Well today was the re-program day… and boy it’s a tough program. It’s the normal warm up, a bit of plodding along on a treadmill, followed by a load of weight and resistance training to strengthen my core muscles, these include (among many other things) Lunges (with a heavy medicine ball) some kind of torture called chin ups, and two types of “The Plank” where you pretty much hold your body flat off the ground supported only by toes and elbows, sounds okay in theory but then when she is watching you and says “Don’t lock your knees like that it makes it to easy” you soften your knees and HELLO STOMACH MUSCLES you turn into a wobbly mess, struggling to hold yourself up completely flat, and she says “That’s it, hold it there for 30 seconds” OUCH!!
We also discussed my exercise program at the moment, she thought it might be a good idea to stop Body combat for a while as it’s a little heavy on the joints, she also thought it was Brilliant that I was doing Spin as “It’s great cardio but it will also give your legs a bit of a rest” has she not been in the same spin sessions I have?!
Then comes the running, I will be running too (Funny that) and here is the challenge or “Goal” she seemed to be wanting me to have a goal, and to be fair I do work best when I am given goals and objectives, I guess it’s the nature of a Project Manager, to have something to work towards, so my goal is, in the next 4 weeks (when I see her again) I have to be running 10K (6.2 Miles) in 1 hour, she will then want me to reduce this down to about 10K in 40 minutes. 10K is about quarter of the marathon, so by running this distance in 40 minutes I am running almost full tilt, this means that when I begin to slow down to my Marathon pace having been running this distance for this time I should then find it easier… I like her style of thinking, she is currently training for a half marathon to, so I think I have been placed with a good Personal Trainer.
So this 10K run has to happen about once a week, and I must be cautious not to over train, I will be training Monday through to Friday and having the whole weekend off, this is what I have tended to do anyway as I like the mentality of having a weekend off, although in reality weekends are usually just as busy as the week days if not more and thus I would find it hard to fit any gym in any way!
Now, after the many years of saying that you should never run the full distance and that everyone hits the wall, apparently this is not the case, they now say to be properly prepared you should have at least run the distance on treadmill so you can see how your body will react and also, hitting the wall or at least the effects of this are lessened if not removed by correct hydration, hydrated or not I think by the time I hit the 20th mile I am gonna want it over sooner rather than later, but looks like we will factor in a 26 mile run on the treadmill about 4 months before hand… just after Christmas then!!
Other than that, she has asked me to keep a diary, what I eat and when, and training diary and basically see what “Fuel” my body works best on, We also discussed diet a little, lots of wholegrain, and I will need a fair bit of carb and protein, so wholegrain pasta is in, homemade wholegrain pizza topped with tommy puree, peppers and grilled chicken… is in, Cake is out… hmmm anyone ever made a wholegrain cake? And does Carrot cake class as one of my 5 a day? :o)
So then after my session I did the usual bubble around in the outdoor Jacuzzi before moving indoors, when I met some guys I chat to from time to time, and discovered that they have both run the Marathon in the past, they say the training is hard (Or rather a pain in the a**) but I will love it on the day, one guy managed a time of 4 hours 10 minutes, the other did 3 hours 50 minutes, they are really good times, the average is 4 hours 30 minutes, I was hoping to do it in about 4 hours, but we will see.
And so far today no biscuits, even though there has been a packet sitting on the side behind my desk ALL day I haven’t touched a single solitary cookie, custard cream, or jammy dodger!!
Time for the shameless plug again… so let’s not forget why I am putting myself through this, not only is it a personal voyage of discovery and enlightenment but I am trying to raise lots of money for Asthma UK, so please, PLEASE pop along to my Virgin Money Giving site that you can find here http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnClitherow and sponsor me.
See you all soon,
Jay (Red John).
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