So, next year, I turn 40 and either senility has already set in or I am having a mid-life crisis because I have decided to train for the Tough Mudder.  That’s right.  I’m going to run 12 miles through mud, climb walls, crawl through mud, negotiate barbed wire, probably eat a little mud, get shocked by electrified wires, fall into a mud pit,  and who knows what else.  

And guess what else?  I have convinced two of my friends to do it with me.  Stephanie has run a marathon, but has only recently started strength training with me.  Suzanne has also run a marathon, but also trains with a strength and conditioning coach five days a week, and recently completed the Mud Run, six miles of similar shenanigans.  I believe the furthest I have ever run is about 5 miles, however, I can do more pullups than either of them combined.  (This makes me feel better for being an endurance sissy).  So we have a gal with strength, but limited endurance (me), a gal with endurance but limited strength (Stephanie), and a gal with both endurance and strength (Suzanne). 

The races we are considering are in the summer and early fall which gives us about eight months to train, which should be plenty of time.  When training for a challenging event like this, time is your greatest asset.  Realistically, because we all have one or both of the elements of strength and endurance already in place, three to four months should be plenty of time for us to take on this challenge.  However, we are all also busy moms with a lot on our collective plates so 6-8 months might be a much more reasonable plan.  The more time you have to train, the more likely you will succeed in meeting your goal. 

So, all of us are going to have to work on our miles, especially me since at this point in time I can really only run about 2-3 without having to call for a ride home.  Being strong gives you quite a bit of built in endurance so for the first couple of weeks training, I’ll be mostly working on improving my cardiorespiratory endurance as well as running specific endurance with interval training.  However, I will very quickly have to start adding in some volume training as well so I can cover the required distances. I’ll be keeping track of my training here, both my progress and any pitfalls I run into.

Oh, and did I mention I was also training for a Highland Games in the Spring?  My 40^th year is going to be a very different one, that’s for sure.