New Challenges

Well my focus has changed since I last posted. I have signed up for a Half Marathon! I can't believe I'm going to do it! Having decided I can do one, I was looking for one next year in the summer, giving me plenty of time to train. Then I saw an ad on Facebook for one in London. It starts at the Allianz stadium (Home of the Saracens rugby team) and runs down to Wembley stadium, through the grounds of Wembley and back up to the Allianz. The idea of running through Wembley really appeals to me so I signed up. The down side is that its in March. This means I've got about three months less than I'd hoped for to train and also that the weather will be more unpredictable. Hey ho, minor details.

And so, with that in mind, my training is now more focussed towards running. I am still looking to do runs of varying lengths including sprints and hills but now I am looking to increase my max distance in preparation for the 21km (13.1 miles) Half Marathon. After a couple of months of training I am able to run 16km now (that's just short of 10 miles) and my 3,5 & 10k times have all improved. I have also signed up for a 5 mile Santa run in a couple of weeks. It's in Southend and raising money for Action For Children. I recently came across a deal on Groupon for the gym I was looking to go to and got 10 sessions for £13.95, which is fantastic. I must admit I'm a little nervous about working out in a gym and looking silly on machines I don't know how to use, I've got so used to doing my own thing indoors.

My diet has still not changed (regrettably). Like everybody, I find it harder to resist the comfort food in the colder weather, but I really must make more effort. If you want any more proof of how important diet is, I can tell you that I have run nearly 45 miles this month and I have not lost a single pound!

My joints are coping admirably with all the running. The pain kicks in around the 8k mark in my knees and hips. I tend to be in a lot of pain in the evening after a long run and some pain the next day. Runs of 5k or less do not bother them too much anymore, which is a great improvement. I am still not taking any full term medication. I take Co-codamol before long runs and then Ibuprofen gel usually suffices afterwards, though occasionally I still need Paracetamol or Co-codamol in the evening.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about how things are going. Obviously, Christmas is coming so I need to limit the mince pie intake. I'm bulk cooking some Mediterranean chicken and a Turkey sausage casserole so I have some healthy, low fat meal choices in the freezer.

Onwards and Upwards!
#FasterHigherStronger

What Next?

I'm on a mission again! I'm reasonably happy with how I look and how I feel but my weight is starting to go in the wrong direction again and I need to reign it back in. I need to lose between two and two and a half stone to get back to ideal weight. I also want to be stronger so I can smash up next years Nuclear Rush (mud obstacle race).

In terms of my diet, it's really about going for the less healthy options less frequently and cutting out the bad snacks. I eat healthy most of the time but tend to favour cheese on toast for lunch when I'm at home so I'll be swapping that for an omelette with salad. I favour pasta (wholemeal) in the evenings because its quick and easy and I've usually already pre-prepared mince (often turkey mince) to go with it. I'll be trying to eat more lean meat and fish with vegetables when I am home in time to cook. Lastly we have got back into a bad habit of having snack nights with crisps and chocolate which needs to stop.

When it comes to exercise its difficult for me to commit to a three times (or more) a week kind of plan as my work hours vary. Some weeks I may only do two or three workouts but another I may do five. So with this in mind I develop my plans over a monthly basis. I have designed 3 weights based workouts which I plan to do 3/4 of each per month. I also plan to do various running programs including hill sessions, short speed intervals, longer (6-10k) runs as well as some outdoor plyometric training (preferably without tearing muscles this time). I hope to do one of each type of run over the month.

I am contemplating visiting a gym as well, maybe once a week or fortnight. Although I am happy working out at home and can get good results, there are a couple of things I would benefit from in the gym. I don't have a proper squat rack at home which means whatever weight I squat, I have to pick up and lift over my head first. As the weight is getting pretty heavy now , this is getting difficult to do safely. I am struggling (like many people) to do pull ups and although I can find ways to compensate, for example doing incline pull ups at home, if I went to the gym, I could use an assisted pull up machine. They also have a good climbing simulator machine which looks interesting. There is a good gym quite local which offers a PAYG membership of £5 per session.

I started the first workout this week and somewhat overdone it. My legs were quite achy but not too bad but my arms were really bad. Three days on, I still cant straighten my arms properly! I think the incline pull ups were the biggest culprit. I may need to knock a couple of reps off next time. Even with achy legs, I still did the hill session which went really well. I was surprised by how comfortable I found it considering even a year ago I would have run out of steam half way up even the shortest hill and would have walked. Now I barely even flinch at a short hill. Lots of hill running on holiday probably helped too.

Today I should really be doing a weights workout but as I said I still have quite bad DOMS in my arms, therefore I will be going for a run instead and perhaps some core exercises too.

The goal for now is to get back into my skinniest of jeans by Christmas.

Life's little trials and tribulations

So this is really an update to the last two posts. In the post "Then and now" I talked about my joint pains and how I am on full time medication to manage the pains. I also spoke about how the pains are not as bad as they used to be. Some other health issues caused me to discuss my tablets with my doctor. The result of the conversation was that I agreed to try and manage without taking them. I could still take other painkillers as and when required. That was over two months ago. I have managed better than I ever thought I would, and in fact have only needed painkillers on a couple of occasions. I recently returned from my holiday to Menorca. This is often a painful time due to the hilly terrain, not to mention the beach steps. Previous years I have taken painkillers almost every evening. This year I ran up and down those hills, I trekked up and down the rocky coastal paths and I even knocked fifteen seconds off my time for running up the beach steps, clearing 181 steps in 100 seconds flat! I didnt take a single pill! What a turn around! Definitely nailed the "Stronger" part of my mantra.

What about my other goals for the year? Well its not gone quite to plan. I completed the obstacle course in a respectable time of 1hr 30mins. We finished 411th /12th/13th out of over 1000 participants (despite me suffering an excruciating calf cramp on an obstacle near the end). We were happy with that and Darren and I are looking forward to doing it next year.

Having done the course though, I identified where I need to improve for next year and so I started working on my strength and explosive power. I had until recently confined my efforts to the house gym but decided to make up the anti and take it outside. I found some things to climb and jump over. Unfortunately I didnt even survive one session! I tripped and fell whilst jumping over a small fence and ended up tearing a muscle just to the side of my knee. That was the week before the Race for Life! I somehow still managed to run it but was not able to go for a record breaking time, finishing in something like 43 minutes.

That injury as well as other health issues had caused me to scale back my efforts somewhat. I'm on the mend now though and intend to set new workouts and a running plan within the next week. Watch this space!

Then & now

I thought I'd do a little update on how my fitness has developed over the last few years. One of the key factors for me losing weight was how I felt, probably more so than how I looked to be honest. If you know me or you've been reading this blog, you will most likely know that I have a chronic joint pain disorder. Due to the pains and several mis-diagnosis over the years I became very sedentary. I took expert advice that I should refrain from "high impact" exercise, particularly with regards to my knees (the worst affected joints). I was told to avoid; running, jumping, squats and lunges amongst other things. I was advised to keep exercise non weight bareing, such as cycling and smimming. I didn't realise at the time but that was actually making the condition worse as my joints became weaker and less stable. My knees became so weak and painfull that I was unable to step up on to something knee height without holding on to something or someone, and getting back down was worse. Jumping of any kind was out of the question.

Dont get me wrong, this is no miracle story, I'm still in pain. I'm still on full time pain management medication. But the pain is less frequent and less severe now. I can not claim this to be purely down to my fitness, as my medication is better now, and also I have learn't over the years how to limit and manage the pains better. But what I want to talk about here is what I am physically capable of doing now compared to three or four years ago when I started this blog. And so I am just going to give you examples of what I used to do (or not do) and what I do now.

Then: 5km run/walk (pains in hips & knees for a week)
Now: 10km run (Pains for 2-3 days)

Then: Squats holding on to something for support (2 sets of 5)
Now: Squats with over 20kg on a barbell (20 sets of 20) OR squat to press with 2x 3kg dumbells on a Bosu ball (unstable platform)

Then: 5 lunges (each leg)
Now: 2 sets of 15 lunges (each leg) with 2x 5kg dumbells OR 2 sets of 10 jumping split lunges

Then: Need assistance to step on/off box
Now: 2 sets of 10x jumping OVER the box

Then: 20  second plank (because shoulders hurt too much)
Now: 1 minute plank on upturned Bosu ball (unstable platform)

Then: 5 Girly press ups (because wrists  and shoulders hurt too much)
Now: 2 sets of 10 Men press ups

Then: Unable to run at 6mph on treadmill
Now: Able to do sprints of over 9mph

Then: Unable to wear healed shoes for more than an hour or so due to knee pains. Take a week to recover
Now: Able to stand all night in heels (not 6 inch though!) Able to make short walks in heels. Able to repeat two or three nights in a row before needing recovery.

All of these acheivements, I never thought possible. I believed I was destined to be in pain and discomfort for the rest of my life. I honestly believed there was a fair chance I could be wheelchair bound by the time I was 50 and that scared the Hell out of me!

Whilst reading stuff on the internet about joint pains and arthritis (which a was told I had) I happened across a couple of articles about building joint strength. There was stuff about jogging, about how, contrary to all the hype about it being "high impact" and bad for the knees, if it was done right, the benefits of building joint strength and bone density far outweighed the effects of wear and tear. There was stuff dismissing the historic claims that squats are bad for you and actually saying that weight bareing exercise can help ward off bone degeneration (osteoarthritis). To cut a long story short, I thought it was worth a go! So here I am, hitting the big 40 this year and I can honestly say I feel younger and fitter than I did five years ago and maybe even ten years ago. This year I am Running the Race For Life, yes RUNNING! Not jogging, not run a bit/walk a bit. Running, you know, like a fit person! I'm also doing a mud obstacle race and I sure as Hell dont see myself in a wheelchair anytime soon!

I am so proud of myself, I can't begin to tell you! But what I want to say to you is that if you can identify with my story even a little bit, if you can empathise on any level, you don't have to have the medical condition but maybe you have pains or old injuries? Maybe the future is not already written for you? Maybe you can take control and be who you want to be?

Faster Higher Stronger!

Faster Higher Stronger!

I don't really do New years resolutions bit last year I kinda gave myself a Mantra of "just keep on keeping on". My thinking was not to go through any processes of quitting and then starting again but rather, when you get that feeling of 'I'll start again next week' or after this event, you just start again straight away. Don't stop, just keep on. It was also about just keeping pushing with workouts and such things. So this year my Mantra is "Faster Higher Stronger". I want to take focus away from my weight and more towards my fitness, so everything I do is building towards those goals now.

One of the measures for this is the Race for Life. I am really working towards a sub 30 minutes finish this year. My stamina is quite good now over the 5km but I am struggling to increase my pace. I have added some things to my workout schedule to help with "fast twitch" muscle fibre development which is responsible for speed and power output. This includes some plyometric (explosive) exercises and some sprint interval training.

So that covers "Faster", so what about higher and stronger? I've signed up for my first obstacle race! It's on 11th May 2014. It is 6km of cross country running through mud and water and obstacles like rope climbs, monkey bars, underground pipes etc. I don't know how my joints are going to cope with it, particularly the instability of the mud and hills on my knees but I'm going to give it my best shot. I've dragged Darren in on it too and my cousin so we can help each other through it.

Another thing I'm looking forward to is our holiday in Menorca which is in August. I have my time recorded for running up the beach steps two years ago and I know I'm going to thrash that this year!

So 2014 is the year that I will "Keep on keeping on" and become "Faster Higher Stronger"!
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