New Year Resolution.

[amateurstuntman]

OK, so I have been trying out a piece of mapping software that uses my phone since my Garmin has crapped out and I can't afford to get it repaired until next month.

 

It is called Map my ride.

 

It's OK.

 

I don't know if these links are going to work but I will post up the page links for the individual workouts with my thoughts.

 

Sunday 5th of Jan.

 

http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/456507995

 

First ride back after Xmas and first in a couple of months too.  This one blew out the cobwebs but also took my will to live with it.  Traumatic.

 

 

Tuesday 7th of Jan.

 

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/342312947

 

Should have been easy, 20k to stretch out the legs after Sunday, only 1.5 hills.  Was harder than it should have been but OK.

 

 

Thursday 9th of Jan.

 

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/343008623

 

Feeling a bit better this day, the ride was OK but the wind was apocalyptic, I have attached a link here:

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IISLEOFG2&day=9&year=2014&month=1

If you scroll down to the wind direction and speed and look between 0500hrs and 0700hrs (when I did the ride) you will see that is was a south-westerly wind at 30kph gusting up to 60 kph.

Look at my map and you will see a big section (after I turn right at Allhallows) where I was going right into it.

Having to pedal in the little chain ring while you are going down a hill is a pretty savage morale sponge.

 

 

Sunday 12th Jan.

 

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/344298247

 

Feeling better today, the ride went well and I maintained a speed of 23.9 km/h which is a hair under 15mph - that's especially good when you look at the elevation change and see that I stuck in a new, fairly chunky hill at the end of the ride.

That's probably also due to the Allhallows headwind being a bit lower today.

 

That means I have done 120k this week, in 5hrs and 20 minutes and used 5,500 kilo-calories.

 

Next week is 25, 50, 60 = 135k

 

Week after is 25, 50, 70 = 145k

 

Then 30, 50, 70 = 150k for 4 weeks adding more and more hills.  The week commencing 3rd of March is a slightly easier week and the week commencing 10th of March is the week of the audax so I'll be doing 30, 40, 100 (race day).

With all that training I should be OK...

[amateurstuntman]

Had a mechanical on Tuesday morning and only completed 15k, I then had to walk home with the bike.

 

Annoying.

 

I'm up at 0430hrs tomorrow to do this one:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=213260530618421394229.0004f007867bdd7f847d6&msa=0

 

Which is exactly 50k.

 

My Thursday morning rides will now always be 50k while Tuesday builds up to 30k and the weekend becomes 70.

[FireKnife]

Hmm, so some of my resolutions are working.

 

My food intake is better now with at least a 200% increase in the amount of fresh fruit and veg and an equal drop in 'bad' foods.

 

My exercise regime is going ok but could be better. The weather isn't helping that one and airsoft options are a little thin on the ground.

 

So it could be going a bit better but when the general temperature and weather improves it will.

 

'FireKnife'

[shmook]

Mine has gone to *suitcase* thanks to a niggling back problem. I'm compensating with lots more walking, but just can't.run at the moment.

[Hardcore1-6]

Seems there's a load of fitness and diet goals out here.. thought i'd wade in and offer my old services as a personal trainer. I've still got pretty much all of my source material and contacts in the industry - mostly Bath and London - so can refer anyone to a decent trainer or help out myself.

 

Currently serving so have a nice understanding of current Mil Fit standards. Keen Crossfitter and powerlifter so if that's your thing.. PM me if you're looking for help - or i'll dip in and out of here.

 

Basics for beginners with little to no kit are the 'Couch to 5K' running programme and the 100 Pushups, 200 Situps and 25 Pullup series of Android apps. Very useful bits of kit.

Anyone looking for a more advanced programme, including limited dietary advice, this is my primary procrastination forum!

[Inari]

Goals are coming along nicely - advanced tuck planche press up, press into handstand & handstand press up, controlled back into the advanced tuck for another press up, all smooth and completely locked off

 

Increasing my micro nutrient intake seems to be doing the trick, and I've noticed any little blemishes are not sticking around as they were a while back. Similarly my healing time for larger stresses has further decreased back to what it used to be.

 

The fighting side of things is at a very basic level - just running through basic techniques, getting my body used to moving in that way (from gymnastics to Parkour, I'm much more geared toward movement as opposed to strikes...takes some getting used to ). Happy with progress thus far

[Lasairiona]

I had one goal that i wanted to reach and that was getting my weight under 80kg's as i've been jojoing between 83 and 85 kg for the past 7 years... So at new years eve I got on a scale and I didn't even need to start I was there at 78kg's, apperently stress from a wedding and buying a house did the trick, now it's up to me to keep the weight at the same level.

 

What i'm doing for it: -drinking 2l to 3l water a day

                                  -gym time 2 times a week for 2hours

[amateurstuntman]

Seems there's a load of fitness and diet goals out here.. thought i'd wade in and offer my old services as a personal trainer. I've still got pretty much all of my source material and contacts in the industry - mostly Bath and London - so can refer anyone to a decent trainer or help out myself.

 

Currently serving so have a nice understanding of current Mil Fit standards. Keen Crossfitter and powerlifter so if that's your thing.. PM me if you're looking for help - or i'll dip in and out of here.

 

Basics for beginners with little to no kit are the 'Couch to 5K' running programme and the 100 Pushups, 200 Situps and 25 Pullup series of Android apps. Very useful bits of kit.

Anyone looking for a more advanced programme, including limited dietary advice, this is my primary procrastination forum!

 

What a great offer.

 

Thank you very much.

 

This morning's ride went very well.  I got wrapped though, I need to sort out my feet if I am going to be riding this much.

[Skarclaw]

some resources:

running: http://www.c25k.com/

weight training: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki (the book can be bought quite cheaply or.. ya'know)

exercise directory: http://www.exrx.net/

strength standards: http://www.strstd.com/

intermittent fasting: http://www.leangains.com/

my *albartroth* in muscle and fitness magazine (lol): http://i.imgur.com/ZZs6uVA.jpg

[RSM]

Compound lifts check in, I did actually suffer an abdominal muscle strain (didn't feel off in the gym but woke up the next day in agony, didn't help that I may not have reheated my dinner properly which resulted in me becoming a methane plant for about 48 hours) I relented and went to the docs who poked and prodded and asked me to cough a few times and told me that it is highly unlikely I've herniated and that I've probably strained two different layers of muscles that slide over each other.

 

Anyway, after a week of easing back into things:

 

Bench Press: 75kg

Squat: 100kg

Deadlift: 110kg

 

I find it funny how I get the odd "wtf" look from the newer faces as I can only imagine due to my general pudginess I look disarmingly bulky. Was nice to have someone point out to their buddy that I was deadlifting with textbook form.

 

For those that know, is there any real benefit to me using a belt at this stage? From what I understand they are meant to help your lower back and core (I joke as it being to help hold your back straight and stop you from blowing your guts out) but at what weight do they become a necessity? I'm assuming they should only be used as aids once you get to a weight you can't maintain good form on throughout the set but I would have thought it would be more beneficial to deload that particular lift slightly for a few weeks to allow accessory muscles to catch up?

 

 

ADF is odd...I find myself with an obscene amount of free time at lunch breaks and I'm being missed by the local corner shop. Only started it properly this week so will post a weigh in on Sunday.

[amateurstuntman]

Thanks for checking in...

 

This is my 60 for tomorrow:

 

Link

 

I've been reading the website of the organisation that is running the 100k event I am doing in March.

They have a whole calendar of Audax events and 100k barely counts.  There is a badge called the Super Randonneur that is achieved by completing a 200k, 300k, 400k and 600k event in a year.

 

That is making my challenge gland throb...

[RSM]

Does a 600K event involve towing your own water bowser filled with lucozade? Total energy expenditure must be insane.

 

Scales result was a bit of a surprise, before starting I had a recorded weight of 108kg, scales this morning said 105.5kg. I'm expecting this to be more glycogen and water weight (I have some experience with VLCDs years ago and the first weeks weight loss was always dramatic then stabilised) but it will be interesting to see what happens with consistent application over the next couple of weeks.

[amateurstuntman]

Well I just did 60k (http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/466076177'>see here) and used (according to my phone which often exaggerates a bit) just under 3000 calories.

So a rough guess would be 30,000 kcal or 340 bananas.

 

That's not as bad as it sounds, I just got up, ate a couple of biscuits (300 kcal approx) and left.

So 2700 just from body reserves and I feel fine.

 

The AUK Audax system is (seemingly) brilliant, in March when I have done one I will confirm if it works.

 

The events are categorically not races but they are timed.

They are organised by volunteers.

 

Audax is from the same Latin root as the word audacious, apparently the Italians started it by seeing how far they could get from dusk to dawn.

The French took on the idea on and went brilliantly mad.

 

Completing the Super Randonneur award I mentioned in a given year is an entry requirement for the Paris-Brest-Paris event which is a 1200km event run every 4 years.

 

AUK is affiliated with the French authorities and some (perhaps most, I don't know) of the UK events are eligible for counting towards French awards.

 

 

The idea is to be self-supporting.

You set off from a start point with a Brevet (French for certificate I think) card.  You then cycle from checkpoint to checkpoint getting your card stamped at each.

There is an overall time limit and time limits between the checkpoints.

 

The time limits are based on maximum and minimum speeds and the checkpoints open and close at times that are equivalent to travelling at those maximum and minimum speeds.

The minimum speed is about 15kph depending on the distance run and the max is about 24kph.

 

On the longer runs people try to build up a time buffer so they can get some sleep.

 

Depending on the type of event there can be hot food and bunks available at the checkpoints or absolutely nothing, some checkpoints are 24hr petrol stations that have been warned off.

 

Some of the events are "permanent" in that you can do them any time you want and get shop receipts or submit your GPS trace to the event organiser to have your effort certified.

 

 

All very clever.

[Tinkerton]

That sounds bat-*suitcase* crazy mental.

 

What kind of self-hating person willingly does that!?

 

Anyway, I set the benchmark for my pushups and situps this morning.

 

sit-ups - 33 good form ones before I conked out. Took me about 1:45, so not too bad.

 

Pressups - 1.

 

I have very weak arms, as it turns out. :/

[amateurstuntman]

Not weak - undertrained.

You'll probably be doing 100 in 3 months...

[Tinkerton]

Hopefully so! 

 

Whats the best way to get 'better' at them? Just do them each morning until you can't do any more? (same with sit-ups?)

[Inari]

Absolutely no point in doing a hundred. Keep the resistance high, and the rep count low. There is no evidence to say that doing high repetition of lower resistance boosts endurance (the AMCS study made no such conclusions...they just made their recommendations out of thin air, and it sort of stuck).

LINK: http://baye.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/ebrtr-Fisher1.pdf

 

If you want to get better at press ups, start small - do them on your knees. Assume press up position, lower knees to the ground and press up from there. Use a wide stance to target your chest, narrow to target your triceps. You can alternate doing tricep dips as well to target a slightly different area of the triceps. Similarly you can move to diamond press ups, planche press ups etc.

 

What I'd recommend, if you were my client, is to do press ups on your knees focusing on technique - control the movement throughout; avoid any jerking/violent movement. Then start to increase the rep count until you hit 15-20. Once you hit that, move on to diamond press ups (still on your knees), and then work to full press ups (and then onto diamond again). This will strengthen your arms as you go, and give you a bit of variety.

 

PS: Situps suck - the movement is not something you really do in life; your core is designed primarily to remain rigid, as opposed to crunching. Sit ups are not really taxing you in a way that directly benefits life, so you'd be better off getting the calorie burn from exercises that have a more beneficial end, such as lunges, squats, pull ups etc. If you want to target the core, you can work with things like plank, bridge, handbalancing, hanging leg lifts, skin the cats, burpees etc. Most of which are dynamic (plank & bridge are isometric), and all of which have more direct connotations with how you use your body

[RSM]

Regarding press ups, thats pretty much how I started ^, doing as many as  I could on knees for a few weeks (as well as loads against work tops and such where the load is a lot less) then started trying to do as many as I could every other day in the 'full' position.

[Skarclaw]

http://hundredpushups.com/

 

regarding abdominal exercises the idea of 1000 of situps comes from the military school of thought... Working the abdominals will not strip away the gut though...

 

I like this exercise http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/RectusAbdominis/BBPushCrunch.html

[Tinkerton]

Sounds great, cheers for the advice guys.

 

Weighed myself this morning, down to 112kg. VERY happy with that, and there's still a fair bit of fat to shift, too.

[amateurstuntman]

Sit ups do have one benefit, if you do them with your knees at 90° and your feet pinned under something they will strengthen your hip flexor muscles which can increase stride length and leg speed.

That has benefits in running and marching and that is why the British army does them that way.

 

Felt like utter *suitcase* today, I might be getting haemorrhagic swine AIDS again - I hope not.

Still, tomorrow's ride is a reasonably short one.

[scorch]

With all this keep fit talk, if anyone wants dumbbells my work is selling 30kg sets for £27 free delivery.

 

It's pretty cheap, so I thought I'd let you all know.

 

http://www.proridermobility.com/catalogue.asp?cat=Weights%20and%20Dumbbells&scat=Leisure

[Pistol_Dude]

Sit ups do have one benefit, if you do them with your knees at 90° and your feet pinned under something they will strengthen your hip flexor muscles which can increase stride length and leg speed.

That has benefits in running and marching and that is why the British army does them that way.

 

Felt like utter *suitcase* today, I might be getting haemorrhagic swine AIDS again - I hope not.

Still, tomorrow's ride is a reasonably short one.

I've never heard that before. Very interesting, and a good way to motivate me to do more sit-ups!

 

My resolutions for this year are to lose some of the extra weight I've accumulated over the last couple of years. Ideally going from 91kgs to my 'fighting weight' of 77kgs. This I hope to achieve by changing my diet, and cutting out a lot of the , and excess carbs, and also by increasing the amount of exercise I do.

 

This brings me nicely to my second resolution, which is to run more and to get back up to at least the level I was at before breaking my ankle in 2011. I'm no racing snake, but I was doing quite well (by my standards) and was set to run my next half marathon at 1:45. Since my injury, I've hardly run at all, which is also one of the reasons for the weight gain.......

 

So far this year I've dropped 4kgs, but have only been out running 5 times. 

[amateurstuntman]

Great, 2/7ths of the way there.

 

You know where you are going, you've been there before.

[Inari]

Sit ups do have one benefit, if you do them with your knees at 90° and your feet pinned under something they will strengthen your hip flexor muscles which can increase stride length and leg speed.

That has benefits in running and marching and that is why the British army does them that way.

 

If you want to target your hip flexors, do lunges. They get your quadriceps, hip flexors, calves, glutes, hamstrings, and keep your core tension throughout increasing muscle tone (postural muscle strength), as well as ensuring you don't lock up your lower vertabrae as with heavy squatting. The problem with sit ups is that it is purely a case of endurance, and as I've mentioned already there are more efficient ways of achieving those gains without having to spend as much time. I don't know about ye guys, but for me time is precious...I never have enough of it, so if I can get the same benefit in less time, then I'm going to do that.

 

The problem with pinning the feet is you then have an anchor for the exercise, which means on the initial crunch, you're using your legs as opposed to your abdominal virtually negating the little workout it had, and are now just moving into overall calorie burn.

 

It is odd how archaic the military's methods are - most tests for the Irish Defense Forces are press ups, sit ups and running. Then again, the exercises are used for different reasons...tire people out, make them more receptive