I’ve always liked the idea of being fit, active and healthy, but I’m the kind of person who needs to have specific targets to aim for if I’m going to do something. And while I lift weights at the gym once or twice a week, I haven’t done any cardio training at all since I stopped playing football about a year ago. Signing up for my first Tough Mudder seemed like a great challenge that would motivate me to improve my all round fitness.
Having registered, I got a bit of a shock when I found out how far I’d have to run. I’d assumed that it’d be around 5km and I could just wheeze my way around the course if needs be. So it was a bit of a shock to find out that it’s pretty much a half marathon!
This discovery motivated me to start running again, which for the past few weeks has entailed doing a 10km run every weekend. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the furthest I’ve run in about 20 years, and the first one in particular was really tough. Thankfully I’ve begun to notice improvements – last weekend’s run was definitely faster and less painful. After I’ve got a couple more 10Ks under my belt I’m going to up the distance to 15km and try to keep progressing from there. I’ve been using the SmartWatch 3 and Xperia Z3 from Sony while I run, which has really helped me to track my progress. I’ve been using the RunKeeper app, which measures my time and distance on the watch while I’m running. It also synchs with the phone to provide a load of useful feedback, such as my time splits for every mile and my elevation at the end of a run, all of which is helping me monitor my gradual improvement.
As well as adding running to my training regime, I’ve also been going swimming and I’m about to start playing football again. My aim is to do some form of exercise every day. If I can manage that, it’ll hugely improve my confidence and, hopefully, my fitness levels ahead of the event. I’m also going to start attending yoga classes at my local gym to try and improve my flexibility, because I have a long-standing knee injury – I had bolts put in it when I was 18 and it still flares up when I run – which my osteopath thinks might be causing me ankle mobility issues.
In terms of my gym-based workouts, I’ve been trying to build up my grip strength to help me tackle obstacles such as the monkey bars. To this end, I’ve been doing a lot of kettlebell swings and farmer’s walks using heavy dumbbells. Unfortunately my gym doesn’t have monkey bars, but I’ve been trying to replicate them as closely as possible by slowly building up my pull-ups and chin-ups and dead hanging from the bar with one arm.
Although Tough Mudder is a bit daunting, I’m really looking forward to it. I think the obstacles will actually be quite enjoyable, even if I might struggle to heave myself over a wall at some point. But most of all I’m looking forward to the atmosphere, and I think the fact that it’s a community event rather than a race will make it really fun.
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