ToughMudder - Challenging My Fitness

It’s so easy to be carried along by life. The struggles, the panics and just about everything else a fast-paced life can throw at us.

And in 2023 it can feel like the world is coming to its end. Thankfully history reveals it isn’t. So now and then it’s in portent to engage our mind at another level. A more intuitive level where we allow our body to take control for the day.

So in harmony with that every now and then I feel the urge to mix things up by throwing something into the path of my own life. It just keeps things interesting. It’s also good for the mind.

So as a personal challenge for me at 60, I decided to do a very famous dirt and obstacle run called www.ToughMudder.com

I have been reading about it for years and kept asking myself, ‘can I do this?’

22 tough obstacles and a 10k run (which worked out at 12.3k).

I feel fit but can be fitter. I am definitely no runner.

I know I’m strong as I lift heavy weights in the gym (35k each arm) but there are parts of me that just feel older.

Take a step back a little.

I’ve have never had once ounce of interest in any sport. I never watched it, I never practiced it. I first went to a gym in my fifties. Up until then, I had never crossed the door of one. Over the next few years, I saw the possibility for making my body and health from going to the gym but it was hit and miss.

I also kept reading that it is essential to have a trainer. I reasoned why? I just didn’t really get it and thought I can do this myself.

Then a few years forward.

For years now I train once a week with a trainer… that’s the really big push on my body. For example when I go alone I will do 8 reps. When I am with my trainer I will be pushed to hit the 12. When alone I will lift 20k. When with my trainer it’s 35k.

Then I go to the gym three times a week… I try to push as much as I can but the trainer is definitely the better push.

I don’t drink alcohol. I haven’t drunk alcohol for almost two decades now. There was a point I no longer needed it or wanted it so I stopped. It was also making me sick very quickly.

I don’t eat pre-made foods. They are nutritionally low and have a longterm adverse affect on the body. Apart from that testing them once today will very easily make me feel sick.

I have around 20 different supplements daily (that's all about to change - it’ll be more than double) after the new stuff I am reading.

I exercise daily including long walks.

As of this moment, I carry a good amount of defined muscle, but I wouldn’t say my endurance is good. Running is something I really don’t do.

So my only training for this 10k and 22 obstacles was training to run. I built it up so I could easily run 3k. 3k because between each obstacle is an average of 500 metres and then the obstacle. 

So we arrived on Saturday early. It was raining and colder than usual.  The wind was also strong. My son was very excited to watch his daddy. My daughter is too young to know what’s happening but loved it anyways.

Some of the obstacles are;

60-foot hill net climb

18-foot high wall climb

Going down a pipe into a filthy pool 5-foot deep filled with ice and then swimming underwater past two obstacles to get out of the pool

A pool filled with mud that you have to crawl through and that also delivers electric shocks

A vertical 20-foot high half pipe… that I did the first time.

25-metre length of monkey bars that I actually found easy.

And a lot more

I was shocked at my more-than-decent performance.

I was in a group of 13 from my gym. At 60, where the rest were all much younger, I was the only one to complete the monkey hoops and a couple of other obstacles. I was also definitely probably the oldest person there apart from one other guy I saw. I also saw him walking all the way and doing no obstacles. 

Here’s what I learned.

I asked myself the question on each obstacle, “Can I do this?” If I felt I couldn’t do it I asked myself, ‘why?’ The answer back was, ‘you can do this.’

I tackled each obstacle with my mind first and body second. I knew if my mind was strong the rest would follow. That is what happened.

I knew I was fit enough yet was also fighting my mind telling me I am too old. Its a weird thing to hit 60 because I don't feel old yet my mind keeps saying you are old. I knew I felt older but I really felt I could do this. I was right I did it.

So I committed to the run and then worked on my mind in the moments I needed to work on it. In that moment in the here and right now.

During the race, I never once thought about any obstacle or the run ahead of me. I only focused on what I was doing there and then. That was interesting because all of my team kept talking about how many obstacles remain, how far do we have and so forth.

I feel I approached each obstacle as the first one and gave it everything I could.

I will repot this. I learned the key to doing this was my mind - nothing more.

Now don't get me wrong I know I didn’t climb Everest, but this is a really tough run for someone that doesn’t run and for most people that do run.

And I did it.

With health, I like to create challenges at least annually and I feel it is always worth the outcome. I feel positive, animated and energised after.

The best place for me to get my help and advice is to read new stuff and make changes in my own life according to what I read.

I feel this keeps me fresh and creates a wanting to be better and do better with my health.

There are a lot of things on health I’ve read that I really don't accept and a lot of things are just magical to discover. For example most fitness gurus will tell you to stop eating pastries and carbs. For me that’s wrong and doesn’t work.

I really think most of the time you have to discover a lot yourself and they will either work for you or they won’t. But reading the right people is good.

So what I am doing right now is

Following BioHacker Bryan Johnson. What he is doing is mind-blowing.

https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.co/ 

This guy spends two million a year of health. Go read his stuff it’s mind-blowing and he gives away all of his results FREE.

Reading this … it's a cool read.

Eat To Beat Disease, Dr William Li

Adjusting my diet yet again.

Increasing certain supplements.

And I have just booked myself into a 15k enhanced www.ToughMudder.com this winter with over 30 obstacles.

The point is health is a conscious decision. It’s a choice. I am choosing to do my best with what I have.

Are you looking after your health?

Peace.

Alan Forrest Smith