blonde poker forum

Not wishing to distract from the awesome 'Blonde will make you thin' thread but I'm also massively increasing the amount of exercise I do.

My page is here: http://www.justgiving.com/ChrisKPHall

So, I've signed up for the 'Tough Mudder' event in Kettering on the 12th/13th May which is basically a stupidly tough 10-12 mile assault course designed by British Special Forces and it'll be the first one ever held in the UK. Here's what it looks like:

http://youtu.be/gKYmPWo7d9c

For event details go here: http://toughmudder.co.uk/events/south-eastmidlands/

(I will be covering all travel/entry costs myself)

The charity I'll be doing it for is the National Eczema Society, which given that I've suffered from eczema all my life seemed appropriate. I've only ever had it mildy but there have been two instances in my life where I've had massive attacks and they were by far the most painful things I've ever suffered in my life - to the point where I was unable to sleep or move. Therefore I cannot imagine what it can be like for people who have to deal with severe eczema every day.

In preparation, I'll be exercising six days a week as well as trying to completely cut alcohol out of my life for the next five months.

So please come and donate!

And for all poker players out there that I've ever written something you've liked or made you laugh, please come and give something back.

And for all poker players out that I've ever written something you've hated or made you cross, please imagine the absolute pain I'm going to be in by the end of this thing - and donate!

I'm going to try and keep this regularly updated.

Managed a weights session followed by a 3 mile run and a 40 minute Insanity workout today. My aim is to be working out six days a week. #notsurewhatihavegottenmyselfinto

best of luck with this

First week in the bag. Managed five weights sessions, three 3-mile runs as well as doing the first week of Insanity, but I'm basically 7 days through out of 132, i.e 1 week down from 19 so there's a long way to go. I've completely stopped drinking which is the thing I'm most pleased about, especially as my housemate and I had an old university friend up this weekend and I was trying to just stick on water and green tea which was difficult as anyone who knows me knows I'm a real lover of a good beer.

I got a pull-up bar for Christmas and am just waiting for it to be okayed with the landlord that I can put it up, then I'll be able to work more on my upper-body strength which is one of my weaknesses. Otherwise, I'm planning to carry on with the running (perhaps include more hills this time) and continue with the Insanity (best cardio program ever). My initial aim is to switch to a Insanity/P90x hybrid and do that for the three months leading up to the race, it'll also give me a round a week's worth of days off (not including Sundays which I take off already).

On the fundraising front, I'm really happy so far, I set a conservative target of £2,000 but I'm already over £400 in just the first week having been really blessed by donations from friends, so I might have to change that if things go well. Got a really nice donation of £88.88 from Liz Lieu and found out that 8 is similar in Vietnamese culture as it is in Chinese culture in that it means a wishing of prosperity, hurrah!

Fingers crossed for the up coming week, feel free to donate to the link below.

Two weeks in...Seventeen to go...

Not that much to say really, upped the amount I'm running and included a few hills on my route to help with endurance which really has made a difference. Next week, I'll probably up it to around 4.5 miles and throw in a few section that I have to sprint on the way.

Feeling much healthier and actually starting to look forward to and enjoy the exercise, which feels weird to say.

Have you ever done anything like this before?
Ex forces or just for fun .... It looks tough... Will be donating glglgl

Nope, I hate exercise... Well, used to.

I take it your going to do some assault course practice ...where do you live?

It's all about this Chris, finding a level at which you feel quite happy with and enjoy and will be the biggest decider for some on the thin blonde thread.

You don't have to go abso crazy with the exercise from the start, however once it becomes habit/ easier to do then you find you can then increase the level of what you are doing.

Well done bud

Geo

Good shout Lee,

If Chris can arrange some assault course practise this will assist. Someone to teach you the techiques in making the crossing of obstacles easier would be a great bonus, even if you don't have anywhere you can go for regular obstacle crossing training.

Things like how to climb a rope correctly will save you time and effort during the challenge

Where are you Chris?

Geo

What geo says
I've seen super fit guys get stuck on top of a cargo net for instance or looking at a 6 foot wall as if to say can I go round !

I'm in Leeds.

There a load of specific exercises they advise you to do before the event, but I'm not going to start those until February, at the moment I'm doing Insanity, running three times a week and doing weights five days a week (a different muscle group each day). In February I'm going to move to an Insanity/P90x hybrid regime for 3 months which I should be able to complete by May, giving me the last few days off.

They give you a list of exercises to use: http://toughmudder.co.uk/training-prep/ but I think P90x will cover much of this.

The course itself is here: http://toughmudder.co.uk/flash_course_map/london/map.swf

This looks tough ...very tough glgl

WOW!!.......rather you than me, Chris  :o

 ;goodluck; ;goodluck; ;goodluck; ;boltpp;

" Estimated time 3 hours"

........if you do it in less, I double the donation :)

Are you doing this solo? I would imagine quite a few will be buddying up to assist each other on some of these obstacles. I can put a shout out to see if I have anyone in your area that can maybe arrange a tuition day.

Whilst most of it is straight forward grin and bear it stuff, there are a few things that if you know the techniques then will potentially reduce time spent on these obstacles. Rope climbing, wall climbing, monkey bars and low to the ground nets all have techniques which can help you.

I will pm you a couple of details.

Geo

as I understand it it's not done as a race and while plenty of people are in teams those who aren't can expect help from others and are expected to give it too

Understand that, what I am trying to ascertain is if there is opportunity to practise the methods I am sending to Chris with someone who may well be accompanying him. No point waiting in queues if you already have a partner and you have already practised for that obstacle.

Geo

PM sent Chris, hopefully makes sense.

Geo

Thanks for all the tips, I'm trying to rope Matt Perrins into doing it. See how it goes.

Meanwhile, onto week three!

Yesterday was the toughest day yet, I've never felt so unmotivated to do anything. I'm still trying to fix my sleeping schedule properly so that I'm getting up for an early breakfast so then I can exercise and get it all done in the morning.

Today was much much better, I did a weights, 4.5 mile run (with small sprint sections), an Insanity workout and some work on my abs. Really need my landlord to get back to me about the pull-up bar installation, otherwise I'm probably going to have to join the gym for that, my arms and my chest are probably the weakest as opposed to my shoulders and back which are very strong.

Thanks to Geo and jjandellis for their tips and everyone who has donated so far, I've only got about 1 week left on Insanity before I switch programs. The real challenge comes in just under two weeks, I'll be covering GSOP Salzburg and will have to really squeeze in the exercise around the tournament, I've got my resistance bands for P90x so fingers crossed!

Tell us more about the insanity thing.

Insanity is an extremely tough cardio program. I got a tip from Kristy Arnett who said it was perfect for doing when traveling around covering tournaments because you can do it in your hotel room. For the first month, each workout is about 40-45 minutes and then for month 2 they last about an hour. This is the third time I've done it and it's very tough but very rewarding.

It is the toughest thing I've ever done and I sweat buckets every time I do it, but it's so worth it.

This?

http://www.extremely-fit.com/insanity.html

Best of luck Chris. You must be very motivated to attempt this mate.

Yes, that's the one.

How strong are your room doors? Maybe try pullups on the top of your bedroom door, will have to use reverse grip but will be added benefit if you achieve it. Might not be achievable if your doors aren't strong enough but you should certainly find suitable alternatives outside like a decent size wall.

Geo

Yeah, it's looking like that might have to happen. fml.

And a month done. 15 weeks left. Today was a day off and I was feeling really bored not doing any exercise.

Tomorrow I'm starting the P90x/Insanity Hybrid though I'm going to mix up with extra mini-weights sessions and runs depending on time and how I'm feeling. Despite having weights and a bench at our house, I'm really tempted to join the gym anyway to make the most out of my drive.

3 months of tough work ahead.

Gooooooooooood God. That was a tough week.

I started the P90x on Monday and managed to snap 3 resistance bands within 10 minutes (now bought new heavy duty ones for future trips). I missed my first day of training since the start of the year on Tuesday because of traveling to Salzburg for the GSOP Live. From there it just became a very difficult week of trying to workout in my room at odd hours and without many good options for my diet.

Thanks to Kinboshi, I've managed to get a replacement chin-up bar which I've started on today. I've also now created my own P90x recovery supplement using Dextrose, Creapure and Glutamine and mix it with Whey (mmmn Banoffee).

Incidentally the hardest thing so far? P90x Yoga, it's about 90 minutes and it's utterly ridiculous how hard it is do. Totally recommended for all you budding athletes.

This P90x thing does sound very interesting.

Weeeeeeeee, over £1,000 in donations thanks to a big donation from Pab. Initially I set the bar at raising £2,000 but hopefully we'll be able to go much higher.

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far.

Day Fifty!

Off to Prague tomorrow to cover the Unibet Open with Dana.

Bought some new resistance bands (bodylastics) to take with me.

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I still really suck at chinups, but I've made generally solid progress elsewhere, bring on the next month!

A friend has just asked me to do this with him in 2013.  For some reason I said yes...

I agreed a couple of months ago to do 2013, kinda hoping my friend forgets

See you there!

I was lolling thinking assault course how hard can it be...

Then I looked at the obstacles

Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus!!!!!! It looks absolutely nuts. What the hell is going on in the last one! Why would they want to electrocute you while you run?
I just have visions of rolling around on the floor not knowing where you are getting repeatedly electrocuted Homer Simpson style

Best of luck Chris

Donation made

Thanks Bopkin!

Kin/Gatso I'll probably do the one in Leeds next year.

Youtube video looks brutal, gl mate.

the electrocution is ridic as are the stinging nettles

Thanks Mooooooonndoooooooo

gl gl mate, you'll need it, you don't exactly strike me as a cross between Ross Kemp and Haile Gebrselassie.

Great effort doing it tho.

Will donate after Cheltenham if I have any money left.

Two pieces of news this week.

First off, as of yesterday, I'm going completely alcohol free until I've completely this thing. It's going to be incredibly tough as I really love my silly hipster beers but they need to go. I've had a couple of good nights out in the last week or so and while it hasn't affected my training as such, I don't feel like I'm actively putting in 100% so it seems necessary.

Secondly I've actually joined a poker-based Tough Mudder team which includes Tom Bentham as well as a few others. We've officially signed up and are just waiting now for confirmation of our starting time, I don't know any of these guys but it should both helpful and hilarious to see us all struggle through this. Tom even offered to pay the reg fee (£75) for anyone who makes £500+ for charity and since I've already done this, he snap sent back the money that I'd already sent him on Stars but instead I'm just going to donate to my charity in his name. I don't even really know the guy (beyond mad poker skills) but there's no way I'm keeping money that a stranger sent to me!

About 12 weeks to go.......

Hurrah, I can now do about 8 pull-ups in a row before my arms fall off! :)

Nice work.  You feeling stronger and fitter overall?

Boom! 64 pullups spread over an hour P90x session of legs and back! So happy because at the start of Feb I couldn't do one without a chair to help.

Week of recovery and stretches next week then when I get back I'm going to up the ante a bit, been told to try jack3d before workouts so might add that too.


Starting to feel a lot more confident about it all. Did a 6.5 mile run on Friday in 55 minutes dead for an 8.46 minute per mile which is comparable to what the guys I'm doing it with have been hitting. Had more in the tank but I played 5-a-side with the Shrewdies and the other Leeds boys on the Monday and my legs were still a little tender from that.

The biggest challenge will be keeping it going when I go to Puerto Rico and Dominican Rep with Keys, need to be sensible there.

Bloody impressive. Nice work fella.

Very much this

Last week was the worst week so far. I was in Campione and the tournament started at 2pm and was always finishing past midnight so (even though I was on a recovery week) I hardly did any exercise. Add to that a general lack of healthy food beyond breakfast and it only served to make matters worse.

Nevertheless, I cracked on on Monday with some 5-a-side with the boys, despite CERTAIN blonde members failing to turn up, and managed to strain my thigh. Took a day off from doing any cardio yesterday and today but I did a weights session today using 'jack3d' for the first time which really made a difference. The guys I'm doing Tough Mudder have recommended and Elky also said it was excellent in helping with his kickboxing training.

I've got 3.5 weeks left of P90x/Insanity Hybrid which will take me until the end of April then I'll have two weeks where I'll just do mostly light weights and cardio and take the last few days off before Tough Mudder. I'm going to Puerto Rico with Keys next Thursday for 9 days before covering the GSOP Grand Final so I'll be back on the resistance bands and I've mostly cut my drinking down to an absolute minimum which I'm really happy about.

Oh and I can now do about 8 hand-clap press-ups in a row, which is faintly hilarious.

Managed a 7.5 mile run in 1.02 for an 8.27 minute per mile. Fairly happy with this.

Very impressive stuff!

How you feeling overall now, you must feel like you've got more stamina and a lot more strength?

bump.

hows the training going ?

Was really tough while I've been away covering tournaments. Only four days to go, just did a weights then went for a 4.75 mile run, slow time but I crashed off the jack3d in the middle of it which sucked. Nervous about doing it now but I think I'll be ok.

Up to about £1,700 on donations so thanks to everyone for that.

So, tomorrow is the big day.

Just £150 from my target as well so hopefully will hit that after I'm done.

Traveling down to Corby tonight and we're doing Tough Mudder tomorrow at 9.40am, so hopefully done around lunchtime.

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Fingers crossed.

GL flops, ermm have fun  ;)

I thought the electrocution seemed harsh then saw the pic of the barbed wire!

glgl, looking forward to the trip report

gl Chris

I was able to jump forward in time to bring you the trip report.

Good luck !!
Lots of pics and trip report 
 :respect: ;goodluck;

You think that's harsh? He's staying in Corby tonight!

Best of luck fella. Confident you'll pwn it.

Very best of luck Chris

Geo

Just over 3 hours for the whole thing but I did have to help someone who had cramp for a while. Trip report and pics in a few days.

Great stuff.  Hurry up with the pics!

 ;applause; ;applause; ;applause; ;tightend;

get on with it

Sorry, been trying to find photos of me in action. Can't find any atm. :(

Will write it up tomorrow anyway.

It's now tomorrow. Do you know anyone who does good event write ups?

Ok sorry for being so lame. Can't find a single photo of me sigh...

We (the team being Tom, Fionn, the two Bens and me) got our starting time of 9.40am on the Saturday morning alongside about a few hundred other people, with having to register and park etc and get to Corby, it meant I had to go down the night before taking four trains to get there (changed at Derby, Beeston and Kettering) - marvelous. Got to the hotel around 10pm, had a quick shower and went straight to bed so I could get up around 6.45am the next morning, have a quick breakfast  (I had an oatmeal flapjack, an apple and a banana for breakfast and drank a shitload of water. The previous day I'd had fish and chips for lunch and then pasta for dinner, carb loading ftw!) and meet up with the rest of the boys who drove from Manchester and London the night before.  We were all in pretty good spirits and there was quite a few people in our hotel also doing Tough Mudder, everyone seemingly in lycra (honestly it's absolute godsend for an event like this).

After a short drive, we got to the Boughton Estate around 8ish and headed over to register, get our runner numbers, hand in our death waivers(!) There were quite a few people in ridiculous costumes, a group of hardcore guys in just jockstraps and there were way many more women than I'd have thought, they made up about 20% of the field. Also, I was surprised how many people doing it who clearly weren't super fit, I mean I had done a lot of training for this and would say I'm in decent shape but there are people who are way stronger/fitter/more athletic than I am yet there were people who I just looked at and thought, you're probably going to struggle.

Tom and I both had a shot of Jack3d to help while Fionn gave me one of his spare gels for later on, I also got my right knee taped up for support as it was still a little sore from a 7.5 mile run I'd done a few days before. We managed to miss our 9.40am start time due to everyone needing the bathroom for a second time so instead we jumped into the 10am start time - and I mean literally jumped, you had to climb a big wall just to get to the start area.

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After taking the Tough Mudder pledge (which is about just helping each other etc) and doing some last minute stretches we had the countdown to 10.00 and then we were off! The five of us had planned to stick together but it was dependent on how fast we felt we were capable of going. The first 500m or so was a gentle jog until we saw our first ditch...

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You had no choice but to just run and jump in, the water was about 6ft at it's deepest and absolutely freezing cold, it was a quick scramble to the other side where people were helping each other out of the riverbank which was quickly becoming pure mud. All accounted for we carried on towards the first obstacle, I was already numb from the cold water and yet after about 5-10 minutes more running it was back into another freezing cold river again...

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This photo was taken before we got there, but that grass you see under the barbed wire? By the time we got there it was just mud and nothing else. Halfway under the barbed wire, it took on an incline of about 30 degrees as we flapped around in the mud struggling to get to the top. The bandage on my knee was falling off, Fionn's gel that I had in my shorts had disappeared and the number on my chest was also AWOL, I was also covered in mud from head to toe. At this point, I hit my first mini wall and wondered if I was going to manage but after a couple of minutes back running I managed to get back into the swing of things and we carried on running to the next obstacle. I've already mention I've been in the cold water twice but these did not prepare me for the next obstacle which was basically an Artic bath where you had to go underwater, GOD IT WAS COLD, LOOK HOW MUCH ICE THERE IS.

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After this, we had our first wall obstacles where everyone helped everyone else climb over these massive 15ft walls onwards, this wasn't so bad to do and the running continued. There was a lot more running involved than I think some people had thought, in fact from this point onwards I passed a fair few guys who were easily more muscular than I was but who clearly hadn't done enough cardio/running work and were really going to struggle in between objects. Btw, when I say running, there were lots of spots where we were running through a mixture of trenches, wooded areas and just pure mud, it wasn't all roads and pathways! The next obstacles were a massive stack of bails of hay that was about 20-30ft high which we had to climb over followed by a slightly easier section where we each had to carry a log for about 1km through the woods. By this point Fionn and Tom had pushed on ahead while myself and the two Bens were going at a slightly steadier pace. We seemed to be in the woods for absolutely ages, there was a lot of trenches we had to jump/go through and a couple of cargo nets we had to head under (that were also on an incline). We saw the first casualty around this point as well, a 40-something guy who looked to have pulled a muscle in his leg and was in a bit of pain but was being looked after by friends, apparently around 10-15% of people don't finish Tough Mudder, I was adamant that I would not be one of them.

Part 2 to follow...

sounds awful so far but strangely it's making me want to do it next year even more than I already did

Yea  I sort of think the same thing!

Great write up so far looking forward to part two...... in two weeks!

Well done by the way ...really well done!