Winter Tough Guy 2009

The Winter Tough Guy is considered one of the toughest assault courses in the world (and by many THE hardest). It was also going to be one of the coldest Tough Guys since 1996.

The -5 windchill was dampened as nervous bodies crowded, and the start was charged with an amazing atmosphere of adrenaline and excitement as the 5000 racers chanted and the hundreds in the crowds cheered.

My target was to finish top 40, and I was ready to fight every inch of the way. The start went off quickly, at a ridiculous pace, everyone sprinting to gain good position. The slower you go the more crowded the obstacles become and the further behind you get.

After just one km I was already exhausted, but by this time everyone had slowed considerably. We were already jumping over obstacles and dragging ourselves out of trenches and freezing water, and my lungs were on fire and my legs burning. On top of that I had a painful stitch coming on in my ribs on my back.

I put my exhaustion down to the sprint at the start, but it wasn’t long before I felt a little ‘off’. Those jelly babies I ate hadn’t settled and the energy was draining from my legs. The race was feeling harder than it should do and of course at this point, with another 7 miles of ‘cross country’ and 2 miles of treacherous obstacles to go, a few negative thoughts started creeping in, but I ran sensibly and started to conserve some energy.

After a couple of miles I took the decision to walk for a bit to build some energy back up and let my stitch settle. I got a few pats on the back cheering me on to keep going as was the comradery at the event. I gathered my energy back and legged it past all those guys who patted me on the back, I hope they didn’t take that the wrong way!

Among the ‘cross country’ obstacles was the ‘the Slalom’, a large steep hill which you have to run up and down endlessly. That really brought on my stitch and I realised it wasn’t going away. I was actually a little hot at this point and rolled up my sleeves.

There were also hundreds of cargo nets to scurry under and tangle you up, logs and hay bundles to jump over, and hundreds more trenches and streams to cross. The comradery was phenomenal. When you were struggling to drag your body out of a ditch someone would shove your arse, and you’d turn around and drag them out. It was like that all the way.

Then we reached the killing fields. Climbing over magnificently huge obstacles, traveling across ropes with frozen hands with 20 ft drops into a lake, running through electrically charged ‘tentacles’, swimming through lake after cold lake and underwater tunnels, jumping from planks into more lakes, running through fire, dragging yourself through tyres and concrete pipes scraping your cold flesh and crawling under barbed wire (I’ve got the scratches on my arse to prove it!).

I’ve jumped into frozen lakes to prepare for this, but what I should have done was do that for an hour and a half! I could feel that my feet were swollen and it felt like I was running on ice blocks. I simply couldn’t feel my hands. Instead of relying on feel I had to watch my hands as I placed them in the holds to climb.

I didn’t get the ‘ice cream’ headache when I swam through the water like I got in training, it was more of a whole body ache, and near the end you could hear cries of ‘No, not more water!’

Once out of the water the cold sears through your legs, but this is where I made my best gains as I had done this plenty of times in practice.

I had worked out before hand where I would make my final push. After I crawled from under the barbed wire I went all out with less than a mile to go, although at this point I was feeling decidedly sick and thought I was going to vomit. No time to think about that, I had to concentrate on completing the last of the obstacles and I ran as hard as my legs would take me. I gave that last mile everything I had!

Before the end there is another plunge into water before you drag yourself out and climb this large mound and slide down a slope sprayed by fire hoses…into more water! (I heard later that they closed this, along with a number of other obstacles because the fleet of ambulance crews and paramedics were struggling with to cope with all the volume of hypothermia cases!) And after 1hr 29min I was on the final sprint.

“And here comes Chris Protheroe to the finish, looking remarkably fresh I must say!” came the commentator’s announcements on the speaker.

“You f***in’ what?!” I thought, as I charged to the finish line…

and through the finishing area!!

There were cries of “You can stop now!” as I started drifting into the ticker tape. I slowed, my head dropped and I started walking into a few of the marshals as I tried to navigate my way around the corner and fell into a heap on the floor.

They picked me up and dragged me to my feet and through the finishing area where I must have completely ignored all the people handing out medals and made my way to the changing area. I eyed up my clothes hanging on the pegs and collapsed in another delirious heap on the floor.

I was crunched up in the foetal position clutching my face with my hands and gasping with each breath now because the cramp in my back was seizing my lungs. I wasn’t panicked, just in pain and utterly, utterly exhausted. A few people dashed over and a lady pulled my top off and dressed me in my jumpers.

“Why do you guys do this to yourself?” she said, examining the state I was in. “In an hour though you’ll probably be thinking you want to do this all again next year.”

“That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done” I quietly croaked as I looked up at her for the first time and thanked her.

I soon came to and went to buy a drink, handing the young girl behind the counter my wallet whilst shaking violently as my hands were too cold to open it.

“Ooh, I think I’m going to cry” she said, feeling sorry for me.

I walked off with my Oasis flying out of the bottle and frothing up whilst I tried to drink it.

After 20 minutes I was still searching for the car park so I could warm up in my car when I got severe cramp on the insides of my legs and sprawled out across a bridge screaming.

Wrapped up in a space blanket and laying sprawled out across the bridge, I was still struggling with my breathing letting groans out with each breath and shaking violently, probably looking a shade of blue, and I heard shouts of ‘paramedics!’

A couple of paramedics came rushing over and rubbed my legs and I managed to stand, and I was uncontrollably crying. It wasn’t tears of emotion or pain, it felt like it was just my ‘body’ crying out – it felt abused!

Underneath the sobs, the violent shaking and the trouble speaking because my ribs were still in spasm, I felt calm. The event truly tested me to my limits and I felt complete contentment with the day’s efforts. 5 months of hard training were put into action this day, and although things went wrong I gave it everything I had in body and in spirit, and I fought every last inch.

Whilst I was being escorted back to the car park though, there were ambulances and paramedics rushing around everywhere. It made me wonder how many other ’stories’ there were, and after I warmed up I came back to pay my respects to the final finishers who were still going after 3 hrs 40 min.

The event was insane! I’ll definitley be back for more. This Tough Guy has taught me a lot and I plan to take heed of the lessons. My target was top 40 – I came 40th! – out of 5000. Next time you’ll see me in the top 5!

Tough Guy Course and my training goals

View Larger Map

If you zoom in you can see a lot of it. It looks like it is under construction in the image.

I’m running Tough Guy at the weekend, forecast is superb: i.e. Freezing temperatures, and wind chill -7. Perfect for me because it gives me a chance to catch up with some of the faster runners who may not be as well prepared. I’ve trained real hard, even jumped in a few ice cold lakes, so if all goes to plan I’m hoping to do well.

However my main training goal has never been Tough Guy. My focus is on running a sub 35 min 10k in July / August. I started my ’serious’ training in September, when I ran a 42 min 10k. I think I could run a 10k now in about 38 min. I’ll find out on Feb 15th when I run one, hopefully in sub 38.

I will have to improve from running 4′12 min per km to 3′30 min per km, or 42 seconds faster each km, or 17% faster! As you can tell I’m a ‘numbers’ person, so time is a huge motivator for me. I think about it now and I would be completely ecstatic if I got that time. That’s because that time would represent some seriously hard training. It would be proof to myself that I have the ability and the will power to sustain months of hard training, and dare I say it, an ego boost to say I can run that fast!

I’ve already had a number of obstacles I’ve had to overcome…shin splints; injured ankles; days when I didn’t want to train; days when I really did but my body didn’t; and plenty of mistakes that I’ve made along the way with my training and recovery. I’m sure the next few months will be a big learning curve too, and that’s the challenge of it all.

But hopefully I’ve got a lot more right than I’ve got wrong, and although I like a good obstacle to overcome, they will always be there in droves, so the real challenge to myself is to divert or make those obstacles as easy as I can to overcome by learning from the lessons and by being well prepared so that I can push harder in my training.

The obstacles are like friction holding me back, and the drive I apply to my training, as long as I direct it right, is like the power pushing me forward. The greater the difference, the further I’ll go and the more I’ll improve.

Anyway, my 35 min 10k goal goes a little deeper. This year is only the start. I’ve decided I love running enough to go head on into it, and I figure that if I can run this fast for that long, I’ll do really well in Tough Guy next year. I may even be one of the leaders. I hope I can come top 40 this year, and I know the guy who wins it every year at the moment can run a sub 33 min 10k. Maybe I’ll win it some day! I hope so. One step at a time though.

Although maybe I’ll decided I’m better at the shorter distances and start competing in some track races and shorter cross countries. Which ever way, getting my 10k time will be a good grounding as I’ve already got some natural speed endurance in my legs from my days sprinting.

I know my ‘WHY’ and like I’ve said before, your ‘WHY’ is an emotional response. I have a good vision of what I want and why I want it, and ultimately how it will feel once I have achieved my goal. I am hoping that this will be a big enough driving force and give me enough focus to help me achieve my goal.

On the other hand I have also thought what it would be like if I didn’t reach my goal. Months of hard training and sacrifice down the drain? I’ve decided I wouldn’t feel like that, far from it. If I get anywhere near 35 minutes I will be happy, and I am already extremely happy that I am well under 40 min. Of course there would be disappointment and I know that I wouldn’t feel that real sense of achievement from achieving a really hard fought goal. And the difference between happy and ecstatic is vast.

I’d prefer ecstatic.

Controlled Falling

They must have had a few accidents whilst practicing I’m sure, especially with the amount of practice that would take!

Wingsuit base jumping

These guys are seriously insane. Talk about living life on the edge. I wanna go!

‘Iron’ Joss – Fell running legend

Just before Christmas I visited the Lakedistrict and did a bit of climbing – Helvellyn and Scafell, and boy did I find out how hard it is to try and run up one of those things!

Then by coincidence I was watching a programme about fell walking in the Lakedistrict over Christmas and found out about an amazing chap called Joss Naylor, a farmer from Wasdale near Scafell Pike.

He has achieved some amazing records, one of the most incredible and inspiring was on his 60th birthday he climbed 60 of the highest peaks in the Lakedistrict in 36 hours.

On his 70th birthday (2007) he ran over 70 of them! During which he covered over 50 miles and climbed 25000 feet in 21 hours! Astonishing.

He considered his 72 peaks involving over 100 miles and 37,000 feet of ascent in 23h20m in 1975 as his greatest achievement, a record that went unbroken for 13 years.

Here is an article about ‘Iron’ Joss, written more than a decade ago but an interesting read nonetheless.

When the WHY is big enough, the HOWs look after themselves!

Sometimes it is difficult to understand WHY we want to do something. Why would someone ever want to put themselves through so much pain just to run from A to B as quick as they can? Why do some people want to kick a bag of air about a pitch just so they can kick it into a goal before the other team does?

The answer is that the WHY is an emotional response.

It feels good to achieve something, to better ourselves, to beat the opposition knowing we tried so hard! Generally, the pain and effort we go through to achieve something we enjoy doing and really want is positive eustress.

Therefore when you are trying to set yourself targets it is a good idea to identify your WHY, and focus on the positive emotional aspects of achieving your goal.

So you think you want something bad enough? Well how do you think you will feel once you achieve it? Elated? Over the moon? –Then you probably want it bad enough. If not, is it really worth going for?

It is often more important to enjoy the process – your journey along the way. Be honest with yourself. Spending a life time doing something you don’t really enjoy, trying to achieve something you might succeed at, is not, in my opinion, a healthy attitude.

And turning an outcome into reality requires – ACTION and STRATEGY!

How are you going to reach your goal? What is stopping you? What can help you along the way? Are you going to fall at the first hurdle and give up before you have given yourself a fighting chance? Or is that WHY a big enough reason to keep yourself going through those dark winter months?

Be specific. Work out exactly WHAT you want, WHY you want it, WHEN you want it by and HOW you are going to get it!

Enjoyment leads to greater commitment. So it is important to ask yourself what it is that makes your sport or other life experiences enjoyable and fun – and be specific about this too! This will certainly help with your WHY!

And finally, once you have achieved your goal(s), indulge and relish in your accomplishment. Learn from your mistakes and take forward the positives. Reward yourself for all your hard work! And you don’t have to wait until you reach that BIG goal. Praise yourself for those push ups you did, that training session, the last month of bootcamp where you found it so hard to get up every morning, but still came and worked your butt off! This will reassert the positive behaviours that brought you to success and keep you hungry for more.

Visualising that goal

This is often a time of year we use for reflection and projection. The year is coming to an end and we think back to all the things that went well or not so well and we think ahead to the future with excitement and anticipation, or simply think…hmm, I don’t want that again!

Then we think of all the things that we want; things that we could do and things that we could definitely do better next year!

We’re not happy sitting still or falling down, we want to stand high and punch our fists in the air. Life isn’t happy unless there is growth, unless there is evolution, and we are part of life. We are looking for contentment, but contentment is a moving object. Contentment flows like water through streams, and we must move with it.

Effective goals need to be visualised, and an effective vision is specific. Imagine achieving your goal. Imagine the sights, sounds and smells, and most importantly imagine what it will feel like once you have achieved your goal…EMOTIONALISE your goal.

Ask yourself WHY you want to achieve that goal.

Don’t settle for your first response either; find out your real WHY. Dig deep, and make sure that you really do want what you think you want. It is no good plowing a load of energy, time and effort in to a goal only to realise you didn’t want it in the first place.

Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.

- Dale Carnegie

I’ve been following Lance Armstrong on twitter

Lance Armstrong cycling back from the airport

Lance is a seriously busy man, going by his twittering. But he still finds time to fit several HOURS of training in everyday!

For example, having just come back from a long flight from Atlanta where he had been to discuss the 2008 World Cancer report, he got a friend to meet him at the airport with his bike and he cycled home!

It is also great to get a glimpse of his training. The next photo is of him finishing off (what I assume is) an incremental cycle ergometer test to measure his maximal aerobic power output. He didn’t let us know what the results were though!

Very inspiring.

Weekend Workout 2 (Intermediate)

Another weekend workout for you to try. It can be a little hard to remember all the exercises though so you might want to make a note.

2 Short Circuits

1st Circuit (Do 2 sideways runs between each exercise to a 10m marker)

(10 x) Forward / Backward jumps; Press ups; Side-to-side jumps; Squat thrusts

2nd Circuit (Do 2 forward – backward runs between each exercise)

(10 x) Twisters; Mountain climbers; Ice skaters; High Jumps

Intense Circuit

Try this one if your feeling confident, its quite a hard one if you push yourself!

3 sets of 7 exercises, 1-2min rest in between sets.
20 secs each exercise, no rest in between.
Press ups, Squat jumps, pull ups (or touch-floor-star jumps), split squats, crunches, burpees, running on spot

Laugh your head off

If  you want a good workout, try laughing!

Research estimates that laughing 100 times is like 10 minutes on the rowing machine, and uses just about every muscle in your core and strengthens the breathing muscles!

Laughter also lowers blood pressure, increases blood flow and oxygenates the blood. Laughter will also reduces stress hormones and helps improve our immune system.

So take the time to sit back and enjoy life every once in a while!

Stay hungry

Staying hungry is one of the keys to motivation.

When we have the energy, it is sometimes a good idea to get out there and use it. And when we don’t, sometimes it is better to save it for when we do.

It can also be a good idea to save a bit of energy. Instead of squeezing every last drop of energy out of us every time we have it, it is a good idea to hold back once in a while.

This works when we are completely fired up at the end of a training session and wanting to do more. Every once in a while, finish the session and walk away. Leave yourself wanting more.

This also works when we are completely lacking in energy. Instead of training yourself into the ground, take it easy on yourself. As long as you are true to yourself then the reasons for ‘walking away’ from your training won’t be because you are ‘giving up’, but because you are saving yourself so that you can give more later on.

Dangle that carrot, always leave yourself wanting more!

Saab Salomon Turbo X 2008

This Sunday (23rd) gone Anna and I took part in the Saab Salomon Turbo X which is a 10-12 mile cross country trail run near Bordon, over steep hills, and through lots of mud, puddles and bog.

Well I was thoroughly looking forward to the event, and I was confident I would do well since I’d had a bit more experience with trail running last week at Hellrunner. So I was up at 0530 to get my breakfast inside me (Ready Break!) and go for a gentle run out around the park, in the snow.

I was feeling GOOD!

Unfortunately I made a right hash of the journey down to Bordon and ended up arriving with about two minutes to spare, with Anna jogging around waiting for me desperately trying to keep warm! Anna joined the starting line-up whilst I rushed to get my timing chip and pin my number on (only time for two pins!) and join the very back of the queue AS the hooter went!

Then we were off. Despite having missed my warm up I was fueled with adrenaline and set out to over-take as many people as possible. I set off hard, REAL hard, in the hope that it would pay dived ends later on by avoiding the jams. And then I carried on running hard, as hard as I could! Last week I was cautious; this week was hell for leather as I attacked each mud hill, puddle, swamp, and ditch full throttle, and was amazed with myself at the pace I could keep up!

I couldn’t  decide last week if I had pushed hard enough, but I decided to push the limits today and find out. And although I started to fade slightly in the last couple of miles I think last week hardened me to the terrain and I judged the pace well.

There were less hills than Hellrunner, but plenty more mud, ditches and puddles, and freezing cold water that seized the legs rigged. Hellrunner had the “bog of doom”; this week there was the “Turbo X zone” – with thick, thick, black mud that swallowed legs whole and zapped the energy from you as you tore yourself unstuck.

I reached the end utterly shattered but thrilled with the race and how I ran. Blithering mumbles came out of my frozen mouth as I tried to congratulate everyone, and then I waited to see Anna cross the line with a great big smile on her face and blue lips.

Again the comradery was great. According to Anna they were passing Gatorade and peanut butter sandwiches around!

Me and Anna

We both agreed that we wish there were events like this every week! Although I think we would soon begin to fall apart if there were – I was completely wiped out all evening!

Another awesome event that has certainly added fuel to the fire! Bring on Tough Guy!! (Feb 1st)

Check out a video they put up of me and Anna!

Making your game better

This clip is about Tiger Woods and how he always strives to make his game better.

Tiger is a phenomenal sportsman who takes practice and consistency to a new level. I heard that he has a little game he likes to play where he tries to putt a ball into a hole from 5 yards…100 times in a row, and if he misses one he starts again.

Puma Hellrunner 2008

I’ve fallen in love.

There is no need for women in my life anymore because I have a new love – trail running!!

I really don’t have much of an explanation as to why I enjoy this type of event so much. It is perhaps simply the feeling of a primal urge that is truly satisfied after finishing something so brutally hard!

The event is the reward for all those hours of training. Those relentless miles around the park and the continuous desire to keep on improving. It is hard to explain the thrill of personal victory I felt. There was no sense that I ‘beat’ so and so, or that I ran the race in a particular time or finished in a particular place. Just a deep, underlying sense of achievement that is derived from the months of hard and (reasonably) consistent training that has lead to a well run race.

I find it funny thinking back to the race. A guy called Alex said at the end “it was a shame I didn’t look around at the scenery a bit more ’cause I think it was quite nice”. I realised at that point that I hadn’t even considered taking in the scenery. That wasn’t what I was there for.  All I remember was the floor in front of me, my fellow competitors around me, the occasionally glance up at the enormous hills in front and occasionally acknowledging the crowd cheering us on (I think it is polite in these sort of races). My thoughts were entirely based on the race. It was just me faced with this ‘dragon’ that needed slaying, and nothing was going to stop me.

I was in a zone. They say in Sports Psychology that this happens when you are competing against someone or a team of similar ability (I was competing against myself, and those around me – who obviously had similar ability), and when you are concentrating on the processes of performing – concentrating on the task at hand and being ‘in the moment’.

‘One foot after the other’; ‘Relax a bit here’; ‘Try and keep up with that girl in front!’ (There is always some super elite woman (they must be!) that I just can’t keep up with, no matter how hard I try!) were the thoughts that were going through my head.

I’m gonna say right now that I’m so glad I have given up the weights. I don’t regret my weight training in the slightest. I enjoyed it immensely and it has taught me what discipline and hard work are all about. It took a lot to tear myself away from something I have dedicated myself to for so many years, but for me though (and this is simply a personal thing), this run (and hopefully many more to come) has provided me with a sense of fulfillment that simply eclipses training in a gym.

It wasn’t just that ‘buzz’ at the end either – that climatic adrenaline fueled rush of blasting across that finish line that hides all the pain and fills you with elation.

I have never enjoyed my training so much. I’ve enjoyed every run, and the feeling of working hard towards a goal, a purpose, and at the end always wanting more…I just haven’t got the legs for it yet! (Keep yourself hungry, always leave yourself wanting more!). I enjoyed the anticipation leading up to the event; the trip down to the event where I met some great people; the anxious wait before the start; and every footstep of that race!

Ok, I’m probably over-doing it a bit here. It sounds like I’ve had one great big orgasm! But seriously, its like every step is a challenge; every undulation, every stream and every moment you are fighting against yourself and everyone around you to go that little bit faster, to do your absolute best, trying to ’slay the dragon’.

At the end I thought to myself, ‘Wow, I was really pleased with that race. But there is so much more I can improve on and boy I can’t wait to get out there and get even better at this. Next time I’m coming back twice as strong!’

…and so the journey continues.

Which brings me to something inspiring I saw – a guy running round the course with a ‘50′ speed sign on the back of his t-shirt (I was behind him! The ‘50′ referring to his age) with a caption below saying “at [so and so running club] we don’t have limits”.

I hope I’m still going that strong when I’m 50!

Although the race is a big high, I try not to centre my motives around this short lived ‘adrenaline junky’ burst of excitement. I try to make sure I live for the processes too – the journey, and the sense of purpose that takes you there. The all encompassing sense of achievement.

Cool, Turbo-X next! (This weekend)

Deadlift Burpee Workout

Here’s some motivation for ya! Some strong gals here at the CrossFit Games 2008, looks like a good workout!

Stress affects your blood

If you’ve got a few minutes spare, check out this blog:

Check out The Renegade Health Show. This guy is Kevin Gianni and he does an awesome blog about health…Far better than mine! He’s a little bit geeky but he is also a really sincere guy with a lot of character, I’ve been following his blogs for a while and he gives some good advice, although most of it is about eating raw food and salads!

The post above is a great one, which has a look at Kevin’s blood under the microscope. The doctor explains how stress can physically affect blood.

Romanian in Las Vegas

Weekend Workout (Intermediate)

Try this for a weekend workout.

2 x 3 min workout

Pick 3 exercises. Two large and one small.

Do 5 reps of each exercise.

After each exercise run to a marker 15 – 20m away (& back).

Get through as many as you can in 3 minutes.

Have one minute rest and repeat with 3 different exercises.

I chose:

SET 1 – Squats, press ups, crunches

SET 2 – Lunges, press ups, dorsal raises

Wet weather / cold weather gear

Its good to come prepared to your workouts so that you can make the most of them, don’t get a cold, and make going to your wet winter workout more appealing!

Although I must say it is good character building when you get out there in a blizzard wearing nothing but a thong! Not that I’ve tried that one (yet!)