Tough Mudder Follow-up

This entry was posted in Competition MDSF Events Practice vs Performance Recovery on by

I was talking to Mayra today about the 12 week schedule and realized that I forgot some details about the schedule in the post:

I am sure many of you realize increasing your running volume by 20% is a pretty aggressive increase since most coaches recommend no more than a 10% increase per week. I made that increase using a few assumptions that you need to know about.

  • I was assuming that everyone is doing at least 2 CrossFit workouts a week. If you are only doing 2 CF workouts a week, you should be running one additional day plus the long run/walk day. Biking and swiming don’t really count as they are not load bearing in the same way that running and strength training are.
  • The longer workouts, i.e. anything over triple digits, should be a combination of a run and a walk and should be with hills if at all possible. If you can throw in some lunges, bear crawls and/or push-ups, all the better. The idea is to have your heart rate up for that time, you don’t need to be running the entire time.
  • If you can’t make it to the gym on a regular basis that is OK, just adjust your increase of volume to 10% each week (far right column below).
The amount in the parentheses is the amount of increase per week. Workout times are in minutes.
weeks to go weekly workout length (20%) weekly workout length (10%)
12 40 40
11 48 44
10 58 48
9 69 53
8 83 59
7 100 64
6 119 71
5 143 78
4 172 86
3 206 94

If you are not getting into the gym that much, the main thing you should work on are deadlifts. Being able to keep your back neutral is critical when you are going uphill.

One final note, you should try to carry what you are going to carry during the race during your long workout. I am going to carry a CamelBak with water and a little food (probably Clif Shots, beef jerky and either chocolate covered almonds or date rolls), a long sleeve shirt and a light windbreaker. We are leaving earlier this year (9 AM) so I don’t think I will get as cold but being wet in the mountains is no joke and it is a team event.

Post comments and/or question or ask any coach at the gym.