Filed under: British Military Fitness, running, spinning | Tags: British Military Fitness, GRIM Challenge, hampstead heath, Hellrunner, running, spinning
I’ve managed to restore some semblance of normality to my exercise regime again, after a couple of weeks of doing not a lot. I’ve been much better at doing the exercises the osteopath gave me – primarily aimed at stretching out the hip flexors and glutes – over the past week, so hopefully won’t get told off when I go back this evening.
As per my promise to the world last Tuesday evening, I did go to British Military Fitness the following day. I grabbed a blue bib when I got there, joining a slightly slower group than usual, so I didn’t overdo it. Lovely new chap called Tom took the class – he introduced us to some new forms of torture games, including one where we had to get into two teams and take turns to leopard-crawl underneath the rest of our team who were lined up in the plank position. My bum kept getting in the way – though I’m hoping that was more to do with me not doing the leopard-crawling quite right, rather than purely having a humungous arse.
Back/bottom/hip actually felt ok during and after the class, certainly no worse, so I also went spinning on Friday – fairly uneventful class, which I won’t bother elaborating on.
On Saturday, decided to run with Phil around the regular 4.5-mile circuit encompassing part of Hampstead Heath. Neither of us have done a lot of running lately, so were expecting to feel crap, but we felt surprisingly good. So on Sunday, we did the circuit again – but backwards, (as in we ran the route the other way around, rather than physically running backwards). It’s quite weird how you see things that you don’t normally see when you view them from a different perspective.
Encouraged by such progress, we’ve signed up for Hellrunner South on 15 November and GRIM Challenge on 6 December along with my much-faster-even-though-he’s-only-just-taken-up-running brother. We have been warned about the Hellrunner “Bog of Doom”, but I’m more concerned by the lack of accuracy in the phrase “10-12 miles of challenging off-road running”. It is 10 or 12 miles then? That’s a fairly significant difference on a road in good conditions, let alone when you’re carrying half your bodyweight in mud along for the ride.
I found myself at the gym slightly later than usual on Friday morning. I had a day off for a wedding later on, and thought I’d get an exercise unit in before I hit the wedding vino. I didn’t feel much like running but I’d missed the early spinning class so – with the spinning studio to myself – I decided to DIY it.
Good fun it was too – I plugged myself into my iPod, found some tracks with varying tempos and off I went. One of the instructors came in after about ten minutes and insisted on putting on the demo track and virtual reality graphics, which was just a bit distracting. I don’t need to pretend I’m cycling through the streets of London when I’m patently not even outside, and the soundtrack sticks roughly to the same tempo, whether it’s Walk Like An Egyptian or Acceptable In The 80s. I turned up my iPod and carried on in my own little world. My back didn’t feel too bad – certainly not as stiff as it did after running and British Military Fitness earlier on in the week. After 45 minutes, I was pretty much spent and just did a few upper body weights before heading to the sauna and spa.
The gym demographic changes as you go through the day – the frantic pre-work crowd has disappeared by 9am, to be replaced by the blue rinse brigade. Watching them cavort around in the pool to aqua aerobics while I sweated some more in the sauna wasa sight to behold. I think there was only one person under 60 in the entire pool.
Filed under: British Military Fitness, circuits, food, recipes, running, spinning | Tags: banana and ginger bread, banana bread, British Military Fitness, circuit training, food, Hastings, Pulse8, running, spinning, West Hampstead
I was told off this evening at British Military Fitness for not updating my blog for nearly a week. Ooops. Contrary to popular belief, I haven’t been sitting around being a lard-arse – honest.
- Friday – spinning with Matt at Pulse8. Best instructor there by a country mile, because he really uses the music to motivate the class.
- Saturday – DIY circuit training in West Hampstead. The teenagers doing community service are still painting the railings and they’ve made staggeringly little progress since last time we were there.
- Sunday – down in Hastings, a very uppy-downy four-ish mile run around the cliffs breathing in the sea air. Hard but good.
- Monday – British Military Fitness with Dan
- Tuesday – rest day
- Today – British Military Fitness with Hayley
So, rather than bore you with the finer details of those exploits, I’ll make a suggestion as to what to do with over-ripe bananas. Although I love greeny yellow young bananas, I can’t stand them when they start going brown – they actually make me want to vomit – so I frequently end up with one or two looking forlorn in the bottom of my fruit bowl. Last night I had two manky ones, and time on my hands to do some baking.
Banana and Ginger Tea Bread
- 175g self-raising flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- 40g butter or margarine
- 50g soft brown sugar
- 50g stem ginger, chopped
- 60ml milk
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line and grease a 1lb loaf tin.
- Sift flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter/marg until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar.
- Add the ginger, milk and mashed bananas and mix to a soft dough.
- Spoon into the tin and bake for 40-45 minutes. Run a palette knife around the edges to loosen them, turn the tea bread onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
Easy peasy. And the result went down a storm among my team-mates at work today.
Filed under: British Military Fitness, running, spinning | Tags: British Military Fitness, exercise, juneathon, running, spinning, strength and conditioning
JogBlog made it quite clear earlier today that Juneathoners had to run on the last day of Juneathon, so I donned my trainers when I got home from work and ran about two and a half miles around the block. Not exactly a world-beating time or distance, but I was already feeling a bit stiff after British Military Fitness.
For the uninitiated, Juneathon was established by JoggerBlogger and the rules are:
- Run or exercise every day for the month of June
- Blog about it
- Visit your fellow Juneathoners’ blogs and leave a comment in support
I had a bit of a false start, but here are the stats for my Juneathon:
- Running – around 30 miles over 6 runs including 2 races
- Walking – around 14.5 miles
- British Military Fitness – seven hours’ worth
- Strength & conditioning (no. of exercises: arms – 100; legs – 150; abs – 710; plus 7.5 minutes in the plank position)
- Spinning – 90 minutes over 2 sessions
- DIY circuits – 50 minutes
- Steps at Covent Garden – 193
- Rock climbing – about half an hour’s worth
- Days without any exercise due to legitimate excuse (giving blood) – 1
- Days withouth any exercise without good reason – 4 (3 of which were in the first week of June)
It’s made me think about how I can squeeze exercise into an otherwise busy day – although I’m not sure I’ll maintain an average of six units a week. I’ve also enjoyed reading other people’s Juneathon blogs – especially JogBlog’s and Highway Kind’s – and they’ve given me the inspiration to keep going with it. Roll on next year…
Filed under: spinning | Tags: cleaning, juneathon, Michael Jackson, Pulse8, spinning
I did intend to do some Juneathon exercise yesterday evening, but failed – instead I cleared two months’ worth of paperwork and filled up a bin bag full of shredded bank statements . I think I’d rather have done the exercise actually. But it did need doing and, by the time I’d done that, it was way past my bedtime.
I repented for my sins this morning and went to a spinning class at Pulse8. Instructor was Monique and – although she’s reasonably good – her music is dreadful, with “No Limits” being the absolute low point. Mind you, it was Michael Jackson-free which was a blessing given the wall-to-wall radio, TV and internet coverage today.
If I can count cleaning the car as Juneathon exercise – then today was a double-bill, thereby making up for yesterday. In my favour, it was a fairly vigorous cleaning session to remove about 3,000 flies from the bonnet and bird shit from the boot, and I had to carry buckets of water back and forth (no hosepipe in a flat). On the other hand, I was drinking lager at the time – which means it probably doesn’t technically count as exercise.
Filed under: 5k, running, spinning | Tags: 5k challenge, Amberley, breathing, gym, Harting, running, Shoreham-on-Sea, south downs way, spinning, Steyning
I’ve been a bit quiet on the old blog recently – a combination of a busy period at work and more interesting things to do at weekends.
Haven’t made it to British Military Fitness recently because of work commitments, but have been back to the gym and done a couple of runs (early-morning 5k challenges – 28:02 last week, and 27:24 this week), some weights, stretches – and also a couple of spinning classes in the past two weeks.
Last weekend, we caught up with some friends down south and walked part of the South Downs Way (around 20 miles from Harting to Amberley on day one, and 12/13 miles from Amberley to the A283 (somewhere between Steyning and Shoreham-on-Sea on day two). We’ll go back do the rest down to Eastbourne/Beachy Head another time. Good to make the most of the weekend sunshine, and witness the 3 Forts Challenge runners on Sunday. I wouldn’t have wanted to run 27 miles around the South Downs (more up than down in many places) – so well done them.
I definitely feel fitter than I did last year – though this isn’t based on any scientific analysis. I’ve lost about half a stone since Christmas, which I’m pleased about; the walking/cycling expeditions haven’t been as hard on me physically as I thought they would be; and running hills is definitely easier than it was.
However, I continue to be frustrated at my lack of ability to run any faster. Despite some sprint training at British Military Fitness classes, and at least some effort to increase my speed through 5k and 10k challenges on the treadmill – I really do struggle to accelerate much beyond my standard ten-minute mile pace over any sort of distance.
I have noticed that I seem to puff a lot harder than people around me, and wonder if sorting out my breathing would actually unlock the speed demon inside me that is trying to get out. Any hints and tips gratefully received…
Filed under: British Military Fitness, running, spinning | Tags: Barmouth-Yarmouth, Barmouth-Yarmouth bike ride, British Military Fitness, fitnessfootwear, hampstead heath, running, spinning
It took a few days to recover from the Barmouth to Yarmouth bike ride, to the extent that I did nothing on the exercise front for almost a week and took the opportunity to rest.
Back into some semblance of a routine since then:
Sunday, 19 April – 4.5-mile run around Hampstead Heath (tried out the new shoes from Fitnessfootwear – more to come on those in due course)
Monday, 20 April – British Military Fitness class
Wednesday, 22 April – British Military Fitness class
Friday, 24 April – spinning class
Saturday, 25 April – same loop around Hampstead Heath
Today, skipped the planned run and went to watch the 35,000 more disciplined ladies and gents running around London. It was a weird feeling – last time I saw the London Marathon course, I was running it back in 2004. I’d suffered an injury about eight weeks before race-day but, with £2,500 in sponsorship pledges, I refused to pull out and ran with a dodgy knee. It hurt. A lot. And I swore I’d never do it again. Yet, watching it today, I felt a twinge of something like envy as I watched this year’s participants, whether they were running for a place in the record books, for a lost or loved one, or just for their own sense of achievement. Never say never?
Right now, I wouldn’t be up to it. Not by a long way. I can’t shake off an almost constant feeling of tiredness since the bike ride and I’ve still got a bit of a sniffle (or maybe just hay fever?). Another early night beckons.
Filed under: 5k, British Military Fitness, Pulse8, X-bike, food, gym, spinning | Tags: anna friel, british rmilitary fitness, gym, jonathan ross, running, sauna, spa, spinning
As I said to a few people at work today, I’m really trying to like the snow, but I can’t get away from the fact that it’s just so flipping cold. I can cope with this when I’m wrapped up all warm on a ski slope, clutching a mug of hot chocolate and tanning my panda-eyed face in the mountain sun – but it’s just annoying when you’re trying to get on with your normal day-to-day life, it’s chucking down half-snow-half-rain, it’s not quite bad enough to shut the office or cancel meetings, so you carry on, your feet are soaked, people are still driving up your backside even though they’re skidding all over the shop and the underground is closed. Why is that? I mean, it is – by definition – beneath the snow line.
This week has been a bit crap exercise-wise. Monday brought chaos to the roads and I needed to see the doctor first thing for another whopping dose of antibiotics. Tuesday wasn’t much better. I managed a spinning class on Wednesday, was in London all day Thursday and got up this morning – intending to go to the gym – but then I looked out of the window, decided I didn’t fancy de-snowing the car at 6am…and I went back to bed for an hour and a half.
I decided enough was enough this evening, and headed to the gym on the way home from work instead. I’ve never done this before. I have a fabulous pre-9am membership at Pulse8 which costs just £22 per month. I go before work for a spinning class, or circuits or a run – and it works well for me. My visit in the evening was most confusing – the place looked more or less the same, but all the people were different. And there were considerably more of them.
Anyway, did the 5k challenge = 26:55.
Then some upper body weights – Red Bucket tells me he’s doing some work on his arms before our ski trip. My arms are weak.
Then about 20 minutes on one of the X-bikes – did a random routine in time to whatever appeared on my iPod. That worked quite well.
Finally, I loafed in the sauna and spa pool for a while.
I have to say, it was rather nice to not have to rush around and get to work afterwards. I’m home now, feeling all tingly after my workout and full after my omelette and several handfuls of chocolate chips (had to raid the baking cupboard for those as I’m all out of Lindt balls).
I’ve got one eye on Jonathan Ross and Anna Friel drinking some foul-smelling green juice. Presumably she lives on that in order to stay so skinny. And I’m trying to decide whether to brave British Military Fitness in the morning, or be a wuss and go to the gym…
Spinning on Friday with Matt – featuring an eclectic selection of music including the Fratellis, The Ting Tings and Maroon 5. All good, and much more motivating that last week’s experience with the lethargic Lewis.
A freezing run on Saturday on the fringes of Hampstead Heath where single-men-minus-dogs hang out. Though not on a chilly Saturday morning in January where you wouldn’t want anything hanging out for more than a couple of minutes. Just about four miles, or maybe even less because the gardens were shut. Health and safety or something.
And DIY Circuits this morning, featuring a football. I’m working on my ball-handling skills, but it’s going to be a fairly long-term project.
Thought about going for a run once or twice between Christmas and New Year. But didn’t acually get to the point of strapping on my running shoes. Oops.
First day back at work today, so hauled myself out of bed at 6 to get to the gym for a spinning class. The instructor looked even less enthusiastic than the four people that had bothered turning up for the class. But I did have the sauna and spa pool to myself afterwards, which was nice.
At work now, so a very quick post. Has it ever felt less like a Friday?
