Tough Mudder aka...Hah! We fooled you!

Jason and my Tough Mudder experience started last August when he heard about the race. He showed me the videos and pictures as a joke and I thought that it would be fun to do. Fast forward till today and all of the excitement came to fruition.

We left our place way too early and made it to the raceway while it was still dark. We had an hour or so to roam the main area, stretched and admired everyone's costumes. The race started out mild enough, we had a short run and then we had to go into a pond and duck our heads under the barrels that were floating. The obstacle itself wasn't bad because the water wasn't as cold as I thought and I'm a good swimmer. The only issue was that there was someone in front of me that wasn't going under so Jason and I ended up treading water for awhile. There were a whole bunch of obstacles and we got to the point that Jason and I lost track of them.

The easier obstacles were in the beginning of the race and they got harder as we went on. However, everybody helped everyone else and it was actually quite fun. I wasn't expecting so much mud though. I know that it was a mud run, but it seemed like once the mud was drying off, they made us go into some ore mud. My shoes were not up to par, which made it harder and I ended up getting rocks un my shoes every time there was mud and then I slipped and slid for at least 100 yards afterwards. I was actually having lots of fun!

However, towards the middle of the race, my legs started cramping up. I would occasionally stop to stretch and be good to go. Jason and I actually brought a camelbak and some larabars for snacks and they were very helpful. Unfortunately, around mile 8 or 9, my legs cramped up majorly and I almost thought that I was going to have to give up. I did appreciate how everyone that passed me asked if I was ok and volunteered to get the medics. Jason helped me work through the pain and we moved on, albeit a lot slower. I also decided to sit some obstacles out so that I could finish the race. I ended up sitting out the most physically draining obstacles. As much as I would have loved to do all the obstacles, I didn't want my legs seizing up and having to quit. Plus, the electric eel (crawling through mud while trying not to get electrocuted) looked scary and Jason got zapped 5 times. In the end, I finished the race and was even able to go through the last obstacle which was running through live wire. I actually army crawled under the wires and was able to not get zapped. However, according to Jason, I had a wire tough my bun but it didn't zap me. Thank God!

My favorite obstacle was probably the mud mile where they had hills of mud that you climbed up and then slid into ponds. It was actually lots of fun!

My proudest moments were when I went through the two sets of tunnels. I'm claustrophobic so that was definitely my most mentally challenging obstacles. One set even had water halfway up the tunnel and I had to try to not freak out.

My scariest moment was during the arctic enema. It was pretty much a huge dumpster filled with ice water. There was a board in the middle that you had to go under. I wanted to just go in and get in done quickly, however, the board went down much lower than I thought and ended up getting caught up on the board because I had a backpack on. For a split second, I thought I was going to drown, but was able to gather myself and dove deeper to make it to the other side. I quickly got out and froze for awhile. Jason now calls me Casper.

The most painful obstacle was actually this huge mud hill that you had to climb up. And what goes up must come down, so we had this steep mud hill to slid down. Which wouldn't be so bad except for the embedded rocks in the hill. Jason and my backside is still sore!

I was most pleasantly surprised by how easily I was able to do the strength obstacles. All my training definitely helped and I was able to do some upper body obstacles with ease.  I was also pleasantly surprised at the fact that most of the water events were quite warm. It was nice to not get cold. In fact, the weather was wonderful and it was the perfect weather to do the race. Not too hot and not too cold and when we did get hot, the water events cooled us off nicely.

I was most unpleasantly surprised by the fact that it was a 12 mile race and not a 10 mile race. Not only was the even 20% longer, there were a lot more obstacles to conquer. The obstacles weren't so bad but the extra 2 miles definitely was a killjoy at the end of the race when I was barely putting one foot in front of the other. Although I made it to the end and Jason didn't have to carry me!

While I wasn't expecting so much mud, I enjoyed using it as a natural sunblock and now my hair is actually really soft! In fact lots of people used it as sunblock and I ended up smearing a big burly dude in a kilt with mud because he was getting red.

I'm really happy that Jason and I ran Tough Mudder today. It was a great bonding experience for us since it was our kind of fun. But it was also a great test of my dependence on God. Towards the end, I was really suffering but Jason and I prayed and I was able to rely on God's strength to finish the race. It was a great humbling experience because I couldn't do it without people helping me and I definitely wouldn't be able to do it without God's strength carrying me through.

All in all, I would definitely do it again but I would train more for it. Although I'm not sure that I would do it next year, but then again, I'm still sore!  I would also get some Vibrim 5fingers for shoes since Jason did much better with those shoes. And I would bring the camelbak and snacks again. There were hydration stations and snacks along the way, but it was good to have a snack and water on hand for when I needed it. Plus, it helped us float for the water obstacles!

P.S. Jason was great and he helped me through the race and supported me the whole time. He even spent over 5 minutes stretching my calves out so that I could keep going. He completed all the obstacles and even made some very hard ones seem like a cake walk. He is a rock star!

Life just goes on....

I can't believe I've been away from the blog for so long. But life just has a way of moving on doesn't it. Since I last wrote, I turned 30, got sick, found awesome paleo food blogs and got better! I know, what an exciting life!

Turning 30 wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was a mellow day that was spent with the family. Since we were on the strict paleo diet, we really couldn't go anywhere to get food we can have. Which is ok with me since most restaurants serve overpriced versions of what I can make at home. Plus, paleo has been good for the family. We all have more energy, are more alert during the days and don't have the random stomach issues that plagued Jason and I. I do have to say that the most inhibiting factor of paleo is cost. Nut milks and flours are much more expensive than dairy and unfortunately it costs more to eat healthy in the States than to buy processed junk foods. However, I have found out how to cut the costs by making my own nut milks, nut butters and nut flours. That alone has saved us lots of money and the end product was way tastier. I've even found some desserts that we can have that uses fruits as sweeteners. I can have treats again! Like regular desserts though, we only have them sparingly because they still aren't all that great for us. But they are amazing!

The kids have done well with the change and we have started to slowly add food back into our diet to see if we have any adverse reactions. But Jason and I think that we will probably be eating the paleo way from now on. We will probably modify it so it's not as strict, but it's definitely been treating us well.  A lot of my clothes are loose now and my body is definitely shaping up quite nicely.

I'm hoping that all this extra energy will help me out when we run Tough Mudder next week. I can't believe it's only a week away! While I could have trained more for it, I'm pretty confident that I will have lots of fun and make it though unscathed. Well, that's the hope anyways! I'll let you know how it goes next week!

Crocodile pushups: when a normal pushup isn't hard enough!

There was a lot of strength training this week. I'm sore for the first time in weeks. Oh well, it'll be worth it when I can rock Tough Mudder!

Me: Day 1- 50 sec. on, 10 sec. off, move to next exercise, repeat 3 more times, record first set

Crocodile Pushup- 11

Deck Squat Jumps- 8

1 Leg Wall Squat- 22

Jack Knives- 6

Day 2- 20 sec. on, 10 sec. off, repeat 7 more times then move to the next exercise, record lowest score

Crocodile Pushup- 1

Deck Squat Jumps- 6

1 Leg Wall Squat- 1

Jack Knives- 3

Day 3- (Day 1 score + Day 2 score) x 3, Do in shortest time

Crocodile Pushup- 39

Deck Squat Jumps- 33

1 Leg Wall Squat- 90

Jack Knives- 21

Time: 13:30

Jason: Day 1- 50 sec. on, 10 sec. off, move to next exercise, repeat 3 more times, record first set

Crocodile Pushup- 18

Deck Squat Jumps- 13

1 Leg Wall Squat- 40

Jack Knives- 15

Day 2- 20 sec. on, 10 sec. off, repeat 7 more times then move to the next exercise, record lowest score

Crocodile Pushup- 5

Deck Squat Jumps- 3

1 Leg Wall Squat- 15

Jack Knives- 3

Day 3- (Day 1 score + Day 2 score) x 3, Do in shortest time

Crocodile Pushup- 69

Deck Squat Jumps- 48

1 Leg Wall Squat- 200

Jack Knives- 54

Time: 14:44

Yes, Jason is a rock star and I am a pansy. 

Training's not fun.

Last week Jason and I did the timed exercises again.  Let's just say that it wasn't fun at all but here are our scores anyways.

Me: Day 1
Jump Squats-84
Indian Lift- 57
Alternating Splits- 87
Dips- 42
Time- 11:55

Day 2
Diamond Push ups- 34
Wall Squats- 186
Side Tri Rise- 45
Mountain Climbers- 234
Time- 14:37

Day 3
Snowboarder 180- 96
Plank In & Out- 51
Jump Kicks- 138
Dive Bombers- 28
Time- 13:36

Jason: Day 1

Jump Squats-99

Indian Lift- 102

Alternating Splits- 126

Dips- 111

Time- 13:06

Day 2

Diamond Push ups- 93

Wall Squats- 200

Side Tri Rise- 60

Mountain Climbers- 258

Time- 14:20

Day 3

Snowboarder 180- 117

Plank In & Out- 78

Jump Kicks- 150

Dive Bombers- 36

Time- 14:00

Jason and I both agreed that the worst exercise to do last week was the Snowboarder 180s. It wasn't the hardest to do, but we didn't like them because it messed with our equilibrium and I was getting dizzy and it made Jason's knees hurt.

This week's training was not any better. The program threw us for a loop and had us do the same 4 exercises all week long. Not Fun! It was a very arm intensive week and after the last workout my arms felt like they were rubber and about to fall off. 

Me: Day 1                              Day 2 (lowest score)                           Day 3

Burpees- 10                            1                                                          33

Cross Hops- 11                       6                                                          42

Cliff Scalers- 5                       1                                                            18

Incline Dips- 6                        3                                                           27

                                                                                                      Time- 13:40

Jason: Day 1                           Day 2 (lowest score)                           Day 3

Burpees- 12                            3                                                          45

Cross Hops- 12                       9                                                          63

Cliff Scalers- 8                        3                                                           33

Incline Dips- 18                       14                                                         96

                                                                                                      Time- 14:20

As you can see,my numbers were pretty pathetic. But this week I worked so much harder. I thought things were going to get easier, but boy was I wrong!

An uphill battle

I continued my training this week and boy, was it tough! Not only were the exercises rough, but I had taken a week off. All I have to say is that I'm glad it's done! My numbers were pretty pathetic, but in a way, I'm kind of happy about it since I won't have to do as much next week. :-)

Me: Day 1
Jump Squats: 15,12,10,8,8,8,8,8
Indian Lifts:10,7,6,6,4,7,6,4
Alternating Splits:14,10,10,9,9,9,9,9
Dips:3,5,4,3,4,3,2,5

Day 2
Diamond Push-ups:4,2,2,2,1,3,2,2
Wall Squats:20,15,15,12,12,12,12,12
Side Tri Rise:8,6,6,6,6,6,6,4
Mountain Climbers:31,25,21,18,22,20,18,28

Day 3
Snowboarder 180:15,13,12,11,11,10,10,10
 Plank In&Out:10,7,6,6,6,7,6,6
Jump Kicks:13,11,11,12,12,12,12,11
Dive bombers:3,2,1,1,2,2,3,1

Jason was very sweet and redid this week's workout with me. These are his scores from last week.

Jason: Day 1

Jump Squats:16,16,11,10,10,10,8,8 

Indian Lifts:20,18,16,13,11,11,12,9

Alternating Splits:21,15,12,12,11,12,11,12

Dips:13,10,10,10,9,8,8,8

Day 2

Diamond Push-ups: 17,9,6,5,5,4,4,3

Wall Squats:20,20,20,17,16,15,13,13

Side Tri Rise:8,8,8,7,7,7,7,6

Mountain Climbers:49,30,24,22,20,18,18,16

Day 3

Snowboarder 180:17,15,15,12,10,11,10,7

 Plank In&Out:11,8,9,8,8,8,7,6

Jump Kicks:17,14,11,11,11,11,10,10

Dive bombers:6,5,5,3,3,2,2,1

Training or not.....

I was sick with a stomach virus last week so training was put on hold. As much as I enjoyed the rest, this week has been rough. Not only are the workouts hard anyways, I'm working on building up after a break. Let me just say that I should have just trained las week even if I threw up afterwards. Oh well...hindsight is 20/20.

I was wrong.....

So training this week was not fun. We started a whole new set of exercises to do and I think that the guy who thought it up is evil. Some of the stuff we are doing is not only outside of my abilities, I didn't even know some of them existed before. All that to say, the scores are pretty pathetic to say the least.

Me: Day 1
Jump Squats- 20
Indian Lift- 35
Alternating Splits- 20
Dips- 12

Day 2
Diamond Push ups- 11
Wall Squats- 50
Side Tri Rise- 11
Mountain Climbers- 60

Day 3
Snowboarder 180- 22
Plank In & Out- 11
Jump Kicks- 35
Dive Bombers- 6

Jason: Day 1

Jump Squats- 25

Indian Lift- 50

Alternating Splits- 31

Dips- 29

Day 2

Diamond Push ups- 28

Wall Squats- 50

Side Tri Rise- 10

Mountain Climbers- 70

Day 3

Snowboarder 180- 32

Plank In & Out- 20

Jump Kicks- 40

Dive Bombers- 11

The pain is subsiding....

This week for training it is different again! The workouts are more of a battle against yourself. You take your scores from week one, add it to your week two scores and then multiply the sum by 3 to get the number of reps that you're doing for the week. The point is to do it as quickly as possible.  I have to say that when I calculated my numbers, it seemed very intimidating and almost impossible. But I surprised myself by not only finishing, but finishing in a good time. (The goal is to finish the workouts as close to 16 minutes as possible.)

Here are the scores everyone is waiting for!

Me: Day 1
Squats- 111
Push-ups- 54 (Yes, I did them all! And not on my knees either! I'm so proud!)
Lunges- 78
Plank Bridge- 186 sec.

Total Time- 16:45

Day 2
Elevated Push-ups- 36
Bird Dog- 114
Squat Pulses- 150 sec.
Superman- 165 sec.

Total Time- 14:10 (Woot woot!)

Day 3
Squat Touch Reach- 132
Reverse Lunges- 66
Drop Squats- 51
Straight Plank- 210 sec.

Total Time- 13:14 :-)

Jason: Day 1

Squats- 150

Push-ups- 96

Lunges- 108

Plank Bridge- 210 sec.

Total Time- 19:00

Day 2

Elevated Push-ups- 114

Bird Dog- 150

Squat Pulses- 168 sec.

Superman- 210 sec.

Total Time- 16:26

Day 3

Squat Touch Reach- 138

Reverse Lunges- 105

Drop Squats- 72

Straight Plank- 210 sec.

Total Time-16:29

As you can see, Jason's more of a rock star than I am. But he was able to do pushups 2 months ago and I couldn't even do 1!

We also did a fitness test at the end of the week to see how much we improved. We did on set of the workouts from Day 1 and compared the numbers. Here's  how we improved:

Me-  Day 1- Fitness Test-  % improved

Squats- 26- 50- 92%
Pushups- 15- 22- 47%
Lunges- 20- 26- 30%
Plank Bridge- 50- 50- There was no room for improvement because I did the max on Day 1.

Jason-  Day 1- Fitness Test-  % improved

Squats-  37- 52- 41%

Pushups- 37- 50- 35%

Lunges- 28- 38- 35%

Plank Bridge- 50- 50- Jason did the max on both days. 

Whew! I'm tired just typing it all out!

A new kind of Pain Part 2

So while I thought that the second week of my new training would be the same as the first, 50 sec. on 10 sec. off, Jason and I were saddened to see that it changed. For week two, it was 20 sec. on 10 sec. off for 8 reps. The only thing is that you do all the reps for one exercise before you move on to the next. It was a bear! Your muscles quickly turn into putty and you find yourself laying on the floor in pain. The interval training is based off of the Tabata Method and is shown to be a great way to increase your performance and increase weight lose. So here are our numbers, it got pathetic pretty quickly but don't judge!

Me: Day 1
Squats- 14,14,13,12,11,11,11,11
Push ups- 10,8,5,5,5,3,3,3
Lunges- 10,10,10,8,6,6,7,8
Plank Bridge- 20,20,12,12,12,12,12,14

Day 2
Elevated Push-ups- 6,3,1,1,1,1,1,1
Bird Dog- 16,12,10,10,10,10,10,11
Squat Pulses- 20,20,15,15,15,15,19
Superman- 20,20,20,20,20,20,15,15

Day 3
Squat Touch Reach- 12,12,12,12,12,12,12,12
Reverse Lunges- 10,10,10,10,10,10,10,10
Drop Squats- 13,10,10,8,8,7,8,8
Straight Plank- 20,20,20,20,20,20,20,20

Jason only recorded his low scores since that was what we needed.

 Day 1

Squats- 10

Push ups- 5

Lunges- 9

Plank Bridge- 9

Day 2

Elevated Push-ups- 3

Bird Dog- 14

Squat Pulses- 10

Superman- 14

Day 3

Squat Touch Reach- 12

Reverse Lunges- 11

Drop Squats- 9

Straight Plank- 20

This week we take our scores from the first 2 weeks, multiply it by 3 and have to do all those reps! I'm so not looking forward to it!

A new kind of pain

Jason and I started a new workout routine this week. Let me just say that it is HARD! It's called Max Capacity Training (maxcapacitytraining.com) and pretty much you work hard for 50 seconds on and 10 seconds rest. You do 4 sets of 4 exercises.  I knew that it would be rough but man, was it rough. I did take  some joy in seeing Jason having a hard time. A couple that sweats together,...well, sweats together. Jason and I recorded our scores of the workouts to track our progress. Here they are...

Me:
Day 1- squats- 26  push-ups-15  lunges- 20 plank bridge- 50 (I held one for all 50 secs.)
I was most proud of my push-ups because they weren't on my knees! Although they were on my knees after the first set.

Day 2- Elevated push-ups- 12  bird dog- 28  squat pulses- 35 (how long I could keep it up) superman- 40

Day 3- squat touch reach- 32  reverse lunges- 12  drop squats- 10  straight plank- 50

Jason:
Day 1- squats- 37  push-ups-37  lunges- 28 plank bridge- 50

Day 2- Elevated push-ups- 33  bird dog- 36  squat pulses- 40 superman- 50

Day 3- squat touch reach- 34  reverse lunges- 24  drop squats- 15  straight plank- 50

In review, the first set of exercises are the numbers that we recorded because things started getting pretty rough after that. Especially on Day 3 where both Jason and I were uttering lots of pain sounds. If you don't know what a pain sound is, just head to the gym or come on over and watch us workout. This is a great workout to do because it only takes about half an hour including warm up and cool down. But I would definitely do it with someone else to keep you going. I told Jason that if I wasn't doing it with him I would probably quit. That being said, I can already see results from doing my burpees and this workout. I can climb the stairs all the way up to my apartment (8th floor) without getting winded anymore, I have more energy and I can tell that my body is changing in a very good way. Next week I repeat the workouts above and hope that the numbers improve.

Training week of 12/25/11

Merry Christmas!
 This week I took advantage of the holidays and gave myself a little break. However, with my mom in town, there's been a lot more outings than normal so I feel beat! Jason and I did make it to the gym to do some running last night and he helped to keep me on track. hehe...get it? keep me on track? I ended the week doing 19 burpees.

Training Week of 12/18/11

Sunday- I wanted to see what I could do in one minute segments.
   burpees- 9
   right hand kettlebell swings w/baby bell- 31
   left hand kettlebell swings w/baby bell- 29
   reverse burpees- 17
Monday- 9 burpees,  60 one handed swings with baby bell, 10 squats with baby bell
Tuesday-10 burpees- rest
Wednesday- 11 burpees -work on Christmas presents instead of working out.
Thursday- 12 burpees- more work on Christmas presents. Although, I did take the kids to Costco by myself so I think that should count!
Friday- TRX basic training and 13 burpees.
Saturday- 14 burpees.

Training Week of 12/11/11

Jason got me started on a progressive burpee routine. Pretty much you start doing 1 burpee and the next day do 2 and then 3 the next day and so on and so forth.  Well, apparently, starting with 1 was too easy for Jason so we started with 10. I also wanted to see  if I could do it with my turkish getups. Let's see how long it lasts!

Sunday- 10 burpees, rest.
Monday- 11 burpees, 4 sets of turkish getups, 2 sets of 20 swings with brother bell (35 lbs.).
Tuesday- 12 burpees, 5 sets of turkish getups, 2 sets of 20 swings with brother bell (35 lbs.)
Wednesday- 13 burpees, rest
Thursday- Jason let me move back down to 1 burpee as a start, so I did 5 burpees because I thought it was Friday.
Friday- 6 burpees
Saturday- 7 burpees- Aiden was sick so there was no working out for me.

I need to step it into gear. My goal is to start running and adding a mile every week. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up better when Jason is done with the semester.

Training Week of 12/4/11

Since I need to get from my couch potato state to Tough Mudder ready in 4 months. I need to get off my duff and get moving. So this is what I did this week.

Monday- Kettlebells: swings with the baby bells and turkish get-ups with 10 lbs dumb bells, stretches, planks and pushups.
Tuesday- Kettlebells: swings with the baby bells and turkish get-ups with 10 lbs dumb bells, stretches, planks and pushups.
Wednesday- swimming: lots of laps :)
Thursday- Rest my sore body
Friday- TRX- We call it the T-Rex basic training.
Saturday- Mini session with kettlebells and burpees.

I would post pictures up, but it's not pretty. So you get this instead.

The other family living with us

I wanted to introduce you to the other family that lives with us. 

They are Russian kettlebells and are an amazing workout. I use the baby ones which are 12kg. (26 lbs.) and Jason uses the 16kg. ( 35 lbs.) consistently. He also bought the large bells this summer. He has a pair of 28kg.(62lbs.) and a pair of 32 kgs. (72lbs.). Jason is working his way up to the larger bells and is doing an amazing job.

The reason why we love to use the bells is because it's such a great total body workout and it is actually really good for rehabilitating joints. Since Jason has trouble with pretty much all of his joints, it's been great for him to use the bells without injuring himself more. I know that a lot of people are jumping on the kettlebell bandwagon lately and I have to say that I completely understand why. It's just an amazing way to work out. It's been a staple in my training for Tough Mudder.

Tough Mudder

It was hot in Texas this last summer. So hot that a lot of lakes are now dry and lots of farmers and ranchers have no hay for their livestock. So hot that all you could do was try to find  an air conditioned environment and stay there as long as possible. During one of these days of hiding in the coolness of the house, Jason showed me a website about an adventure race called Tough Mudder as a joke. I looked at the video and thought these people are crazy and then I watched more videos and read some blogs about the race. And I decided that since I am turning 30 next year and haven't done anything crazy in a while, I needed to try something new. Then Jason and I signed up to run The Tough Mudder. We are running on April 1st which gives me plenty of time to train. Now all I need to do is TRAIN! So I'll have to let you know how I'm doing. Although, I don't really know how you train for running through fire and being electrocuted. http://toughmudder.com/