Today’s jog wasn’t my first run of the new year, last week on the two Sundays over the Xmas break I tested my body to see whether I still had miles in my legs. I run an identical 13.5mile course with a sub 2hr half mara time which is a bit of a reassurance. Sure I have a long way to go still and I know this based on last year but I’ll be the first to admit I have been lazy since finding out I had a place and was concerned I may struggle a lot more.

The 13miler I found is a fun and interesting route, from my flat I head towards Stratford and then head around the perimeter of the 2012 Olympic Park, it’s amazing to see how far it’s come along and I suspect this route may crop up over the next few months (and years!) as I’m sure each time there will be something new! One day in the daylight I’ll take my camera over there and get some good photos, can’t wait to see the Olympics there as I think it will be amazing.




Anyway, I digress, according to the RW schedule today was to be a 4 mile slow jog (~38min), which was fine. The only issue I really had was trying to get it converted into kms as this is what’s on the treadmill. Turns out I miscalculated and did the first two miles at 11km/h and second at 10.7km/h and still came in too soon at 36 mins. Really need to convert before getting to the gym!

Apparently tomorrow is a ‘rest’ day, will see how I feel and perhaps do as they say and rest! I think sticking to this timetable is going to be a challenge in itself but let’s see whether it helps over last years routine!

On a side note, for all the havensrunners out there who maybe reading, if any of you are Londoners or work in London let me know if you fancy a jog or session one evening as would be good to meet up!

For anyone who hasn’t been on a cruise before there seems to be this common theme of ’24 hour dining’ or otherwise known as eat till you explode, being healthy does not seem to be an option. Judging by their size for a vast number of people this cruise wasn’t their first as there were some real biggies on that boat (Mike – if only I had your book, I’m sure I could have offloaded a number of copies!). Anyway, not wanting to feel like I had paid for something and not used it I indeed proceeded to eat and, baring one short 5k run on day two, do no form of physical exercise for a week. Sure there was a lot of walking and across the week we must have covered in excess of 25k but that was about it…

After coming back I allowed myself one day off before hitting the gym in style with an afternoon spinning session, wow it was hard, harder than I remember for a long period of time. I also thought I’d hit the sauna after and it appears a combination of the two which left me coming out to get changed fealing sick and very week. I can only remember one other gym session like this and once again I headed for the lucozade. This time it seemed to make no difference and 2hours later, whilst I write this blog I still feel fairly quesy and to be honest this is keeping my mind off it.

What does this mean? Can my fitness really change in the course of a week? If so what will it take to get back to where I was before? Another oddity is I am aware my stomach capacity is growing again meaning the lunch which whilst marathon training would fill me, now leaves me hungry, what can I do to reduce this again?

Think I’m going to have to put myself down for another run to work towards again because at the moment I don’t feel particularly motivated to keep fit and go for runs, naughty Neil! So on that note watch this space for information of my next run.

5k later with a slight sweat due to the humidity I was done and guess I could proclaim to running s 5k in Africa!

Having won a hot stone massage in a raffle on day 1 I headed to that at 830 (pic isn’t me!)…that was interesting, to say the least. I have had a few massages over the last few months (mainly sports) thanks to my marathon training but this was very odd. Think I prefer massage hands to hot stones!

Anyway let the holiday continue including the eating far to much due to the 24 hour buffets!!

Deviating away from the gym and fitness stuff a little, the week before last I went White water rafting. This was really great fun however it was very testing on the upper body strength. Obviously they don’t expect rowers like Redgrave and Pinsent and to be honest I could have sat there and given no help with paddling but I didn’t. I put a fair bit of effort in and realised at this moment maybe I should fit the rowing machine back into my gym circuits at some point. It’s a machine I used to use but when I started running I began to skip it (think I did that because it is both a dull machine and also fairly demoralising!). So with that a new machine has been added to my workout which leads me nicely onto one of the tougher sessions…

Using the lunchbreak to head over to the gym is great however we only really get an hour and that has to fit in a shower as well thus realistically we have 45mins of gym time. Usually I do a 25min run, 10 mins or so on the mats working on core strength – plank, bosu ball work, sit-ups etc a goodish workout with the focus on a tough treadmill hill or interval session. Last week I changed this a bit. Cutting the run down to a fast 2.5k then straight onto the upright bikes at a fast rpm, this was tough. 10mins without letting the machine get below 120rpms, the sweat was pouring down me. It is by no means an exaggeration when I say there were large puddles around my bike. I don’t really know why I seem to sweat so much more than others but dad tells me he is the same, I have gone beyond feeling embarassed mainly because the sweat comes when i’m clearly putting in a lot of effort! 10 mins later and I was straight over to the rowers. A short 1km on that left me having worked most of my body from a cardio perspective and this took under 25 – the same as a run! I still had time to do some core work and also ‘treat’ myself to a quick sauna and be back at my desk before the hour is out (or very nearly!)

In the last couple of weeks I have also put time in at the swimming pool, I like swimming but it’s really dull anyone have suggestions how to improve this!! Also been spinning twice, twas crazy Keith. Keith mixes riding and upper body work to create a class which really seems to target the whole body…tough, really tough!

I need to work out what I’m doing next I potentially maybe hitting the gym again with my old trainer for a 13 week session which could be *interesting*! I’m not overly bothered I’m not training for a specific event it’s just these do keep my mind focused and my dedication up.

Due of the lack of motivation my weight is currently flapping up and down. Nothing significant, few pounds here and there. Having dropped to 12 1/2 stone at my peak I now seem to be hovering at about 12s8lb, not a massive biggy but would like to get back to 12.5 – perhaps need to self discipline myself when it comes to food a bit more!

For all of my friends this race was the furthest distance they had ‘formally’ run but even before we had started they showed the spirit of true amateur runners forming their excuses as to why they didn’t get the time they hoped for…

I am going to start this post by doing my stats etc then move on to my whinging about the course as I suspect there are a number of people who really couldn’t care about the poor organisation. Due to the flat course I new a personal best was entirely possible, the only concern was due to the large number of people, how much weaving I would have to do. As it turns out I would have to do a lot, racking up an extra 400meters on my watch as well as being on the curbside a lot more than I would like. Fortunately I still managed a time of 46:02 my fastest yet and the knowledge that probably given the right conditions I could make 45mins…my mates also did awesome coming in at 48mins(Soo), 55 mins(Kev), 1hr6(Jackie) and 1hr20(Kul). As Soo was the only one to wear a chip there is an element of trust on those times esp as 2 of them didn’t even wear a watch! To be honest though it really didn’t matter what time they got as ultimately they all finished and when I sat waiting and listening I could tell all of them had had that adrenaline buzz I have had crossing the finish line. Some said never again but I wouldn’t be surprised if they all try again as I think they all found it slightly better than they imagined…I think on that note if anyone wants to run another one I will willingly run with you to keep you company…

Bits of the course followed the marathon course taking in the infamous underpass on the embankment, one of the few bits of privacy that the London marathon runners will see. It was nice to do these bits and take in some of the sights and not have just run 23miles beforehand. The support was pretty good which to be honest makes sense assuming for every 2 or 3 runners they bring a guest. With better organisation I think this run has real potential, running past some amazing sights, sadly this year (and from reading some other forums) and previous years this poor organisation is a common factor.

Congrats and kudos to all my mates. 4 years ago I didn’t expect to be sitting on a pavement having run 10km with them (then again I suspect that is a mutual thought!) however now it’s time to do what I’m good at and moan, maybe this blog will come high up on google for British 10k and the race organisers may read it!

Having done a fair few paid for runs in the last year I thought the Paris half was the poorest organised until now. This event has to come fairly close to it faltering on several places. The event itself has to be one of the biggest 10k’s in London and with that the organisation should be on par to cope with that but it wasn’t…

Having rocked up into town at what I thought to be an early time I decided that I could avoid the portaloos by heading up Shaftesbury Av to McD’s when I arrived I clearly wasn’t the only person to have this idea as there was a queue. This queue however, as we were about to find out, was about 30 mins (at least) shorter than the portaloos in an incredibly bottle-necked baggage drop of area. I didn’t have to drop off a bag but for those who did it was a good job it didn’t rain as it didn’t look like there would be any coverage for the bags. Also this whole area was far to small for the shear number of people here.

Having found a couple of my mates due to him having his mobile on him we decided to walk to the start. This brings me on to issue number 2, the walk from the drop off point to Hyde park corner must be getting on for at least a km if not more. There must be places nearer to the start, to make matters worse they can’t even justify the bag drop being there as it’s close to the end as it was a similar distance from the finish lines to the bags…move the start or finish I’m sure it can’t be too difficult, that way you maybe able to avoid the u-turns which I’ll come onto later….

The start of the race was a complete shambles. Due to the fact that there were no pens to place similar paced runners I got to the back and realised there were several thousand runners of all shapes and sizes in front of me. Don’t get me wrong they all deserved a spot and they had clearly arrived earlier than me but I had paid money to do a run and with this number in front of people I couldn’t see that being possible for the first couple of kms. I decided to keep pushing forward. Eventually giving up when it was clear there was no way I could push further forward it was clear I still had a few thousand in front. The immensely underwhelming klaxon marked the start of the run yet we appeared to be standing still. We seemed to edge forward about 4 at a time and it wasn’t until I reached the “front” did I learn why. For some reason, they had decided to start the queue on one side and make runners cross to start but the gap to go through to cross couldn’t have been more than 5 people wide meaning the 30 or 40 person wide road had to bottlekneck through to the start. As I was on my own I could squeeze through but would hate to think what it was like to maintain a group at the start! Needless to say once through the start line I did indeed spend the first 10 mins weaving in and out past people that in any other race wouldn’t have started. On the plus side the roads on the whole were quite wide meaning that there was normally room to pass.

As I mentioned the route had some nice focal points but the last 3k in particular had bits of it that felt they were tacked on for an extra 200meters, with the number of people involved doing a complete 180 from one side of the road to the other didn’t feel ideal. This happened twice, being forced to go halfway across Westminster bridge then turn then past the Houses of Parliament up a bit then u-turn. I can understand road closures must be a nightmare but I’m sure that 500m could easily have been added without the need for these 180′s! Perhaps look at where the race starts and finishes and move a tiny bit!

I suspect most will be bored by now but if you are still here the course is certainly flat so if you can avoid weaving then there is certainly a pb chance.

I already put in a session on the treadmill on Thursday but with the weekend 10k coming up and also having a far from healthy diet this weekend (revolving around alcohol snacks and an Indian) I didn’t really want to skip another run opportunity but Mondays are also spinning days – oh the dilemma! Given the title of this blog I guess you can probably guess what I did!

At 1230 there is a spin class (annoyingly the only lunchtime spin during the week), leaving the office as late as possible to avoid using more lunch break than was really nesc I got to the class to find the instructor was different. John, who has been likened by others to one of the sissor sisters, had been replaced by Emma (I think that’s her name anyway) so I was already slightly off guard – nevermind, I have done her classes before too and I know for certain she is not a mentalist! The session today felt odd, I don’t know whether my Sunday runs loosen my joints a bit hence helping these classes, but today my legs where achy and not for lack of trying I really struggled to be able to find the strength in them to either break to much of a sweat or raise my heartrate. I normally find it difficult to get my heart rate in spinning over 170bpm but today it was a challenge to even break 160bpm. I don’t know why I found it difficult part d me thinks I should go back to basics and read up about the body, I feel perhaps the time spent messing around in biology as a kid was perhaps foolish! anyone know any good books on health, body, muscles etc?

Spin class out of the way I had to still go for a run so after a late finish at work trying to put final touches on a project I went back to the gym for session no 2, the treadmill run. I was not intending on doing anything others than the treadmill and steam room meaning it was to be a relatively short session. 5k ish was decided and like the other day I set the mode to random, which appears to mean hills and racked the speed upto 12km/h and away I went. I didn’t stay at 12 for long, over the next few kms it was to be my base speed.

The program went upto an incline of 8% and over the next few kms i fluttered between 12km-15km, I attempted 14km/h at an incline of 7.8% – that is tough! I did 5kms in 22mins and 6km at just over 26mins. That’s a fast time – I know for certain i couldn’t maintain that pace for 10kms but maybe I can based on that hit 48mins on a good day…oh well, will find out in a few days time if I really push myself!

In the changing room I was deciding what to do, should I do some weight stuff or cardio, as usual cardio won but as it was hot I said to myself I wouldn’t bother with the garmin heart rate monitor as I would put the treadmill on slow and do a light jog…

Over to the treadmill, touch autostart and away I go, speed at 11km/h. It probably took less than 30 seconds for me to stop the machine and change to one of there predefined ‘circuits’ I chose the mode they call random. Speed back to 11km/h I pushed on with this mode. It didn’t take long to get bored at that speed so I push the speed up a bit, and a bit more plus a little bit more. No longer is this a light jog and to make matters harder I was on a setting that appeared to be hills which at there peak had inclines of 6.5. Needless to say an incline of 6.5 alongside a pace of 14km/h+ is a tough challenge. I was working pretty damn hard and it’s a shame I didn’t have my heart rate monitor.

I haven’t done a treadmill run in a bit, it maybe worth heading back and doing an interval track to see if my times are changing. I’d hazzard a guess that they maybe sliding a bit due to the cut back in training I am doing now…that said I felt 14-15km/h easier than I remember in the past so who knows!

So much for a light gym session, to be honest I should know better than that. I struggle to get satisfaction out of the gym if I haven’t pushed myself, and today as ever I did indeed push myself.

Anyway Ad and I did get a sneaky game in early on in my training but today was a time for a rematch, he beat me last time (3 games to 2 I think) but we were both at a very similar level so thought it should be quite fun to play again, plus I have been promising it for months now!

Rocking up to London Bridge Fitness First at 830 I was already hot and bothered, the central line stopped at Stratford so had to change route and ultimately arrived late even though I had given myself a good 15/20 min extra time. Quick change and we were on the court…

I guess it should be fairly obvious that an enclosed room was going to be hot given the temperature outside but I don’t think either of us were totally prepared for the heat in there which was obvious from the start! I was already warmed up following a brisk walk from the station so let Ad hit about whilst I sorted out some fluid for during the game. Got back to the court and did a bit of racket / hand-eye calibration, I was shockingly bad and I am sure Ad must have been thinking that this morning was going to be a walkover (I was thinking the exact opposite)!

I won the racket-spin and elected to serve, lost the first game but I think it was a close one (I can’t believe I genuinely can’t remember – worrying!). However, after game one I managed to win 3 games in a row (again with very close scoring). At 3-1(best of 5) Adam suggested to play another game, not really sure why – I’m pretty sure he was as shattered and as hot as I was! He won this bringing the score to 3:2 to me and a reverse of last time. That brings the match score to 1:1 meaning a rematch is definitely on the cards!

Oddly whilst playing yesterday I felt a lot quicker around the court, managing to get to drop shots I don’t think I would have got to before. I can only put this down to my improved fitness. Also today was the first time I have ever really realised how little support squash shoes give. There were shots where I didn’t feel particularly comfortable when running to get the ball. I don’t really want to spend more money on a sport i barely do but I may have to look to see if they sell indoor shoes with feet that pronate in mind…?

Another cool thing about squash is as it’s high intensity my heart rate went through the roof reaching peaks of 184 (see graph below). To give some useful comparison when I go spinning even on the fastest sprints and biggest hills getting my heart rate above 170 is an almost impossible challenge, and during my runs I normally sit around a constant 175. I can’t really remember the last time I broke the 180 mark but apparently I was training in ‘zone 5′. Not really too sure what that means but all I do know was that the morning was tough and knackering so that must be good right??

Having faffed a little and had a relatively long lie in (for me) I didn’t manage to get out the door until about 11am. At this point the demons were already telling me not to bother but fortunately I had the willpower to ignore those ones. Having barely made it to the bottom of the road I knew instantly today was going to be hot (well hot for England anyway) and stuffy and at this point I was trying to work out how I could cut my run short thinking things like “maybe I’ll just do 5km – it doesn’t really matter how far I go anyway, I’m not really working towards anything”.

The route I chose was the much flatter Longfield track along 1 road and then turning back on myself. I ran it once during my marathon training and remember thinking it was a little dull and not quite as flat as you would expect it to be. However, it was this or the hill route of last week an for some reason that route really wasn’t appealing to me that morning.

I got to 4km a couple of km’s short of where I turned on my last attempt and decided that that would be a good turning point. I could add a km at the other end easily taking the run up to a currently respectable 9km and what’s one km between friends anyway! Turning back on myself I reran exactly the same path (Ive never been a fan of tracking back on yourself I’d much rather a loop…) that said it has a little scenery including a few fields with horses, there was also a mirror on the route which provided a rather amusing annecdote but I don’t think I can do the story (or my stupidity) any justice on this blog…



There were a few runners out that morning (hopefully all thinking it was too hot!) including one chap from the ‘Dartford Road Runners’ who overtook me when I least expected it, made me think I should contact the running club in Woodford. I have always been a bit apprehensive as I don’t feel good enough to be a runner in a club but maybe they have a few slower people like yours truely that I maybe able to go out on runs with every so often?

Back at Lauras it was immediately obvious I was hot, it took me absolutely ages to cool down, not even the shower seemed to help. Have a 10km in a few weeks time, 930am start but no doubt the sun will be out, Bluewater was also v hot, blue skies no clouds and I made it round there, hopefully if I can get a bit of liquid in me and down my back to cool I should be able to charge round…

I joined FF almost a year ago to the day, I was getting fitter and by this point had completed my first 10km and felt joining a gym an appropriate next step. I was by no means a gym virgin having been a member on and off since 6th form but had in the past thrown money down the drain on 1 visit a month memberships and with London adult prices this is not a good thing to be doing! Anyway, when I started running I didn’t do it to bulk up muscles it was more about increasing my general fitness etc so not long after I started having got bored of the machines I decided to head into a ‘spinning class’ and ever since then I have been hooked – going once or twice a week for an intense cardio workout.

What is spinning? Well put simply it’s an instructor led class with music and a bike with a gear that can be adjusted to increase resistance. There is a music playlist and then the instructor guides you through varying ‘terrains’ all by telling you to increase/decrease resistance. To give a simple example if the terrain was mountain climb the instructor would yell you to increase the bikes reaistance thus making it harder to pedal whilst in the meantime there is a song playing which has a beat on it that yuh are supposed to keep your legs in time with. It’s entirely upto you how you change your gears so if you are really struggling and the instructor says to turn you don’t have to but at the end of the day it’s supposed to be a 40min intense workout (and for me this is ALWAYS the case!). Hopefully that all makes a bit of sense?

Why do I do spinning? Well I’m no scientist I’m not going to start preaching about what you should and shouldn’t do whilst running mainly cause whatever I have picked up accross the year has come through mags etc read whilst half asleep on a rush hour morning commute. However, when I took my marathon training schedule to my trainer a few months ago he seemed perfectly fine for me to carry on spinning (whilst informing me to ditch pump as soon as possible). I guess logically cycling should complement running, it’s low impact and has a controlled mechanism whilst working the thighs, quads and glutes and some of the classes have elements which work on the core – all of these elements should feature high on where a runner should train. Regardless of the scientific benefits I really enjoy it – its a 45min session that is not easy, every week there is a puddle of sweat around my bike (apparently the same is the case with my dad) and the sense of a thoroughly worthwhile workout. Other than the nike+ training runs I do nothing else I do in the gym compares to these classes in respect to effort.

Basically if you are a member of a gym that offers spinning classes, go try it out – I suspect if there is a competitive element in you, you will enjoy it. I know I certainly do!