can say without a doubt I know I can do this.
Exact details are a secret until race day so you have no way to know exactly what you will face out there. The courses are 10-12 miles long and contain some pretty crazy obstacles. The obstacles definitely will test more than strength and fitness... these will challenge me mentally too. I made the commitment to myself to do this before I actually looked through the obstacle pictures and descriptions. Just thinking about some of them give me chills! Literally, chills... swim through a dumpster of ice water and under a wooden plank and pull yourself out on the other side? (mind you I am doing this in Chicago in May, not Tennessee!!) Sprint through a field of hanging live wires, some carrying as much as 10,000 volts of electric shock. Run through a trench of fire with flames as high as your chin. Greased up monkey bars or hanging rings over a pool of ice water. Underwater tunnels... and a new one I just read about the cage crawl.... a few inches of air between you and a cage for you to crawl through belly up... the idea of that one terrifies me... reminds me of movies like Titanic when you are clinging to your last few breaths of air....
I can't explain what it is about me that I feel like I NEED to do this. It just is one of those things that I have to accomplish. It is almost my way of proving to myself that I can do anything I set my mind to. I know it will be very hard, but at the same time I will have my amazing husband with me. He is no stranger to these kinds of challenges so if the going gets tough I will have him there to help me through.
I talked to my favorite trainer at the gym and he set me up with a whole new program to get ready. It really is CrossFit style. Everything I am doing is going to help me manipulate my own body weight to get through obstacles. Yesterday was my first day and it was really the basics (pull-ups, push-ups, dips, GHD, and Roman Chair) what made it different than an average day was it wasn't 3 sets of 10 or superset with something else... it was 4 sets to FAILURE and I took 1 minute breaks. I feel it today :) I was supposed to do 30 min on the stair mill (the courses are known to have a lot of hills) but the machine was occupied so I did 30 min on the arch trainer at various inclines. Oh, and I started the day off with a mile run. Today I have thrusters, box jumps, squats and I am supposed to take a spin class but they don't have child care at the right time for that so I may hop on a bike for an hour and try to figure out a video spin class... or just run or do stair mill... or both.
Right now I can run about 4 miles without a problem and I can do 5-8 pull-ups 20+ push-ups. This weekend Kelly and I went to the Greenway which is around 5 miles but we walked to warm up 5 min and the hills (with a 35lb munchkin in a stroller) were killer so we did pause a few times to tie shoes, stretch calves, or adjust babies... but we didn't stop and walk until we were right about 4 miles then believe me -- we had to walk to push the strollers up the hills... I would have crawled if possible. I am sure that trail will be much easier without the stroller! I am going to keep working on mileage (hopefully with Kelly since she is training for a half-marathon) on the weekends. During the week I will do more cross-training and intervals to work on speed. My cousin told me I need to be able to do 5 miles straight so that is my initial goal. I figure the obstacles will change things up enough so the running wont feel as long. Really, the hardest part of running for me is just muscles getting a little tight or my shoes bothering me... then mentally just getting bored and wanting to stop. I want to be able to make it at least 10 miles with maybe a few pauses or a minute or two of walking by May. Also, some other mental notes for myself are to do some swimming, take some cold baths ;) and to practice on the monkey bars at the playground (gotta love having a child). I usually feel like my triceps are going to tear off when I dangle or use just one arm so stretching and practicing that is necessary.
Wish me luck!! I'm planning on posting pictures/weekly updates of my progress. Then, of course, pictures of race day! Don't worry about Kyle, he's a pro. :)
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