So on Saturday I took on the Tough Mudder for the second time.    This year my good buddy Charlie flew down to do the race with me. For those of you unfamiliar with the race, the Tough Mudder is a 10-12 mile run that includes 20-25 obstacles along the way.  These obstacles supposedly were designed by British Special Forces.

Last year I managed to escape the course with minimal injury.  This year I was not so lucky.  The very uneven running surface was a disaster for my twice operated on right knee.  By the time the event was over the knee was already swelling badly.

By the time the next day rolled around the knee had ballooned up massively and the joint was close to locked up.  If this had never happened before I would be more worried but I have been down this road before.

It will take at least a couple weeks for the swelling to go away.  After that I basically need to play it by ear as far as impact activity goes.

If you want to read a full review of the Mudder you can do so here at my main blog.

After the event I did a set of pull ups on the Air Force bar.  Last year I managed to squeeze out 18 reps.  This year I did 20 and had gas in the tank for more if I hung longer but I had already secured the top prize they were handing out by hitting the 20 rep level so I called it as good enough.

So for the immediate future my workouts will pretty much exclusively be upper body focused. To be honest, they normally are  heavily weighted that way already.

My body weight workouts lately have been a weird hybrid.  I have been working endurance basics, chaining dip, pull up and push up sets together.  I also have continued to work in elements from Metins program, designed to help me achieve levers, handstands and the planche.

For this month’s BB challenge I brought back the Christmas Tree, a popular challenge from last year.  We tightened things up this year making the reps start at 2 and increase by two to shorten video length.  In addition to that we made all breaks no more than 30 seconds in between sets.

Since it is the holiday season I thought prizes would be appropriate.  I went to the local Under Armour outlet and picked up some various gear that will be sent to the winners in each category