Training For Adventure Races Like Tough Mudder

Holy crap!! The Tough Mudder is this Sunday and I'm freaking out! I haven't been training enough honestly and I'm getting a bit nervous about all the mud and crazy hard stunts. Just to give you an idea of how intense this race is look at these photos on the Tough Mudder FB page!

A few months ago Ben and I made a video to show you some of the training we've been doing. Well, he's been doing it. My training has been on and off; weigh-training, Zumba, cycling, yoga, bootcamp, and very little running (oops). I still have not gotten into running since our last post about training. I just find it SO boring. Let's hope I finish the race. It has an average of 80% finish rate. Yikes! 

Below is what Ben does during a workout. He's done the Tough Mudder 3 times so I'm glad he's on my team! 

Tough Mudder Training by Ben 

Warm up:

I like to constantly mix up my warm up.  I've found that motions I don't normally do often will warm me up the fastest.  One of my favorite has been running backwards or sideways but I only do it every so often to keep the body guessing.  The warm up can be any low-impact motion.  Some of my other favorites are jogging in place, body weight squats and jumping jacks.

Pull ups:

Tough Mudder involves a lot of pulling yourself up over things.  Whether you're climbing a wall or hoisting yourself out of a mud pit, you need to be able to pull yourself up.  That's why I believe that pull ups are one of the most important exercises to train for Tough Mudder.  One thing I can't emphasize enough is proper form.  It is way more effective and safe to do only a few pull ups with proper form as opposed as to more with bad form.  You want to start at a dead hang and keep your legs straight.  The idea is to go all the way up and all the way down without "kipping" your legs for momentum.  The full range of motion will hit many more muscles.  Refraining from using any sort of momentum will help prevent injury.  If you're unable to do pull ups your own a couple good exercises are assisted pull ups, or negative-rep-only pull ups where you start with your chin above the bar (from a jump or an assist) and fight your way slowly down.

While pull ups are the most important, some other bodyweight exercises I like to do are dips, push ups, bodyweight squats, lunges and planks.

What do you do for strength training? Have you done an adventure race before? Any tips or advice?