I am extremely proud of my Tough Mudder team that conquered the course on the 22nd September 2012.

18 of my Fitta Bodies crew braved the course and pulled together to help each other and a lot of other Tough Mudders over the obstacles.

The course was 21 obstacles through 20km of the wilderness and a good majority of that was in the MUD!

We crawled through mud with barbed wire as the incentive to stay low then we jumped into water loaded with tonnes of ice and were forced to dive under an obstacle in order to get to the end of the pool. That one took your breathe away literally!

We walked along beams and climbed along monkey bars in order to avoid the muddy water. Despite the efforts of some of my team members, I did manage to stay on both the beam and the bars and avoid the water. Thanks guys for trying your best to shake me off the beam though!!!

My second least favourite was the “Electric Eel” where we had to crawl and slide along a muddy wet slide whilst electric shocks hit you in the back and shoulders. OUCH!

I loved the climbing obstacles, such as climbing over huge logs, which most people need 2 – 3 people to get over, but not our crew, a little jump and then muscle up, slide and you’re over. The walls were a different story, it was unlikely anyone was getting over the huge ones on their own, it generally took 2 people to boost someone up whilst another person sat at the top of the wall to pull them up.

The cargo nets were fun, getting over the top at those heights was a challenge for some. I wouldn’t have said running through the fire/smoke was a challenge if it wasn’t for the people blocking the way, so we ended up inhaling way too much smoke!

We carried logs around a muddy section of the track and jumped over muddy ditches whilst trying to stay on your feet in the slippery mud. Come to think of it, there was a lot of mud!

I did manage to get myself stuck in the “Muddy Mile” which was about 10 huge piles of mud with very, very sticky mud in between them. I literally could not move my body out of the mud, it took Luke and Darrin pulling my arms, whilst Elicia tried to free one of my legs. A very scary moment, but all part of the fun.

My third least favourite was the 5 metre jump into water. It didn’t really look that high from the ground, but when you got up there and you can’t see anything in the water because it is so muddy, it was very scary. I apologise to my team mates for not waiting, but when I made up my mind to jump, I just couldn’t wait!

One of the most challenging obstacles was “Everest” a huge quarter pipe that was extremely challenging to do on your own. A select few made it solo, but we it generally took 2 people hanging over to catch the hands of the runner as they made their way up the huge slope. Of course there was also Adam who slammed face first on his first attempt and missed the hands on his second attempt He did make it on his third though and he didn’t quit!!!

And now we come to my least favourite, one I will not forget any time soon. “Electroshock therapy” You run through slippery mud whilst live wires dangle from head to toe delivering shocks of 10, 000 volts. It took a lot of courage to run through this one, but we all did it at the same time. We considered holding hands, but abandoned that idea when we thought it might increase the shocks. I’m glad I wasn’t holding Adam’s hand, as he got thrown to the ground and blacked out for a second…

Add to all of this loads of creek crossings, steep hills and did I mention mud?

It was one of the most fun and challenging things I have ever done! Would I do it again? Probably not, I have done it, I conquered every challenge thrown at me and now I know what to expect, sometimes the unknown is better,  but…

Would I recommend it to anyone else who is considering it? Absolutely, without a doubt!

I’m also extremely proud of my beautiful wife Hannah for conquering every obstacle as well!

I will be posting photos on the facebook page during the week as I get them from the many photographers who snapped us along the way.

In just under 3 months time the Tough Mudder will hit Sydney. I know they have had massive numbers of people sign up for the event, and that is probably because it looks like a lot of fun. I have personally got a team of over 25 people enrolled!

So now that you’ve signed up for the Tough Mudder Sydney, shouldn’t you get fit for it? Even if you’re doing it for fun, you are going to need at least a moderate level of fitness to cover the 18+km’s and all of the obstacles.

Some trainer buddies of mine have told me about some new clients that they train 1on1 once a week to get ready for the event. Once a week? Even if you hit your local gym another couple of times a week, you’re not going to be too flash on the day.

Why would you opt for this 1on1 style of training when you could hit a bootcamp or large group style of fitness training?

My group personal fitness training in Centennial Park runs 5 mornings a week. You’ll be outdoors, on the grass, running, jumping, pushing up, squatting, throwing ropes and the list goes on. This is the type of training you should be doing for an event like this. Hitting it hard 3 – 5 days a week in the great outdoors with a varied workout every day of the week.

We have trained people to compete in many adventure races and have had numerous finishers in the top 3 and even a couple of 1st places. Now that is good effort considering there are hundreds of people that sign up for these races. We have had a 12th place in the tough bloke challenge out of over 1000 entrants and loads of others have entered the Warrior Dash and other races around the year.

Our Tough Mudder team is full, so we can’t take on new runners in the event, but it doesn’t matter who you are running it with or for, we have spaces available in our group fitness training and we can get you ready for the event.

If you’d like to join our group fitness training in Centennial Park, you can take advantage of our Winter special with a 3 week trial for $50. Head to our Group Personal Fitness training in Centennial Park page here and check out all the details!

Yesterday 4 of us competed in the In2Adventure Mountain Designs adventure race at The Cattai National park.

Myself, Darrin, Tristan and Jack all competed in the solo division.

Tristan did awesome and took first place!

I took 5th place, Darrin 7th and Jack 10th.

The race was awesome, we started with a sprint to the beach where we had to check a map and mark down our 3 first checkpoints.

From there it was over to transition area 1 and we had to swim across a very cold creek. We made out way on foot another couple of km’s via a couple more checkpoints to the bike drop.

After a quick spot inspection to ensure we were all carrying our first aid kits, we made our way on bike via another checkpoint to the kayaks.

A 5km kayak via 3 checkpoints brought us back to our bikes and we were off again for another 3 checkpoints which would bring us back to the creek crossing. This time however, we had to cross with our bikes. Thankfully there was a rope to hold onto as we crossed the creek carrying our bikes. Bear in mind, this creek was much deeper than we were tall. Swimming with a bike whilst fully clothed is no easy task!

We made our way back to race headquarters where we were given another map with 4 more checkpoints to collect on our mountain bikes.

This again brought us back to race headquarters where we had to mark down another 2 checkpoints on our map to collect on foot. Another nice little 3km run to top everything else off!

I crossed the line in 3hrs 45 mins. Darrin came in 2 mins after me and Jack about 15 mins later.

Tristan of course finished in 3hrs, smashing everyone!

I am going to take this opportunity to tell you how I carb loaded (not) before the race to give me the energy to take part in this 3+ hour race.

For breakfast I ate 2 boiled eggs, 3 pieces of eye bacon, 1.5 cups grapes, 2 mandarins and 20 cashew nuts. I also ate about 1/3 Purefit bar 30 mins before the race. I would have eaten the whole thing, but I wasn’t hungry.

So, 2 points to take away from this;

1. Adventure races are awesome! They are so much fun and a great way to test your fitness and navigational skills.

2. You don’t need to carb load. Get all of your nutrition from your food by combining good carbs with good protein and good fat.

Last weekend 4 Fitta Bodies teams participated in another fantastic Aroc adventure race on the Central Coast at Dora Creek.

There were 140 teams in the event and our team placed quite well.

The rankings were as follows;

Fitta Bodies 1 – 12th place (9th in males)

Fitta Bodies 2 – 112th (4th in family) They had a 40 minute time penalty which is why the result is so low.

Fitta Bodies 3 – 29th (4th in mixed)

Fitta Bodies 4 – 50th (35th in males)

We ran, mountain biked, ran, mountain biked, kayaked and ran again.

For me in team 1, the race lasted 3 hours and 53 minutes including the bonus leg.

In my eyes, this would be classified as an endurance event. So being an endurance event, surely I should have carb loaded and trained for hours on end for months leading up to the event right?

Well, being a CrossFit advocate, I didn’t do any endurance training or carb load.

My breakfast on the morning of the event was at 5am a protein shake, a plum, a peach and some cashew nuts. At 7:30am I had some lean bacon, grapes and more cashew nuts.

My food leading up to the event was just the same.

I finished the race and I was not hungry at all.

My training was a 10 – 20 minute CrossFit workout 5 days a week and I cycled to work 3 days a week, which is only a couple of km’s each way.

As I have said before, it is not about duration. You don’t need hours on end of pounding your joints on the pavement. It’s about building aerobic fitness and stamina into your muscles. This will enable you to take on any fitness challenge.

I actually did barely any running at all recently, yet I managed to come out of the first running navigation leg in 8th place. Go figure…

The moral to the story is… Go hard and don’t waste hours on end running and screwing up your joints unless you do it for pleasure.

The other moral is… eat Paleo, you don’t need all the man made carbs, they just make you fat and sluggish.

The location for the April 2nd AROC adventure race has finally been announced.

It will be held at Morisset on the Western shores of Lake Macquarie. This is well under 2 hours from Sydney, probably closer to 1.5 hours at that time of day.

Entries are going to fill up fast, so let’s get some more team registered with on 2 teams locked in so far.

It’s going to be a great fun day!

I have 1 person who needs a team, so if you are thinking about doing it and don’t have a team, we can easily put one together, so stop procrastinating and lock it in!

Go Team Fitta Bodies!

Last weekend we did an adventure race that took us the better part of 5 hours. In my eyes, that would constitute an endurance event, would you agree?

So what training should I do for an endurance event?

• 20km on the bike 2 – 3 times per week
• 5 – 10km run 2 – 3 times per week

I can honestly tell you that this is not what I did and if i did, my joints would not like me and I would be very bored.

So, here’s what I did do.

• My CrossFit workout of the day which generally lasts between 10 – 20 mins as listed on www.crossfitkensington.com.au
• Cycle 2km’s to and from work at full pace every weekday

And that’s it! You don’t need to train for hours on end to be able to perform for hours on end. That is the point of CrossFit, it will get you fit for any type of fitness that you require.

You need to build a strong aerobic system, you need to build a strong anaerobic system and you need to build endurance and stamina into your muscles. Once you have that, you can sprint off a start line for 600m at full pace, run for 4km’s, get on a bike and cycle 7km’s, run 4km’s, cycle 6km’s, kayak 3km’s, run 1km, kayak 1km, swim 300m, run 1km, cycle 2km, run 3km, cycle 5km and feel really good when you have finished because you are fit enough to handle any of that.

Do I think endurance training is good? No. I think it is bad on your joints, time consuming, boring and completely unnecessary.

Now, ask me how much running I did to be able to handle to 13km’s or so of running in this race? Well I said I did a 10 – 20 min workout a day, so I guess that would be up to 5km’s a day?

The longest run I did was 1 x 800m run. I did a handful of 200m runs and a few 400m runs over the course of the month leading up to the race. I did those runs at full pace and I did weights to build stamina and endurance into my legs

So, ask me again if I think endurance training is necessary?

CrossFit is the only necessary type of training!

Have you ever looked like this after 12 mins of training? Or does it take you 60 mins to not get even close to this much fatigue? Work harder and smarter in less time and get better results!

Check out our workout of the day – www.crossfitkensington.com.au

Last weekend was the 2nd in the AROC series of adventure races for the season. It was held in Canberra incorporating Black Mountain and The ANU.

We had 2 teams entered and as it turned out, we crossed the line together as a large team of 6, which was completely unplanned.

The race started off well with a mad 600m dash from the start line to collect an orienteering map. Both of our teams were in the first 5 to collect a map. We navigated around the Canberra Nature Park to collect our 34 points and then we got on our bikes and we were on our way to the water slide park at Macquarie in 15th place.

We each had to do 3 slides down the big water slides to collect our checkpoints and then we were off again, heading to checkpoint 17. We got on our bikes, feeling pumped and as I pushed on the pedal, my crank wouldn’t turn. I looked down to find my chain spliced onto my derailer. On closer inspection, I found the chain snapped and also the derailer snapped. We quickly kicked into repair mode and the 3 of us managed to rip the derailer off and fix the chain in about 15mins. I am so glad it wasn’t a solo race as I don’t think I could have done it on my own, it took all 3 of our pairs of hands to get it done.

We hit checkpoint 18 in 39th place. Not bad, we only lost 24 places because of the chain……

We navigated on foot around Black Mountain Nature Reserve for another 6 checkpoints. At this point, we crossed paths with our other team of Nelius, Adam and Sinead.

Back on the bikes, we headed to the kayak leg via another 3 checkpoints and ended up getting to the kayak leg at exactly the same time as team 2.

The kayak leg was nice because there wasn’t much wind on Lake Burley Griffin, but it was long and we had to find 3 checkpoints on the way to Weston Park where we left the kayaks and found another 3 checkpoints before getting back into the kayaks to paddle to the kayak drop.

Once at the kayak drop, we had to swim about 300m across the lake fully clothed with shoes and all, but we had a PFD on to help with bouyancy. Then there was a run back to the bike drop and it was time to cycle to The ANU. There were 8 questions to answer by navigating around the uni and I have to say the map was very good and the navigating went very well on this leg.

Team 2 left the kayak leg before us and ended up at the uni after us despite us making a big navigational error on the way there and as I saw them cycling in, all I hear is “we got 2 flat tyres”. It turns out, they only fixed one. I think our bikes are jinxed!

As we left the uni, team 2 was fixing the second flat.

It was now the cycle to the finish via a couple more checkpoints and… I did it again… another navigational error, which saw us meet up with team 2 and we did the last 2 checkpoints and the dash across the line together. We couldn’t have had a better finish. Except for winning!

But, we came in in 31st and 32nd place. My team came 31st because we did paper scissors rock on the way through the line and I won with scissors. Good old scissors never fails me! So I punched my timing stick before Sinead did. Our Official time was 4 hours and 38 mins.

So, it doesn’t look like we will have any teams for the February Canberra race as we all have things on, but I think we should get a huge crew together for the 2nd April Central Coast race. If you have done a race before, then it’s time to do it again. If you haven’t done one before but it sounds interesting to you, then this is the one to do.

We can get a huge house for the weekend, have loads of support from everyone and it will be an awesome event.

Who’s in?

Nelius Murphy, is he a man or a machine…

As the only representative of the Fitta Bodies Crew, Nelius took on the tough bloke challenge.

5km’s of extreme trail running mixed in with obstacles like crawling through underground pipes filled with muddy water, a mud pit covered in barbed wire,  climbing over hundreds of old tyres, scaling over army nets etc etc etc

Not only did he take it on, he came 10th overall out of over 600 people in a time of 36 mins!!!!!

What a legend!

He said it was much tougher than he had expected and he had a blast although he was a no show at training today, something about sore legs or something soft like that…

From what he told me, it was the up and down hills in the bush that got him along with the extra 3 – 4 kg’s you are carrying when you come out of the mud pit to finish the run.

A very special thanks has to go to Darrin Penola who made the trip down there to be Nelius’s only support crew and to take with him some warm soup and bread for after the event. Darrin took loads of photos as well so you can all get a feel for the action. Thanks mate!

Here’s a few photos and all the rest are up here on our Facebook page. You don’t have to be a member of Facebook to view the photos.

Last Saturday was the Blackheart adventure race at Narrabeen and we had 4 Fitta Bodies teams ready and raring to go in a field of 102 teams.

The race started with a navigational run through the Garrigal national park. My team started off strong, but like most of the field, we lost a lot of time looking for a checkpoint that wasn’t there.

We hopped on our bikes for a few more checkpoints and got to the bike drop in 2nd place. After a brief but very, very cold swim across the river where we got overtaken by a couple of teams, we ran around the coastline to be 4th into the kayaks with Team 3 boarding the kayaks on 5th place. Yay!

The kayak was interesting as it was fairly shallow in parts and we had to get out and push the kayaks through the water.

We exited the water in 4th place and ran for the first bonus checkpoint we would attempt to collect, then it was onto the final few checkpoints. We decided on collecting one more bonus checkpoint before hitting the water for the long swim home. Thankfully, it wasn’t too deep, never deeper than shoulder height, so you could jog through the water for most of it. With team 3 hot on our tails, we sprinted from the water towards the finish line, coming in about 20 seconds before team 3.

We were actually the 4th and 5th teams across the line, but because of the bonus checkpoint system, we beat some of the teams that came in before us and some of the teams that came in after us, collected more bonuses than us, so they beat us.

Our final result was 3rd in the Male category and 4th overall. So we got our first podium finish and collected a prize.

But, the results have been posted on the Blackheart website and it says…

Team 1 was 4th in male category and 5th overall.

Team 3 was 5th in the male category and 6th overall.

Team 2 was 9th in the mixed category and 35th overall.

Team 1.5555 was 40th in the male category and 57th overall.

I think all of our teams did great, I am proud of everyone!

Bring on the next one in June!

Who’s in?

If you want to leave any comments or ask any questions about the races, post it onto the forum.

Teams 1 and 3 drying off

Teams 1, 2 and 3

After food and recovery

Collecting our prizes

Last Saturday saw the final event on the Aroc adventure racing calendar and what a race it was!

We had every type of terrain you could ask for and we had 4 awesome teams participating.

Fitta Bodies 1 – Myself, Matt, Jack

Fitta Bodies 1.555^ – Darrin, Adam, Nelius

Fitta Bodies – Scott, Pat, Sprat

Last Minute Fitta Bodies – Rachel, Jason, Danielle

We started off in the sand dunes at Stockton Beach finding checkpoints attached to flags waving in the distance before heading into the biking sections where we found ourselves riding along the sand at One Mile Beach. Such an awesome thing to do and I can’t think of another opportunity I will have to do it either. Part way along the beach we had to pick up our bikes for some coasteering along the rocks. The rest of the mountain biking trails were pretty sandy, so we found ourselves pushing the bikes almost as much as pedaling them!

We then did some more coasteering and even had a quick swim out to a check point in a rock pool just off shore before heading back to the bikes and making our way to the kayaks at Fingal Bay. We battled the huge swells to cross the bay, dragged the kayaks on shore and did a massive coasteering section. Pretty gnarly too if you ask me, right on the edge all the way.

When we got back to the kayaks, the tide was so low that everybody was carrying their kayaks to the next checkpoint rather than paddling them, so we took a handle each and jogged it the 500m or so. Those babies aren’t light either!

It was onto our final beach run of about 1.5km’s and then we pedaled our bikes to the finish line.

Woo Hoo, we came in 3 hours and 28 mins in 29th place out of 178 teams. Not bad, but we were on track to make it much better than that before our silly mistakes…I’ll explain below.

So where did we go wrong?

We rode straight past CP16, when we got to CP17, we realised and had to ride back. There’s 5 mins atleast.

On the way to CP20, Jack got a massive calf cramp. I have never seen a man scream like this before, his calf pulled up into a ball. So Matt was holding his leg up, I was trying to massage it when a guy came along and quote unquote said “stand back, I’m a massage therapist” As funny as the quote is, he did an awesome job and it was so nice of him to stop and help out. Let’s say another 10 mins lost there.

We completely missed CP25, so we had to go back for that one as well. There’s another 5 mins.

So we know that at CP16 we were in about 12th place and guess what, if we took 20 mins off our time, we would have come in at 12th place…

But, we had a ball!

Well done to team 2 for coming in 3 hours and 33 mins in 38th place! Awesome, must have been that 3 hour, 35km training session we did last weekend!

Awesome result for Team 1.555^ coming in  4 hours and 6 mins in 89th place. They had a goal to come within 1 hour of my team and smashed that by coming in 38 mins after us, well done!

Last minute Fitta Bodies is so named because they only entered 2 days before the event, after entries had closed, but thankfully Alina allowed us 1 more entry into the race. They had a some navigational problems around CP’s 24 and 25 which set them right back and they ended up coming in 4 hours 48 mins in 145th place. They were tracking really well prior to that CP stuff up too!

Other memorable moments of the race…

Matt copping his bike in the jaw whilst carrying it over the rocks

Jack’s turet type outburst when he was cramping up

Of course the quote of the day “Stand back I’m a massage therapist”

Adam, Darrin and Nelius capsizing their kayak in the huge swells

The heavy downpour of rain soon after we all finished the race which saw about 50 people huddle under the Red Bull tent and then the flooded ground to get back to the car

And after it is all said and done, there is always enough energy to overhead squat something at a random location…

So who’s joining us for the next adventure race? It’s time to do something with your new fitness levels!