Christmas presents :-)

Well Christmas is upon us and I've decided to sort race entries for some of my relatives.

Firstly, my big brother who is an amateur triathlete will be joining our Tough Mudder team for Kettering next year.

Event review- Grim Challenge Aldershot, December 2nd 2012

I saw a post on Facebook a few months ago for the Grim Challenge series, sent by a friend of mine who wanted to get into mud and obstacle running. After answering a few general questions on these sorts of runs, I decided to keep this on the back-burner as a possible short run to warm down after the Spartan Beast which was only two weeks before it.

Kit review- Liquid Grip update

I almost forgot to give a quick update on the Liquid Grip product in the race after my earlier review!

I used it twice- Once before the monkey bars and once before the final wall. The grip was simply amazing. Even though the ropes and bars weren't wet or greased as they have been previously, I could fly up and across both obstacles with ease. Not necessarily faster, but with less effort.

I need to practice getting the Liquid Grip on to my hands whilst running with more efficiency, but I'll get there. In the meantime I can confirm that this product is great for obstacle running! :-)

liquidgrip.com
www.wellnaturalhealth.co.uk

Spartan Beast Race Kent- I got my time

Well I finally got my time through for the Beast, but for reasons that I won't go into once again, I'm not sure how relevant it is.

In the end I got a 01:52:20 which placed me 9th. Normally I'd be pleased with this as I really wanted a top 10 time, but with the amount of problems with this race, I'm not even going to count it. The best thing I got out of this race was my Trifecta medal and a test of my pain threshold.

Oh, and one last thing whilst I'm here: A friend of mine who ran the Beast in a later heat did take his GoPro and got a lot of the footage from the race. I thought the least I could do was post a link up for him!

Event review - Spartan Beast Race Kent, November 18th

Well this was it, the big one. This was the race that I've been looking forward to ever since tackling Tough Mudder in May. After the recent Spartan series races that I have completed, I was very excited that finally the time had come to take on the biggest Spartan Race in the UK, the Beast.

Billed as a 25km, 50+ obstacle onslaught, I was ready to shed blood, sweat and tears getting through this challenge.

Spartan Beast- T -3 days!

Well the prep is all done. Sunday 18th @ 1000 I'll be setting off in the elite heat of the UK London Spartan Beast. I must admit, I'm feeling great but I am concerned about my cardio, or lack thereof. It's been really tricky recently to get solid training in. The Wife and Oscar have both been very ill recently, which has limited the time I've been able to spend training.

Kit review- Liquid Grip

I was sat at work the other day, pondering a few things about the Spartan Races that I've done so far this year. The main thing that hit me was how slow I was up the ropes at the end of the courses. These were the ropes soaked in mud and water up the "Wall" obstacles. You need to pull yourself up the 45 degree slope via the ropes, and with the slope being covered in plastic and soaked, all of the effort needs to come through the rope.

The problem is that because the ropes are soaking wet, you have to clench your grip very tightly which not only tires your arms out but makes you spend longer securing each grip. In addition, your hands naturally start sliding down the rope even once you have grip.

Pain... Tell me I'm wrong

A bit about pain. This post may single me out as a bit of a weirdo, but I'm not worried, I'm totally cool with that.

I like pain. There you go I said it. I'm not talking about in some sort of sexual, kinky way, but I like pain when training and competing. Whether the sting from a punch inside the cage or the feel of stones slicing through my skin when crawling under some barbed wire, there's something about the sharp feel of pain that gives me focus and drive.

Tough Mudder 2013!

Last night The Wife and I signed up for Tough Mudder in 2013. Northampton, 5th May. We're in as a team of 8 so far but it'll likely be closer to 12 I would have thought.

Quite excited. For most of the people running with us, it will be a first obstacle run. The Wife has just signed up with the local CrossFit club that opened a few months ago, Sarum CrossFit. This will be the basis for her training, interspersed with some running. She won't let me train her, we've already been down that road :-)

As for me, it'll be business as usual :-) Stayed tuned for more updates as we go along!

Event review- Tough Guy Wolverhampton, 10km mud thrash, 14th October 2012

Four of us signed up for the first of a series of new events from Tough Guy, the founders of the obstacle run. Traditionally only run once a year, Tough Guy appear to be adding new events each year which I assume is to cash in on the growing market for obstacle runs bought on by the heavy promotion of Tough Mudder and Spartan Races.

Kit review- Inov-8 Talon 212 trail trainer

I've been using the Inov-8 X-Talon 212s for 6 months now as a trail running show for use in training across Salisbury Plain and as my race shoe for both Tough Mudder and Spartan series races. After researching before Tough Mudder in May 2012, I found several blogs and reviews from people who had run it before recommending either Inov-8s or Vibrams. When looking at the course structure, I decided to go for the X-Talon 212s as they seemed to have far superior grip and the majority of running would be through thick mud or wet grass fields.

Kit review- GoPro HD Hero2

As I write this, I'll be honest, I'm a bit annoyed. I purchased my first GoPro HD Hero2 towards the beginning of the year. It unfortunately got lost in the Tough Mudder run (My own fault!) and I re-purchased towards the end of June.

Why am I annoyed? After spending the best part of £750 on a new GoPro with a lot of the accessories, the replacement model was announced just yesterday, the GoPro 3. Twice as faster but more importantly smaller and lighter. I will however try not to let this shine through in this review!

Spartan Race Super and Sprint Birmingham- I got my times!

Hmmmm, another long wait with no emails after my Spartan Race. I'm starting to feel like the Spartan email system doesn't like me!

Anyway I got the times through and there was a bit of a problem. As I did the Sprint straight after the Super race, I was told the get a temporary timing chip for the second race. Unfortunately as I crossed the line twice with my original chip, my Super time came out as the race time, plus wait time, plus Sprint time...  3 hours and 24 minutes, not exactly lightning quick!

Event review- Spartan Race Super and Sprint Birmingham, September 9th 2012

The Super Spartan in Birmingham was to be my 3rd obstacle race, and optimistically I wanted to do a Sprint on the same day. This was possible due to a last minute change in venue due to a double booking and both races being moved to the same date.

I entered the elite heat at 10am for the Super as I was keen to make sure that the time I spent queuing was minimal on the good run. I was therefore a little disappointed to find out that the Super was in fact 2 laps of the Sprint race, which meant on lap 2 we were running with some non-competitive runners. I know we were all in the same boat, but it still wasn't great.

Kit review- Inov-8 Road-X 255 road trainer

I purchased these Inov-8s as my Asics died on me and I've taken the decision to get into minimalist running. I was sold on the fact that these were a "transition" shoe for on-road running, having transitioned already to Inov-8 X-Talon 212s for trail running. I wouldn't consider any other make at the moment due to how fantastic my X-Talons and Mudsocks have been from Inov-8.

Spartan Race Sprint Redhill- I got my time!

Unfortunately, I didn't seem to get the email through like everyone else did to get the time for my Spartan Sprint in Redhill, so I've had to wait a little longer than normal some others. However, for my first obstacle run out there on my own, I was pleasantly surprised!

Event review- Spartan Race Sprint Redhill, July 22nd 2012

The Spartan Sprint in Redhill was to be my second obstacle race and the first one which I would be doing solo to see what sort of pace I could keep up. I was in no-way looking to be competitive but really to try to gauge where I was fitness wise. I therefore signed up for a non-competitive heat, the 12pm heat.

The Wife and my son came with me in support and we arrived in good time. The entrance to the event was tricky to find, but once we got close it was very well signposted. The facilities were good, but the event was much, much smaller than Tough Mudder, my only previous experience of one of these.

Event review- Tough Mudder South East Kettering, May 12th 2012

Well here it is- My first ever obstacle run. Tough Mudder had been thrashed around the media a lot in the run up to the event, and I was really pleased to be taking part. Our team was six strong from our MMA club through to a triathlon and Ironman veteran. About half of the runners in our team were weight lifters and hadn't completed a run before. We committed to the spirit of Tough Mudder and placed camaraderie above a good race completion time. We all helped each other throughout the run however was needed.

The event took place in Kettering, in the grounds of a stately home. It was in beautiful surroundings and it was a lovely day for it- a decent bit of sun and not too hot.

Kit review- Elevation training mask v1.0

This will be a review that will divide opinion. The benefits or using gas masks and gas mask simulators have been debated for some time now with evidence on both sides for permanent benefits vs a short term goal. I'm not going to get into that here, but here is the link to the information from the makers of the mask (Which is obviously tilted in their favour!): trainingmask.com

Inspirational and helpful people

If you'd have asked me a few years ago, I'd have told you that the only person that matters in training is you. It's you that has to have eat the right foods, make the right choices, put the time in for whatever sport you're doing, get the sleep and rest you need to achieve your goals.

However, I've recently been inspired and helped by a few people close to me. I'm not talking about sports personalities or celebs, but by people I know.

Practical fitness training

When I decided that I needed to get fit again, at first I struggled to find a goal once I had decided that MMA was no longer to be for me. With MMA it was simple- You needed to be fit and strong enough to survive the rounds, strike and wrestle with others of similar weights. With those "rules" removed and the fitness prerequisites stated on all of the obstacle run courses being pretty low, I needed to decide on what my goals were to be.

End of year review 2011

Here's the second one then, starting off with the beginning of the year...

Before, again the only pic that I have of Jan 2011

And the after...

Jan 2012

Jan 2012

 The main thing that I have noticed is that my weight has not really fluctuated. I still walk around at ~75Kg despite putting on more muscle and definition. I've put this mostly down to the training that began for Tough Mudder, which I started in October 2011. This was the first time I had taken the need to begin running seriously, and although by the end of December I had still not completed more than 6 miles in a row, the fat and shape cutting benefits of running had become clear for me to see.

I'd also by this time properly taken time to look at my diet, embarking on a well supplemented version of Paleo, though without the hardcore carb cutting. Bascially however I was eating a lot more natural protein and supplementing with a healthy combination of amino acids, whey and Creatine.