Tough Mudder

JosieMay100

Does anyone have some good training tips for tough mudder. At the moment im doing three HIIT classes and a LBT class a week and i dont think thats going to cut ir ha!

BroRevolution

I am training for my first half, and have been following TM's free training guides, which I absolutely love. I know my cousin ran, did crossfit, and swam to prepare for his full a few years ago.

guacamole17

I have done a TM half and several Spartan races and other OCRs. My main tips are usually two pronged:

-make sure you can cover the distance and handle the terrain of whatever race - full TMs are 10-12 miles or so - so if you plan to run it, I'd training like I were doing a half marathon - that might be overkill but at least youd be prepared and it wont just wipe you out. Train on similar terrain. I'm not a runner at all, never plan to actually "run" OCRs, so I train with really hard, technical hikes, focusing on the steepest longest hills I can find.
-Upper body work and grip strength. If you can dead hang for a minute or two already, try one handed deadhangs. If you can do pull ups already, GREAT, if not - work on that (assisted, negatives, whatever). Find somewhere to practice monkey bars, swinging on rings, pull ups, etc. Find an indoor climbing gym and play on that for awhile. If you want to go full on beast mode, try something like Yancy Camp or other OCR-geared training programs - some places have local stuff you can look into. Worth every penny.

Other advice:
-Find a team. TMs are really really fun races, and its mostly team based things. We had a blast last year with the 4 people I did the race with. Even if you are solo there are a ton of folks there that just hangout to help people.
-Find a TM ambassador (like via FB or Instagram) and ask them all the questions. If this is your first, they all have 30% off codes. I found a local OCR team on FB who have been tremendously helpful and now make up my core group of local friends.
-Get the right gear - OCR shoes/trail running shoes and NO COTTON, otherwise you will be miserable.
-Volunteer - you get either reimbursed for your race cost, or a code for a cheap race....plus swag. Its a great way to meet others, cheer people on, get involved, etc.
-Get addicted - I went from 2 races my first, 3 my 2nd year...to 12 this year (including a double Spartan Trifecta, kitten help me). There is no way in heck I would have lost 40 pounds and been training this hard if it weren't for OCR.