Current Weight: 223.8
I officially started the 8-minute abs workout (Level 3) this
week…It’s already causing massive soreness on my side abs….things. Who does 50
reps of anything first thing when they wake up? This moron, apparently.
As I learned from Running Warrior Dash in February (which
was my first mud run ever), the gear you wear during a run is crucial, because
if you pick the wrong things to wear, you run in wet socks for 3.2 miles
resulting in huge blisters on your feet and form scars on the back of your
hands from climbing down the rope incorrectly from the obscenely high wall they
make you climb over (these things didn’t happen to me, really). Here I’ve listed
my insight as to why I chose my gear this time around, from trial and error, and
the rest out of curiosity and theories as to whether or not it will help.
Headgear
Most people wear bandanas or sweat bands so they don’t have to keep constantly
wiping the sweat out of their eyes, which since I’ll be running over a lot of
obstacles, could become a huge hindrance…and make me fall off the damned thing,
whatever the damned thing may be at the time.
- Skull Cap – I have my preference for a skull cap just because if/when I do get completely submerged in cold water at least it will keep my head cooler for longer.
- GoPro Hero 3 – My new $400 toy! I can’t wait to test this thing out. I am going to tape the entire race so not only will I have documented footage of me being an idiot, but the rest of you can see what being an idiot feels/looks like!
Clothing
Depending on your fitness level this can make or break you. The superfit people
like to wear capes and costumes to run these things.
Yes, thats Gumbee jumping over fire, which is disturbing on a whole new level.
I prefer to keep it simple.
- Shirt – I typically wear a cotton tank top. Most other places seem to suggest wearing polyfiber and specialty shirts designed for it. I prefer the 3 dollar shirt I bought from Wal-Mart verses the 60 dollar one when I’m about to go crawl through mud. Call me old fashioned and cheap if you will, but honestly when you get past your first obstacle the shirt is the least of your concerns…unless you’re female and you wore a white one.·
- Pants/shorts – Anything that would slow your leg pace down is a no no, so pants in Florida is simply out of the question (unless you’re Batman, who ironically is running with me in my group). Something light and cheap, hence why I’m going with the $10 weird name brand I’ve never heard of gym shorts that I got in a clearance bin in Kmart.·
- Underwear – COMPRESSION SHORTS: MANDATORY!!! I can’t stress that enough. If you’re running anywhere, wear the damn things! Otherwise you end up with cherry red inner thighs and walking with a mix of bad John Wayne impersonation and wedgie. I’m not sure if the same applies for skinny people, but I wouldn’t chance it.
Handwear
Not a necessity but overall a good idea.
- None – Congratulations Rambo, you have fun not needing gloves to hoist yourself up, as for the rest of us, we need all the help we can get.
- Gloves – After reading a few blogs on the topic (specifically this one) I decided to follow this video and make these next month and give them a shot to see if they are all he claims they are cracked up to be.
Because for some reason I trust Australians.
Footwear
In my humble opinion the most important part of all the gear you wear. I have
officially experimented with both types of footwear for at least a month, and
here are my findings:
- Toe
Shoes - Sometimes better known as Vibram FiveFinger shoes,
these are basically shoes sculpted to be as close to barefoot running without
being barefoot that you can get. I’ve ran for the past month, Monday through
Friday, every morning in a Toe Shoe made by FILA
Skele-toes and this is my conclusion:
ouch.
You don’t realize you aren’t using the tendons to your inside toes to push like you would if you were barefoot, so the insides of your feet ache for the first few weeks of running in these. This does give you an advantage as you progress with it since you gain better grip with your feet to run over obstacles and what not (and if you’re really skinny you basically leap like a Gazelle in a single bound). Unfortunately I found that I am still too big to wear something like this since it eliminates most of the part of the shoe that absorbs impact, my ankles have suffered quite a bit as a result of this experiment and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to get a pedicure just for the leg massage because I haven’t been able to feel either of my little toes now for the past five days and it’s starting to concern me.
- Regular Shoes – These are the shoes I chose to run in, not only due to cost (these are $35-$60 whereas the Toe shoes cost $80 for just a decent pair) but because I ran Warrior Dash already in this shoe and I know what to expect and what I did wrong then and can correct (aka, I wore cotton socks).
- Socks – I haven’t done a ton of research on this but I was leaning towards just getting some Drymax socks or mesh ones from Walmart or Target since they aren’t that expensive and can be found relatively cheap.
I’ve been told that shopping in a Military Surplus store is
a good place to buy some of this gear, but I have yet to confirm this. I’ll
have to go scope it out one of these weekends.
If you have any other suggestions on things I missed feel
free to email me, the more input I can test out on myself prior to this race
the better.
Next week, I go over the obstacles I get to prepare for!
Will
\m/
