Final Gear Purchases, Training, and Mudder Essentials

With almost one month to the date until my event, it's pretty hard to express just how excited I am.  Every single day I am watching Tough Mudder videos, going on their website, going to the Mudder Nation website, and overall just becoming completely absorbed by this whole experience.  This has been a long road full of great successes (I am down 10 pounds since January!) and predictable failures (my long absence during the holidays).  When it comes down to it, I am glad I signed up for this event and now that it is finally coming up I am mentally ready for the challenge it presents.  Physically?  I am almost there.


The good news is that I am up to week 3 of the second phase of P90X.  Only 1 more week and then I move onto the last phase.  I have supplemented a couple days of my weeks to include more cardio and this past Sunday Jason and I went to a local High School and ran for a couple miles.  Keep in mind that I haven't "gone for a run" since Junior High and it's quite important that I become conditioned to do so by the event.  I thought two miles was a good start and our plan is to go 2-3 times a week and increase our distance each time.  If we can get to running 5 miles without stopping than I believe we will be ready.


I have updated the blog with my final gear purchases on the left column so you can see what I will be using for the event.  The gloves were my final purchase as I took some Mudders advice and looked at the Mad Grips gloves.  Unfortunately, Amazon was out of stock so I went with a similar brand and they will be arriving on Thursday.  The Under Armour shirt and leggings are great and I know that I will be warm enough for the event.  My advice to anyone looking to buy some gear for event:

• You don't have to buy special clothing/gear for this event.  I did because I am taking this WAY too seriously.  There are many people who dress up in Speedos, Tutu's, etc.  
• Comfortable shoes are key.  My personal recommendation are Vibram Five Fingers because they have worked so well for me and many others.  With the Injinji Toe Socks they are very comfortable and strengthen your foot as you use them.
• Purchase gear that is weather-appropriate i.e. Don't buy Under Armour ColdGear leggings if you are running Tough Mudder during summer.  
• I feel that gloves will be important for protecting my hands on the various wooden obstacles like Berlin Walls and Log Jammin.  By no means are they necessary.

Once I have completed the event I will list my opinions of all my gear choices and how they worked out along with a full review of pretty much every aspect of my experience.  

Also, a lot of people always wonder what they need to bring to the event.  Here is what I am packing (Keep in mind I am spending Friday night at a local Motel 6.  I hope they leave the light on for me...)

• Basic Toiletries
• Gear for the event
• Directions to the event
• Photo ID for event registration
• Copy of registration confirmation email
• Change of clothes for post-event activities (Hoodie, jeans, skull cap...stay warm)
• Towel
• Trash bag to store muddy clothes and shoes
• Gatorade/Energy Bars (My friend Paige will be spectating so he will bring these on the course for us)

This is all I have for now.  Tough Mudder stresses that you bring a photo ID and your confirmation email to the event so that you can sign in.  I'm bringing all of my important documentation (ID, directions, hotel confirmation, etc.) in a folder to keep it organized.  Once again, I will post about the whole race-day procedures after I actually do the course so you can get a clear idea for how the event works.

That's it for now.  I am in my final training phase for the event which will mainly be focused on increasing my cardio endurance.  I will still have 2 days out of the week to focus on resistance training but at this point I don't think it's as important as being able to run for long distances.  I will post again soon as we get closer to the event but at this point it will be to update my training.  Later.

Locking in the final details...40 days left

Today's post is not really exciting in any way, other than the fact that I am less than 40 days out from Tough Mudder.  My friend Jason FINALLY registered for the event and my friend Paige will be joining us as a spectator.  This will be helpful because he will be able to bring a change a clothes for us without us having to check bags at the event, which I heard is very time-consuming due to the amount of people.


Yesterday I remembered that I still needed to book a hotel room for the night before the event. A lot of places in the area were booked up for obvious reasons, but I eventually booked a room at the luxurious Motel 6 where Tom Bodett will hopefully be running the course with us as well.    So now I have officially completed all planning aspects of the event.  The only things left to do are to continue my training and purchase the rest of my gear for the event.  I plan on buying the Injinji toe socks and gloves this weekend but I am still unsure about the Under Armor stuff. I just don't know what the weather will be like and I want to wait a little bit before committing to the cold or warm weather gear that UA provides.  The clothing is not very cheap.


I am finally getting back into a workout schedule this week after a couple weeks off.  From 2/18 thru 2/25 I was in Florida for my birthday and when I came back from the beautiful 80 degree weather to 20 degree shit in Detroit, I immediately got sick.  So I spent most of last week recovering and I started my second week phase 2 for P90X yesterday.  Scratch that, I picked up where I left off as I did the first day last Monday and then came down with a cold.  Plyo yesterday was pretty rewarding and I felt very energized to do the workout even though I didn't get much sleep the previous night.  I's really amazing to see the improvements you make as you continue through the program.  I really felt less winded through a lot of the moves and I wasn't completely wasted by the end of it.


Very soon I am going to start running outside in order to build up my endurance so I will be purchasing a heart monitor/step tracker for this so I can gauge my runs.  Hopefully P90X will provide enough strength training to get me through the upper body-based obstacles such as Funky Monkey and the Rope Climb, while the running will help with the...uhh...running..part of the course.


Today's workout is Back/Bi's which is tough as hell but is a killer arm workout.  I look forward to the coming weeks of training and preparation for the event.