We've been a little lax with our fundraising so far this year so far getting our studio into tip top shape, but we still found time to book ourselves onto what should be an absolute cracker!
Myself and now eleven others (we had a few drop out for medical reasons, and Kieron gave his place up to compete in the international Korfball competition- so a big good luck to him too!) within the Azzurro family are on Sunday participating in the Full Tough Mudder Obstacle course in Henley! 12 miles of running, climbing, swimming, and crawling over a reported 26 obstacles ranging from ice trenches, to fire pits, 10 foot walls, to descents into the ground through pipes. We are all newbies, it's everyone's first time attempting the task, but we are a confident bunch.
Training has been a real blast, and the outdoor functional training area outside of the studio has been fantastic to mix it up a bit. Of course, for an event like this, it won't simply do to be able to run the 12 miles. With frequent obstacles to tackle, it's been important to work on a lot of core and upper body strength as well. I had set out a hybrid programme (for those who wanted to follow) to combine strength and endurance. The programme consists of a split day routine of Legs, chest, arms & abs, rest, back, shoulders, rest. On the leg day and one of the rest days we would also do some longer runs, the furthest of which was 8 miles for this particular programme to avoid overtraining. For those of you who are in Bourne end, the snap above is of Theo and I on one of these longer runs around this beauty of a lake. Spadeoak Lake is an ex-quarry, the produce of which helped to build the M40 and M4 motorways, and is now home to all kinds of wildlife and a huge rather pleasant lake!
Anyway, I digress... We are all running in aid of the Azzurro Charity, Sarcoma UK, and have a target of raising over £1000. We are not quite there yet, and If you would fancy donating to this incredibly worthwhile cause you can do so in the link below. Thank you in advance and we'll post once it's all over!
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ToughMuddymcgoo