A few months back, I made a series of blog posts on Immuvit, particularly the Metafit exercises where one can actually achieve reviving growth hormones and burn as much as 600 calories by simply executing a combination of simple exercises repeatedly in four minutes every day. Indeed, after thirty days, I and five other bloggers who underwent the 30 day challenge have significantly lost not just poundage but also girth measurements. As to my experience, I made a significant improvement on my upper body strength and core. Shortly after that, I always hoped that someday there will be a fitness challenge that would ultimately validate the effects of this fitness routine onpeople like me. Lo and behold, the guys from Immuvit thought of one already!
Last week, I had one of the most awesome trail-running experiences at the La Mesa Dam Eco Reserve. It was the race venue of the recently concluded first leg of the Immuvit Fearless Trail Running Challenge. The trail running is just one of the three challenges Immuvit have concocted to give runners, tri-athletes and outdoor sports enthusiasts a higher level of test on endurance and power.
There are about a thousand who swarm the trails of La Mesa Dam Eco Reserve last August 26, 2012 to get the taste of the 10k and 5k trail run distances with a twist. The race course, however, does not just involved simple trail running but was filled with different sorts of obstacles to test the limits of the runners.
The 10k and 5k distance race courses were winding and with partly steep terrain amidst a mix of rocks, dirt and lots mud, which were really challenging. To make the race a more difficult one, race organizers set several additional obstacles that certainly set this event apart from other trail running races.
At the beginning of the trails, there were two sets of fire walls that were lit to block the trails and all runners must leap through these fire walls which blazed knee high. Since it was just set up a few hundred meters from the starting line, most of us got through it easily.
The next few kilometers were wet and muddy and then came the first series of log hurdles. There were about five to seven hurdles that runners needed go through. The height of these logs varied and so did the difficulties. The first two were just a jump high but the last three required much stronger effort and some needed to climb over the log just to get over.
Just when most of the runners have significantly acquired three kilos of mud in and on their shoes, which made running much more difficult, there came a series of tire loops obstacles which we must hop through it. With the mud on our shoes, hopping through the tires without tripping was almost impossible. Some runners’ trail running shoes even got stuck in the tires because of the mud. Thankfully, I was wearing minimalist trail shoes from Merrell, the Barefoot Trail Glove, which doesn’t hold mud as much as other trail running shoes do, so I made it through those tires easily.
After two more sets of log hurdles, we next encountered a not so high military wall. Climbing over it was not as hard as I expected and the slide right after was fun. Hydration and bananas were sufficiently supplied to all runners to regain the lost energy after those series of obstacles and to prepare us for another series of harder ones up ahead.
One of the highlights of the race was the mud wall. It was fifteen foot high and almost vertical covered by dirt and mud and the objective was to climb the wall with an aid of a climbing rope on the side. At this time, fatigue was kicking in for most runners and climbing the fifteen feet wall became a challenge on a higher level.
The last two kilometers was mostly trail running with an easy twenty meter lunge walk and before reaching the finish line another leap over the fire wall to complete and seal the runners’ accomplishments. During a road run, I normally finish a 10k distance at 47 minutes but this 10k trail run, I finished in 1hour 13minutes. I was surprised at the time despite the obstacles and the difficulty of the terrain. I’d like to think that the two month Immuvit Metafit exercises have really done the trick.
For those who ran with me and survived the challenge of the first leg, get ready for next one in October. The second leg is quite different form the first one but certainly will be twice as hard. It will be a combination of run and metafit exercises in between. To get a sneak peak of what will be the challenges, you can check my blog on Immuvit-metafit 30 day challenge on this link: http://trailsunlimited.blogspot.com/2012/05/immuvit-metafit-30-day-challenge-week-4.html
No comments:
Post a Comment