Week 19 - Run Forrest Run

I've joined a running club!! In fact 2 running clubs!! Me!! It's scarcely believable. I don't like running. In fact before I started this journey I detested running. But this is how much I've changed in the last 4-5 months.

I watched a programme about Eddie Izzard doing his multi marathons for Comic Relief a few years back. Before he started training he met up with a team doctor for GB Olympics. He was asked if he did much running and replied that he once ran for a bus. Now I don't think I even did that these last few years.

But I've joined Exeter City FC running club which meets on a Thursday night and I completed a 6.5km run last week. I've also done my first Parkrun at Killerton on Saturday which is a 5km run held at 9am every Saturday morning. The photo above wasn't from last week but the conditions were similar, if not slightly more muddy.

And do you know what? I loved it. It's tough but there's something very rewarding about getting out of bed early on your day off and doing something energetic which leaves you feeling good about the rest of the day. I'm now spending hours online researching the best trail shoes which will cope with a mixture of mud, grass, tarmac and gravel. Because on Saturday the first section of the course was on a camber in lots of mud and I resembled Bambi on Ice as I tried to maintain a vertical running position. I was running with a mate, Andy, who had the necessary footwear, and he didn't slip once.

This experience also provided me with a memory of my childhood when I got home as it must be the first time in nearly 30 years that I've got into the bath with mud caked to my skin.

Now like I said I've changed. Hugely. Knowing I was doing the 5km on Saturday morning didn't stop me booking a PT session with Lee the same day. Lee has now gone on his well-deserved holiday this week and I had to cancel last week's midweek session with him so Saturday afternoon would be my last opportunity until March. But there is no disruption to my PT sessions as both Martin and Tai have agreed to take me on. I had my first session with Martin yesterday which went well but today is agony. No change there then. Lol.

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

I have another session with Martin tomorrow evening (Friday) and then on Sunday I'm doing a RockSolid training course with SW Military Fitness which is a 2 hour hill rep training session. I must be insane. But there are just over 6 weeks until the race and as the well-known horse burger supermarket says, "every little helps".

I've now signed up officially to the 10km race so there's no getting out of it. Take a look at the interactive course map to see the kind of things in store for me.

http://www.rocksolidrace.com/interactive-map/index.html

Click on the red pins to discover what joys await.

I had a Skype call with Morna Jardine yesterday. Morna is providing me with all my nutritional advice. I told her how easy the healthy eating has now become. It's so natural for me to get up in a morning, make my breakfast and lunch and eat my vitamins and supplements then return in the evening for my meal of steamed veg and poultry, fish or steak (once a week treat). I joked to somebody the other day that my local pizza delivery sent me a get well soon card as they haven't heard from me in ages. And my Clubcard vouchers are no longer for wine as I rarely buy any these days. Morna gave me the tools necessary to complete my mission and it has been up to me to stick to the plan. And by and large I have. I do have wobbles but they are few and far between and I maintain this 80-20 balance of healthy eating. Morna has also helped with which supplements to take. As always I appreciate her taking the time to talk to me and offer her expert advice and guidance.

Finally I am now almost 5 months into my "journey" and thought I would share some of my headline achievements.

I have lost 5 inches from my waist
I have lost 5 inches from my chest
My BMI had reduced by 5
My collar size has gone from 18 to 16.5
I HAVE LOST 3 STONE 4 POUNDS

But they are just numbers. The following photo shows me in July, November and today. It shows most definitely the progress I've made.





One last thing, as Columbo used to say. I've now set up a just giving page to raise some money for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. My page can be found here. http://www.justgiving.com/David-Smithwick


As always thanks for taking the trouble to read this.

A definitely ever decreasing Dave



Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Yew Tree Close,Exeter,United Kingdom

Week 16 - Holiday's Over and Back on a Mission

Well Happy New Year to everybody. Hope you all had a great Christmas with lots of partying and eating. I know I did!!! And I know it came at a price. But I'm pleased to say that the wheels haven't fallen off the wagon completely and I'm back on the straight and narrow and into training mode immediately.

Before Christmas I succumbed to the cold everyone else at work seemed to have. This resulted in me having to cancel 3 PT sessions with Lee. With the added forced suspension of training whilst I was away for Christmas I only trained twice from the 10th Dec until resuming on 2nd Jan. And oh how my body reminded me afterwards.

It's fair to say that, whilst I approached Christmas with good intentions, it was always going to be tricky. I was home in Manchester for 5 days and crammed so many social events in that I could almost feel the pounds going back on with each bite. But I had a thoroughly good time and needed to remind myself that I'm making changes to my life forever. Not just 12 weeks. And that means that when celebrations occur I will embrace and enjoy them. It's more about what I do the rest of the time that counts.

My first session back with Lee was gruesome. The cardio stuff was okay but I was breathing heavily after only a few minutes. But the circuit stuff hurt at the time and was like the gift that kept giving for the next 3 days! Lee worked my shoulders and upper arms which were relatively okay but the squats and lunges taught me, where possible, not to have a break from doing them. Because your muscles soon forget what you've done previously. I can honestly say it was by far my toughest session yet. And to heap misery on even more I asked to weigh myself at the end of the session and discovered I'd put on 6 pounds since mid December. But that was better than I'd been expecting.

The next day at work I was in agony! Everything hurt. And I mean everything. One of the movements I do most in my day is standing up from a chair on wheels and sitting down again about 3-4 times in every 20 minute consultation. And I see 23 patients a day. Now I couldn't tell you whether getting up or sitting down was more painful because both were awful. Occasionally I'd be mid-sentence to my patient and I'd hear my voice go up an octave. I was almost in tears. But that was only the next day! The day after that was even worse. My colleagues kept hearing little whimpers as I moved about the department. I had intended to do a treadmill run 2 nights later but couldn't even operate the clutch in my car so waited until the next night and went and did a cardio session. So that's why I found myself in the gym at 8pm on a Saturday night. I've so changed. Lol.

As always I am eternally grateful to the team at Exeter University Sports Faculty. Lee has been immense and has given me self belief and the ability to do so much more than I felt possible. I follow some of the coaches on Twitter and Martin Hewlett, who made my training possible, tweeted this the other day.

"I have seen 2 PT clients today and both were nearly sick training. Either I'm really nasty today or they enjoyed Xmas too much! #timetotrain"

This made me realise that lots of people feel it when they resume training after a break and I felt less guilty than I had been. Lol.

Lee is going to be away for 5 weeks from the end of this month and I'm very fortunate to have Nitai (Tai) willing to continue my training in Lee's absence. Tai has followed my blog and regularly chats to me when I'm at the gym so I know I'm in safe hands and no doubt will be introduced to whole new worlds of pain.

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


Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. -William James


There are just under 10 weeks until www.RockSolidRace.com now. So I'm stepping up my training. The biggest area I need to focus on is running. So I've joined a running club. Me. A running club. Who'd have thought it? Exeter City Football Club are starting a beginners group this Thursday. So I've put my name down and will hopefully get some worthwhile miles under my belt. As of next week I will be doing RockSolidCircuits on Monday, PT with Lee on Tuesday and Wednesday or Wednesday and Friday and Running Club on Thursday. And on one of my days off I'm going out for long bike rides. The other day off will be to collapse in a heap somewhere.

I have to say I'm loving the bike rides. So far I've done 3 trips. Each one between 15 and 20 miles. Now the last time I embarked on any serious bike rides I was still at school. And in those days I lived in Manchester. If UK cities were countries for comparative purposes Manchester would be Holland and Exeter would be Nepal. There are many types of hill in Exeter. Long relentless inclines, short steep rises and repetitive hill followed by flat, followed by hill. I find it deeply rewarding that, thanks to my gym work on the bike with Lee, I tackle all these hills with gusto. I went on a bike ride with friends on New Years Day. One of my friends has done a lot of mountain biking but this has been somewhat curtailed in the last 12 months by the arrival of his daughter. He conceded that I was probably fitter than him now. In fact all the friends I was out with said that a few months ago I wouldn't have even contemplated the notion of going for a bike ride any time let alone the day after a big party. And they were all impressed that I not only did it but more than held my own and didn't hold everyone back.





And no it isn't Laa Laa one of the Teletubbies.

Finally I wanted a coffee on Saturday morning on the way to work so called in at Starbucks. It was only after I'd paid £2.50 for my skinny decaf cappuccino with no chocolate sprinkles that I thought "what's the point of that?" So I won't be bothering again and will stick to water or a slice of lemon in hot water. At least with those I know what I'm getting and not paying the earth for a poor substitute of something I really wanted.

Once again if you've made it to here without getting too bored, thanks for following my journey

A (mostly) ever decreasing Dave.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Yew Tree Close,Exeter,United Kingdom