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[rumbletum]

Anybody doing the Tough Guy challenge next weekend?

I'm not, but a mate of mine is coming up for the weekend to compete

[recipher]

I don't know if there'll be many takers on this forum I do know that a lot of triathletes enter (and do well). It's not for me though - I'm too weak in the upper body to haul my 13+ stone over the obstacles.

[Matt]

Happy birthday, Chain!

Thank you Sir

PJ, read up the last 20 odd pages or whatever of this thread, lots of talk about good lifting programs for beginners.

[rumbletum]

I don't know if there'll be many takers on this forum I do know that a lot of triathletes enter (and do well). It's not for me though - I'm too weak in the upper body to haul my 13+ stone over the obstacles.

Yeah my mate's a (good) triathlete, I'll probably go and watch and see if I feel brave enough to give it a go in the future

[Paradigm]

Anybody doing the Tough Guy challenge next weekend?

I'm not, but a mate of mine is coming up for the weekend to compete

****. That.

[MonkeyWrench]

I did my first run tonight! Not sure how far I ran but it took me between 15-20 mins, alternating between jogging and walking every minute or so (didn't have a watch with me) to ease me into it. I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was, I guess all the walking I do every day helped alittle (around 1.5 hours of brisk walking to and from work). I've got a circuit I'm going increase every week, or at least when I feel comfortable with it, which luckily doesn't involve much crossing of roads so I can keep my rhythm up. Plus there's a good long incline for the final stretch that really pushed me.

Any tips on stopping the post-run aches? I stretched before and after and wound down the session by walking the last couple of minutes, but I can just feel that I'm going to ache like a bastard tomorrow.

[Ish]

Happy birthday chain - hadn't realised. Whats your bicep thickness to age ratio?

Was going to go to the gym tonight but I hardly slept a wink last night and just feel shattered and feeble so didn't bother.

[Commander Marklar]

Anybody doing the Tough Guy challenge next weekend?

I'm not, but a mate of mine is coming up for the weekend to compete

There's a couple of fellas at work doing this. I kind of looked through the website at the course and it's certainly a bit mental some of that stuff.

[Commander Marklar]

Run outside. Running in the gym is artificial and boring and provides no real benefits over running in the big, free gym outside.

Interval/Fartlek. Only in short sessions though

[Matt]

Happy birthday chain - hadn't realised. Whats your bicep thickness to age ratio?

Well that's just unfair! I'm probably one of the oldest on here, immediately giving me a disadvantage 8)

[Ish]

Yeah but you also run a gym negating that advantage and levelling the playing field

If it helps I'll shortly be 31. Ouch.

[ascender]

Had a great run tonight. What a difference a week makes. Did 5 miles and I settled in to a nice pace and rhythm which was a far cry from most of my runs last week. I'm genuinely surprised by the improvement I've seen, maybe FLM will happen after all.

I'm sure that's me just jinxed it!

[recipher]

Any tips on stopping the post-run aches? I stretched before and after and wound down the session by walking the last couple of minutes, but I can just feel that I'm going to ache like a bastard tomorrow.

Don't bother stretching beforehand. Stretching cold muscles increases your likelihood of injury, just make sure you don't batter into it full speed at the beginning, take 5-10 minutes to ease into it.

Walking afterwards is a good idea, and stretching is absolutely necessary. Make sure you hold each stretch for at least 20-30 seconds. My stretching routine after every training session goes:

Quads
Calves - upper (2 stretches) and lower
Back (and hams)
Hams (3 stretches)
Glutes
Groin
Inner thigh

Takes about 10 minutes.

Another thing I do after a hard (run) session is to have a cold shower (only on my legs - I'm not completely masochistic). Then make sure you eat something, carbs and protein if possible.

You'll start to lose the aches and pains eventually. I rarely have sore legs. I'm usually tired though!

[Rossco]

That Tough Guy thing looks AMAZING!!

I'd like to do it this year but I dont think I'd be fit enough or ready too so 2008 I will definitely do it, probably the summer one, I may try both though.

Definitely aim to do the summer one though, need to get properly fit for it all, whats the average time for a whole run through of the thing?

[charlesr]

I'll give it a go, then. Only reason I don't like running outside is the fact that the pavements where I live are so poor that I think running in the dark may be slightly dangerous - I'm also a bit worried about my knees, to be honest, I had hoped that by taking it easier on the treadmill I'd be able to build some strength rather than just destroy them on the pavement.

Make sure you put the treadmill on 1? incline to simulate running on the flat. Putting it on 0? detrains your legs for road running.
(reason: on the road you need to lean forwards slightly, but on a treadmill you don't because it keeps going even if you stop)