Week 9 - Row, Row, Row My Boat

The start of my Monday night PT session coincides with the end of RockSolidCircuits at the University of Exeter Sports Hall. These circuit training sessions, run by Martin Hewlett, are tough enough as they are, but some people then come into the gym afterwards to do weights. Hats off to those people.

Ash, the man behind www.rocksolidrace.com, came into the gym on Monday to watch me train and decided to take some video of me on the rower. Lee had given me a programme rowing 100 metres in under 22 seconds, followed by 40 seconds rest. This is then repeated for a further 7 rounds. Sounds easy doesn't it. Well it's not!! The first few are okay but by number 5 you are still recovering from number 4 when you have to go again. God it's tough. Below is a link to the video Ash took. 2 things you should know. First the footage shows me on the 7th round with one to go. Second Lee would like me to point out he's not chatting up some girl in the background, merely answering her question. Lol. I can vouch for this as often people in the gym don't realise the instructors are in the middle of a one-to-one session and just need a quick answer to their questions.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=em-share_video_user&v=GILUbxhvXrM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGILUbxhvXrM%26feature%3Dem-share_video_user&gl=GB

And yes it was every bit as tough as my reaction suggests. The previous day I had bit the bullet and decided, as I'm entering a 10k race, I should start doing some running. I arrived at the gym fully intent on doing 3k on the treadmill as a starting point. I warmed up as usual on the cross trainer but instead of the normal 5 minutes, I decided as I was in no rush, I would carry on for 20 minutes before moving onto the treadmill. That done I began my run and set the pace at a steady 9kmh. I ran for 20 minutes to reach 3k but felt okay so slowed the pace to 6kmh and put the incline up to 2.0 and continued like this for another 5 minutes. I was still feeling okay so increased the pace back up and continued until just before I reached 5k when I then sprinted for the last 30 seconds. In the end I ran 5.04km in a time of 34 minutes. This gives me hope that I can master the running skills needed in the next 16 weeks. I'm sitting here writing this on Thursday evening having so far since Sunday done a 5k run and 2 x 1 hour sessions with Lee and I fully intend to do another 5k on the treadmill this Saturday.

I'm beginning to understand I'm capable of more than I think. I watched a programme on the Team Sky cycling team and in it a sports psychologist talked about the monkey in the brain that tells you it's time to quit and that you can learn to control it and overcome it. Bradley Wiggins, unsurprisingly, swears at his!!! But the point is I'm now listening to my body rather than my mind when exercising. I know it's tough. I know it hurts. But I also know it will be over soon. And if I still have the ability to do it I haven't reached the point of failure so I can carry on.

http://sport.exeter.ac.uk/aboutus/

But the gains are there. I went clothes shopping yesterday and tried on shirts that were size Large. Large!! That for me is progress. Before I embarked on this everything in my wardrobe that fitted me was XXL. So large is a great improvement. And a brilliant feeling. I met up with a friend in Oxford yesterday who I last saw at the end of March when I went to a wedding. Below is a comparison picture from the wedding to yesterday. When I saw the pictures taken at the wedding I was horrified at how I looked and maybe this was the catalyst for me eventually starting the long road to change. But I can see the difference physically now as well as feeling benefits such as more energy, better breathing and better health.






I had another Skype call with Morna Jardine last week and she is very pleased with my progress too. I've agreed to do a mini-detox mid-December and, having looked at what I can and can't eat for the duration, there isn't much I have to do differently to what I'm doing now. With one exception. SALT!!! I'm a big fan of salt. I'd go as far as to say I love it. Those of you of a certain age will remember Salt n Shake crisps from the 70s and 80s. These were unsalted crisps with a little blue salt sachet inside. I seem to recall tipping the contents of this into the bag then, if at home, using the salt pot to add more.

Anyway I know salt is bad for me as it encourages weight gain so I'm cutting back to start with before cutting it out altogether. I know I can do this. I used to drink white coffee with 2 sugars. Then I switched to black coffee with sugar. Then black coffee, no sugar. Now if somebody were to give me sugar in a brew I would find it too sickly sweet and undrinkable. But for now its hard giving up salt as my food tastes so bland without it. However I've discovered if I cry enough tears into my food the salty tears are a good, albeit a soggy substitute.

Check out Morna and what she does here.
http://vital-nutrition.co.uk/about-us/

Another benefit of reducing in size is when I take one of my numerous baths I no longer resemble an iceberg. At the beginning 80% of me was beneath the surface but my belly would jut out above. However my belly now enjoys the warmth of the water every bit as much as my legs and back. Lol.

Finally this week I'm about to break my alcohol fast. I haven't drank any alcohol since my weekend away at the end of September. But this Saturday I'm cooking Christmas dinner for my whole team (11 people including me) and judging by last year's efforts, large quantities of food and drink will be consumed by all. It will be exactly 8 weeks since my last drink so I need to pace myself but I'm looking forward to a night off from being good and I'm not going to worry about it. My next session with Lee is on Monday so I will quickly be back into training mode after the weekend. But I predict Saturday will be messy and I'll get my apologies in now ahead of any misdemeanours.

As always thanks for taking the time to read this

An ever decreasing Dave.

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Location:Yew Tree Close,Exeter,United Kingdom