Tough Mudder Training Update | Steve Ryall

Steve Ryall - Tough Mudder | Trevor | Jul 18, 2012

The heat has continued. If its this hot race day, I will be well prepared. With 4 weeks to race day, things are going pretty well. Equipment is holding up well, my one shoe has a snag in it from getting caught in a fence I thought I was able to leap over. I have burned through a pair of gloves working out on the bars and fences in the area. Need to find a better pair I think that can take the abuse so that my hands don’t have to “yet”. Still not sure if I will wear gloves during the race or not. Maybe I can tuck a pair into my mountain hard wear shorts. They have a few zippers on the pockets that I was trying to save space for some fuel for the 3 hour race. Still looking into finding out if there is water stops on the course or if that is up to each participant to secure or prepare.

My runs have been averaging around 10k, as I don’t think training for the full 17k is worth my time. If there is 23 obstacles in that distance, it will be a lot of short sprints, so that’s where I am going to focus on in the coming weeks. For upper body strength and core training I have continued to go to Adrenaline Training Centre. The hour I spend there each week is punishing to say the least. Working the bags, sprints and 15 minutes of core work are exhausting.

At home, we have a large tractor tire in the backyard. It has been rolled, flipped and beaten with a sledge hammer almost daily. Its amazing how fast your arms tire swinging a hammer around. We have also set up a series of string (not ready to crawl under barb wire yet like it will be in the race) for me to work with. Not sure what’s taking a worse beating, my elbows or the dead burnt grass. The path is starting to look more like a dirt trail now. Water parks and playgrounds have proven to be great places to test my agility and balance. Sprinting from benches, rocks, tires and climbers for 45 seconds intervals and then 30 second rests should help on many levels.

Check out http://toughmudder.com/events/toronto/ for a list of some of the obstacles that will be in play August 18. Special thanks to Kevin Pepper at http://www.kpepphotography.com for following me on a few training sessions and will also be on hand as media on race day.