Hell and Back

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Boards.ie Health and fitness people. Anyone done this hell and back thing. I signed up casue my cousin wants a bunch of us to do it. Do I need to do any specific training? My training at the moment is mostly weights with some 5 or 10 minute HIIT at the end? Advice appreciated.

sawfish

Zendaya Plain Vat wrote: »

Boards.ie Health and fitness people. Anyone done this hell and back thing. I signed up casue my cousin wants a bunch of us to do it. Do I need to do any specific training? My training at the moment is mostly weights with some 5 or 10 minute HIIT at the end? Advice appreciated.

I did it a year ago it was 10km. Bit none of it is flat. Uphill and downhill.

This year its 12km.. the hardest obstacle I found was the 10foot wall. Youll have to get somebody to push your bum to help you over unless you can do a pull up.

I guess a combination of being able to run the distance and strength for the obstacles will help you along. Practice running on mountains and trails. Trail runners are useful for proper grip..runners could be disastrous.

discus

if i was training for it, and didn't want to be in shyt state during the event, id make sure that:

a) i can comfortably run 15km
b) i can handle a decent 50 minute circuit

the obstacles at these events arent particularly daunting, but they will eat into you. being able to clamber over something with ease will make it much easier to compose yourself and resume your pace. Simple circuits would help a bit, along with the (as mentioned) pullups. Stuff like monkey runs, crab crawls, front crawls (forearms and toes) on a beach up a few dunes are not only a good workout, but relevent movements that you may find you need as you move into the obstacles.

but in reality, if you can do a and b above you'll be grand.

Oryx

Strength work, intervals, as mentioned: crawls etc, shuttle runs, and a bit of endurance trail running (as in longer distance to get your legs used to it). Make sure you run on hills and/or steps as it is very different to on the flat. The course involves uphill and downhill running, interspersed with obstacles so get used to sharp bursts of effort followed by running.

A little cold conditioning wont go astray either, on cold days make sure and run through water so you have to run with wet feet.

If youre reasonably fit anyway, youll get around H&B, but the more specific training you do, the easier it will be.

WHIP IT!

Oryx wrote: »

If youre reasonably fit anyway, youll get around H&B.

Would agree with this, as strange as it sounds, although the whole thing is brutal in parts, in a way it's alot easier than a 'normal' 12k. You get plenty of breathers and the course and terrain changes so often that you just don't 'feel' the 12k as such... For me, it was "all legs" - if you've some good leg work done coming up to it, you'll skate through the parts other people struggle with - ie, the swamps and the 'hill of death' or whatever they call it... bottom line - it's alot of fun, great spirit among the competitors and just an all round good laugh... I'm doing it November myself which will be a completely different bag of spanners to when I did it this summer - it'll be freezing!

DULLAHAN2

Do you get a medal for doing this? I was telling my cousin about it, she will do it if she gets a medal, she likes medals

Oryx

DULLAHAN2 wrote: »

Do you get a medal for doing this? I was telling my cousin about it, she will do it if she gets a medal, she likes medals

No medals when I did it.

DULLAHAN2

Oryx wrote: »

No medals when I did it.

She'll not be happy when i tell her convincing her is just got harder

Oryx

DULLAHAN2 wrote: »

She'll not be happy when i tell her convincing her is just got harder

Great tee shirt and the respect of her peers?:)

ted1

Tesco sell plastic medals.

Marty McFly

I've done it twice myself first one was 10km in January twas cold real cold the water obstacles really cut into you, last one 12km and easier a lot warmer the one in November is going to be 13km afaik I'm thinking about doing it again.


As others have said being able to run the distance is a big one, it is very stop start climbing, going through rivers even going through the mud which can be waist deep can take it out of you. You do use every muscle group and will be sore the next day but it is great craic and there's a good atmosphere amongst everyone taking part with people helping each other over walls etc.

Running, some circuit training and strength work would be what I would recommend.


Also no medal but do get some nice t shirts.

goose06

If you are entering it as a group you'll have a great laugh. I did it at the start of the year and half the people walked it. It's a lot of fun just do a bit of training and go out and enjoy it. The swamp and the crawl are the most fun parts!

papu

Heading this year , thinking of doing http://www.runamuckchallenge.com/ before hand as a bit of a practice!

Inspector Coptoor

I'm doing Turf Guy 10 bog run on November 2nd in Delphi, a Gael force West event.

Should be a good laugh, but I'll have to get out running a bit now in the next few weeks for it.

I did a 10km last year in 59 mins (road running) after training for 3 weeks & did a 40km adventure race in may with 8km of that a trail run so I think I'll be ok.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Thanks for the advice everyone. Looks like I need to put in some Km on the road and mountains. I have 6 weeks to train so best get out an do some graft.

Hatfry

Tackled Hell and Back back in June after being roped in by a friend. Hadn't trained for over 6 months and even had a smoke beforehand and still finished in under 2 hours, even managed to beat a couple of the lads who really put in the effort training.

It was a killer but the buzz after is really worth it, and the t-shirt is pretty cool :pac:

Booked it for the 3rd November can't wait to do it again, see yas there!

btkm8unsl0w5r4

OK I am going to throw this out in this thread its something that has bothered me for some time......

I am a believer that to do a task well you must practice that task. However I was told once by a personal trainer that if you want to run long distance you should do HIIT and avoid the distance training....bull or not.

I have been on the treadmill a bit doing 30 mins rolling hills stuff at a good pace but by god its boring.

Oryx

Zendaya Plain Vat wrote: »

OK I am going to throw this out in this thread its something that has bothered me for some time......

I am a believer that to do a task well you must practice that task. However I was told once by a personal trainer that if you want to run long distance you should do HIIT and avoid the distance training....bull or not.

I have been on the treadmill a bit doing 30 mins rolling hills stuff at a good pace but by god its boring.

I know of people who have run marathons on short distance training but have never met any directly. So for proper distance (marathon) I personally would not recommend it. You need to get your body used to time on your feet. If you want to run long distance it would stand to reason you train by running long distances.

And if youre training for something like hell and back get off the treadmill and on to some uneven terrain. Your ankles will thank you in the long run.*

*unintentional pun.

discus

Zendaya Plain Vat wrote: »

OK I am going to throw this out in this thread its something that has bothered me for some time......

I am a believer that to do a task well you must practice that task. However I was told once by a personal trainer that if you want to run long distance you should do HIIT and avoid the distance training....bull or not.

I have been on the treadmill a bit doing 30 mins rolling hills stuff at a good pace but by god its boring.

I'm not sure if it's bull, but I found that running with weight (~12kg, 7 milers) carried over and let me run 12 miles easily without any trouble. I too suffer from boredom over longer runs so I'd rather run shorter distances with weight than run the full distance, and be bored senseless. I'm off to the gym in an hour to prepare for long distance running, and I'm doing 4x15 mins with rower/xtrainer/treadmill/bike simply because I can't facemore than 15 minutes running lately!

but by god its boring.

Ballymun gym has treadmills with tellies on them. I don't watch TV usually, but I do when I'm trying to run!!

Alf Veedersane

I've run a few marathons and I never ran more than 12 miles in training for it. I did alright but generally you do need to get your body used to running something along the lines of 75% of the race distance. But HIIT and tempo runs definitely have their place in training for it.

macadam

Sorry for Hijacking, I missed the deadline so in dire need of an entry for Sunday the 3rd November if anyone cant make it, done the Apollo in June mighty craic.
Pm me if you have a spare entry.

discus

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

I've run a few marathons and I never ran more than 12 miles in training for it. I did alright but generally you do need to get your body used to running something along the lines of 75% of the race distance. But HIIT and tempo runs definitely have their place in training for it.

Out of interest, what times did you get for those marathons? That's a pretty impressive feat!

Alf Veedersane

discus wrote: »

Out of interest, what times did you get for those marathons? That's a pretty impressive feat!

It isn't really. A lot of people with a decent level of fitness could do it. My best time was 3hrs 40. Nothing spectacular but i was happy with it. The first year I'd no idea what i was at. Didn't even have a watch to pace myself. But, like I said, a lot of people think they couldn't do it when they actually could. It's your pace that'll do you, not the distance.

intellectual dosser

I'm doing this on February 2nd and don't know what to expect. Do some people run it while others walk it? I'm in 'reasonable' shape in that I go to the gym and play 5 a side soccer, but I've always hated long distance running of any kind and wouldn't be close to going out and doing 12km on the road right now. A lot of training ahead of me over the next 10 days I think!

Oryx

intellectual dosser wrote: »

I'm doing this on February 2nd and don't know what to expect. Do some people run it while others walk it? I'm in 'reasonable' shape in that I go to the gym and play 5 a side soccer, but I've always hated long distance running of any kind and wouldn't be close to going out and doing 12km on the road right now. A lot of training ahead of me over the next 10 days I think!

I wouldnt bother running lots this close to the rain. You wont really gain anything from it, its too close.

papu

Oryx wrote: »

I wouldnt bother running lots this close to the rain. You wont really gain anything from it, its too close.

Just work on flexibility and mobility , keep yourself healthy and injury free and get lots of sleep.

Doing allot now will just burn you out