#TeamSony: Rick Edwards’s Tough Mudder blog 3

The day of Tough Mudder has come and gone. I had expected to feel battered and bruised the next day, but also to be enjoying a warm, fuzzy sense of achievement to soften the pain. Instead, I just feel sore. That’s because with less than two weeks to go, I tore my quad muscle.

Previously a tight IT band, dead leg incurred playing football and a bout of flu had badly hampered my training. So once I had shaken off my various ailments I was training like a madman – albeit one who enjoyed the regular lie-in and afternoon nap – to catch up. Inevitably I pushed myself too hard. I didn’t warm up properly and early in one training run I felt a sharp pain in my thigh. The next day it still hurt and two days later a dark purple bruise appeared, spanning my upper leg from knee to groin. The doctor confirmed it was a muscle tear and I’d need at least a month out.

My race was over but that didn’t mean I’d miss out cheering on the rest of the team from the sidelines. And by commandeering a golf buggy I was able to career around the course bellowing instructions and encouragement to – but mainly cackling at – Vanessa, Amanda and Joel.

Amid the chaos, I couldn’t help notice how much fun everyone was having. I’d built up a nervous tension over the past few months but I shouldn’t have feared anything. People were laughing, helping each other, walking up hill – these are my kind of people. Despite everyone getting soaked in Sony’s freezing Arctic Enema 2.0 at the start, everyone was still smiling four hours later at the end.

If I had seen this at the beginning of my training I wouldn’t have been so worried. Given I didn’t actually run the course, my advice here is limited, but I would say if you’re nervous about it, go as a spectator first. You’ll realise how much fun it is and end up looking forward to it.

It hasn’t all been a wasted effort. Using the Lifelog app on my Xperia™ Z3  and SmartWatch 3 from Sony, I started to notice I could run much further in training than when I started. I was covering more steps every day and doing just that little bit of exercise made me feel full of beans. I’ll certainly use fitness tech to monitor my training when I’m back exercising properly and I’m especially keen to use a heart rate monitor synced up with my Sony device to make sure I don’t push myself too early in my training and wind up injured again.

Now I know what to expect, I can’t wait to shake off this injury and give it a go. I’ve already convinced my mates to sign up and, after weeks of anxiety-stricken sleepless nights, I’m genuinely looking forward to it.

You can pick up the new Xperia Z3+ and Sony’s SmartWear at Carphone Warehouse now.

Coach Staff

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