The Tough Mudder obstacle course events have become very popular in a relatively short period of time, and they are attracting a wide variety of participants who strive to test themselves in a military style course designed by the British Special Forces.

"But Tough Mudder is more than an event, it’s a way of thinking," explains the event's website. "By running a Tough Mudder challenge, you’ll unlock a true sense of accomplishment, have a great time, and discover a camaraderie with your fellow participants that’s experienced all too rarely these days."

Edging the Xtreme recently caught up with Kelly Ross a mother of two, who holds down a full time job and firmly believes that when you're in your mid-40s, it's never to late to be a "Tough Mudder." She completed the event at Gunstock, NH.

Listen to me chat with Kelly, on Edging the Xtreme:

Boasting over 700,000 participants world-wide, Tough Mudder raises money for the "Wounded Worrier Project" and promotes team work, as the course is nearly impossible to do alone and requires teams to complete many of the obstacles. These events also follow the recent fitness craze beyond aerobics, yoga, weight training and Triathlons. These events promote attitude, fun, and total body fitness – they are not competitions.

The next up-coming Tough Mudder is at Mount Snow Resort in Vermont August 1and 2.

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It's a weekend full of mountain biking madness at the 12th annual Pat's Peak Mountain Bike Festival in New Hampshire. The list of competitions alone is covers every aspect of the sport; there are 24 hour, 12 hour and 6 hour competitions for all levels of endurance athletes.

Over the years, Greg Jancaitis has posted some amazing results in this race. Starting in 2009, he finished third in the men's solo 24 hour, and he was the 2010 and 2011 overall winner in the men's 24 hour solo. Then in 2012, he was the winner in the men's 6 hour solo. He also holds the course record at 29:00 in last year's race.

Here is a video interview with Jancaitis from the Shenandoah 100:

Specializing in long distance mountain bike races, Jancaitis has been able to carve out a living riding miles and miles for hours and hours. Click here for his fitness blog.

Listen to the entire interview with Greg Jancaitis on Edging the Xtreme:

Plus, learn about the entire Mountain Bike Festival at Pat's Peak, which includes the Eastern States Cup (ESC) USA Cycling Regional Championship Downhill Mountain Bike Race Series.

The Series is in its fourth year and includes nine venues with eleven series races, plus the state finals and the series finals. Check out a listing of the ESC schedule, rules and more information.

The X-Country Challenge on Sunday is part of the Northeast Root 66 XC Race Series, a series of cross-country mountain bike races held at different venues throughout New England.

And that is just the beginning of the fun: there's a single speed cycle cross event, plus camping, music and activities at the mountain all weekend.

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I met Vasu Sojitra last Friday while he was hiking up to ski Tuckerman Ravine. He was celebrating the end of his college career at UVM with a pack of friends, a typical thing to do on a beautiful spring day in May. Except Vasu only has one leg!

At nine months, Sojitra had his leg amputated, but he's never looked back. He climbs mountains, hikes and skies, and isn't deterred, although he does say he needs to eat more than your average person.

Listen to the most recent installment of Edging the Xtreme to hear more about the amazing backcountry accomplishments of this extraordinary young man.

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In mountain biking it takes a rare breed to rise to the top. Last summer at the London Summer Olympics, USA's Georgia Gould had the worst start in her career. Yet when the day was done, she was standing on the podium with a Olympic Bronze Medal.

As a sponsored rider on LUNA Women's Mountain Bike Team, Gould has plenty of motivation to continue to compete on the world stage. As the 2013 World Cup Season kicks off in Germany later in the month, Gould hopes to build on her past success and capture the elusive World Cup Victory, as well as defend her National Title.

In the fall, she’ll turn her attention to racing cyclocross with the aim of defending her 2012 USGP series championship. Georgia lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with her husband Dusty, their 28 bicycles, five chickens, a hive of bees and a garden full of vegetables.

Listen to the entire Georgia Gould interview with Dan Egan on Edging the Xtreme on RadioBDC, above.

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Garrett McNamara, who also goes by ‘GMAC,’ is an American professional big wave surfer, and extreme waterman, known for breaking the world record for largest wave ever surfed around the world. He has been a passionate surfer since his family moved from Pittsfield, Mass. to the beaches of Hawaii and he has never looked back. McNamara's professional career spans over two decades around the pacific and beyond.

Don’t let McNamara’s laid-back, surfer persona fool you: as an professional athlete in his mid-forties, an age at which most are thinking of stepping to the sideline, he's ramping it up a notch. His recent world record wave ride in Portugal was on a wave ranging from 90-100 feet in height, and for him it was just another day at work.

That day that was six-plus years in the making. McNamara was tipped off to the wave by an email sent from a small village on the coast of Portugal. A local that wanted to know if the wave, a geographic phenomenon off the coast of Portugal called the North Canyon, was worth riding.

Living with the constant quest of riding the “barrel” or “tube” of the wave, McNamara's adventures include surfing in Alaska on a wave caused by the falling ice of a glacier into the frozen arctic waters. McNamara admits it was "a little crazy, but worth the risk, because the falling ice creates perfect waves."

He credits his survival to planning and fitness along, with his ability to hold his breath. McNamara is currently taking classes so he can surpass his personal best of 4.5 minutes under water.

“You have to survive the beating the wave hands out,” said McNamara, “and sometimes the bottom is a bit rough, like a coral reef, so you really just take a series of breaths whenever you can.”

Over the past 10 years, McNamara has been on a mission to catch the biggest, best waves on the planet, and he has succeeded. He is arguably the most committed ocean explorer in the world. You can put him in any situation in the water and GMAC is not only ready to go, but go hard!

At 17 years old, McNamara entered and placed in the prestigious Hawaiian Triple Crown Series. Along with his brother Liam, McNamara began to attract the attention of major sponsors and signed deals with a number of prominent brands in Japan. The brothers spent the next 10 years on the competition circuit, traveling and becoming fluent in Japanese. It was the realization of a dream come true for both brothers.

McNamara continued to push the limits of pro surfing, and soon he started to get towed into waves on Personal Water Craft or Jet Skis, which enable surfers to chase down and catch giant waves that were thought to be impossible, beyond the reach of surfers paddling with their bare hands.

Predictably, McNamara couldn't leave well enough alone. He is still on a mission to explore the world’s oceans for the best and biggest waves Mother Nature has to offer.

Listen to the complete Garrett McNamara interview on Edging the Xtreme on Radio BDC with Dan Egan. GMAC talks about surviving the white water of his world record ride and compares it to riding on a moving avalanche of snow.

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“The past is history and the future is a mystery” says Mr. Fitness, Tony Horton. “Feel good now, work out now and make it a habit.”

More from RadioBDC: Listen to Part 1 of Dan Egan's interview with Tony Horton

Horton, the founder of fitness regimen P90X, takes no excuses for delaying fitness and preaches both nutrition and activity. One of his main themes is “clean up the diet and get off the sugar, the fats, salts and chemicals, processed foods that come from boxes and bags.” If you go to www.beachbody.com and check out his orginal program, titled Power 90,you can see Horton's recipe for weight loss and nutrition.

His new program, 10 Minute Trainer,sounds too good to be true, but as he explains in the second part of the Radio BDC interview, it's just to get people started in forming good habits – so 10 minutes turns into 20 minutes, and it grows from there.

After the success of his first two books, Bring It and Crush It, he is launching his third, out this summer. There seems no end in sight for his fitness empire expansion, which includes a video game, food line, clothing line and sunglasses.

Tony Horton is a motivator and he has built his success on making getting fit both fun and effective. His approach is sometimes corny, and often over-the-top, but the bottom line is: his programs work.

So if you're looking to break free of the winter and looking towards a spring and summer of fun in the sun and feeling better about yourself, start any one of his programs and stick with it.

Just check out his web page www.tonyhortonsworld.com. You’ll be glad you did.

Listen to the part two of the Tony Horton interview on Edging the Xtreme only on RadioBDC:

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Tony Horton has risen to heights rarely found by fitness trainers. This kid from Rhode Island, who describes himself as a “high school weakling,” has created a fitness empire that has produced the top fitness program of all time.

In almost any circle, if you mention Tony Horton, P90X, or the" fitness guy on TV," people will know the program, or, more than likely, have done it themselves.

More: Listen to Part Two of Dan Egan's interview with Tony Horton

The P90X regimen appeals to people for many reasons. Tony explains, “Its fun, fast-moving, and you don’t need fancy equipment or a gym. But more importantly, it works.”

The results do speak for themselves. After doing the P90X program, I have to admit that as hard as it was, the hour work outs went by quickly. The mix of Horton’s simple slapstick humor and encouragement keeps your mind off of the task at hand, and before you know it, you have done some crazy move on one leg with your arms touching the ground and reaching for the sky.

Add to that the Beach Body website, where there are resources like coaches, an online directory of exercises, fitness products and a community of friends that are helping you stay true to eating right, working out and having fun. And this mass access to fitness has taken away the mystery of staying fit and looking good.

Tony says he works out 22 days a month and that most people can achieve 18-22 days a month and should not be discouraged by the amount of time of each work out. He preaches routine and has a gospel of remaining young and beating back the hands of time through a mix of yoga, nutrition, balance and core strength.

His products range from the “10 minute work out” to the new P90X2.

The fact that amazes me is I have known Horton from his humble beginnings when he first started coming to my ski camps out west and in South America. And to watch him build his fitness following has been inspiring. I have witnessed people driving over nine hours just to shake his hand and thank him for changing and transforming their lives. His programs have not only been inspirational, but his commitment to helping people change their paradigm about themselves and the world around them is the underlining power of his success.

We caught up with Tony Horton just as he returned from a heli skiing trip in Canada for a special Edging the Xreme Radio BDC two-part series on fitness.

Listen to part one of our interview, as Tony talks about his early days, his books and more, and check out Tony's site.

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