The starting blocks

So, where am I currently in terms of fitness and preparation for this?

6ft3...

38 years old... 

83kg...

Blood pressure good. No major health problems apart from mild asthma and a recently strained knee ligament (recovering well). 

Overall - reasonably fit... I'm definitely not 'unfit'! But having said that it's a very practical, every day kind of fitness. Let's break down what makes this up:

Cycling - This is the big one for me. I ride to work at least half the time, which is about 40km return. Not bad - Enough for everyone at work to treat me like 'the fit one'. But to be honest I don't think it makes me all that fit. Plenty of cyclists pass me on the way home - as I treat it as transport rather than some VO2 max experience. And 120kms a week isn't that much really. Besides, I don't think 'cycling fitness' is going to help me all that much in the Mudder. But it's a useful baseline.

Group training - Due to the generosity of our workplace we get subsidised group training. Bonus. So one evening a night is an hour of circuit training, and another is an hour of boxing. Been doing that for the last year, so all up that's pretty good and pushed me to improve my weaknesses. 

Weights training - This has been on and off over many years. I know my upper body is pathetic, so I've always tried to find time to focus on it. During some periods I have been able to really get into that and it definitely made some improvements, but as with everything finding the time has been the challenge. I'm not a good early riser, let that be known :)

Running - This is more something I 'used to do', but probably still can a bit. When I had some periods off work I took up the Gateway to 8km podrunner series and was happily up to 8k, which I was thrilled about. Wasn't even that hard... But that was a while ago now! And let it be said, I hate jogging.

So they're the core things. What else is in my arsenal? (no jokes please)

Bushwalking - I've been a fond bushwalker in the past, and hoping to find more time to do more soon (A young family put the brakes on that for a while). Not really a 'fitness' thing but definitely helpful in terms of forcing yourself to continue on the hard slog when you really don't wanna.

Combat - A few years of Krav Maga a little while back. I think that's also a good bit of mental preparation. It too pushed me out of my comfort zone like the Mudder will. I know mental strength is not my strongest point so anything that can help me 'harden up' in that regard will be very useful. 

So that's the starting point.... I'm not sure how much improvement I can make over the next 3 months, but I know that my plan is to go as hard as possible over the next few months to be as fit as I possibly can. I don't think someone can 'overtrain' for the Mudder, can they??