Today, my dad and I built an obstacle course training wall.  This has been a theoretical project for some time now, but since the Tough Mudder is in eight weeks and its high time I learn to climb a wall, I decided to get my dad involved in the project because, well, I don’t have to explain, it just gets done.  That’s a great thing about dads in general, but especially about mine.

So, I looked at a couple of plans, but the nagging thought in the back of my mind was my neighbor Brett who is one of our team members and is six foot something significant and probably weighs at least 220 lbs.  Anything I built would have to be able to withstand the possibility of him running at it full speed and hurling himself over it.  So, we needed a substantial base and a good amount of weight.

This should withstand Brett or Brett-like individuals.

We went with this design, that we pretty much figured out in the aisles of Home Depot.  These are the materials:

6 – 8 ft. 4×6 (two cut in half, two cut in half with 45 degree cuts on each end)
10 – 8 ft 2×10
4 – 8 ft. 2×6
1 – 8 ft 2×4

We dug some trenches and filled them with crushed stone to give it a solid base.  We also left the top two boards off the top until we learn to climb over this height somewhat proficiently.  This was a 7 hour project total including the clearing, digging, and root removal.  I would not recommend doing this without a dad or similar person who has both engineering confidence and old man strength.