Some amendments.....

I need to post some amendments as I commence this blog again.  Gyms are not bad, Lycra has its place and bells and whistles are OK.  Particularly if the bells are kettle and whistles are appreciative.

Houston we are good to go...

Today I got back in the saddle after Mrs L conquered the London marathon I figured maybe just maybe it was my time.  I always said that a marathon was for 40+ athletes and I am about to enter my 40th year so yesterday I applied for the Virgin London Marathon 2013 ballot.  It is crazy because 110kg of me running 26.2 miles is a world of leg battering but I took a spin this morning and was banging out sub 10 minute miles......which brings me to confession number 1.....I have been using a gym - The Olympiad in Chippenham to be precise and I have enjoyed the services of a personal trainer and it seems to have done me some good. Not only has the interval training paid of but an element of circuit weight means I feel stronger and have better local muscular endurance. So no more excuses we are marathon training.

Today 3 miles steady - 28 minutes - with splits around 8.30 9.30 and 10.16 - not a bad start and not as sore as I though and still a little gas in the tank for some burpees.  The key is not to hammer it to quickly which is my usual problem.  The diet is pretty strict - wholefoods only so no breads or pasta to bulk out that empty feeling.  I am allowing myself the odd for goodness shale post trainig as I have found that this is the best product I have ever used for recovery but, as with this morning, it replaced breakfast after the 3 miler.  My target weight is 99 kilos and my commitment is high....although I have been sneaking raisins all afternoon.

I will keep you posted.........

Completely forgot to blog....was out running.

Nike + GPS is rocking my world.  I get times, pace, distance and encouraging words.  Makes the iphone 4 this weeks most useful training aid.  I have managed 4 runs in a week and I have lost 4 pounds.  I should point out that there has been some pretty lean eating going on.  Tuna salad, no mayo, minimal olive oil dressing and no additional carbs.  Target weight is 16 stone.

So joy of joys I am starting to fit back into clothes that I had always thought I was hoarding never to wear again.  Don't get me wrong I still have what i believe the ladies call muffin tops (lads call them love handles) but I am getting there.  Todays run was my first 5k run in a while and I managed 6 minute kms which is not bad as there was a big ole hill right in the middle of the route.

I will change route to see if I can get a decent 5 k time down but the hill stays in the training program at least once a fort night to try and strengthen up my running.  In other good news the bike is fixed and we'll probably be doing a 30 miler once a week...who know I might start swimming and enter a triathlon.  Summer is not so far away and it could be a bit of a giggle.

Bazza

Well I am back on the horse, not a literal horse of course as my sturdy 112kilo frame would do said stead absolutely no good.  Part of the reason for me being absent was a quick trip to Haiti for work, this is not a place of great fitness opportunity although in the mountains of Cange I see a potential run or two. Anyway enough of this nonsense.

BAZZA!


Bazza is the septagenarian who trained beside me at my first ever body pump class.  I have decided that gym classes are the way forward, as being supervised by an adult is always wise.  Now I don't know Bazza's reasons for staying in shape whether he likes to keep mobile or he likes the ladies in lycra but he has obviously got this body pump thing taped.

Yes you guessed it I got my ass handed to me by the old guy.  He was pumping more weight than me with better technique with fewer breaks in form.  Bazza is a hero and I regret suggesting he may just like ladies in lycra as he is for seventy odd an accomlished gym athlete.  Qudos to Bazza.

In other news


Belt news, i am now four holes in on the old belt test which is confusing as I have not actually lost any weight.  I am perfectly happy to be heavy and lean but it surprised me.

Core news, all core stability is gone!!!!  I don't know where or when but it is bust, gawn, dissappeared just not there which suggests this is a long road back to fitness.

Mike-the-Bike, today completed a personal best to Tetbury knocking ten minutes off his time only to find he had had a 20 mile an hour tail wind assisting him, the ride home was 'tiring'.

Diet going well, eat sensibly all week and blow out at weekends a little - I am hoping the pounds will start to drop off.  I'll keep you posted.

Injury

I have been away and not updated I am sorry.  Now, don't laugh but I managed to inflame a facet joint (it's in your lower back ....the doctor said so) by tying a shoe lace.  Crazy eh?  Now I could cuff it and say that such a highly tuned athlete is susceptible to such injury but pretty much everyone I have told has said it is a sign of getting older.  I reject this wholeheartedly, why do we fall for this baloney about getting older being some excuse for injuries happening to us.  The truth is that I have for the last eighteen months neglected my body in terms of diet and exercise and now that I have started again a few of the nuts (no smut please) and bolts are loose and need tightening. Offending joint pictured below:

This however leaves me with a dilemna, because now the principle means of me losing weight is going to be diet which is a weaker suit.  I know the science of dieting and I can avoid many of the pitfalls but cake is nice!!!  As are crumpets, tea and toast and a host of other nibbly things.  So this week or so that I am taking to recover is an exercise in self control, which I guess is like any other muscle the more you exercise it the stronger it gets.....or so the theory goes.  This doesn't account for the fact we are living with my in laws at the moment and ma in law is a great cook and serial cake buyer, all well and good for her as a dog walker and for Mike the Bike with his 40 mile rides but for Mr Sleeping on the floor because bizarrely it is more comfortable this means temptation.  So in attempt to be accountable to someone.....I only have 2 followers, (neither averse to a bit of cake or a pint so perhaps unlikely to criticise) but I may as well blog about it or else I would get to talking about what is happening in Libya, or Bahrain or the Earthquake in NZ; and to be honest after years of working overseas in disaster zones and conflict zones I am now just a little quietly uninterested.  I think I may be going post colonial.

Anyways breakfast has consisted of:

1/2 sachet of Quaker oats porridge
1 pot of Activia Kiwi fruit youghurt
1 pint of tea (worng in so many ways probably)
1 small glass of apple juice

Salad is ready in the fridge with my own personally concocted salad dressing, ingredients are as follows

2 fl oz Extra virgin olive oil
1.5 fl oz balsamic vinegar
0.5 fl oz lime juice
1 tspn cayenne pepper
1 tspn black pepper
1 tspn mustard powder
1/4 tspn ground ginger
pinch of salt

It has a kick like a mule but if like me you find salad a little bland this baby will sort it out with a minimum of fuss, much better than these shop bought numbers. Anyway toodle pip for now.

Curry and flexibility...rest day.

OK so I had soup and a cheese sarnie and still went for the curry. I guess what i am trying to say is that it may take longer to reach my goal than I intended but if my whole objective is slim then I am probably quite dull. I can't get hung up on an unsustainable diet because I will quit, a curry with mates is good once in a while; tuna and salad at home is also pretty good. There are lots of fit people with a belly, Jason Leonard comes to mind, Mad Dog Metcalfe who I used to trog up and down the Himalayan foothills with the man was superfit but always carried lunch.....maybe it was the weight of lunch that made him fit. So anyway I had a curry, Chicken Dhansak, Chicken Korai, Palak Badami (spinach and butter beans) but Jef and I skipped the rice and the naan because .....well the don't add alot to the flavour of the meal and they fill you up and you end up leaving vital curry. So we went the chapati and popadom route. Thinking about it curry isn't so bad if done in moderation, chicken is good protein, chilli will speed your metabolism and I feel sure all those other ingredients must contain some trace elements.

Anyway about flexibility, I am not talking about the type of flexibility which allows you to touch your toes or put your head under your left knee. I am talking about a flexibility of mind; today was supposed to be a weights day but it was a late night with a couple of Guinnesses and frankly what with dropping Jef off, going to look at rental properties with my wife and looking after Junior it just wasn't going to happen. So I am doing weights tommorow, you see I have been training less than a week and I am already more flexible. The rule in my head is don't flex more than a day if it is rest but swap freely with weights, cardio or sport to keep the whole process fresh and happy.

Variance - Monday's Run

This morning is another run this one a little bit longer, about 2.5 miles done in about 23 or so minutes which means i am doing roughly ten minute miles. Now this isn't going to break any olympic records but it is the starting block for another target: 7 minute miles or less. So targets to date are -

95 Kg

7 minute miles or less.

The rain persisted this morning and it was colder than the last run and whilst that doesn't really make you want to get out of the door once you are on the move it is much nicer to run in the cool. I titled today's entry variance because I have been looking to make the route a little longer and a little more challenging but also to stop me from getting bored. I cut across the bridleway between West Yatton and Long Dean and was rewarded by seeing a deer bobbing across my path; moving a fair bit faster than I was. There were consideraby more uphills than in the previous run tough on the legs but in only two runs I feel stronger.

http://gb.mapometer.com/en/ - this tool has been so valuable in not kidding myself about how far, how fast and how many calories I am burning, (444 calories today) - it can even tell me how many feet of ascent and descent. 138 up and 131 down for the altitude focused out there. It is perhaps at this point that i should introduce Mike-the-Bike. Mike-the-Bike is my 62 year old father in law who has decided this year that he wants to complete this years London to The Bell Pub ride (all 97 miles of it). We went out and bought a good bike, a Trek.....erm thingummy, and he has graduated over the last few weeks from 7 mile runs to the all new 32 mile long run scheduled for Wednesday. Periodically Mike-the-Bike will be making appearances on The "F" files....in the mean time Jef my bezzie mate is down from sunny Dundee so it may be a curry night to night, so I will probably balance that with a salad for lunch. Tomorrow is a weights day!!!

REST DAYS

Rest days are important and whilst it seems crazy to have a rest day the day after I start this thing, it allows me to assess just how hard that run was, and the truth is it wasn't too bad. I mean it left me panting at points but it was manageable.

More importantly about rest days it allows you to ponder the important questions of life like why do sportsmen eat bananas? Allegedly it is for carbohydrate and potassium, the truth is that it is unlikely that you will digest a banana quick enough to get the energy before the end of an activity. The reason they wan't potassium is as it stops them cramping. Apparently mashing the banana helps to break down some of the complex digestible material, my one year old son Joel would probably not agree he loves his 'nana" pure. I on the other hand quite enjoy a mashed banana on toast for breakfast.