24 Hour Gym (please)

I am writing this from the gym having just finished a weights workout and then 5k run. I am waiting for my car to be returned from the mechanics so I have a few minutes to kill.

Previously, when I have been training for half and full marathons, I haven’t done much weight training as it has been hard to find the time and I have not wanted to overtrain my legs. However, over the summer I did no running (I suffer badly from hayfever) but did use the gym regularly for 3 months. When I started running again at the end of August I found big improvements over what I would normally expect not having run for a few. This was all down to the core and leg strength I had developed over the previous 3 months.

Now I am keen to retain the benefit of the core strength so I am trying to get to the gym a couple of times a week. I am a member of Fitness First as there is a gym outside my office at work (just off Fleet Street – in fact there are two with 5 mins walk of each other) and also one 20 minutes drive from home. The problem I am having is that the best time to get to the gym is first thing in the morning, before work kicks off and gets in the way, but my training runs are all late in the evening to allow me to have time with my family. This means I end up with less than 8 hours between running and working out.

I would go to the gym in the evening on non-running days, but the local gyms near my house all close at 10pm, so it does not really give me enough time to get there and do a decent workout. I need 24 hour gym so I can train at whatever time I like (or at least until 11pm!).

Know Your Goal

I was having lunch today with a client and some colleagues at Vivat Bacchus on Faringdon Street. When the menu came, we all pitched in with what we wanted to eat. One my colleagues mentioned he was on a special carb diet which meant he was mainly eating brocolli and other veg as he is training. His daily routine sees him run to the gym at 6:30am, do a weights workout and then run home and go to work. In the evening he gets home, puts the kids to bed and then runs to the gym again and uses the treadmill for an hour then runs home again. Coupled with his special diet, I was impressed with his commitment, so I started to quiz him about what he was training for.

It turns out that he has already run half-marathons and marathons, and has taken part in triathalons, so he does not have a race in mind. His goal? He told us (I think only half-jokingly) that his aim is to appear on the cover of Mens Fitness magazine! With his training regime and the level of effort he is putting in, I think he might just achieve it!

I am Ideal

I was reading a forum post recently about how runners have been using the Wii Fit to help with their training.  Alot of people were saying that they tend to use the Yoga sessions to encourage them to do some good stretching sessions.  There were also alot of comments highlighting that the way the Wii Fit software measure how healthy you are is fundamentally flawed as it uses your Body Mass Index (BMI) as the main indicator of health.  Lots has been written recently about BMI and how outdated it is as a measure, but one thing that the Wii Fit does give is consistency.  If you are recording anything over a period of time (weight, mile splits or V02 max) then you need a consistent way of measuring it so that you are sure that any changes are not confused by variations in the measuring mechanisms.  So, whist the Wii Fit may not be perfect, it does give consistency and allow you to track body changes over a period of time (and it is fun!).

Our family’s Wii Fit arrived last Christmas courtesy of Santa Claus.  Probably a combination of seasonal over-indulgence and general lack of sustained exercise, my first Wii Fit assessment did not leave the little Nintendo box singing my praises and my Mii looked decidedly downcast (and a little rotund!).  I have been using the Wii Fit on and off over the last 10 months and I have seen my weight reduce a little and my graphical alter-ego has shaved a few pixels off his waist.  I got the Wii Balance Board out yesterday morning for the first time in six weeks.  In this time my training has picked up as my weekly long run have gone from 4 miles to 11 miles and my weekly mileage has increase from less than 10 miles per week to 20-25 miles per week.  In addition to telling me that I have lost 6lbs in the last 6 weeks, for the first time since it’s initial tutting and chin-rubbing assessment of my health, the Nintendo has judged me to be “Ideal” as my BMI has slipped down into the next zone.  Mini-Mii was delighted with himself and leapt with joy as trumpets sounded.  With four weeks to go to the half marathon, I let the Nintendo bully me into another target – a further 8 pounds to bring my virtual BMI into the middle of the ideal zone.  I am not sure how realistic that is as my calorie consumption does need to increase, but as each run is now burning between 800 and 1500 calories each time, something should shift if I stick to gorging myself on low GI carbs and protein delivering food.

Sometimes life gets in the way

This is my first Blog post sent by email. I hope it works!

This week has seen a big interuption in my training. Work has taken over as tomorrow (Friday) sees the delivery of a 4 month project that has involved me travelling to six european countries and assimilating a huge amount of data to provide my biggest client with a pretty big deliverable. (More on the european trips to follow as I manged to run in 4 of them). So I have now missed two training runs and not run since Sunday’s 10 miler.

Previously, this would have bothered me a lot and I would have been anxious that I am missing sessions from my training plan. Now, though, I am viewing the temporary break in running as a mini rest period, and when I run again (hopefully on Friday) my legs will be refreshed and I will be full of energy (despite doing three 20 hour days in a row!). Also, I am still over 4 weeks away from the St Neots Half Marathon, which is only a waypoint en route to the London Marathon in Pril 2010.

So instead of cursing the world for preventing me from running, I am instead viewing this as a short period of recovery before I crack out a 5 miler on Friday an 11 miler on Sunday. But I will make up for it next week!

Chicago Marathon: Champ Samuel Wanjiru nearly waved $100,000 bonus goodbye — chicagotribune.com

Samuel Wanjiru won the 2009 Chicago Marathon and $100,00 for breaking the course record

Chicago Marathon: Champ Samuel Wanjiru nearly waved $100,000 bonus goodbye — chicagotribune.com.

Pretty impressive running!

Good running weather expected for Chicago Marathon — chicagotribune.com

Good running weather expected for Chicago Marathon — chicagotribune.com.

Good luck to all those running!!

New Top

The NACC shirts turned up today for the half marathon team:

Running for the NACC

There are 6 of us in total running so look out for us in the red tops at the St Neots Half.  I took mine for a outing around the local park – just over 2 miles to make up for the mile I skipped last night as I was feeling the effects of a long week.

Alicia Cliffe is fundraising for The National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease

My mother-in-law is taking part in the half marathon I am running next month.  She was 50 this year and has set herself a number of goals for this year (she has already skydived) and one of them is complete a half marathon.  She has also roped in a number of people from her work place to take part, and together they are raising money for the NACC.

Alicia Cliffe is fundraising for The National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease – JustGiving.

Please take the time to have a look at their Just Giving page and show your support for them by donating some money

Paula Radcliffe to make marathon comeback in New York – Telegraph

Great news for Paula – I hope it goes really well and sets her up for a new record in London 2010

Paula Radcliffe to make marathon comeback in New York – Telegraph.

I ran with Paula  a few yeas ago in Richmond Park for the Nike 10k.  I think she crossed the finish line by the time the mass start group I was in finally reached the start line.  I did see her warming up before hand though – she really is super fast.

I’m Back

Two and half years after my last post, I am back!  Back training for the London Marathon again.  It was alway my intention to come back, but this is a little sooner than I expected!  I have applied through the ballot for the London Marathon about 6 or 7 times and never got in.  When I ran it in 2007, I thought I had applied 5 years in a row and lost out – you get an automatic guaranteed entry if you are rejected for 5 consecutive years.  Unfortunately I had missed a year and therefore did not get a guaranteed place.  But I had told everyone that I was doing it by the time I found out, so I found a charity place and got on with it.

In 2007 I realised that if I got rejected for another 5 years in a row, I would be guaranteed a place in the 2012 London Marathon – I could run the Olympic Marathon route (about as close as I will ever come to running in the Olympics).  So I applied in 2008 and 2009 and each time happily received my rejection pack from the London Marathon team.  This year, Virgin have taken over from Flora as the sponsors and Richard Branson clearly has different plans for me – last week I got my first ever Acceptance letter from Dave Bedford.  I should have been happy to finally win something in a raffle (I never have before) but this was not my plan……

However, I have been training since August for the St Neots Half Marathon to run with my mother-in-law and some of her colleagues to raise money for the NACC, a charity close to my families heart.  With a little bit of persuading (and alot of promises of nice things) my wife has agreed that running London in 2010 will be a good way to raise even more money for our chosen charity so she has (hesitantly) given me the green light. 

So I am back.  And I am a little bit wiser.  Running the marathon for the first time was very daunting – this time it will be alot more fun as I know what I am getting into and I know that I can at least get round to the finish.  Although I am still determined to be faster than last time!