Tough Mudder Las Vegas, October 6-7 2012

[Elbryn]

Obvious solution: Do a second one this year. I've got a friend trying to convince me to do Kentucky 2 weeks after Vegas. After all the other events and trips I've got planned this summer I'm not sure I'll be able to move, much less do another Tough Mudder, but I'm tempted.

Or if not this year, you guys are all welcome to come up here and do Calgary July, 2013.

some buddies and me are making the kentucky tough mudders our "mancation" for the year. anyone out there sees some guys wearing team "dude...sweet!"
that's us

 

[SnipeMasterJ13]

Hey guys, just got back and home from the Minneapolis Tough Mudder. The one thing I can tell you to do is RUN. The obstacles seemed easy to me, but I do quite a bit of strength training. People could easily gets away with far less. They say you can't do this course lane and will need help from a team...not true. Even on the 12 foot walls 3/4 people on my team went up and over without help. (There was a 2x4 screwed into the wall about 3-4 feet up to get traction to reach the top, then it was just a pull up.)

If I could have had a dry pair of shoes the whole time I'd have been in heaven. Obstacle 1, soaking wet. Obstacle 2, covered in mud with rocks in your shoes. Proceed to run up and down endless hills in said condition for 10+ miles. I made it through injury free, except the back if my right heel being raw and ripped wide open, which happened mile 3.

That said, I'd definitely do that again, it was a lot of fun. Just need to practice running on gravel with soaking wet feet forever and you're set!

 

[exdeath]

3 months woot

 

[Cookie]

3 months woot

Can't wait!

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Hmmm. Need to start training for this lol. How are you guys doing?

 

[exdeath]

Looking forward to it. Should be ready to go.

I'm also signing up for Death Ride 2013.

Figured I might as well stay the course and not let all this work go to waste after Tough Mudder.

 

[Cookie]

My training is going great. Lost 59 pounds so far. Ive been alternating focussing on cardio/endurance and building strength but doing a little bit of both all the time. The last couple months after finishing p90x I have been doing mostly just running and hiking. Ran my 5k at the end of April, ran my 10k two weeks ago. Bought an extremely lightly used bowflex at an auction for cheap and focussing on strength building again. Have a similar, but much smaller 6k race called Mud Hero on Sunday to see what it's all about and test out the shoes and clothes (does anyone have opinions on gloves?) I am very excited about it and a bit nervous! Signed up for 5k spartan race next month too.

The only things I haven't worked on that I know I need to are running up hills and monkey bars. But I should be good to go by October.

 

[JCH13]

My training is going great. Lost 59 pounds so far. Ive been alternating focussing on cardio/endurance and building strength but doing a little bit of both all the time. The last couple months after finishing p90x I have been doing mostly just running and hiking. Ran my 5k at the end of April, ran my 10k two weeks ago. Bought an extremely lightly used bowflex at an auction for cheap and focussing on strength building again. Have a similar, but much smaller 6k race called Mud Hero on Sunday to see what it's all about and test out the shoes and clothes (does anyone have opinions on gloves?) I am very excited about it and a bit nervous! Signed up for 5k spartan race next month too.

The only things I haven't worked on that I know I need to are running up hills and monkey bars. But I should be good to go by October.

Holy crap! Good work!

I've been easing into it in the last two weeks, did a little less than 2 miles this morning before my knee started tweaking (too many years of soccer!) but I had barely broken a sweat.

I've been running with some Merrell "barefoot shoes" that I absolutely love. Had to start off only doing 1/2 mile with them two weeks ago because they strengthen tons of stabilizer muscles in my legs that I think I'm going to need for TM, and those muscles were very weak. I mostly run on trails, they suck at pavement pounding!

 

[Manchimp]

I knew this course would require some upper body strength so I've been doing Crossfit for the past 3 months and made some improvements. On the running side, I'm still running 10-15 miles a week on average.

I think I'm somewhat prepared, but I've never done Tough Mudder before.

 

[Cookie]

I ran Mud Hero today. It was easysauce! I went with a friend who didn't train before and had no endurance. She ran off and on for the first km, then we walked the rest of the course. No biggie, there were a few others doing the same. But the obstacles were EASY. There were 2 or 3 that were 'tricky' at best, but nothing 'hard'. Also, even though it was called Mud Hero, everyone was pretty clean, up until the last obstacle where they had to crawl under the ropes through some mud. Honestly the hardest part of the day was jumping in the cold mountain stream to rinse the mud out of my clothes and shoes after the race.

I thought I'd be tested a bit and get an idea of where my weaknesses are, but the only thing I got out of it is that I should really start doing some running on trails instead of smooth city asphalt and gravel pathways. Also helpful, I tested out some shoes and clothes to see how quickly they dry and how hard they are to run in covered in mud.

Looking forward to Spartan Race next month now. It should be more challenging.

Oh! Also! I'm not quite so concerned about the distance in Tough Mudder anymore. It's about 3 times the distance of the course I did today, and when I finished today I contemplated sneaking into another heat without my friend to do it again at my own pace. Except I'm sure Tough Mudder will have a lot more elevation changes, which might make me rethink not being concerned! (Note to self: Add hills to training schedule!)

 

[jlee]

Exdeath and I are driving up from Phoenix. Anyone else, or is everyone flying?

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Heh still haven't had time to work on my cardio. I plan on doing some form of hill training though.

Might pick up a pair of these Mad Grip Pro gloves. I've seen them recommended by other TM folks.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0040GJ80I/

 

[Cookie]

Exdeath and I are driving up from Phoenix. Anyone else, or is everyone flying?

Flying in Thursday night.

TWO MORE MONTHS!!!!!

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

LOL my endurance sucks now. Here's my run schedule up until Tough Mudder Mid Atlantic.

 

[Cookie]

Ran Spartan Sprint today. Insane fun. Didn't fail any obstacles except the spear throw. Things I need to work on include running up hills (I actually did ok on this today, better than a lot of people who had to walk, but could be better, and the Vegas course has a lot of hills), muddy wall climbing covered in mud... with more mud, and running down steep hills, but that's just a fear thing.

Fun times!

 

[jlee]

awesome!

I really need to kick running up a notch (or five). I've been slacking lately.

 

[JCH13]

I did the opposite of that... cranked it up a little too fast... soccer injury in my left knee is bugging me again. I'm going to have to start biking and/or swimming to let it rest a bit.

 

[jlee]

There's one in Phoenix on February 23/24. Anyone interested?
http://toughmudder.com/events/arizona-2013/

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

oh my. tm is on saturday. start time is 8am. i've only been running like twice a week because i'm lazy. What's pretty bad is i burned my calf on the exhaust of my motorcycle the other day so I had this huge blister that ripped open so i have this pretty big oval shaped flesh wound that I'm hoping heals up before saturday otherwise I'll have to tape it up like crazy so it doesn't get all muddy.

 

[JCH13]

Back from my second physical therapy visit. My knee is on the mend with no surgery needed. *dodges bullet*

Hopefully I'll be back on track soon.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Well TM Mid-atlantic was this past saturday. It was a pretty horribly planned event. There was a one lane road to get to the staging area and traffic was backed up like 4 hours. Luckily we had an 8am start time so we didn't have to deal with any of those issues but I feel sorry for those that got turned away and Sunday was canceled completely because the Mayor of Frederick revoked their permit.

Anyway, nothing was really difficult. The ice enema actually felt pretty refreshing once you got out of it. The first set of berlin walls can be done solo but the second set might require assistance if you're short. If you're tall or can dunk a basketball you could probably jump up on your own.

The run itself is not too bad since you're stopping every so often for obstacles. I was with a big team so you do kind of stiff up while waiting for people. The only issue you have to watch for is you're running on trails so the ground is very uneven and there's random divots everywhere. A bunch of people rolled their ankles. It's real easy to roll an ankle on the paths paved with stones.

The electric eel wasn't too bad. The shocks affect people differently but it didn't really do much for me. Only a couple wires at the end, which were hard to avoid because it's at the exit made me feel something. I had this amazing view of this chick while I was in that obstacle so that was pretty cool lol...

The walk the plank isn't too bad. I can't really swim so there was a second of hesitation but if you jump before you can get scared it's not too bad. The water is all muddy and I got pretty deep so it's a little sketchy because it's hard to swim with shoes on. At one point you have to swim through a pond and under barrels. That was the other sketchy part for me because of my inability to swim. The pond itself was only 5' deep though so you could walk across. Diving under the barrels still feels sketchy though.

The log carry was pretty easy. My log was heavy as crap though. I couldn't complain because I saw a guy carrying another guy who was carrying a log.

The mud hills was fun. The problem is when you have to stop because other people get stuck at the top of the hill. It makes it harder to get over the humps and you get stuck in weird positions so you'll cramp up. Mud gets everywhere also. There was this team of guys who carried a 400lb humvee tire through the whole course and they rolling that beast over the hills. Was nuts.

We had monkey bars at our course. Most people fell in. I made it across but I think the reason is because my hands were dry and I was going 1 by 1 instead of trying to skip a bar like you would in a playground. The rings don't go straight across. They're set up in a slight pyramid with a gap midway. I saw the pics from the wisconsin tm and they had rings. I think that would have been more challenging because you probably need to maintain momentum for those.

Everest was a lot easier than it looked. If you time you're jump right you can make it up without any help.

Shock therapy was kind of lame. Two guys and I ran through while holding hands and we didn't feel anything. This girl on our team ran through and she got zapped on the head and went into the mud on the other side so I'm not sure what's up.

I want to sign up again but I'd wear a costume or something. Definitely want to work on my swimming because I've seen some courses and the swimming section looks more difficult. If you want to wear a costume you should get a velociraptor suit because there's signs for "don't go off course, beware of veloirapter" signs everywhere. One of the teams also had a big dos equis cutout that they carried throughout the course. Pretty cool too.

 

[blakeatwork]

I ran the Toronto, On event held at Mt Saint Louis on August 18. it was mostly organized, although we ended up starting out later, as traffic was nuts. We had to park about a 20-minute bus ride from the event, and getting to the parking was horrible.

A word of note; if your course is slated to be run at a ski resort/mountainous area, be prepared for extensive hill climbing. We had 6 hill climbs, averaging around 2000' in elevation change from base to top, with a 3000' foot climb just past the mid point of the race.

The obstacles themselves are "fun"; we had the typical ones (Electric Eel, ElectroShock Therapy, Walk the Plank, Funky Munky, Hangin Tough, Hold your Wood, Berlin Walls), along with others like Log Jammin, Greased Lightning (awesome if you get to do it before it gets chewed up), Everest etc. For those worried about the tighter obstacles, they're really not bad at all. Trench Warfare was the only one we had where it was nearly pitch inside, but the walls were well past shoulder width apart, though low I got hit by Shock Therapy 3 times.. our wires must have been more conductive, as it felt like someone punching me square in the pooper..

The aid stations helped; though I drank just a bit too much water at the 3/4 mark (was trying to swallow a running gel, my stomach was saying fuck off). Camelbaks were in use by a fair number of runners, if that's your thing.

I went with a group of friends, and was certainly NOT in the best of shape. The hills were torture by the time we hit the halfway point, and my shoes were filled with water all day Still one of the best things I have ever put myself through. Earning the headband at the end made it very much worthwhile.

Already looking forward (and with an eye on proper training this time ) to next year's Toronto-based event.

 

[RedCOMET]

Well TM Mid-atlantic was this past saturday. It was a pretty horribly planned event. There was a one lane road to get to the staging area and traffic was backed up like 4 hours. Luckily we had an 8am start time so we didn't have to deal with any of those issues but I feel sorry for those that got turned away and Sunday was canceled completely because the Mayor of Frederick revoked their permit.

< Snip />

I had fun at the TM even this past Sat. as well. I felt once you got parked, the event itself was executed well. Registering was easy and finding stuff in the "base area" was easy. My wife complained about the lack of decent food options while she waited for me.

What was poorly planned was the parking lots and the routes to the parking lot. I had 10:20 start time. My wife and I left our apt. around 8am and she parked the car 4 hours later. It took us about 3 hrs to make it within an a 3/4 mi of the parking area. I got out of the car and walked the last 3/4 mi to meet my team in the base area.

My team "raced" in the noon wave. My cardio was shit all day. I just was not able to kick it into 2nd/3rd gear. When it came to the obstacles, it was good having team members / random strangers help with them. The berlin walls was definately a team effort. Everest wasn't too bad. I had people help me make sure i had a good grip at the top, but i was able to pull my self up. The key... was run at a full sprint. What made the course really tough, was the pouring rain the made some of the later mud obstacles even harder.. which just meant more people help each other. I think I did the last 3-3.5 miles in the pouring rain.

As for why Sunday TM event was cancelled, well, the parking field was basically muddy as all heck. I've read a few stories of people getting stuck in sever mud. My wife and I got lucky in which we found a not too torn up aisle and just gunned it as fast a we could to the exit area. Also, the course was really beat up from the thundertorm. I know running the last 1/3 of the course, it was rough in parts, and people where falling all over the place becuase it was just so damned muddy. So, in essence parts of the course were unsafe. Lastly, I get impression that the Farm just never held an even where so many people / cars were expected.

The local newspaper http://www.fredericknewspost.com/ has a few articles about the event and possible breakdowns between the city / police and event officials.

 

[Cookie]

9 more days!! Got my waiver and info package today. Scary!

Thanks for all the feedback from those who have done Tough Mudder already, I appreciate the info.

I'm still not sure I'm ready for those hills! Other than that, I did what I could for training, and I'm looking forward to meeting the team and pulling each other through this mess.

See you soon!

 

[jlee]

9 more days!! Got my waiver and info package today. Scary!

Thanks for all the feedback from those who have done Tough Mudder already, I appreciate the info.

I'm still not sure I'm ready for those hills! Other than that, I did what I could for training, and I'm looking forward to meeting the team and pulling each other through this mess.

See you soon!

I haven't got anything yet.....did it come via regular mail or email?