Earlier in the week, I was talking with some friends at work and Tough Mudder Arizona came up in the conversation. The more we talked and looked at some of challenges online, the more we convinced ourselves that this Tough Mudder thing is insane and maybe would have given it a go in our 20’s, but certainly not in our late 40’s.

Okay so later that week, I am in Amy’s training and she issues a challenge to the group to sign up and finish the next Tough Mudder as a team. You know we have a couple younger pups in the group, but the majority of the Team are right up there in age with me and quite a few even a bit older.

I am thinking this is not going to be much of a “team” for Tough Mudder as we will probably be the oldest Team out there! (As a side note: we discovered during TM that there were a few older Tough Mudders participating in the event that day, but we by far the oldest Team in the size of our Group out there for TM AZ).

So…..Before I realized it, I am signed up for the challenge with 20+ others. How do things like this happen??? I mean I got plenty of sleep the night before, I was sober, not taking any medication legal or otherwise… It happened because Amy convinced us that we could do it and as many times before, she has made me and each and every person in the AVC Elite group reach goals that were thought to be impossible.

So now you know how I got to signing up for this very understated “challenge”…. Now let me tell what it took to get us prepared.  First of all, Amy worked harder than any of us and that says a lot since I have never worked out as hard or had as much fun working out as I did in preparing for Tough Mudder. We all still attended our normal 2 days a week training, which she stepped up a bit to incorporate moves, exercises and then some that would be needed to prepare us for Tough Mudder.

Later on, Amy added marathon Saturday sessions incorporating running and obstacle courses along with interval training.  Then, she added exercises that you might see in the “World’s Strongest Man Competitions.” I think Amy came up with a few tricks that Tough Mudder could use to make it even more challenging. The great thing about it is that we gradually built up our strength, endurance and abilities over this approximately 8 month training period if you take our start date of training beginning with the Fall Group Training in September and leading to the Marathon Saturday’s which  were added on later.

We all came out of it in the best shape of our lives.  I say this not only because we were all stronger, faster, had more stamina, endurance and agility, but because I dare say we all looked HOT!

The day of Tough Mudder Arizona came and we conquered it with ease! We did it as a Team staying together, supporting one another and having a blast while doing it. We celebrated our victory afterwards as “official” Team AVC Tough Mudders.

One thing that some fail to realize is that many people get injured (and many times severely) during Tough Mudder Events. We are all proud to say that not one of us got injured other than your expected and typical bumps and bruises. It was an experience none of us will ever forget!

Okay Amy so what’s next??? Climbing Mount Everest…Seriously Just Kidding!!!

Thank You Amy and the AVC Elite Tough Mudder Teammates!

~Brian

Let’s warm up to Mount Everest…with a 50K Ultra trail run perhaps? Are you ready to be inspired by training partners and reach new fitness goals you never dreamed possible?  Start with your AVCs…Elite Training that is and achieve the ultimate.