Physical Challenges

[evenflow]

We hear a lot about "celebrities" doing mad physical challenges (swimming the length of the Thames, X marathons in X days and so forth), but have any of you ever done anything similar?

I've done one or two events in the last couple of years (eg a 50 km walk over 2 days) but nothing overly spectacular.

I'm your standard middle aged office-bound tubby bloke who gets out of breath thinking about exercise, but I have an idea...

[Oakey]

Getting out of bed each morning is becoming a physical challenge

[bearman68]

My wife and I used to do one a year - nothing too dramatic, but enough to give us a decent focus to train to.

Cycled Hollyhead to Chepstow off road.
Climbed / Walked the Skye ridge.
London Marathon.
Cycled LEJOG.
Had kids.
End of that game.

We had a few other ideas.
The Haute route.
The high level Corsican route.
Santiago Pilgrims walk. (for when we're even older).
Actually ticking all the classic rock routes would be a decent accomplishment.
Etc etc

[silverfoxcc]

Look up tough mudder

[anonymous-user]

Oakey said:

Getting out of bed each morning is becoming a physical challenge

And commuting into London, especially by train. Govia Thameslink have made it pretty much impossible.

[andy_s]

I've done quite a few multi-day runs in exotic places - MdS a few times and similar. My wife has run the West Highland Way a few times (95 miles) non-stop. We're doing a non-stop 214 miler later this year along the Southern Upland Way - well, hopefully. I think the hardest one to date is an event called 'The Dragon's Back' which involves running N to S through Wales over 5 days but routed along the tops rather than the easiest way - hopefully crack that one next year. The other 'big' events in that vein are Tors des Geants and Petit Trot de Leon - part of the UTMB series.
Thing is, every time you think - 'well, that was an accomplishment' someone will always piss on your strawberries by doing something twice as far twice as fast - a few years ago someone completed The Spine (perhaps the UKs hardest non-stop race), turned around and ran all the way back - over 500 miles in all.

@Bearman - GR20 is a fantastic route - one of the best I've ever done - highly rec'd - have a fast n' light 3-4 day attempt in 2020 on the cards with my wife.

Edited by andy_s on Sunday 3rd June 09:07

[alorotom]

I have a friend/ex colleague who is massively into IronMan and Triathlon competitions ... he cycled from Newcastle upon Tyne to Paris recently as part of some training ... he is late 40’s and only really got into this the past 5yrs so years but is now at a peak fitness level

[Lotus Notes]

I've done the haute route on skis twice (the most recent by a more difficult variant).
I've climbed Mont Blanc a few times (once via the 3 peaks, skied the North face once).
I've climbed and skied Pico d'Orizaba in Mexico in a storm!
I've ran the Mont Blanc Marathon (3700m+ vertical) and lots of other trail races.

Not too extreme, but enough to keep me ticking over..

[Blakeatron]

We did a press up challange at work:
First week was 20in the morning, 20 at morning brew, 20 at lunch, 20 at afternoon brew and 20in the evening.

Every week upped it by 5, i got upto 40 at a time and then dislocated my shoulder falling off my bike.

It totally changed my body shape!

[The jiffle king]

silverfoxcc said:

Look up tough mudder

I would look up Tough Guy as it's much more of a challenge

[johnwilliams77]

The jiffle king said:

I would look up Tough Guy as it's much more of a challenge

Or an extreme Ironman

[43034]

Friend of mine is cycling across America (unsupported) at the moment and is hoping to do the 7000km in around 18 days. Bonkers

[272BHP]

A little bit of variety would be better for most people.

I try to challenge myself all the time. I have done the marathons and ultras but I also like to spend a summer trying to get to a 300 pound bench press or doing 20 chins in one go or trying to break 1:00 for an 400m. Most of the time I don't achieve the aim (the sub 60s 400m is seemingly impossible for me!) but that is fine, the journey is the reward after all and I do come close most of the time.

The strength and sprinting ones are personal to me though, no-one close to me gets to hear about them.

[ChocolateFrog]

Marathon Des Sables, know a couple of guys who have done it, decent challenge.

Devises to Westminster, easier and shorter duration but still many fail.

A female friend has run a marathon on Antarctica and crossed the Artic.

Best I've done is LEJOG and soloed Aconcaqua.

[mholt1995]

Had to get from the Piccadilly Line platform at King's Cross St Pancras tube station to one of the platforms at King's Cross in 2 minutes the other week? (Otherwise I'd be waiting another hour for the next train)

Made it but was pretty sure cardiac failure was imminent

[Zedboy]

Stepped in at 3 days notice for a 92 mile cycle just so the boss wasn’t on his own... and then he shot off into the distance at the start! First time cycling for 3 years and on a borrowed bike, yet still managed it in 5 hrs, so respectable time. I was running a lot at the time.

[evenflow]

bearman68 said:

My wife and I used to do one a year - nothing too dramatic, but enough to give us a decent focus to train to.

Cycled Hollyhead to Chepstow off road.
Climbed / Walked the Skye ridge.
London Marathon.
Cycled LEJOG.

It's all relative, isn't it? I would consider doing the marathon and cycling LEJOG fairly dramatic - fair play to you!

[evenflow]

Lotus Notes said:

I've done the haute route on skis twice (the most recent by a more difficult variant).
I've climbed Mont Blanc a few times (once via the 3 peaks, skied the North face once).
I've climbed and skied Pico d'Orizaba in Mexico in a storm!
I've ran the Mont Blanc Marathon (3700m+ vertical) and lots of other trail races.

Not too extreme, but enough to keep me ticking over..

[evenflow]

Some really interesting adventures on here, and massive respect to anyone who's done one. I'm going to have a think about "mine".

Thanks

[The jiffle king]

If you want to get serious about a challenge, the Barkley marathons are a challenge. Not many people finish the whole lot and very few even make the "fun run" of 3 laps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkley_Marathons

There is a good netflix documentary about a year when conditions were good. 2018 the conditions were not so good