Tough Mudder, it’s stressed from the start, is about teamwork. Getting through alone is impossible – and even training for it without support isn’t much fun. That’s why, when Sony decided to put its latest waterproof, mud-resistant smart training tech through its paces, it assembled an allstar squad of celebrities and fitness professionals tasked with working together to tackle one of the toughest races in the Mudder calendar: the ultra-hilly Yorkshire edition.
The challengers were a mixed bunch: two journalists, one former Royal Navy serviceman and two celebrities – singer Vanessa White and writer and broadcaster Rick Edwards. The first order of business? Assessing everyone’s abilities with a miniature bootcamp consisting of a quick fitness test (burpees, press-ups and sprints) and an early run at some Mudder-style obstacles. And even that wasn’t easy. ‘I got a bit of a shock when I found out how far I’d have to run,’ Rick says. ‘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 – so my strategy was to start doing some sort of activity every day, alongside yoga and grip work.’ Vanessa came in relatively unscathed but still knew she’d need to put the miles in. ‘Running is one of the main reasons I signed up,’ she says. ‘It’s not something I normally do much, and I knew the 17km challenge would push me to work harder in the gym.’ Both celebs – along with the rest of the team – were issued with a Xperia™ Z3, SmartWatch 3 and SmartBand Talk, all from Sony, to track every aspect of their training and recovery, from paces slogged to hours of sleep logged. The challenge was on.
The Tech
SONY SmartBand Talk
The ultra-light option. Log steps travelled, calories burned and hours slept – along with a host of other metrics – then sync this up with your Xperia Z3+ to track and analyse your training.
SONY SmartWatch 3
Built-in GPS and a music app mean you can leave the phone at home for off-thecuff runs, while with speech interaction and the Hangouts app you can even keep track of your texts on the road.
SONY Xperia Z3+
Waterproof to 1.5m* and dust-tight – like all the team’s tech – the Xperia Z3+ is also ultra-light and comes with a 20.7-megapixel SteadyShot camera for enhanced action shots.
The Training
Whatever your training level going in, a Tough Mudder is no joke. Tunnels, hills, monkey bars and ice-cold water – bookended, of course, with endless, all-consuming mud – mean every body part is tested, and weaknesses are (sometimes mercilessly) exposed. The solution? Make sure you include a bit of everything.
‘I started slotting parkour moves and pull-up variations into my regular training runs to work,’ says Joel. ‘It doesn’t have to be complicated – a few precision jumps on a kerb, some monkey-hangs off a tree and you’re getting the extra core and power work you need.’ Technology, of course, helps. ‘When I’m tracking my performance, it’s much easier to tell myself to do one more rep or one more kilometre because the results are there to see,’ says Vanessa. ‘I think I’m becoming a stats junkie!’ Meanwhile, things took a darker turn for Rick. ‘I’d barely started running when I had to stop for fear of my knee exploding. I saw a specialist who filmed me running and found that my feet are in contact with the ground for too long and I’m putting too much pressure on the IT band. I’ve had to completely change the way I run, which is like being told you’ve been doing sex wrong all this time. Then, before I could relearn the basics of human movement, I got hacked down playing five-a-side football with my mates and picked up a calf injury that kept me virtually stationary for a week.’ On the plus side, he was sleeping like a baby. ‘There’s a great function on the Sony SmartBand Talk that allows you to set an alarm within a time frame rather than on a specific minute. The wristband gently vibrates when you’re in the lightest phase of sleep, so you wake up easily and don’t experience the grogginess you would if you were woken up mid-snore.’ The stage was set. How would the team fare?
The Triumph
After eight weeks of running, lifting, eating and sleeping with one eye on the Mudder, five made it to the start line: Vanessa, Amanda, Chris, Joel and running coach George Anderson (intelligentrunning.com), who worked with the team on breathing, technique and increasing their pace over long distances. Rick, despite his best efforts, was forced to withdraw with a torn quad, but swiftly adopted the role of head motivator. The plan was simple enough: start steady, stick together and never leave anyone behind. And it worked – right up until the first real test, the Sony-owned obstacle Arctic Enema 2.0.
You’re strongly advised to keep your mouth closed as you hit the skipful of water that makes up the course’s wettest, coldest obstacle, but – as it turns out – that isn’t easy when you’re suddenly doused in freezing water. Vanessa got a mouthful and for a second it looked as if her Mudder might be over, but she soldiered on. After that, everything got easier. The team tackled the Pyramid Scheme and Liberator with polished humanpyramid skills, scrambled through the gas-filled carnage of Cry Baby with barely a tear and managed a flawless triple-header on the punishing new King Of The Swingers, ringing their bells while everyone else plummeted into the drink. The team finished in just under four hours, muddy and mildly electrified… but unbeaten.
‘At the finish line I felt a massive sense of achievement, which was reinforced when I checked my SmartBand Talk and found via the step counter that I’d managed a colossal 28,000 steps in four hours,’ says Vanessa. ‘I don’t think I ever need to get that muddy again, but after completing my first Tough Mudder – and getting in the best shape of my life – I’m definitely ready to keep training and take on my next fitness challenge.’ And Rick isn’t quite ready to admit defeat either. ’Watching from the sidelines, it looked really fun,’ he says. ‘It’s so collaborative, with people smiling, laughing, helping each other – these are my kind of people. I’m looking forwards to shaking off this injury and giving it a go. I’ve already convinced my mates to sign up for another edition and I’m genuinely looking forward to it.’ Brave words.
