Today was the start of a new cycle of exercises - this is month 2 of my first three months of personal training. Today I did interval training (at 6.30am on a drizzly Scottish morning). We have a great place for doing this called the Kings Knot. It is a 400 year old mound just below Stirling Castle and has lots of levels to run up and down. There is nothing like training in a place steeped in history.
Basically I did 5 sets of sprints around the base of the Kings Knot - sprint around once (around 36 seconds first time), then walk around to gather my breath. Repeat 5 times. My glutes were killing me after the 3rd round. I think this is still a hangover from leg training last Wednesday. It is definitely doing some good though - my bum actually feels like it has some muscle instead of a big blob of lard!
Then there is the centre of the Knot where I started in the middle and ran down and up the next layer, turned around and ran back to the centre, then picked another route to run down and up. Did this for 12 different points around the Knot then took a 2 monute breather. Repeat 3 times. This was great for building leg strength and really pushing up the hills.
Then I repeated the first drill 3 times (sprint then walk around the base). Tried to keep my sprints below 40 seconds. Right at the top of my thighs was really painful - I didn’t realise that this was still my quad muscle - I didn’t think they went that high but I’m told they go all the way up to your hip. Anyway - they were really sore during my leg raises yesterday (last exercise as part of my weekend core workout). I’m sure they are getting stronger though - which is kind of the point isn’t it!).
All in all it was probably about 30 minutes of exercise but I was absolutely knackered. I think I could have tried a little harder on a couple of the laps and I’ll make sure I really push it next time.
Not sure what I’m going to do on Wednesday but I guess it will be some sort of upper body training. Looking forward to a new challenge.
Cheers, M
I have a stinking head cold but had a session doing upper body weight training today. I found it tougher than usual - everything felt like it took even more effort. However, as upper body weight training is not such a cardiovascular strain, it was certainly OK to push through. Actually it may even be a better workout because you are having to use even more effort to do the same thing - which is good for your body.
It may be different if I was going for a big run as I may struggle to breathe properly.
Anyway I pushed on through and it was fine - although I have strained my back a bit. I think I was slightly twisted when I was doing kneeling lat pulls. I’ve taken an anti-inflammatory pill and hopefully it won’t turn into anything worse.
Well I’m nearly at the end of month 1 of personal training. My last session is tomorrow morning at 6.30am. As part of it I will be measuring
- weight
- body fat percentage
I have been monitoring my weight and first thing this morning I weighed in below 14 stone (13st, 13lb, 6oz) for the first time in 10 years. In kilos that is 89.2KG. I am well chuffed. I’ll wait to see how I meaure on Scott’s scales though before I really celebrate. I think I was 92.5KG at the start of the month (but that was in my running gear and 30 minutes after a bowl of porridge). This means my BMI is just over 25 - meaning I am still overweight but only just 
As for my body fat percentage, I haven’t had that measured since I was at school. It will be great to get a baseline with something to work towards for next month. I think it is going to be done with callipers rather than electronically, as the callipers are more accurate.
Leg training went well last night - weights are increasing each week and I can certainly tell today that I have been training. But I’m not in agony like the first week so it seems that we have the balance right. However, as we are at the end of the first month, we are going to change my routine about in order to “keep my body guessing”. No plateau for me!
Cheers, M
Today I received a Nike+ Sportsband to try out and review. First impression is that it looks fantastic - rubberised wrist band, really light but strong.
The idea is that it has a detachable USB dongle which will team up with a chip that goes in your Nike+ running shoes (although many people sellotape them onto their laces if they don’t have Nike+ shoes). You can do your run and then upload the results to nikeplus.com
As far as I can see it is exactly the same as the Nike+ kit for your iPod (which I already have and think is great). This is aiming for the rest of the market who either don’t have an iPod or don’t like to run to music. There is a big debate as to whether running with music is a good idea or a bad idea. I’m undecided at the moment and will spend the next few weeks trying out both methods.
Looking forward to seeing what results I get.
Everything else is going really well and am going to get my official weigh in on Friday (after 4 weeks of personal training)….
I’ve booked up for a 10k run in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow on Fathers Day in June. I’m really looking forward to it as this will be the first proper run I’ve done since the BUPA Great Winter in Edinburgh in January - and that was only 5K.
I’m not sure how quickly to push into the running training or whether all the legs and general aerobic fitness that I’m doing with my personal trainer will take me most of the way anyway. I think I’ll need to try doing a few 7 or 8 k runs at least. That will be easy enough to manage at the weekend - even with the rest of the stuff during the week.
I am an avid reader of Mens Health Mag and I plan to get into the reader section - photo of how I used to look as a fat bastard and how great I look now Still got a way to go but certainly still making great progress. I keep getting amazing comments from my wife - even walking back from the cinema last night she had her arm around me and said it felt great as she held onto something resmbling muscle rather than dodgy love handles.
I am feeling really happy that the weight loss and the general ‘tightening’ is happening in the right places (ie, my love handles and my moobs (man boobs)).
Keep on truckin….
Got up at 6.30am today - ready to climb the Dumyat, a nice little hill near Stirling (http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/stirling/dumyat/index.html). I climbed up with my best friend Jonny and it felt great. My fitness levels were pretty good and I really enjoyed the fresh early morning air. I saw one guy running down as we were climbing up - that looked great. I think I’m going to try that over the next fews weeks.
Yesterday (Saturday) I went for a good 2 mile hilly run on grass/dirt. My knees felt much stronger since starting with the personal training - really happy with that.
I did take a good 10 minutes to get my second wind though which was longer than I thought - we’ll see how that goes over the next couple of weeks. I don’t want to push back into running too quickly and get injured. I’ll stick with the personal training and slowly get back into running over the next 4-6 weeks.
Ta, Mark
I weighed myself this morning and am now down to 89.7KG - Wow! I am so chuffed. That is a really huge milestone for me. I was the best part of 95KG 3 months ago. It is in thelast two weeks (since starting a proper diet and full training) that I have lost around 3KG. I’m really, really happy. The biggest reason I feel great is that I don’t actually feel like I’m on a ‘diet’. I’m just eating really healthy stuff and no carbs after 4pm. Piece of piss;-)
My digestion has also never felt better. Plus no fatigue during the afternoon or dinner time.
I cannot sing the praises of this approach highly enough. I will be making a plan for anyone else to follow who reads this site. Two thirds of the progress is down to diet, one third down to weight training and cardio training. But you cannot get the same results with just one of the approaches.
PS - after the upper body training on Monday morning, I got DOMS (sore muscles) on Wednesday afternoon. It is only in my biceps - but I cannot straighten my arms at the moment. Slightly painful but I know it will go by the end of today.
After upper body training yesterday, I though my arms would be killing me today. I remember doing bicep curls etc when I was younger and really getting massive DOMS (achey muscles) the following day. Have you ever had it where you cannot straighten your arms for 3 days? It is agonising.
Anyway, I’m happy to report that I can feel that I’ve trained my upper body but I’m not in agony. I’m very happy with that.
Back onto legs tomorrow night - my 8 year old son is going to come along too as every other week my Wednesday training is at night time instead of morning. My son loves his rugby and has been promised stronger legs for mauling - I hope he likes it.
Today I started the upper body training - let’s face it, this is the bit that people really care about. Up at 5.50am for a 6.30 start and all was looking good (despite only getting to sleep at 11.30pm and having a late night the night before).
Upper body workouts are totally different to standard cardio workouts or leg workouts. I did loads of sets on upper body and core strength this morning and hardly broke a sweat. Totally different to the leg training last week which was a complete cardio workout at the same time.
My plank time is now 1 minute (if you don’t know what the plank is: it involves propping yourself up on your elbows and keeping you body totally straight for as long as possible). The aim is to get this to 2 minutes. It really helps strengthen all the core muscles. Try this link - http://exercise.about.com/od/abs/ss/abexercises_10.htm
Stuart is promising to lay weights on my back during this which should be interesting!
So this was my first weekend on the full training plan. I was meant to do a full set of core exercises on Saturday but only remembered around 4.30pm - just before we were going out. So I had to do it on Sunday morning but it worked out fine. Had full motivation to do it, even though we were rushing about trying to get out for the day.
Had a glass of wine and a couple of small whiskys on Friday night and two pints on Saturday night. I think I can live with that! My biggest issue was that I was up until 2am on Saturday night and I felt starving. It is the first time since starting the diet that I have been tempted by food outside of the normal routine. Alcohol - even in small amounts - definitely affects this too. Over the next 3 months I am going to have to really watch myself when having a drink…
Looking forward to starting my upper body training in the morning.