Runaway and Train and Never Go Back

Oh hey, WTM is just 11 weeks away!

Or 77 days. Which sounds like more, so we’ll stick with a day count!

Getting this close to the event, training is at an all time high. I’m in the gym 6-7 days a week, picking up heavy stuff and putting it back down.

I have been looking at my training and trying to incorporate things that I know will help me.

Mainly ANYTHING that will increase my grip strength and help with pull-ups.

Dead hangs are the enemy, but seeing my time increase feels amazing. And assisted pull-ups are getting me somewhere, I’m sure.

AND I hit a really awesome PR! There’s nothing quite like bench-pressing 225 pounds and having MULTIPLE guys at your gym say how impressive it was. One fella even admitted that he can’t do it and ‘That’s goals right there.’

Even with hitting PRs and seeing slow-coming results, I still wanted more from my training. The off-season was a bit hard to stay motivated during and various injuries made it even harder mid-season.

I walked away from Toughest Midwest and had to take weeks off. And then I pushed myself in the wrong way again and had to take even more time off. And the concussion I suffered after hitting my head at Central Texas still has me leery of Mount Everest.

It’s hard to admit, though I’m not ashamed of it, but some days it’s really hard to keep pushing myself. Some days the only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that I have A LOT of people rooting for me, watching me, and supporting me.

Some days my biggest motivation is the knowledge that I have come so far and after this I will be one of less than 10,000 people to even attempt World’s Toughest Mudder.

I found this pretty neat graph in this article that includes the breakdown by gender and miles for the history of WTM.

But training is going well, overall. My most recent attempt at including more cardio, via interval training, ended with scraped knees and palms. I’m going to stick with wearing the weighted shirt and high incline at a moderate speed on the treadmill.

And I’m hoping to start working on my mental block when it comes to Mount Everest. There’s a Ninja Warrior gym not far from where I live that has a warped wall. I’m going to start going to the open gym sessions, hopefully twice a month, and just running it, over and over again.

Overall, it’s been a good few weeks at the gym. I’m staying focused and motivated, which is good. And I am feeling good, which is even better!