WHEELING – Training for the past nine weeks, Jason Baum, spoke confidently of his upcoming Tough As Nails challenge Sunday as he waited by the Ohio River for the start of the first heat.

And his motivation? It was straight to the point for Baum, 45, of Shadyside, with no hesitation.

“I’m getting old,” he said dryly. “I wanted to do something, just try it, then do something again next.”

Baum said he was an athlete in high school, though he admits it wasn’t anything spectacular. But at 42, he began weight training.

“It just got in my blood and I dropped 30 pounds, got my cholesterol under control and I’m stronger and more fit now than I ever been when I was in high school,” Baum said, adding that high cholesterol runs in the family but being in the gym starts his day out just right.

Baum said he does intermittent fasting each day “for the most part,” but doesn’t eat until 10 a.m. with everything being in moderation and what is healthy.

“And whatever my wife cooks for dinner,” he said.

Baum said the 10 a.m. breakfast time is part of the 16 hours of fasting, which is why he doesn’t eat until then.

“So, it just became routine that at 10 o’clock I eat, give or take a half hour, 40 minutes sometimes,” Baum said.

He said the training was a lot easier for something like this, though he normally doesn’t do a lot of cardio training. All the lunging, stepping into long strides for example, made the cardio training “very easy.”

“I normally do strength training,” Baum said, “and I’ve been doing that for three years. But, since I want to do this, cardio training and gauntlet training (or) cross training” has been on the menu in order to prepare for this. His personal trainer, Loweecy stood by to add that Baum has put in some tough man training as well. Loweecy has operated G-low Strength & Fitness of Bridgeport for over seven years now.

Baum said the gauntlet training includes rope climbing, which would come in handy this Sunday, as well as working with a medicine ball, 500-pound sled pulling, sled drags, “stuff like that.” He began running 1-2 miles easily in the beginning because of the lunges he’d been doing to strengthen his legs.

“Then the exercise bike and the interval training there made it easy,” he said.

Baum said running around noon and dealing with the direct heat was his only concern because he normally runs in the morning.

“Other than that, no, I’m just going to run it to win it. I’m going to do my best. Not really worried,” Baum said, adding that the wait was what was hardest.

He said the obstacles are where he will look for a break during a lull in running. And since he’s never been a distance runner, he felt he could use the obstacles to catch his breath.

“The obstacles, trust me, I’m ready for,” he said, adding that what Loweecy created for him two months ago when he began training made him feel the obstacles would be “nothing.” He mentioned the 500-pound sled pulls he’s been doing in training, including 75 pounds of weight carried in each hand to go along with the bike and push up training for one minute on and a minute off.

Baum isn’t sure if the intense training and the race will spur him on to do more events.

“We’ll see what happens. I mean, I’m going to have fun with this. I’m hyped. I want to get into it now and when it’s over with, it’s a thing off my bucket list. If I want to do it again I will, if I don’t want to I don’t have to, I’ve already done it. Move on to another bucket-list thing.”