Month: March 2012

  • Goodbye Gunbarrel 25, hello Tough Mudder!

    Since beginning Crossfit in December, preparing for the Gunbarrel 25 has been the lodestone of my training. But Kathryn and I realized recently that we won't be in Tahoe on the right weekend, and I will have to be here in LA while the Gunbarrel race is happening. Drat. My previous run of the Gunbarrel 25 was an excellent learning experience, and although I did not complete it within the required time, I accidentally did 27 laps instead of 25 (and spent 40 minutes of prime racetime nursing mild injuries and switching from monoski to mogul skis).  So, the Gunbarrel 25 definitely hasn't seen the last of me. 

    But in the meantime, I need another event to train for. Something different from GB25. Something with an element of fun. Something too hard for me to do now, but attainable if I train hard for it.  I keep seeing Facebook ads for mud runs for some reason: the 5K ones seem too easy and overly concerned with the beer and the band at the end, but as I looked through several different ones, the Tough Mudder stood out from the rest. It will be at least ten miles, sometimes almost half-marathon-length, and seems a lot more challenging than some of its sillier competitors. (Not that silly is bad, necessarily, it's just not what I'm looking for to anchor my fitness aspirations.)

    Good news: the Tough Mudder 2012 in Northern California is being held at Northstar ski resort, in Lake Tahoe! And since it is six months away, I'll have time to train hard for it. And I'll have to train hard-- this is no muddy excuse for a beer band party.