Tough Mudder

Explore was well represented today in Beaver Creek for the Tough Mudder event.

This "toughest" of the newly popular obstacle courses (not a race according to Tough Mudder), is about 12 miles long and includes 20some obstacles mostly involving climbing over things, crawling under things through mud and getting mildly electrocuted (three shocking obstacles this year). This event was created by British special forces and the proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. The course rises from the base of Beaver Creek resort (8100ft elevation)  up to the mid-mountain base (I'm guessing 10.5k ft). The route undulates around the mountain with some rise and fall with the total vertical rise around 3-3.5k feet. The trail itself was a mix of access road, singletrack or hiking trails and wet open fields. Areas of snowy inclines had been created and a few steep climbs on wetted down grass made for some interesting travel.

I was accompanied at the start by Guicho Pons, Lauren Victor and Erica Thompson, all veteran participants of Shut Up and Cut Up and now CrossCut. We started up a steep incline after a muddy tube crawl and quickly got seperated. Guicho and I ended up ahead. We ran the rest of the not-race together with Erica and Lauren finished a scant 20min behind.

I wore a heart rate monitor because I'm a serious fitness geek. I didn't see anyone else the entire race with one on. The general facts are:
Total Time: 3:09.23
Average HR: 148
Peak: 199 (I'm guessing after the headlong plunge into icewater)
Minimum:101
Calories burned:3759

It was eminently clear to me after we reached the high point and cleared the "Berlin Wall" around mile seven that I hadn't trained for time periodslong enough to promote acid clearance and prevent cramping. Constantly decelerating on he extended downward slope in my Newbalance Minimus quickly led to some serious discomfort. Guicho and I were forced to slow down for stretches and I had to do some hasty PNF stretches to get my mad soleus to chill out. Water and salt pills helped prevent the issue from getting worse. In the back of my mind, I could hear see Carl's wry smile and hear his voice: "well I told ya bud, you can't do endurance training in half an hour!"

Shut up phantom Carl.

The lesson is that if one is going to exercise for 3+ hours, one had better train for more than 45minutes at a time. The rest of the crew was fine due to the longer distances they were accustomed to.

So was I really, but I could've finished this non-race probably twenty minutes faster had this issue not popped up. Lesson for all the Crossfit disciples in the audience: we can train to have amazing cardiac thresholds, strong muscles with excellent muscle endurance and a tougher than tar attitude, but you can't train to clear lactic and other acids over the course of multiple hours without actually training for multiple hours.

All in all, a fun and successful outing with some badass explorers.

Nate Lawrence
CPT - CSCS