The family that trains together stays together...

Family tabata burpees :)  What else does one do on Boxing Day?

One month to go! Again!

Where has the time gone?  I still feel mentally like I’ve got months to prepare when in reality it’s 4 short weeks (confusticated by the shenanigans that is Christmas and New Year) before the training stops and Tough Mudder is on us once again…

The lack of posting in the last few months however doesn’t indicate lack of effort. The training program which I put together has been roughly adhered to, with maybe a 75% success rate. Not bad I think. It has been hard to put the same level of zeal and enthusiasm into it this time round – Partially because we don’t have the unknown fear factor to drive us, but also because we know that our fitness level is higher, and we made do with what we had quite well last year. So simply maintaining that is sufficient…

Our team is now up to a nice 5 – 3 girls, 2 guys. We haven’t all had a chance to train as one big bunch, but we’ve met each other at various opportunities, so that should be fine. It will definitely be a different experience from the first Tough Mudder, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Fitness-wise I think I’m also slightly better prepared. I’ve worked pretty consistently on upper body strength – however when I ventured into the school playground the other week and took a shot at the monkey bars I failed just as dismally as before! Bum. Still more work to do there, but I think much of the issue is about the inflexbility/pain in my shoulders when I try to swing. So I’m working on that by just hanging and swinging at home. I also discovered that taking the monkey bars sideways seemed a bit easier, so that might end up being my approach on the day.  As for everything else, well we’ll just see how that unfolds on the day. And Everest is really as much about who’s at the top as what I can bring, so we’ll see. I’ve learnt some handy parkour techniques which might help though…

I’ll also be running without a support team this year as my wife will be overseas at the time – Not a huge deal as I know what to expect and can work with that, but it’s always nice having someone on the sidelines looking proud of you ;)