Flash and Thunder: Training Week 2

To all our tough mudders, brothers and sisters,

Week 2 of our tough mudder training is over, and what a week it has been! The benefits from week 1 has been showing and we have had to make our sessions harder to make it more of a challenge. What we are aiming for from our week to week training is to become mentally and physically tougher and resilient to all types of weather and training situations. Firstly we have to be able to run 20km's and undertake 28 obstacles designed by British Special Forces, it is said that the course will take approximately 3 hours to complete, we plan to smash that! Click on the link below and click, 'click to view full map' to see a list and description of each of the obstacles - http://toughmudder.com.au/events/sydney/

As you would have seen in the link, there is an obstacle that will test the majority of your bodies capabilities. Within our training we try to include a mixture of cardio endurance, muscular strength and core stability and week 2 of our training saw us including more circuit work between our running workouts. Some of the obstacles can be simulated into our training, such as log carrying, ice cold water swimming and rope climbing, but other obstacles such as running through a bushfire pit and climbing a skateboard half pipe covered in oil will be things that we will have to man up and tackle head on, on the day.

Obstacle 24. Fire Walker

Together this week, Flash and Thunder undertook 3 training sessions. These are separate to our own individual gym sessions and sport training requirements. Monday 30th of April was our first session for the week, we began by running The Hill, which is Mount Street East of the Freeway in the city. Our aim was a short sharp workout with high intensity with little recovery time in between each lap. We usually meet at the car park opposite the Old Swan Brewery on Mounts Bay Road and run approximately 1km to the base of Jacobs Ladder, once at the top of Jacobs Ladder we were straight into running The Hill. From the previous week our times had improved by about 5-7 seconds per lap, getting results like this is encouraging as it is great to see improvements in our fitness goals from week to week.

Thunder after The Hill session on Monday

Wednesday morning was our second session for the week, we met before sunrise at 6am at Yokine Reserve, Yokine. We had a sprint session planned with some circuit work in between, the session lasted 45 minutes which is a great session time, long enough to fit in a great workout but not too long to become stale. Firstly, after warm up, we began with 2 x 100m sprints, at the end of the sprints we got out the gloves and focus pads and belt 9 bags of crap out of each other.

Thunder throwing a punch



Flash taking one on the chin

 Ladder sprints were up next, 3 sets of 150m variable speed running, first 50m at 50%, next 50m at 75% and the final 50m at 100%. Now that the blood is pumping and fatigue is setting in it is important to stay on your feet during recovery and breathe deeply, it is also important to focus on your running technique when tired. In between our sprint work we got some tough circuit work done including 20kg plate lunges, boxing, 6kg medicine ball passing, push ups and sit ups. Finally to finish up our session we raced each other over 100m to see who would take out the title of the weeks 'Quickest Mudder', Thunder took the cake by a landslide over Flash who clearly has his work cut out in order to take the title out next week.

Our third and final session for the week was at Scarborough beach at 8:30am on Sunday morning. In preparation for both Tough Mudder and Surf Life Saving we thought it would be a great idea to get some sand sprinting in and what better way to finish a session than a dip in the freezing cold Indian Ocean to soothe our muscle soreness. As this was our first beach session and there is also many workout opportunities at the Scarborough amphitheater including steps for dips, pushups and explosive jumping, we took our time in planning what we were able to achieve in a workout. Once we decided on what we were going to do we got stuck in and got some work done. Firstly, after warm up we began with some core stability work that included sit ups, bicycles, bridges and frog walking, great couple of exercises in there that really works out the core, it is important to remember to tighten and engage your stomach muscles during any core exercises to get the most out of them. 

Flash and Thunder getting some bicycle reps done

Our sprint work again was broken up by some awesome circuit workouts that tested our muscular endurance and mental toughness. Sprint work again included some 80-90% 100m sprints and ladder running at variable speeds over 100m, similar to that of which we undertook during our Wednesday training session. The circuit work we performed in between the sprints included 6kg medicine ball passing - chest and overhead, 6kg medicine ball wood chopping, one handed explosive push ups, incline push ups, straight legged dips and explosive box jumping. These were some tough work outs that made us very sore, but there is nothing like a swim after a tough session to top things off. Below are some pictures of our beach circuit workout, enjoy!

6kg Medicine Ball Passing

Explosive One Handed Push Ups

Explosive One Handed Push Ups cont'd

6kg Medicine Ball Wood Chopping

6kg Medicine Ball Wood Chopping cont'd

Sand Sprints

More Sand Sprints

Core Frog Walking - Knee to Tricep

Incline Push Ups

Straight Legged Dip

Explosive Box Jumping

Explosive Box Jumping cont'd

After a swim in the ocean (clearly Flash needs a tan)

As always we would like to remind you that we are raising money for Wheelchair Sports WA while training for Tough Mudder: Sydney 2012, you can help by donating at - http://www.everydayhero.com.au/flashandthunder

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139 days to go!

 - Flash and Thunder