Total Warrior - Lake District
This month saw Mr and Mrs Paddy take on the Total Warrior Course at Shap Abbey.
For those of you who don't know much about it, it is basically a 10km run. Simple, kind of, in amongst the 10km of running around the hills and fields surrounding Shap Abbey there are a handful of obstacles thrown in.
30 obstacles to be precise, spread out over the course they ensure there is no rest or let up. It's a great fun way to get wet, tired, cold, warm and covered in mud. I liken it to being a kid and playing about in a massive park... but that makes it sound easy, which I can assure you it isn't. The obstacles range from jumping into mud holes, running through rivers, climbing over fences and walls, plunging into an ice bath and jumping over a fire pit. It's not all bad though, there is also a big slip'n'slide and a section where you have to carry a log!
You can find out more (and sign up for next year's event) here http://www.totalwarrior.co.uk we might even put in a Go Cumbria team if enough of you want to join us. Let us know!
The first couple of times we've done the event I've been a great husband and left Nic to it, in a race with my brother (who is 15 years younger than me) the husbandly duties were dropped in preference to getting one over my younger brother (incidentally I failed on both fronts, he always beats me). Last year I ditched Nic at the start and clocked up a time of 1 hour 20 and Nic came in at 3 hours and 7 minutes.
Once Nic had calmed down and started talking to me again she suggested that 'rather than leaving me, why don't you do it with me'. At least that is the polite version of what she said. I can't print what she really said as there are too many choice words. So after a gentle, kind, loving conversation, I applied some ice to a totally unrelated black eye and agreed that in 2017 we would do the event together.
Nic set herself the aggressive target of 2 hours, she wanted to take a whole hour off her previous best. I thought this was optimistic and may be a stretch but Nic started training each week with with her Netball team after games and I was under strict instructions to shout at her and give encouragement throughout the event... I knew I could manage at least half of that request.
The big day came and we set up on the start line, we started off and it was a lot of fun. When I'd previously been racing (chasing) my brother I'd forgotten how much fun it is to run through Cumbrian hills and it was great to run alongside Nic. We set off slow, paced ourself well and made sure we had plenty of energy for the monkey bars at the end (making sure we hung on and didn't fall into the ice cold water).
Half way round we were on 44 minutes and it looked like we were definitely on to beat Nic's target of 2 hours, I expected the pace to drop off in the second half but it didn't. All Nic's netball, running and interval training over the spring and summer did the trick and we finished in 1 hour 36 - a whole hour and a half faster than Nic's previous PB and twice as fast as she had done before.
Well done Nic, amazing work, and it was great fun running together. We even managed a plank on location! I'll sign us up to a half marathon next :-)
Photos from www.mybibnumber.com
You can read about our Plank Challenge here https://gocumbriaevents.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/the-plank-challenge.html
For those of you who don't know much about it, it is basically a 10km run. Simple, kind of, in amongst the 10km of running around the hills and fields surrounding Shap Abbey there are a handful of obstacles thrown in.
30 obstacles to be precise, spread out over the course they ensure there is no rest or let up. It's a great fun way to get wet, tired, cold, warm and covered in mud. I liken it to being a kid and playing about in a massive park... but that makes it sound easy, which I can assure you it isn't. The obstacles range from jumping into mud holes, running through rivers, climbing over fences and walls, plunging into an ice bath and jumping over a fire pit. It's not all bad though, there is also a big slip'n'slide and a section where you have to carry a log!
You can find out more (and sign up for next year's event) here http://www.totalwarrior.co.uk we might even put in a Go Cumbria team if enough of you want to join us. Let us know!
The first couple of times we've done the event I've been a great husband and left Nic to it, in a race with my brother (who is 15 years younger than me) the husbandly duties were dropped in preference to getting one over my younger brother (incidentally I failed on both fronts, he always beats me). Last year I ditched Nic at the start and clocked up a time of 1 hour 20 and Nic came in at 3 hours and 7 minutes.
Once Nic had calmed down and started talking to me again she suggested that 'rather than leaving me, why don't you do it with me'. At least that is the polite version of what she said. I can't print what she really said as there are too many choice words. So after a gentle, kind, loving conversation, I applied some ice to a totally unrelated black eye and agreed that in 2017 we would do the event together.
Nic set herself the aggressive target of 2 hours, she wanted to take a whole hour off her previous best. I thought this was optimistic and may be a stretch but Nic started training each week with with her Netball team after games and I was under strict instructions to shout at her and give encouragement throughout the event... I knew I could manage at least half of that request.
The big day came and we set up on the start line, we started off and it was a lot of fun. When I'd previously been racing (chasing) my brother I'd forgotten how much fun it is to run through Cumbrian hills and it was great to run alongside Nic. We set off slow, paced ourself well and made sure we had plenty of energy for the monkey bars at the end (making sure we hung on and didn't fall into the ice cold water).
Half way round we were on 44 minutes and it looked like we were definitely on to beat Nic's target of 2 hours, I expected the pace to drop off in the second half but it didn't. All Nic's netball, running and interval training over the spring and summer did the trick and we finished in 1 hour 36 - a whole hour and a half faster than Nic's previous PB and twice as fast as she had done before.
Well done Nic, amazing work, and it was great fun running together. We even managed a plank on location! I'll sign us up to a half marathon next :-)
You can read about our Plank Challenge here https://gocumbriaevents.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/the-plank-challenge.html
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