The Mud Run

My favorite competition of the year rolled through on Saturday. 4.2 miles of running, jumping, climbing, swinging, slipping, and getting muddy is one of the best ways to spend a Saturday afternoon. It was, once again, a blast. Our finishing time of 48:25 was good enough for 35th overall, and I was pleased since there were 650 teams that ran the race. The only frustrating part of the Mud Run is the team aspect. It seems that every year I am on a very solid team that has one member that acts as a lead anchor. In our case, the anchor walked about 1.5 miles which was a huge detriment to our speed. It is such a painfully feeling for the rest of the team to be wanting to run and to have to walk knowing that time is slipping away and the teams you should be passing are shrinking on the horizon. The best option is to establish a team far in advance with known physical abilities, but Mark and I tried that and our teammates bailed on us.
Enough griping about the team, though. I was satisfied with my my performance considering I had only trained for 2 weeks. I felt slow over the log obstacles. I had a little trouble with one of the ropes, I could not grip the thing. Grip seems to be a recurring trouble area for me. Left hand grip, particularly, being the bane of my existence. I halted my Deadlift at 225#, killed my pullups after 10, and humiliates me on the rock wall. Grip is where I need the most work and if I want to pull 270#, 15 pullups, and climb well I need to turn my hands into vice grips. It hurts to think about it, grip work hurts the tiny muscles in the forearm and hand. I've finished a set of heavy DLs and been unable to tie my shoes afterwards, same with climbing. I guess that having a focus like this is the best to progress.