It’s been a while since we posted, so I figured I start back up with a post about Tough Mudder. For those of you who don’t know what Tough Mudder is, their website describes it as, “A hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle courses designed by British Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie”.
I could talk endlessly about the event going into every detail and what a great experience it was, but I won’t. If you’re reading this post there are only two things you care about – training and gear.
Training
When I signed up almost a year prior I had the best intentions of being in the best shape of my life when event day rolled around. That didn’t happen. I ended up gaining 20lbs before event day (though a good portion was muscle) and hardly ran at all. My training regiment consisted of 5 days a week of lifting. Two of the five days I did crossfit WOD’s that I found on the Crossfit Park City (I really, really love this site). The other two days I would follow a “modified” Tough Mudder Workout. To modify I would simply hop on the treadmill in between each exercise and jog at about 5.5-6mph for one minute.
So how did this training pan out for the race? Let me preface this with the fact I am NOT a runner. I hate running. I run when being chased and that’s it. Well, it panned out surprisingly well. Luckily there are so many obstacles during the event the furthest I had to run in one shot was just over a mile. I made it to about mile 4 before I got a terrible cramp in my right calf, but I was able to stretch and massage it out enough to keep on truckin’. It wasn’t until mile 8 I started to intermittently walk and run. In the picture below on the left I’m wearing all black and third from the left in the other.
Gear
This in all honesty was my biggest concern. I knew if I picked the wrong gear I would be in a world of hurt for 12.5 miles. Luckily all my research from previous participants who blogged on the internet paid off. I could not have been happier with my gear. Just for reference, it was around 68 degrees and cloudy on race day. Here was my full outfit head-to-toe:
Post Race
Grab your beer and relish in the fact you’re one of the elite who finished this race. Also, you’re going to hurt. If you don’t … you’re super human and I hate you. I was in some serious pain for about three days. So take the advice of my friend Jason Sadler and get about six 20lb bags of ice and put them and yourself in the bathtub. After having completed this race, this shouldn’t be much of a challenge – but will do wonders for your muscles.
Ben | January 15th, 2012
Who is rocking faces off doing another arts-and-crafts project for our wedding? THIS GUY. Once again, Lindsay and I wanted to do something a little different and personal for the menus at the wedding. We decided to print the menu directly onto a small brown bag that contained a delicious Chompies Black and White Cookie – doubling as our “gift” for everyone that attended.
Note to anyone that wants to attempt something similar to this: Measure the cookie before you take the time to print off 100+ menues! Unfortunately when we received the cookies they were just slightly too big for the bags. Epic Fail. We ended up having to cut out a 1″ section from the middle of EVERY SINGLE COOKIE before we put them into the bags. Oh sheesh y’all! Fortunately they still turned out amazing … and the cookies were delicious!
Ben | August 25th, 2011
Since Lindsay has been incredibly busy (and stressed) being a rockstar law student I wanted to do my best to take care of all the small details for the wedding. Basically this means I have become an arts-and-crafts ninja. We wanted to add a lil’ personal touch to our signature drinks at the wedding, Chopin & Homemade Sprite (Lemon & Lime), so we decided to top off our amazing drinks with these custom straws!
I REALLY hope everyone enjoys these … between cutting, hole-punching and feeding the straws through the flags, these babies took 4 hours out of my life.
Ben | August 23rd, 2011
Apart from the Ellie Badge, we decided to add a little something extra and fun for Ben, the Best Man, and the Groomsmen for wedding day. Avoiding the typical, Lindsay turned to the ever-creative folk at FuzzyRose on Etsy – they seemed just perfect for us. Robin was SO fantastic to us, creating a custom (and perfect) little fun non-traditional quasi-boutonnière for our special day to compliment the Ellie Badges.
Lindsay | July 5th, 2011
One of the greatest (and cutest) moments from the UP love montage of Carl & Ellie is the mailbox scene. We thought it would be fun to create a lil mailbox ‘o’ love of our own inspired by the UP mailbox with our own hands. It was a BLAST stenciling and painting. We LOVE the way it turned out. On our wedding day we’ll be using it as our gift card box… T-minus 109 days – we are SO excited! *jazz hands*
Lindsay | June 26th, 2011
You’re probably thinking, wait, do these two just LOVE taking photos or what? Well no doubt we dig hanging out with artsy lil photographers and capturing our lovely faces on film, but here’s what happened. Initially, the amazing Kacey Luvi was planned to be our wedding photographer but she is now busy … getting ready to be a mama (we are SO excited for her and her hubby)! Needless to say, we decided to go on a hunt for someone just as awesomesauce – and we found Kym Ventola.
From the moment we met Kym we knew we had to be friends… She was quirky, fun, fabulous, and freaking adorable! Not only is Ventola Photography capturing our special lil day, but we all headed up to cool and breezy Flagstaff for some summer Engagement Shoot (Take Two) shenanigans.
Kym and her radpants partner-in-crime, Mackensie, blew our little minds away with what they were able to catch on film. It was by far one of the most memorable days for us of our engagement. Such a fun day… We cannot wait to spend our big day with the two of them g33king out, celebrating, and capturing it all!
View the rest of the photos! »
Lindsay | June 26th, 2011
When it came time to get my ring, Lindsay and I headed back to G.G. Gems – where we had designed her engagement ring. Not being a big fan of traditional gold, I knew right away that I wanted something a bit unique. I decided to go with a ceramic black band. I could tell right away that Lindsay was a bit uneasy at the thought of a black ring so I also picked out a gunmetal version that was very similar.
Believe it or not, when both bands came in, Lindsay fell in love with the black band! Guess who’s always right … THIS guy.
Ben | June 18th, 2011
We just received our iPhone 4 Transparent Rear Panel’s from iFixIt and they’re fantastic! The build quality is outstanding and install was literally under 2 minutes. The other great feature about this rear panel is that it is a complete replacement. So anytime we want to switch back to our gripe tape version, it’s a simple as taking out two screws.
We weren’t sure about the strength of the glass (in comparison to the strength of the original from Apple), so to be safe we went ahead and put Ghost Armor on these as well. We figured that if we did end up dropping them – at least this way the glass would be held together by the protective film.
Ben | April 30th, 2011
Last month we spent some time with our favorite photographer, Kacey Luvi in the middle of nowhere (also known as Queen Creek). We wanted to stray from the typical engagement shoot (shocking, I know) and make our photos fun and uniquely ‘us’. We watched Disney’s UP and captured some great ideas from the film. Of course, we HAD to have balloons and a really fun picnic blanket – thank you Joann Fabrics. We found the perfect little picnic basket (and bow tie for Ben) and finally headed out with Kacey.
The shoot was a blast! This was one of the few times Ben and I were on the same side of the camera and we could not have been happier with the way the photos turned out…. Have a little looksie!
View the rest of the photos! »
Lindsay | April 8th, 2011
We’re a little late this year, but being inspired by both Michael Arrington and Kevin Rose, we thought it would be fun to track our favorite products over time. Here is our 2011 list of products we can’t live without:
Today was my birthday (woohoo!) and I came home to the best surprise EVER! Lindsay had secretly come home early and put in some serious time to make a cake that looked exactly like my favorite candy of all time – Reeses Peanut Butter Cups! The picture doesn’t do it justice, it really looks even more amazing in person.
But wait, there’s more! »
Ben | April 4th, 2011
From the moment we saw Disney’s UP, Ben and I knew we needed to start an adventure book of our very own – logging the fun, memories, and excitement of everyday. When we got engaged, there was no question what our guest book would be… Our adventure book! We hunted and searched until we finally found the perfect one.
Our book will be used not only to keep track of our memories and photos, but will start off as our guest book on wedding day when our newest adventure officially begins. I can’t wait to see what we end up filling the book with. It’s fun to think about all of life’s little adventures that await for us and how our story will unfold.
In the words of Ellie, “Adventure is out there!”
Lindsay | April 3rd, 2011
If you can’t tell by our Save the Date, the last thing Lindsay and I wanted was a “typical” wedding. Since we decided to sprinkle in elements of Disney’s UP throughout our wedding, I thought it would be perfect to have the best man and groomsmen sport the “Ellie Badge” rather than your typical boutonnière.
Ben | April 3rd, 2011
We just picked up our new iPhone 4 wraps from RF Laserworks and they are ah-mazing! We seem to go back and forth between “au naturel”, ghost armor and the Incase Snap Case – but this is by far the best case/wrap so far. Not only is it super durable, the grip is amazing for keeping it from slipping out of your hand or propping it against different surfaces. It does catch (slightly) when putting it into your pocket, but this back is a total win.
Big thanks to our good friend Mike James for showing us this!
Ben | April 1st, 2011
It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since Lindsay and I sent the fellas over at The Totally Rad Show some “Ah-Mazing” t-shirts. To our surprise they actually ended up naming the episode Ah-Mazing, Alex wore the shirt during the entire show and gave us a shout out at the beginning!
We also ended up getting twitter shout-outs from Alex Albrecht, Jeff Cannata, and Mike Gaines!
Ben | March 29th, 2011
