Today is the last day of week 2 of my Tough Mudder Training. This also means that I will be racing in exactly 2 weeks today. Since I haven't done a training update in a little bit, I figured I would keep everyone up-to-date with my progress thus far.
My training program right now essentially consists of 2 programs. Firstly, I am using Shaun T's Insanity Asylum program. For those of you who follow my blog and/or follow me on Facebook/Youtube, you more than likely are already familiar with this program. On top of that, I am also dabbling-in some distance running, ratcheting up in distance.
Last year, I used Asylum, in combination with some distance running to train for my half marathon. Although Asylum helped my 10k time in the half, I came to the conclusion later that Asylum truly is more meant for anaerobic conditioning as well as sports performance, both of which aren't entirely needed or beneficial for a distance of 21km.
So, the question then arises, why use Asylum to prep for Tough Mudder if its total distance is approximately 18km and a half marathon is 21 km?
A half-marathon road race is straight running. Depending on where the race is held, most marathons are fairly flat-terrained as well. Because of this, the race is almost entirely aerobic-based. Primary training should therefore be distance running with some various intervals and pacing runs dabbled in. Not only that, but upper body strength is essentially not required.
With Tough Mudder, however, not only is upper body strength needed to complete many of the obstacles, but some anaerobic power is also required to be able to power through some of these obstacles, namely scaling "Mount Everest".
A program like Asylum, combined in training with my distance running is currently allowing my to train multiple energy systems at the same time, while also maintaining my upper body strength. I personally feel as though I am some of the best overall shape I have been in my life and am incredibly excited to put that to the test 2 weeks from now!
Quote of the day:
"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat."~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
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