Mid-Atlantic Fall Tough Mudder

This weekend's Mid-Atlantic Fall Tough Mudder was another great event!  The course was held at the Peacemaker National Training Center again, but the course was much different from the spring event.

The weather was due to be a bit warmer than the spring event, which was great.  It was a bit cloudy throughout the day, which was good...at one point along the route, many in our group noticed that there was a drop in the air temperature, which we found out later was a signal of the incoming rain from the west.  The course itself was great...a real challenge.  TMHQ took full advantage of the terrain to really get the participants to the point where everyone was challenged by what they might have thought was an easy obstacle.  The spring event had a lot more water to trudge through, where this time, we had actual mud.  Mucky mud.  Lots of it.

Many parts of this course followed parts of the path for the spring event, and some of the obstacles were different.  In other cases, such as some of the trail running, the followed the reverse of the spring route.  This time around, the course had a lot more hill climbs, which took a toll on your quads, and unfortunately for many who weren't as well prepared, there were a number of folks cramping up and even getting pulls.

Some of the "obstacles" were new...for example, there were a couple of "burn zones", where participants would stop and do exercises...pushups and lunges.  There was another burn zone later where participants would record the number of pushups that they did, and one penny for each pushup would go to the Wounded Warrior Project.  Another use of the terrain was a flat area where we did the wheelbarrow, which I thought was great, as was the warrior carry (carry your partner, then switch it up).

There were also some of the classic Tough Mudder obstacles...Mt. Everest, the Electric Eel, the Funky Monkey, the Boa Constrictor...as well as some "new" ones, like the Cage Crawl.  There was one named "Killa Gorilla" that ended up being nothing more than a path snaking up and down a hill, and then around again.  We saw a sign for the Cliffhanger, and thought we would be climbing up a muddy wall, maybe with a rope...and it was just a hill. There were a number of obstacles that had been shut down (the Pirate's Booty was one I was really looking forward to doing again...) or bypassed simply due to the course path.  I will say that without a doubt, the hills really tested your level of fitness and preparation.  However, some excellent opportunities were missed for including some of the obstacles that have been prominently displayed at other events.

TMHQ is getting much better about preparing folks for the upcoming event, but if I had to pick one thing that I didn't think went as well as it could have was the spectator's ability to follow and see the competitors.  The course map, which included the spectators routes, was available online a couple of days prior to the event, and when comparing it to the spring event, it was clear that the participants would be out of sight of the spectators (particularly those supporting them) for a considerable amount of time.  A couple of thoughts along those lines:

1.  The cost for spectators ($20 ahead of time, $40 the day of...) is kind of steep for what they actually have access to.  $15, cash or check, at the door would've been good enough, I think.  I do know that some of that goes to support the Wounded Warrior Project, but still...for what the spectators had access to, $20 was a little steep.

2.  Tough Mudder is missing a HUGE marketing opportunity!  We had some younger folks in our spectator's group who went from "I'll never do something like this..." to "THIS IS TOTALLY AWESOME!!"...engaging the spectators more is going to lead to a percentage of them signing up as participants.  We had four folks in our group participating, and six spectators.  One of the participants fully intends to run another event, and two of the spectators are talking about doing an event in the future.

Training
Finally, something of a side note, and I'm only sharing this because my nephew has expressed an interest in becoming a certified fitness trainer (and my sister has recently become one)...events such as the Tough Mudder, even the shorter events, offer a HUGE opportunity not only for the events, but for fitness trainers.  Develop a group class, and starting about six months out for one of the smaller events, begin getting folks in shape for the class.  Pick up others who may already be in better shape along the way...but the goal is to have everyone "graduate" by running the event as a group.  Picking a local event would be a great way to start, and could even be the initial stepping stone to a larger event like the Tough Mudder.

Pre-Tough Mudder

I don't usually post before an event, but something about this weekend's Mid-Atlantic Fall Tough Mudder event got me to thinking.  I'm going to be running this one with my wife, who not only hates to run, but has never done an event of this length.  She's done a fantastic job with other events (Savage Race, The Big Hooyah), but this one is going to be a little bit more than she's done before.  What she's got going for her to face these challenges is enthusiasm and fitness.  We're also running it with our nephew, an Army vet.  So this is going to be a great time...while my wife has attended a number of the events I've run (which, I think, is what got her excited enough to want to run one...), she hasn't seen all of the obstacles.  There's a big difference between seeing a video of people going over an obstacle, and having to move 6 or 8 miles through the woods, and then be standing at the base of an obstacle.

So, I thought that for new folks, or those who haven't run one of these events, I'd offer up what I've found to be some of the keys to completing these events and obstacles.  If you're someone who wants to run one of these events, and you're not sure about how to train, or to just prepare, my recommendation would be to focus on running and upper-body strength, particularly pulling, with some good core work.  What I like about getting ready for these events is that there's nothing boring at all about the training...you can mix it up anyway you like.  Go for a long slow run with a buddy. Do some speed work...run sprints or fartleks.  Find some distance on your route (like up a hill) and run it faster than you've been running, and when you get to the end, stop and do some squat-jumps and other exercises (box jumps, lunges, etc.).  For upper body work, there are any number of variations of pullups, pushups, dips, etc., that you can do.  During one work out, you can do as many sets as you can of a certain number of reps, or you can just keep going until you can only get three or four reps.  I have 40 lb weight vest that I like to use, alternating pullups and dips or pushups for a couple of sets, doing some ab/core work, and then going back to the upper body work again.  Variations are endless.

Now, I've been to events where I've heard some folks talk about how the obstacle that we're standing in front of isn't the same as the one they trained on.  Yes, apparently there are folks out there who look at the obstacles and create their own versions.  I kind of get that for the really competitive folks, but for folks who are new or just getting started with this sort of event, I think (based on my experience) that it would be much better to focus on general fitness, and not so much on specific obstacles.

One of the obstacles I've been seeing more and more is the traverse wall, like what you see in the image to the right.  I've seen variations of this sort of obstacle for a while now...the Spartan Race has it, and they had one at the Savage Race. As I sit in my home office, I think I've come across a great way to train for this sort of obstacle.  Across the street from me is an athletic field with a couple of baseball/softball diamonds, and a couple of soccer fields.  The soccer goals are perfect for training for this sort of event.  Just jump up, put your fingers over the top of the beam, and traverse down the length of the beam.  As you improve, go back without a break.

As one would expect, OCR events are becoming more popular, to the point where in recent weeks, I've seen several articles referring to OCR-training-specific facilities opening up in different locations.  That's awesome, but the fact is, you don't need that.

Strategy
Like I said, I'm running this event (in 4 days) with my wife and nephew, and that may include a college classmate (if we're able to find each other at the venue).  The weather looks like that day is going to be a high of 62 degrees (low of 40), and sunny.  So, we're going to get there and warm up...but what about the rest of it?

Clothing
I always go with the same thing...shoes I trained in, a dryfit shirt, compression shorts (to keep the mud out) and nylon running shorts.  I wear trail running shoes, because that's what I trained in, and I prefer the flat bottoms to what you get from Vibram five-toed shoes; many times at a venue, they'll bushhog part of the route, which means you'll find short stumps in addition to the muddy ground.  Double-knot the shoes...you'll need to be able to get them off quickly; it's a great idea after the Mud Mile (there were two of them at the spring event) for your team to take a seat and get the rocks out of their shoes.  Being able to quickly untie the shoes is important, as you don't want folks sitting around getting sore and stiff while you wait for someone to get their shoes off (that happened at the 2012 Spartan Race).

Hydration
I've always opted to partake in water at every stop, from when I ran my first marathon in 1988.  With these events, and based on what I learned at the Super Spartan (Nelly's Ford, VA, in Aug, 2013), it's likely that we're going to be on the course for about four hours.  At the second water stop, but no later than the third, we're going to start taking the gels and/or bananas.  At the Spartan event (and I was out on the course for a total of 4 hrs for that one), I started hearing people complain about how hungry they were, and we want to make sure that we have the energy reserves that we need, not only because of the Arctic Enema, but also because my wife hasn't gone this distance before (my nephew did 12-mile ruck marches for time when he was in the Army).  So, the hydration strategy is going to include aspirin before, during, and after the event, as well as intake of food on the course.