Wing-Walking with the Breitling Wing-Walkers

Loving the ride!

It is only when I am fully and securely strapped into the harness that the full realisation of the situation dawns on me. I am currently attached to the outside wing of a small plane, and ready to undertake a very scary mission – a daredevil flight across the skies in this very position! Behind me, the pilot sits calmly waiting to go. He has done this many times before with no incident, and has already flown a couple of other people before me. Seeing the others complete their flight, filled with sharp banks and dips, I could feel my bravado drain a little.

“Please” I pleaded to the captain in sudden desperation. “Keep it a little bit tame for me! Unless I am whooping and waving like crazy!”

Yup, I just used the word ‘tame’ in relation to Wing-Walking. It is at this very moment that I am cursing my friend Fiona who first introduced the idea to me. She had casually brought it up in the prep room at work, followed by an almost instantaneous Jenny leaping into her lap (metaphorically).

“Wing-Walking?!” I shrieked, bounding across the room and mildly startling all within it (although only mildly, as people are used to my unpredictable displays of enthusiasm). “That sounds awesome!” I continued on. “Can I come? When? Where? Price?!”

 

Very scared beforehand!

I am reminded of this as I stand on top of the plane with my stomach churning. It is already too bloody late to back out now, at least without a shame spiral ensuing. Plus, I knew that as soon as I did it, I would have regretted it.

“In and locked” I hear one of the expert Wing-Walkers say to the pilot. She has strapped me all in and explained the safety protocols. If I want to get down all I have to do is raise both my arms with the thumbs pointed down, and the plane will land immediately. I will never do that, I determine. Although once I was shown the incredibly complicated mechanism for opening the harness, I was a bit worried that I would go mad mid-flight, and just open it for funsies. Even writing about that now is giving me the shivers.

Finally the engine started noisily below me, making me glad of the earplugs. The plane turned slowly and started to chunder away from the main area, across a bumpy field. As it went I was wobbling about loads in the harness. At my request the Wing-Walker had pulled it so tight I barely had circulation! But I still felt like it was very loose.

I needn’t have worried. As the plane turned and began to make its run up to take off, the wind flattened me back against the frame with an amazing force. Before I knew it we were airborne! The ground below us sank down, and we were rushing above it.

Amazing. I gazed with awe down at the diminishing fields, catching sight of my feet in the same glance. They were so firmly on the wing I’m surprised they didn’t press a hole through it! The wind took my breath away as I tried to shout out. It blustered wildly about my head and streamed past my watering eyes. My hands were locked onto two supporting metal wires in a death grip as we circled a building (despite the fact that without the harness, my grip would have done nothing at all). We did our first pass round near the people assembled on the ground.  

Our plane

“Woot!” I shouted rather inaudibly, and managed to raise one arm for a wave. As soon as we had passed them, I instantly clamped my hand back down.

We did loads of circles, and as a few minutes went by, I was feeling braver. I started to raise my arms more and yell out various enthusiasms and expletives. No one could hear me of course, but shouting against the ferocious wind was strangely liberating. I didn’t want to go too mad, though, for fear that the pilot might amp up the stakes a bit. It was amazing enough as it was! Geed on by my relaxing a little, we did a couple of sharp banks left and right.

Finally, after ten minutes stomach dropping, wind whistling, death defying fun, the plane carefully landed with a little bump. It was a nice, gentle landing, and I can’t deny that I was pleased that the plane was back on solid earth!



Me with the two experts

 

The Wing-Walker came up to unstrap me, and I unsteadily made my way down. As I got to the ground I shook the pilot’s hand gratefully and thanked him. Then I stumbled off back towards the main hut and the tea!

Now, here are the things you have to remember if your curiosity has been piqued by the idea of Wing-Walking:

1.    It is very expensive. £400 for a ten minute flight. That does not, of course, include costs for trains/petrol, food, etc. They also add a £5 charge if you want to have the video of your experience to keep.

 

2.    It’s very high. Yes, I know you know this logically, but it won’t really hit you until you’re up there. So if you have a debilitating fear of heights it may not be for you. I, of course, ignored this and did it anyway. ;)

 

 

3.    It is awesome – factoid. More people have climbed Mount Everest than have done a Wing-Walk. You should definitely do this!

 

Here is the website to go to if you want to try this out:

http://www.aerosuperbatics.com/

And here is me doing it! Happy watching!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyM2OK3yDto&feature=youtu.be

 

 

Flatt7

My first experience of diving!

Me and Oli all good underwater!



 “I can breathe!” This is the first thing that I thought as I crouched down under the water. Maybe not a particularly profound thought, but still, it is a cool feeling looking up at the water’s surface and sucking in oxygen at the same time…

This was my first ever diving experience! It is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, despite how scary it is. For this adventure I managed to rope in my best friend Oli, who was also really looking forward to it! She is going travelling with her other half soon (Sob! I’ll miss her!), and hopes to do some diving, so it was great for her to try it out. We were joined by a Father and Son who were doing the Try Dive as a combined birthday present for them both. The session began with quite possibly the longest safety briefing I have ever listened to in the history of safety briefings! Even though I was itching to get in the water and get started, I was impressed at how thorough this was. We got a chance to ask any questions about things we didn’t understand or that worried us, and everything was explained well. The most important thing, as the instructor explained to us, was that you cannot hold your breath when you are breathing compressed air. It’s because your lungs expand as you come up from depth to the surface, and if they are already full of air they have the potential to overinflate (sounds similar to anaesthetic barotrauma in veterinary medicine). Scary stuff!

After the briefing we went through and got kitted up in all the gear, including a short wetsuit, face mask, flippers and our vests with the air attached. There were several things to learn here. A fun thing was that the vest can fill with air or release it, in order to buoy you up or allow you to sink with the weights in the vest. There is a button for each (Ooh, a button!), so I had myself a fun few minutes sending myself up and down in the water! There is also an air mouthpiece with a button (Oo…no, I think it’s probably only funny once) to clear water from it, which makes an almighty noise! As well as this you have a mask on your face which encompasses your eyes and nose. It feels very odd at first not being able to breathe through your nose as normal. But once you are underwater it is obviously better! We were also told that you have to equalise the pressure on the ears regularly as you go to depth by holding the nose and blowing out. It wasn’t too bad as we were only going to be swimming at a maximum depth of 1.8 metres in the swimming pool. But in a deeper environment you are supposed to do it often as you descend. The next thing to learn was the famous diver hand signals. We all know the ‘Ok’ signal (used as a question or a confirmation depending on the context), but there is so much more to learn! This includes the signals for ‘Not Ok’ (a wibbley hand), ‘Kneel’, ‘Follow Me’, ‘Let’s Go Up’ and more! It was great fun learning and using these hand signals.



Getting ready to start

With all this learnin’ on board, it was finally time to try it out! This was when I got my first experience of how utterly weird it is to breathe underwater. We all had to take some air out of our vests and kneel on the bottom (harder than it sounds with flippers attached!), and then Jon gave us each an ‘Ok’ signal, which we responded to. Then we had to press out button to get rid of any water clogging up the mouthpiece for the air (this probably has a proper name, but it eludes me right at this moment).

The ‘Follow Me’ signal came from the instructor, and then we weren’t just sitting underwater sucking compressed air; we were swimming at the same time! Swimming with flippers is really bloody difficult when you consider that you might accidentally kick someone in the face with the business end by accident. Then there’s the technique of it. You’re supposed to rhythmically stroke each leg up and down and fold your arms in front of you to glide forward. I did an awkward, jerky ‘frog’s legs’ motion forward and shimmied my arms like a failing attempt at hoola hooping. Amazingly enough, this actually did work, at least partially. I started going forward. All the time, I was trying to remember ‘Don’t hold your breath, don’t hold your breath, don’t hold your breath’. After breathing the compressed air for a while, it doesn’t half make your throat dry.

Swimming through hoops!

We crawled along the bottom of the pool (I don’t think we were meant to be crawling, but it takes some time to get the buoyancy of the jacket right), and down to the deep end. I had to equalise my ears a couple of times as we descended. We did a circuit around and then back up to the shallow end. Here, we had a brief review whilst Steve and Jon checked that we were all okay, and then we went under again. This time it was for much longer! We swam about, went through hoops and even played some underwater Frisbee. I even thought I was getting the hang of swimming about with a bit more ease. I did have a bit of a panic when my mask started to fill with water, and despite fiddling with it I didn’t know how to get it to dissipate. Karen, one of the instructors, flashed me an ‘Ok’ signal, but I was a bit too panicky to answer! I made a beeline for the surface, and came up lifting my mask to try and drain it out. I had enough forethought at least to inflate my jacket so that I bobbed with not too much difficulty on the surface. Karen came up alongside me.

“You okay?” She smiled.

“Sorry.” I replied. “A little bit of panic there!”

She showed me how to clear my mask of water, and we went back down.

Later on, Oli told me at this point that she had no idea what was going on, or what the instructors might have been trying to correct or teach. In her words:

‘I was just sitting on the bottom of the pool puffing away on my air, and trying to work out what everyone was doing. At one point, the two instructors kept flashing the ‘Ok’ signal at me, which I was doing back to show I was fine. But then they kept doing the ‘Not Ok’ signals at each other and looking at me with concern. I kept trying to sort of convey with my eyes that “No, I’m fine! I’m okay!” But it turns out that doesn’t come across too well underwater.’

Me and Oli with our Try Dive certificates!

After about an hour and a half in the pool, playing, swimming and posing for photos, we finally all surfaced again and it was the end of the session. I thought it was amazing, especially when I used my weight jacket properly and got a little round of underwater applause from Jon. I will definitely be coming back for more (once my exams are out of the way), so watch this space!

Blubububub...

 

Flatt7

The post race slump (or, The One in which you lose all your momentum)

Tough Mudder done!

Sometimes, in the last week, I can’t believe that I’ve actually successfully completed Tough Mudder. I’ve spent the last 6 months obsessing over it. Training hard, increasing my running and swimming distances, immersing myself in ice water and obsessively watching obstacle videos from previous Tough Mudders. My friends have heard nothing from me but how I’m doing this or this due to Tough Mudder, how I can’t drink as I’m training tomorrow and how increasingly nervous I am becoming as the time of the race grew near.

This is the dangerous thing about focussing so much on one race. Because on Sunday morning after the race, I woke up, partly crippled and sporting several bruises, and the whole obsession had stopped. It had been replaced by fatigue, relief, pride and a lifting of the mystery veil that had been hanging over the race. I spent the whole day lying in my bed in pyjamas, eating everything in my kitchen and intermittently trying to scrub semi permanent marker off of my arm. And thinking. Remembering the race. Smiling at some parts of it (the hug I received from a complete stranger when I burst into tears at the end of it) and winching at others (the realisation that had I fallen backwards at one point of my human gecko traverse, my foot was jammed in such a way that I would surely have snapped my ankle).

Meandering around on recovery day

On Monday, the Bank Holiday, I headed out to limp around London a little. Gentle walking, I thought, is surely enough exercise for someone who still can’t bend her knee. I headed out to Westminster Bridge, ambled through the busy Southbank area, then wandered round the canal trails of Westbourne Park (hoping the find the infamous Parkour Generations Leap Park). I sunbathed and ate in cafes and took random photos. There was no urgency to start training or rush somewhere. I haven’t had a day like it, so free from internal expectations, for a long time.

Eventually, I found myself in Oxford Street, wandering through a glitzy HMV. This is where I did something that may have been a mistake - I bought arcadey PS3 game Lollipop Chainsaw. Some of you may know that previously, my slightly addictive personality was focussed on gaming – a lot of it. I especially love original games, with new ideas and new styles of game play (Okami springs to mind). I used to spend hours and hours playing games, getting 100% of special levels and Easter eggs. So it was definitely a dangerous move on my part to buy something new.

Lollipop Chainsaw, my new obsession

Back home, I switched on my PS3 for the first time in over a year. I finally stopped playing at about 2am (my alarm clock was set for 6.15 am). I could feel my gaming obsession switching back on a little, and my fitness obsession receding slightly.

But, now that I’ve started with a more active outlook, a more active life, I don’t want to stop! I don’t want to go back to being the girl who can’t run for more than 30 seconds. No way! I quite like the idea of being a survivor of the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Plus, I love running. Once you are in your stride, the feeling of the world flowing around you, your breathing calm and regulated, your muscles working strongly together – no thought in that time but the desire to keep going. That feeling, no game can replicate. I love races too. The build up of excitement, the start line the camaraderie with other runners. The event villages are pretty sweet too!

But despite this, I know that I can relax a little now. I don’t have the constant thought that if I don’t train hard enough every day, week on week, that I will surely fail the challenge. Instead, I can afford a little time to really enjoy running with less pressure. I don’t need to fret if I have the occasional unplanned day off. I can spend it slaying zombies for a better high score, planting thousands of Farmville crops and, maybe occasionally, breaking into my college work (we’ll see about that last one!).

The next challenge!

Don’t count me out of the race scene, though. Tough Mudder may have been the biggest one so far, but it wasn’t the first, and it certainly won’t be the last. Want to know how I know that? Weeellll, I sort of, kinda already booked in for the Wolf Run in September. Better get training, then. Damn.

Flatt7

Tough Mudder - my toughest challenge yet!



Mid Mudder!

Right now, I’m sitting in my bed, with barely functional legs and my race number still partially visible on my arm. Even though walking is a little bit of an issue, I feel both proud and relieved. For yesterday I undertook the challenge that I have been training towards for the best part of six months – the Tough Mudder! Hoo-ra!!! Ahem, excuse me, got a little carried away there. This race consists of just under 12 miles, and 22 kickass obstacles. So, the big question is, after so much anticipation, how did I rate it?

Starting out with beautiful weather, it turned just about 40 minutes before my start time, with torrential rain appearing out of nowhere! This was the weather I started the Tough Mudder in, but as I went along, this did alternate with sunny and cloudy periods. But before we started, we had to get warmed up! The warm up was short with lots of focus on team spirit (I had to hug, hand hold and kiss the cheek of a random bloke next to me!). Then we were required to take the Tough Mudder pledge, which focuses on bravery and team spirit. We were told that the signal for someone that needs assistance is them holding their arms in an X above their head, and if we see it we should do the same so the course Marshalls notice and can help. Then there was some mildly disturbing encouragement to chant out retail brand names, which I did not join in with.

Tough Mudder has a witty sense of humor

The course overall, as expected, was extremely muddy and slippery! At some points, not one single person was able to run without tasting the mud. At others, you could get a sort of half speed awkward trot over the mud. Many people were sliding down on their bum on the downhill mud, a technique I embraced with no care to any aspect of dignity; when it’s this muddy, avoiding accidental injury is the main aim! At one point, I saw a guy try to use a large branch as a sort of walking stick – he slipped almost instantly and came very close to impaling himself on it. Luckily he abandoned his stick after that close call. There were also good sections with more grip. These were drier parts of the country trail, gravel paths and some roads that wound very close to the event village. These are absolutely vital in my opinion to create an opportunity to build up some body heat. Dipping in and out of rivers was par for the course, and also several of the obstacles are water obstacles, so it was easy to get cold quickly if you weren’t aware of this creeping up on you. I spoke to one person whose friend had been taken off of the course with first stage hypothermia, and I very much doubt they were the only one. Comedy signs were set up all the place, with witticisms such as “If you’re huffing and puffing now, we feel sorry for your better half!” and “Get running, my Grandma just passed you.” At about a third of the obstacles speakers had been set up to blast music out, which is very motivational! At the more dangerous ones Marshalls and standby paramedics were present. The Marshalls would cheer you on, encourage you and also reassure you if you were a bit freaked out (as I frequently was during this event!). Everyone was looking out for everyone else on the course – it was the friendliest race I’ve ever run in! If you look like you’re flagging, have difficulty with an obstacle, are limping or have stopped, guaranteed everyone running past would pause to check you were okay. It’s actually bringing a tear to my eye thinking about it (I blame the fatigue!). At the obstacles swathes of runners were waiting for five minutes past their completion of it to help those behind them, even those not in their team. In my case, I found it difficult to haul 80kg guys up the Berlin Walls, but I did stop at a few riverbeds to provide a sure handhold for those coming up behind me. The water and refreshments stands were amazing at this event! I lost count of how many there were, but they came up so often I was never in too much risk of cramp from low fuel. They had half bananas and water tanks. At one of the final stands, a Marshall offered to feed me the banana as I was so muddy! Unfortunately I had eaten so much mud by then I literally couldn’t have cared less about food hygiene! So I took it with my muddy glove and devoured it. Let’s just say it was, um, a little crunchier than bananas usually are. Near the end of the course the route went straight through a field of sheep, which were running about with their lambs in tow. One ewe was making a beeline for runners, and only a panicked sprint took me out of her path – do not mess with mothering ewes, just trust me on that! Plus, my mum used to foster a female sheep, I can tell you being head butted by one hurts quite a lot! Would be interested if anyone didn’t manage to avoid the sheep on the unofficial 23^rd obstacle, Gauntlet of Sheep.

But this is the Tough Mudder, and I know what you guys really want to read about – the obstacles! For those of you that have just completed one, you may be nodding in agreement. For those of you about to run one, this should be a good way to swot up on what to expect!

Arctic Enema

The very first obstacle. Yup! This obstacle requires you to jump into a pit of freezing water, and then duck your head under a wooden board with barbed wire on top. So I thought it was lovely that they put it right at the start where you would have no chance to warm up (note sarcasm). I did ice water swimming in preparation for this, so I was aware that jumping into ice water is roughly akin to jumping into a large bucket full of acid. When I got to the top of the step I could see the dip was narrow enough to allow you to use the sides to swing yourself further out before you dropped into the water. You can’t hesitate, you can’t think. Without pause I swung myself out and down – splash! My head went under the water for a split second as I landed, then I bobbed up, gasping. There were no actual chunks of floating ice as I have seen in videos of previous Tough Mudders. But I think it’s possible they had melted slightly from others going through. But believe me, it was plenty cold! Now I was in front of the middle board. Here it is possible to get stuck. The longer you stand there, the more everything freezes, the more you can’t work up the courage to dunk your head. I took one, two, three deep breaths, then...UNDER! Once on the other side it is just a matter of sploshing to the other side and hauling yourself out. A great thing about the cold is that afterwards for about a mile your legs feel great and unstoppable (because they are numb!).



The freezing cold ice bucket!

Kiss of mud

This is a crawl through a muddy lane with barbed wire above and around you. It is flanked either side by almost swamp like conditions that came right up to my knees. I found this one pretty easy, and even had a sort of unspoken race with the guy crawling one lane over from me. I won – just saying. :P

Walk the Plank

This is a jump from a 15 foot high tower into a deep body of water. Anyone who has known me for more than about ten minutes is aware I have quite a crippling fear of heights, so as we went up the steps I found myself chanting “Oh God, oh God, oh God...”. They pair you up for the jump on adjacent edges, I presume it’s so that the other person can call out if you’re in the middle of drowning. Here the Marshalls are right at the end of the drop too, giving people stop or go signals. Well, if you were jump too soon, you would land straight on top of another person who’s still struggling to the surface! As I got right up to the drop I knew I couldn’t do it, but another part of me (possibly my Tough Mudderness, if there is such a thing!) overrode that, and before I knew it, I had jumped! Straight down I went, then I was underwater. Water was pushed into my nose as I entered the water, though I think I had the foresight to close my mouth and my eyes. In this moment, another from long ago flashed up in my memory. In my teens, I had gone white water rafting with my sister, and at one point the whole boat tipped back and delivered everyone into the raging stream. I fell upside down, and had no knowledge of which way was up or down to know which way to kick. Then my lifejacket brought me to the surface. This time, I had no lifejacket, but a lot more wherewithal. A couple of hard kicks and I broke the surface with a surge of relief. Then only a few strokes brought me close to the net and I hauled myself out, coughing and spluttering.

Island Hopping

These are wobbly islands kept in line by a strong length of rope. As you jump from island to island, they can buck sideways or sink completely under just by virtue of their instability. A sign on the side of them said “If you fall off, stay off!” In that case, you have to swim the rest of the river across. I knew my relatively light weight would help me here. I easily jumped across to each one, landing in a crouch then moving over to the next. The final jump across to the riverbed was slightly too far for my ability, so a short wade at that point saw me safely on the other side.

Glory blades

These are climbing walls, but they have been inverted towards you so you have to climb at a leaning back angle, and then (in my case, anyway) do an undignified belly slide on the other side. Many people were boosting or pulling each other up these.

Underwater tunnels

Rows of plastic barrels are strung together, and floated over water. Then you have to make your way under them. The main risk here was the time underwater was much longer than for the head dip of arctic enema. Many people were lifting themselves up or feeling underneath to check the distance. On the first set I came up too soon and bashed my head. Then had to keep going underwater without screaming! I felt a little disorientated when I came up from it. If anyone has ever tried to surface only to find something above them, they will know how frickin’ horrible it is! For the others I was a little more careful and swam further to clear the barrels.

Human Gecko



This is essentially a climbing wall spanning sideways over a body of water. I was still a little freaked out from the other water obstacles, so didn’t fancy going in again. So I didn’t half grip tight as I edged my way across. From all around I could hear sudden splashes and cheers as person after person took an unexpected dunk. I actually think my ice climbing helped a little bit here. As others were being directed this way or that by helpful Mudders around them, I could see the path pretty clearly, so only had to focus on keeping a good grip. I would say this is the one obstacle which tested my arm strength the most, mostly because of my bloody minded determination.

 

Electric Eel

No. Who the hell thought this shit up?? A thin layer of water with electrical wires hanging above it. Tough Mudder had a bypass for those who had metal plates or pacemakers in their body, but unfortunately I had to go through. I can tell you right now that being shocked makes your whole body spasm in a very unpleasant way. If it’s bad enough a face plant is very possible. I crawled through on my belly and each time I got shocked, let out a frankly bloodcurdling scream. On the right of me a guy shot through, accidentally swinging all of the wires towards me. This brought me very close to the tears, and I’m fairly sure I swore profusely at him! Even after my torrent of screaming, he still stayed to guide me through the rest and even held the final one aside for me! Blimey! All is forgiven, dude.

Boa Constrictor

Tunnels with a thin layer of water at the bottom. Obviously designed to be able to accommodate the bulkiest of men if he was writhing through on his stomach, I found myself able to crawl happily on hands and knees! A fun and fast obstacle.

Dirty Ballerina

Imagine large pits you have to jump across. Imagine about seven of them. Imagine treacherous muddy landings. Now imagine that if you don’t do it fast enough, someone with slightly more enthusiasm than foresight is going to go barrelling into the back of you. Yeah. Ever aware of the risk, I went across as fast as I possibly could, almost sliding into the pits in front with my landings. I saw one girl do some incredibly painful looking splits with one foot on top and one in the pit, then go limping off onto the side.

Firewalker

This was meant to be leaping through fiery and smoky pits. In fact, I can see in some pictures that other people did do it. But when I arrived at this obstacle there seemed to be no clear way into it, and all the runners went around the side. Not sure if they closed it or there was just some confusion? Shame.

Getting down and muddy

 

The Mud Miles

There were two of these, and can I say hands down my favourite bit of the course! Just basically alternating piles of mud and muddy water, up and down, up and down. Scrambling up and down these was so fun. On the first mud mile I saw several people doing the arm X that was described earlier, but I couldn’t see who the person in distress was! Hopefully, they were helped, after about half a minute all the Xs went down. On the second mud mile I felt a little guilty as I saw a confused beetle splashing about in the mud pit, but didn’t stop to rescue him like I normally would. Hope he survived the Tough Mudder!

Trench Warfare

 A belly crawl through an enclosed muddy trench. What they don’t tell you is the floor of the trench is covered with jaggy rocks. Painful!

Hold Your Wood

A short log carry up and around a hill. There were little logs for us loners, and long ones for the teams. Damn my bony shoulders! I shouldered it for about halfway, swapped shoulders, then ended up carrying it like a precious handbag clutched to my chest. Still, I’m very glad I practiced this one.

Log Jammin’

A simple obstacle in which you have to climb up a wall of logs, then duck under the next one, a few times in a row.

Hero Carry

In this obstacle you have to pick up another person and carry them through the section. As I approached this I was running alongside a team of burley men who were regarding the approaching section with some apparent dread. “So” I said “I weigh 50 Kilograms. Who wants to carry me?”

“Dibs!” came a voice back very quickly. Taking a fire-fighter’s hold on me, we started off. What I actually hadn’t realised was that we were supposed to swap halfway! Until one of his friends informed me... “Are we realistically going to swap?” I asked the brave Mudder carrying me. “I weigh 14 stone” He replied. For those of you trying to convert this, it’s almost 90 Kilograms, or the same weight as a small lion. We decided to keep the carry one way.

Hero Walls

These are just massive 12 foot walls, with no way to grip, and covered in mud from other Mudders. Here, my thanks have go out to the team with the pink tassley t-shirts, who basically bodily hauled me up two of them, and called me a ‘Beast’ for running the Tough Mudder solo. I only saw one person get up these walls on their own. ONE, and I must have watched a hundred people go through. This is truly a team obstacle.

Funky Monkey

Monkey bars! Oh, but not just monkey bars. Monkey bars greased with god knows what, and suspended above yet another muddy dip. It took me only 2 bars before I got reacquainted with the water. I saw several people make it across, but a lot of people fall 6 or 7 bars in. No women made it right across the bars when I was there, but I’m sure they did over the course of the day.

Cage crawl

This is a new obstacle for Tough Mudder as far as I’m aware, and a very inventive one! Ditches of muddy water have a long section of cage wire placed over them. The water goes very close to the cage so you have to get on your back, let your legs trail along behind you and pull yourself along with your hands on the wire above you. A few pulls in, the water level raises and covers your ears, so only the very front of your face is not submerged. Once you’re halfway through the trench there is no way out. It’s all enclosed, and someone has already started behind you. If you stop, they’re going to bump into you with their head and you’ll both panic. So even though I could feel rising panic and fear, I just kept going. Some of these trenches were dyed colours such as red or green, so on the other side the ground was a kaleidoscope of all the colours!

Everest

Ahh, the infamous Everest. I bet that if you are interested in Tough Mudder, you have already heard of this and seen videos aplenty. But for those that haven’t, it is basically a huge curved wall. The aim is to sprint at the wall with your arms raised, and one of helpful Mudders at the top will grab you and pull you up. A commentator was on the wall, cheering on the Mudders and reassigning those helping at the top so it was an even spread. It was taking many people multiple attempts to get up, so there was a long queue for it. It was here that many people began to seriously feel the wind bite them. People were jumping up and down to stay warm. I felt it myself, and started shivering. I was just hoping I got my chance at Everest before all my muscle coordination had gone. To improve the grip, I rolled up my sleeves, and dried my hands and arms on the nearby grass. Then, finally it was my turn! I sprinted at the wall as hard as I could, and managed to grab two guy’s arms. They pulled me partway, then a third grabbed my leg and they rolled me up!

Electroshock Therapy

A short section of hanging electrical wires. You’re supposed to dash through bravely, but having had my first taste of what being shocked felt like earlier I tried to use a duck and dive technique. Sliding through the mud on my belly still didn’t help me however. I got shocked several times, each feeling worse than the last.  Not as bad as the later runners though, who had to deal with a large tank sprinkling water over them as they went through!

Finally I made it through, and went through the finish banner. In total, the Tough Mudder course had taken me 4 and a half hours! Immediately I burst into tears, a combination I think of fatigue, relief and quite how much I actually hate being shocked. A group of people gave me a big hug, an example of the amazing sense of community there was.



Extremely emotional at the end of Tough Mudder!

Now, think carefully. Has this made you want to do a Tough Mudder? If so, great! But make sure you prepare long and hard for it. This is no easy feat, and if you enter without adequate training you more than likely will feel miserable after the first 3 miles. I enjoyed it a lot, but there were aspects where you definitely need, as Tough Mudder puts it, ‘Mental grit’. But if you’re sure you have it, great! I’ll see you at the next Tough Mudder! ;)

Flatt7

My last week training before Tough Mudder



A great place to run!
 

I’ve had a rather varied and interesting training week so far. An unexpected day off on Sunday saw me making an appearance at the Parkour Generations weekend wake up class held in Elephant and Castle. The class size was absolutely bloody enormous, twenty people in total! Thrown by the absence of a large, white, woolly hat, I managed to start proceedings well by politely introducing myself to someone that I have actually met and trained with three times (sorry Kevin!). I only realised about halfway through the class why he seemed familiar! I haven’t trained at Elephant and Castle very much at all, so was chuffed that we were taken to an area that I had never seen before. It was a sort of long section of disused flats, full of wall, rails and flat space for sprinting and quadrepedal movement. As we discovered, this area was also full of graffiti and litter, making footing a little precarious!

After some variations on running (forwards, backwards, sidesteps, etc.), designed to warm us up, the first challenge was climbups onto a wall. Pretty chuffed that I can now pull myself into the wall without my feet sliding down whilst in a cat position, although by the end of this section I was struggling a little. At some points we had to hold ourselves at waist level on the wall, and then remove first our left and then our right hands. I just had to hold myself at waist without moving for this part! Don’t have the strength yet, I don’t think, but actually not sure how it’s even possible without face planting! Next, we all lined up, and had to get across obstacles to the wall, then turn round and go back as fast as we could. As there were twenty people in the class, we had to do this twenty times in a row. The only rest we had was when you were at the end, you would shout out your name then run along the front of the line. Each person would start the route as you passed them, and then you got to rest for that one (aren’t they kind!). When doing the route there was definitely an aspect of not wanting to be the last one back! So I found myself sort of clumsily clambering over things rather than trying to Parkour over. When I did try to step vault over the rail, I slipped and smacked my knee. Bah! After we had done twenty of these, we were told we needed to do the whole route in twenty seconds or less. And if we didn’t manage it, we would do it again until we did manage it! Instantly, every person in the line was standing to attention with one foot forward, ready to go. We had all already run through the route twenty times each, so we weren’t keen to do many more reps than necessary! It took the group two times, and then once to go through the route twice in under a minute.

After this, instructor Andy set up a miniature version of what he called ‘The Morzine mega-route’, including gate climbs, wall runs, monkey walk, and incorporating in some rather unusual graffiti at the top of the slope before turning round. People were split into expert/amateur pairs (guess which one I was?). I managed to smack my shin about one minute into the demo, and with a small squeak I slid down and staggered over to the nearest grassy knoll. Then I had to sit and pretend my whole leg hadn’t gone dead to every second person who passed me asking if I was alright. I could see in the distance that instructor Chris was making his way over, and I tried my best to get up before he got there. However, my leg didn’t feel like cooperating at that moment, so instead I managed an awkward bum shuffle along the grass.

“You alright?” He called.

“Yup, absolutely fine!” I said through gritted teeth. I could see everyone else disappearing into the distance, and I was annoyed at falling back. Ever hit yourself in the shin? Well until have you have, dear reader, don’t judge the wimpiness! After a minute, I managed to get myself up and hobble after the tailwind of the main group. Another member of the group, a man in a red t-shirt, actually came back and ran with me at this point, which was very nice!

Then ‘The Megaroute’ was started in earnest, and I think I did pretty well overall (many thanks to my expert partner Juad, who was very patient with me). The highlight was doing the wall run at a fairly decent height for me, and the low point was having to be given a knee/shoulder boost because I couldn’t lift my own weight up one section. After some work on precisions, we did some killer core strength conditioning in which we held our legs out and straight off the floor, leaning back but not resting shoulders or head, for about five bloody minutes! I am definitely looking forward to ‘The Morzine Megaroute’, which is apparently about 2km long!

 

After smacking myself once in each leg during Parkour class, I was a little worried about my planned run on Monday morning. I was going to one of my favourite places to run, in Alexandra Park. This has a great flat section to start on, and then goes into hilly woods which provide a little challenge to navigate around. It’s also so beautiful there, dappled sunlight through the trees in one section and an amazing high view in another. I needn’t have worried about my knee, as I shot round at a great pace, my fastest mile completed in about 6.15 minutes! I even went down the big, steep hill, then turned straight back round and went back up it! I managed to do this by sort of pretending that I wasn’t really going up a hill at all, acting and breathing completely normally until I couldn’t fool myself anymore! I’ve found that this is a great running Jedi  mind trick. My other trick for the difficult top section of a hill is to do a finger count of three or five as you climb it. In this way ‘I’ve got to get to the top’ becomes ‘I’ve got to run for five more seconds’, which is much more feasible.

I was astounded and amazed when I stopped and checked my workout, as this is the fastest pace i’ve ever done, including my brief spate of road running! After running, I did three circuits of arm and core conditioning. I was planning to do four, but my form began to suffer. I used the two arm conditioning Park Gym machines, then did assisted press-ups, planks, sit ups and stomach crunches.

 

After all this, I was feeling great, but very achy! So I was looking forward to the evening, when I had made plans with friends to go swimming in the still rather chilly Hampstead Heath ponds. Although it isn’t as bad as the Baltic conditions I experienced in December and January, eleven degrees Celsius is still pretty damn cold as we all discovered! I was hoping it would act as a sort of ice bath for my muscles. I realised that I was the wimp of the bunch when I came out of the changing cubicle in full Skins to find my friends wearing only skimpy swimsuits! This choice meant that they ushered me into the water first. I gingerly stepped down the ladder and cast off with a gasp. Brr! But the good thing about this temperature is that it’s cold enough to test you, but not so cold as to completely incapacitate you, and make you want to exit the water straight away. I was blessing my Skins, as even with a hole in them they protected me from the ‘burning’ feeling of cold water for quite a long time, whilst my friends were lamenting! We all did three laps of the pond, and then the lifeguard came out and told us that she thought we had been in long enough and that we should probably get out soon. Perhaps the cries of “Jesus Christ!” and “It burns!!!” were a little too loud! However, writing this from the perspective of the next day, I do feel that it helped my muscle recovery a lot, especially my arms. They were literally tremoring after my arm circuits, which normally means ache city the next day. But they feel pretty okay!

So all in all, a nice and varied start to this week’s training! Scarily, this is my last week of training before Tough Mudder! Next week will be a rest week, so i’d better make this one count! To this end, i’m planning one more run, one more swim (in an indoor pool) and two more Parkour sessions. I’m also counting the ice wall climb i’m doing (hey it’s a physical activity!). Come the weekend I will be stopping all exercise, crossing my fingers and trying not to freak out too much at the thought of the looming Tough Mudder. Wish me luck, guys!

 

Flatt7

Rambling thoughts on the run - A question of pace



Me out for a group jog last August (2cnd from right)

On Monday I went on a ten kilometre run. After about two weeks of doing only seven kilometre runs at slow pace (plus quite a lot of Parkour), I decided to take the start of my run pretty easy so that I didn’t run out of steam before the end. I did a bit of stretching, then walked for five minutes to get my limbs going. I had just stepped out onto the starting path of my run when the timer indicated that it was time to go! So I set off at my planned plodding pace, on a mostly flat but very slightly downhill path. After a couple of minutes I spied a swishing ponytail in the distance that indicated a fellow female runner, and I decided that I would keep this pace, her just in the distance, as a marker to ensure that I didn’t accidentally speed up. Except that didn’t quite happen. Concentrating on my breathing, I glanced ahead again to discover I had halved the distance between us.

Shit on it!

I didn’t think I had sped up! I tried pulling back, but she came nearer and nearer. Her movements looked like fast, active running, and I was bewildered as to how I was accidentally catching her up! I started running on the balls of my feet, pretty much on the spot. Still, before long I passed her, and she was watching my back disappearing. I’m so annoyed at myself! Pace control is an important skill for any runner, and I just had an epic fail.

Looking back over my Nike Plus, I first commented on my inability to consciously regulate my pace in August 2012. In August and September my fastest running pace was 7.24 min/mile, and my average was just over 8 min/mile. The jump was huge, just three months after I started running at 11.49 min/mile. As my pace increased, so too did the negativity of my training run comments. “Quite lethargic” said one, and even “What’s wrong with me?” I took on board the link between the increase and how I was beginning to feel during the runs. I know that increasing mileage by too much too quickly can lead to overtraining effects such as an increased risk of injury. So surely it was the same with pace of runs? I eased back to 8.40 min/mile, and as I began to train Parkour more regularly, 9 min/mile. Until I had accidentally upped my pace and couldn’t correct it, I thought I was spinning along at a nice, medium and most importantly, controlled pace.

Pacing back in August
 

All this thinking about pace took me back to when I was travelling to a race in Mid March, and my, let’s say sedate looking, taxi driver told me that any runner of value was doing at least 8.30 min/mile. Needless to say I took the utterance with a little pinch of salt, but his attitude definitely reflects that of many people – that a faster running pace should be more important than pace control or indeed your enjoyment of the run.

But, I wonder, am I immune to this kind of pace snobbery? Didn’t I in fact feel a tiny bit of one-upmanship as I passed the other runner on the trail? Well, maybe a little. Since my pace revelation began in August last year, I very rarely run faster than anyone else out on the trails. I almost couldn’t believe that I had passed her even though I was trying my hardest not to, and it did make me a little proud of myself despite the lack of pace control it demonstrated. This feeling also manifested itself when I saw a post on social media recently in which a runner with only one mile to go was told “Only another ten minutes.”, and they replied “Maybe on a bike!” I thought to myself: What pace are they running that they think a ten minute mile is only possible on a bike??

Then I have to catch myself, for it is the same mentality that leads people to mindlessly chase personal bests with no thought as to whether they are enjoying themselves, or even as to whether pounding out these 5 min/mile or 6 min/mile paces are even benefitting their health anymore. I wonder if people driven by this obsession are looking at me, judging me for plodding along ever so slowly in comparison to them, rather than examining their own running habits. I am determined that the feeling of running, the freedom and the fitness, should always overcome any arbitrary factors that anyone may judge my or their running by.

I am feeling quite pleased at this conclusion as I reach the end of the first path. I did a few loops around hilly woodland before beginning to run back along to my starting point. Joining back with the main path, I was astounded to see the other runner only just entering the woodland area. We passed each other with a nod and a smile.

Blimey! I thought. How slow was she running??

Oh bugger. I think the pace bug bit me. I never said my philosophy was perfect.

 

Flatt7, slowcoach extraordinaire.

Aqua Zumba

As many of you will know, the day job that I daren’t give up is as a trainee veterinary nurse. So this is why I know about the use of hydrotherapy water treadmills, usually in dogs with arthritis (just you try doing that to a cat!). The idea behind this is that the slight water resistance as the dog keeps its feet on the floor and yet has to push against the water to walk will help to strengthen the muscles in the limbs and eventually reduce pain. Now you may be wondering whether on earth you’ve stumbled into the wrong blog here! But the reason that I am explaining all this is that I think I have just experienced the human equivalent – Aqua Zumba!

When I first saw the advert for the class, I knew I had to try it out! But I also thought it would probably be really easy. After all, I do a lot of fitness stuff – how hard can splashing about in the water be? Well, when you’re stomach deep and trying to drag your unwilling limbs through the water to a zesty Latin beat, it’s pretty bloody hard!

The class is held in Highbury and Islington pool from 9pm-10pm on Tuesday nights. It is important to note that this particular night is ladies only night, so sorry guys, if you were thinking of trying, you may need to research a different, mixed class. For the class they closed off most of the pool and just had one tiny little strip that could accommodate one person swimming up and down. They also lowered the temperature of the pool quite a few degrees in preparation for all the exertion and jumping up and down. But it wasn’t too bad! A couple of other women warned me that the pool was freezing just before I was about to get in! It was probably about 20 degrees? I told that I had swum at 3 degrees, at which they both simultaneously shivered at the thought and began to back away slowly!

After a few minutes the instructor Judy Milner appeared to start the class. She was a very energetic woman, and overall got really into the dances. At a couple of points during the class the instructor even fell off her perch as she was dancing! Although she did divulge that she was feeling a little bit under the weather, so not sure if it was enthusiasm or fever! Frequently she tried to elicit claps, smiles and cries of ‘Hey!’ from the class. I joined in with these gamely, but felt that very few people did it, maybe for fear of looking stupid? Ever since I put one foot across a small gate and it opened before I could get the other across, leaving me helplessly straddling the swinging gate in an ungainly position until somebody bodily lifted me off of it, I no longer consider this factor. I’ve already been down to that point and then some!

The first few dances were a warm up. They were energetic and followed on quickly from each other. Straight away she launched into the dances, and I tried to fight the water drag to keep up with her. I was actually really enjoying splashing the water about, gamely ignoring the near drowning of those around me (this only really occurred to me later!) for the first two dances. Then she paused her tape and made a pointed announcement quite probably aimed at me. “In Aqua Zumba, we do our arm movements underwater, okay?” Humbled, I had to calm down a bit for the rest of the class.

A few of the songs that were played were the same as the normal Zumba songs, so it was nice to hear some familiarity, especially as the variety was in the dance that was tailored to the water environment. I was especially chuffed to hear ‘Ari Ari’ by the Bombay Rockers! I love this song so much that it is one of my running songs. And I was even more intrigued when the whole class had to get into a big circle to start! We did choppy hand movements and hoppy leg movements, all the while bopping round in a circle! The dance ended with a ‘Hokey Cokey’ style circle close and open. This was all punctuated with the surprise use by the instructor of a very loud whistle. She did not shout instructions for this song, or dance it all out, but mostly waved her hands and blew the whistle enthusiastically. But for the rest of the songs she did shout or gesture instructions as well as dance.

The atmosphere in the class was jovial, but there wasn’t any time to chat to any of the other participants, as the dances were following thick and fast! Still, I was corrected a couple of times for mistakes I made, mostly when my confusion started drifting the whole class to the right in an attempt to prevent bumping into me!

I love the fact that they have this particular class only for women. Women who do not want to be in swimsuits around men, maybe for fitness or religious reasons can come and feel comfortable. The employees are all female at this time too. This is definitely one to try! But be prepared to be feeling the ache in your legs the next day – I know I am!

Information about Highbury & Islington Aqua Aerobics classes can be found here: http://www.aquaterra.org/highbury-pool-and-fitness-centre/aqua-aerobics

Follow the instructor Judy Milner on Twitter @DosSeis.

Flatt7

Ps. Photographs not taken in order to respect the privacy of those attending the Ladies only nights.