To keep things exciting, I take a few days off so that I have to play catch-up.

Just dropping down and doing clappers may not be too tough, doing it mid run....that's toughening it up! Way to get inventive!

http://toughmudder.com/events/twincities/

"Click to view full map"

Got an email last night with all the race day info, and the 3 page "participation agreement and liability waiver". A week from tomorrow! Going in shortly to visit my chiro again, need to get my ankle all repaired and operational before the race!

Yeah, the tough mudder is not an ankle friendly enviornment. Be careful with it!

A lot of fun though!!

Well, if I'm careful with football on Sunday, and volleyball on Thursday, it should be fine by next weekend I hope. Started sand league up last night, and it held up alright, but we played a terrible team so I was standing around for a bulk of the game.

Forward motion is perfectly fine, just the lateral stuff I have to watch out for! Usually it's not too annoying, but sometimes I do something that it doesn't like and it reminds me that it's a bit messed up and I should be nicer to it. Stepped through a roof a couple years ago with my left leg, but dropped the package of shingles on my right ankle. It's been out for revenge ever sense!

Signed up for a quarter marathon for the end of June. Also have a 5K for July and the Dirty Girl in August. If I can continue to build up my mileage, I want to do a half in September.


Just need to get better at stretching so my calves and IT band stops yelling at me daily.

Will you be storming the Bastille?

So, I'm "training" for this a little late in the game, but I rode 13 miles on Saturday and 17 on Sunday in "preparation" for a 30 mile ride in two weeks. I had been sick all week, coughing, congested, etc and the 17 miler yesterday (with lots of wind) has brought my cough back full force.

The good news is that I'm down to my lowest weight all year, having lost 12 pounds while still doing lots of pushups, taking supplements and drinking protein drinks daily. Feeling good overall so far.

Thats not till July 14th.(Bastille Day) Plenty of time!

Good Job NP!!

I have a Guiness Challenge Run this weekend. It should be fun (funny maybe).

Just stick with it Pup! Your body is adjusting and adapting. Stay strict on the foods, monday - Friday and you will really like the results. Chicken, turkey, rice, veggies, protein shakes...lot of high energy, low fat foods. You will like it!!

I probably should have planned ahead a bit more and had my diet and exercise for this week a little more laid out.

Based on my minimal research, I believe I should eat as much fettuccini alfredo as possible, and drink a minimal amount of water. -Courtesy of the Michael Scott training manual-

I'm just going to more or less stay the course in the food area, workouts will be a little less strict, but not really much less.

That's amazeballs Pup!!

I'm a bigger fan of pasta primivera for energy stores. All the fat in the alfredo doesnt sit well with me when pushing my body hard. But if you've used it and it works....go with what works!

Undecided at this point, but the discount I get through the bank does make it tempting.

I'm contemplating... it would be my first 5k, but normally am volunteering in the bignet stand that first night of the fest.

We'll see...

Was a joke . If you've seen the Office episode where they run a 5k to help "cure" rabies, you'll get it. If not...well, just know it's a joke!

:self head slap:

I have! Didn't even think about it!

Got lucky Friday night in downtown St. Paul, the place we went to eat had a build your own pasta special and it turned out to be pretty darn good! At that point, I because severely disillusioned by the group that I was going with, as they ordered pop/soda/coke (regular even), big burgers and fries.

These guys, trainers at one of trendy extreme workout places, were decently strong (the tribal armband tattoos told me that right away ) and lots of fun to hang out with, but not the serious athletes I was somewhat expecting. Probably for the best, or they would've been far beyond our fitness level.

We had the best spot for the weekend I'm pretty sure. 9:20 Saturday. By the afternoon it was up to the 90's, but in the morning it was mostly overcast and a bit cooler. I saw yesterday's group had temps in the 60's and some rain, everybody at the finish line was wrapped in a heat blanket. Not sad that I didn't have to deal with that!

Great course, not quite as brutal as expected, a few of the trickier obstacles weren't there for some reason. My friend that I went with (we then met up with a group of 60+ from the gym) is diabetic and not as prepared (medically, he's in perfectly good shape) for the race as expected, so when his blood sugar went out of control around the 4-5 mile mark, that pretty much sealed our fate. Spent the next 4 miles walking, blowing through the obstacles when we got to them. By the time we were to the last 2.5 miles or so, he knew he wasn't going to be able to go back to running at all, so just sent me on my way to finish alone. I was itching to run, so it didn't take much convincing at that point, and I blew through the end of it probably looking like a nut-job to everyone around me that was unaware that I'd been on a nature hike for the last two hours instead of working as hard as them.

I'll go again, but will have to consider my group. May 18/19th, 2013 in Chicago. Team BOL??? We don't need a sponsorship really, but wouldn't turn it down either

Team Beast Mode??

Something with costumes would be fine too! Saw some great groups. Power Rangers, Avengers, the whole Scooby Doo crew, we'll have to be creative.

So that's a soft yes from Mani, I'm counting B^3 in as a definite, who else??

Me, me! You're carrying me, right?

Wrong race NP, that's the Wife Carrying Race, which is also accepting applications over here in the WW thread ------------------------>>

I already have a kilt!
Dont pick anything with masks, or hard parts to it (a buddy already tried Roman armor...bad idea) and I'll be game.

Most of the races change slightly from year to year. They try to keep the course fresh so you'll come back for another shot at it, plus runnning it the same way everytime deteriorates the course.

I don't want to look up while climbing a cargo net to see your kilt flowing in the breeze! No desire to have anything on my face, I sweat more than enough to melt off the permanent marker (bib number is also written across your forehead for identification purposes) without having any sort of additional encumberance.

NP's in the area and has now unwittingly given a "potential maybe yes"! We're up to 4! Going to need more if we want to build our own human pyramid to climb the muddy half-pipe.

Or just one more really tall guy!