Training for "mudder" events (Tought Mudder, Rat Race, etc)

[manic111]

I'm due to run Rat Race Dirty Weekend in a couple of months: http://www.ratracedirtyweekend.com/

Prior to this, my general training regime has involved two days of weights a week, and three cardio - usually two HIIT and one long run, plus a day of football.

I have a three day weight split (back/biceps, chest/triceps, leg/shoulders), and alternate them week on week (so Week 1 will be back/bis and chest/tris, week two will be legs/shoulders and back/bis etc). I'd rather keep myself fit through cardio, so only have time for two nights of weights per week. It seems to work reasonably well for growth and maintenance of fitness, but I'm not sure that it's the best way to train for an event such as Rat Race.

Last year I ran Tough Mudder, which was a lot of fun. I trained for that by doing bodyweight exercises, some CrossFit, and some long runs, and got around fairly happily.

Compared to Rat Race though, that looks like a bit of a breeze. So I'm wondering whether anybody has any advice - is bodyweight the way to go again? If so, what would you recommend doing, particularly for chest? Back is fairly easy to do - pullups and bodyweight rows work nicely - but I'm struggling to do much more than pressups with various inclines and declines for chest. I'm reasonably happy with my running and managed 12 miles at an average of about 7 mins per mile last Saturday, so if I keep training that shouldn't be an issue.

Has anybody trained for anything similar, and what did they find worked best?

 

[PAz]

I'm doing Tough Mudder in May and supposed to be training for it now...

Bit worried about the run, usually manage to get two 3-5mile runs in a week. Rest of the time is weights in the gym or thai boxing..

Do I need to up the running?

 

[Bigsy]

No real advice I'm afraid but I have a tough mudder in Sept, although I'm doing the rock solid race on Saturday as practice and will try and do a few more of these smaller races before hand.

I've not done one before but I cycle about 16miles a day and run 6km everyother day where I try and run past children playgrounds so I can have a bash at rope climbs and monkeybars etc. I can bash out 50 pressups no probs and a fair few pullups so I'm hoping these things arnt going to be too tough for me.

 

[Indigo]

I did it in October just gone and it was the most fun I've had running ever. It's hard but incredibly awesome at the same time.

I'd say try and build up the running to at least 7/8 miles before hand considering it's a 10-12 mile run. There will be little rests when getting over the obstacles and it's always easier to cover the distance when you have too. One of my favourite sayings is "The more you sweat in training the less you bleed in battle" would put you in good stead for something like this.

I'm doing it again on May 4th two weeks after the London Marathon. Looking forward to Tough Mudder more!!

Good luck.

 

[Vonhelmet]

A girl I work with did some mud race a while back... Managed to destroy her knee. Broke some teeny weeny bone in there. Was on crutches for ages and needs to have some keyhole surgery to tidy it up.

So, uh, be careful, I guess.

 

[manic111]

I'm doing Tough Mudder in May and supposed to be training for it now...

Bit worried about the run, usually manage to get two 3-5mile runs in a week. Rest of the time is weights in the gym or thai boxing..

Do I need to up the running?

I ended up doing the full 12 before Tough Mudder last year, just so that I knew I could. Planning on the same this year for Rat Race.

 

[PAz]

I did it in October just gone and it was the most fun I've had running ever. It's hard but incredibly awesome at the same time.

I'd say try and build up the running to at least 7/8 miles before hand considering it's a 10-12 mile run. There will be little rests when getting over the obstacles and it's always easier to cover the distance when you have too. One of my favourite sayings is "The more you sweat in training the less you bleed in battle" would put you in good stead for something like this.

I'm doing it again on May 4th two weeks after the London Marathon. Looking forward to Tough Mudder more!!

Good luck.

Ahh, same time as me

and thanks ^^ Ill have to up the running then.

 

[Rikki]

Like the idea of TM but wasnt so keen on the electrocution part

 

[Jonny69]

Just up your running.

 

[Bigsy]

Did the rock solid race yesterday, it was pretty brutal given the weather definitely decent prep for a tough mudder.

My knees are completely destroyed though need some kind of running tights with knee pads... Anyone seen such a thing?

 

[manic111]

Did the rock solid race yesterday, it was pretty brutal given the weather definitely decent prep for a tough mudder.

My knees are completely destroyed though need some kind of running tights with knee pads... Anyone seen such a thing?

Can't think of anything - I wore full-length lycras for TM and they did the job though.

 

[PAz]

Finished TM London North yesterday.

Great fun. The running wasn't a problem and the most I'd done in training was about 6 miles. I'd say all the circuit training I've been doing at my 'combat' club helped a lot more than the running.

 

[Holliday]

Finished TM London North yesterday.

Great fun. The running wasn't a problem and the most I'd done in training was about 6 miles. I'd say all the circuit training I've been doing at my 'combat' club helped a lot more than the running.

Me and my mate did it yesterday also, dressed as Ninja Turtles. The weather and cold are what got us, you see all these guys doing it topless and think they're insane, but in fact it's probably the warmest way of doing it.

 

[PAz]

What time did you start? I'm sure I saw a couple of Ninja Turtles.

We started at 1220.

The cold after the Arctic Enema was horrible as it started hailing again at that point. After that it wasn't so bad.

 

[Holliday]

What time did you start? I'm sure I saw a couple of Ninja Turtles.

We started at 1220.

The cold after the Arctic Enema was horrible as it started hailing again at that point. After that it wasn't so bad.

We did the costume competition then started about 10:40, there was only 2 of us yeah.

The weather was fairly nice during our Arctic Enema, Electric Eel was a killer this year, got hit 4 or so times. How did you find Everest? It wasn't as bad as I had thought.

 

[PAz]

Everest was great fun! I failed the first time as I only got one hand on someone, but got up the second time as a couple of guys came over to help.

Electric Eel was pretty horrid, I got hit a few times as well. The electric wires at the end were much easier, I'm pretty sure only a few of them were live as I only got hit once and I spoke to a few guys that didn't get hit at all.

Monkey Bars were annoying, got almost all the way over and I'm sure the last one was greased as I slipped straight off it - and I was behind one of my team who did exactly the same.

 

[Kemik]

Finished TM London North yesterday.

Me and my mate did it yesterday also, dressed as Ninja Turtles.

Good work guys! Any tips? I'm doing London South in a month. I've got decent outdoor running shoes and I'm planning on getting some compression shorts.

Should I stick with high intensity circuits or do I need to include some long runs (yawn)? At the minute I'm doing 3 days of circuits and 2 days of heavy weight training mixed in with the circuits.

 

[platypus]

Everest was great fun! I failed the first time as I only got one hand on someone, but got up the second time as a couple of guys came over to help.

Electric Eel was pretty horrid, I got hit a few times as well. The electric wires at the end were much easier, I'm pretty sure only a few of them were live as I only got hit once and I spoke to a few guys that didn't get hit at all.

Monkey Bars were annoying, got almost all the way over and I'm sure the last one was greased as I slipped straight off it - and I was behind one of my team who did exactly the same.

Yeah my wife did it this Saturday as well, and loved it all apart from that Electric Eel. Really did get hurt on that one.

 

[PAz]

Good work guys! Any tips? I'm doing London South in a month. I've got decent outdoor running shoes and I'm planning on getting some compression shorts.

Should I stick with high intensity circuits or do I need to include some long runs (yawn)? At the minute I'm doing 3 days of circuits and 2 days of heavy weight training mixed in with the circuits.

The most I ran in prep. was 6 miles. The running really wasn't an issue as I don't think there was more than a 1 mile straight stretch of running. I would say just add a few 1 mile runs into your circuits (we do this at MMA anyway).

The worst bit was the trails through the woods, the mud was so slippy I could hardly run in normal trainers. Two lads in our team had trail shoes which stood up fine though.