A Week of Workouts - Trying to Escape the Orbit of the Dark Planet

Location: My house, Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date:29th April

Tuesday (my house)
Quick blaster to get the brain going:
36 Push Ups
20 Dumbbell Deadlifts
Total time: 5 Minutes
Food: fasted until lunch, then salmon, avocado & nuts.

Thursday (Aston gym)
Swimming Sprints - 8 x one-length front crawl @ 95%, 30 - 90 seconds rest between.
Total time: 15 minutes
Food: egg, fruit & coconut cream breakfast bonanza + walnuts

Saturday (my house)
Weights circuit - alternating the exercises with minimum rest:
Dumbbell bench press: 3 x 10 @ 25k
One-arm dumbbell bent-over row: 3 x 10 @ 35kg, 32.5kg, 32.5kg
Clean and press: 3 x 10 @ 35kg
Ab roll-outs: 3 x 10 from the knees (with dumbbell)
Total time: 20 minutes
Food: egg, fruit & coconut cream breakfast bonanza

I am still battling the binge mentality that started to bed in on my 2-week trip to Asia which I only partly mitigated with efforts to workout on the trip.

At the moment I am still lapsing, usually after too much wine, then battling to keep physical well-being with short, intense workouts. It's amazing how powerful they can be in restoring a feeling of hormonal balance.... but amazing how quickly that can be sabotaged with a lapse.

This time I can feel the grip of the dark planet starting to loosen. I just need to escape its orbit entirely; a full week of good food and good workouts will free my mind of the nagging temptations trying to pull me back down. ... Read more

2 Weeks of Hotel Workouts and Bad Living

Last Friday I returned from a 13-day business trip to Asia. It was a whirlwind of busy schedules, flights and unhealthy living (a post about the horrific diet I had is on PNLL.)

I drank a lot, ate a lot and tried to do a lot of working out to compensate. But as time went by, fears about burning the candle at both ends and a lack of motivation shortened my workouts. Here is a summary.




Singapore

On day one, I did a round robin of weights in the gym - dumbbell chest, chin-ups, dumbell bent-over rows, upright rows. No rest in between, about 20 minutes. I had binged on the flight the night before so felt the need to work hard.

The gym in Singapore

The following day, an hour-long run around the botanical gardens. I didn't feel like it, but had eaten a stack of food the night before (again!) and lots of beer. This is breaking my own rules - fighting food and beer with cardio is not the answer.

On day 3 I did a Tabata burpees session to clear my head for a presentation I had to give. My legs were already shot from the run, not to mention that I had eaten bad food and drank beer the night before. But I did feel better after the burpees, if a little wobbly.

This had been three days of exercise in a row. Not like me.

I managed to have a rest on day 4; then on day 5, before the flight to China, another punishing round robin of weights in the gym, this time including Romanian deadlift with a slippery bar and no straps to help. Once again this was to combat a night of buffet food and beers.

China

In spite of consuming an impossible amount of buffet food on arrival, on the following day there was no time for working out because we had so much to do. The day after that, though, I got up early and jogged down to the river front where I did some much needed sprints following.... yes, you guessed it, after a night of too much food and beer.

The river front, ideal for sprinting

In case you were wondering, yes, coffee was an essential ingredient in the ill-advised balancing act I was performing.

The following day, before the flight to India, I did a standard bodybuilding workout in the gym, regretting the seated pulley row immediately because I had forgotten it inflames an old whiplash injury on my right trap. Those 3 x 10 workouts with rest between sets seemed easy compared to the stuff I normally do and it was welcome, given my increasingly poor state of health.

The gym in Shanghai, China

The inviting pool in Shanghai, which I didn't go in

India

I rested on the first day, then the next day did another round robin, this one only 10 minutes, as I was not feeling great. I also did, later in the day, a spontaneous BBS-style 90-second leg extension set in a vain effort to reduce the flight-induced swollen feet and ankles, made worse, I suspected, by bad living (more on that in the PNLL post.)

The gym in India. Small.

At this point you can assume that every night is buffet, cakes and beer. I was not feeling much like working out, which was just as well, because the gym was not good.

I had a couple of days without exercise, then a day before flying back to the UK, a perfunctory weights session consisting of a single set of about 30 Romanian deadlift. By now I was just trying to produce some beneficial hormones and keep my insulin under control.

Back in the UK

Once back, it was detox time. I was still not ill, and utterly baffled by that fact. Determined to keep it that way, I have have stuck to short, sharp, varied workouts and, naturally, pure eating (you can see that on the meals page of PNLL)

Thursday REST
Friday REST
Saturday Single round of Mixed Tabata Circuit Intervals (4 mins)
Sunday REST
Monday Swimming sprints - 10 mins total - 6 sprints 25 seconds each
Tuesday REST
Wednesday Weights circuit - 8 minutes - Press Ups, Chin Ups, Deadlift, Crunches, Box Jumps
Thursday REST
Friday (yesterday) Tabata rowing machine

So I didn't get ill, in spite of my wife having a cold and my UK office being full of coughing, sneezing people. I am feeling fit again. I am back in the game. But it was a struggle. ... Read more

Cheat 300 Workout, Minus Final Chin Ups

Location: Woodcock Sports Centre, Aston University
Date:29th April

Workout: Cheat '300' Workout

25 Chin Ups - 17, 3, 3, 2
50 Deadlifts (Romanian) - 50
50 Push Ups - 35, 10, 5
50 Box Jumps - 50
50 Floor Wipers - 25, 15, 10
25 x 2 Clean and Press with Dumbbell - right arm - 15, 10; left arm - 15, 10
25 Chin Ups

Total Time: 23:56

Post Workout Nutrition: paleo breakfast of champions with kiwi and cocoa, 30 minutes later.

I didn't fancy that last set this time. It's been a while since my last cheat 300 and chin ups are always the first exercise I get weak on, making that final set a torturous sequence of low or single reps for the last 5 minutes.

However, 24 minutes is not a bad time to get that far, which I attribute to the fewer sets I required overall. I have realised that a narrower grip (shoulder width) is much better for the floor wipers, which reduced the sets to 3. Could even get this to 2 next time.

I will try to throw a few more random chin up sets into my normal activities so that when I come to my periodic 300 tests, that final set does not seem like quite such a mountain to climb. ... Read more

Llantysilio Fell Race, Fasted, Virtually Zero Carb

Location: Llangollen, Wales
Date: 24th April

Workout: Llantysilio Fell Race - 6.2 miles, 2100 feet of ascent

Total Time: 1 hour 16 minutes

Post Workout Nutrition: a large piece of beef, 6 hours later

This was an interesting experiment for me, because this race took place at the end of virtually zero carb week. The race started at 11am and I hadn't eaten since the night before, which had been a bowl of slow cooked chicken leftovers and bones.

Pre-Race Cake and Five Finger Discovery

Lightning, on the other hand, was apparently on a max carb experiment, as this photo taken an hour before the race shows. As I enjoy a pre-race coffee, he sets about an impressive slab of chocolate cake...

Cake? Not me guv'nor.

As we registered and collected our racing numbers, we met someone else wearing Vibram Five Fingers. This is the first time I have seen another person running a mountain race in Five Fingers. Lightning was clearly amused by this, and took this photo:

Two members of a rare breed of fell runner spotted...

Lightning has his own amusing take on the significance of these 'rare breeds' coming together, which you can read on his blog here. As I say in the comments, I would have been happy if some kind of weird, non-sexual FiveFinger breeding alchemy could have produced additional pairs from nowhere so that I wouldn't have to pay £150 to get them shipped over via eBay and UPS...

The Race

Competitors meandering at the start line

This was the route - more or less a circuit, going clockwise from the bottom right and with a brief, steep section up to the highest point, where the runners coming to the end of a gruelling set of peaks watch others careering back down past them:

The GPS altitude graph shows that final, highest peak about three quarters of the way through. The long haul up there was a struggle. Mercifully, after that it was downhill all the way, with the final mile being a tarmac road, allowing me to unload entirely, since there were no nasty stones to hurt my feet through the Vibrams.

Compared to the faces I usually get captured pulling on the downhill sections, this is a relatively good shot of me, taken not long after I had started coming down from the highest point.

Battling the downhill stones in the thin-soled Vibrams
(photo by Alistair)

Having been beaten in Wednesday's Wrekin Streak race by Lightning, I was motivated a little more than usual to put in a good performance, and really did this one as fast as I could. I came in about 2 minutes ahead and felt pretty strong through most of it. As will always be the case when you run a race as fast as you can, it hurt. But it was the right kind of hurt: the kind which, with hindsight, you enjoyed.

After the race, there was time to relax at the pub, where Lightning and I continued to exhibit contrasting approaches to nutrition. Behind the camera, I am nursing a pint of iced water...

The Zero Carb Verdict

As I mentioned in my post at the time, Wednesday's short race saw me feeling sluggish of leg, at least in the early stages. I had been inclined to wonder whether the zero-carb days leading up to it were to blame.

However, for this race, three days later, I had eaten even fewer carbs. Literally, I'd eaten a chicken, a rabbit, three eggs and a tin of sardines. Yet I had all the energy I needed. Perhaps my body had made some radical changes in the meantime - or perhaps Wednesday's sluggishness caused by something else entirely.

Would I have grun faster this time on a higher carb diet? Probably. I might even have shaved a couple of minutes off my time; but I am not within a couple of minutes of the course record - I am within 30 minutes. So what really matters is whether I can run the race comfortably and enjoy it - which I could.

I am not saying I will now always eat zero carb or go out of my way to fast before races - but it's good to know that I can if I need to, and that I don't have to scuttle around preparing special meals because I have a race the next day. ... Read more

Upper Body Tabata Intervals

Location: My House
Date: 23rd April

Workout: Mixed Tabata Intervals

Total Time: 9 minutes
Post Workout Nutrition: sardines and boiled eggs, 1 hour & 10 mins later.

I only wanted to hit the upper body, so I took the four exercises that avoided the legs and did each one twice in each Tabata set of 8. It did two Tabatas in total. It was, as any Tabata should be, tough, but the absence of quad involvement did keep me out of the vomit zone.

Floor Press - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Bent Over Row - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Seated Knee Raises - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Upright Row - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Floor Press - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Bent Over Row - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Seated Knee Raises - 20 seconds
10 seconds rest
Upright Row - 20 seconds

1 minute rest, then the same again.

The weights I chose we pretty low, but I find that when you are doing Tabata-style high speed, high intensity reps, it's very difficult to go too light. Lighter means faster, which means more effort. You still end up struggling towards the end of the 3rd and 4th set.

Update: I have changed the exercise from Press Ups to Floor Press - this was a copy and paste error - my comment below about not doing press ups should now make more sense!
... Read more

'The Wrekin Streak' Fell Race - Fasted

Location: The Wrekin
Date: 21st April

The Race: up the light side and down again. 2.75 miles, 810 feet of ascent.

Time: 26:56

Post Workout Nutrition: a rabbit, an hour later.

Two years ago I ran this in about 24:15. This time I am a little heavier, a little less fit and a little slower downhill because of my 'barefoot' footwear.

The last excuse I can live with, the first two, I must work on.

That said, I am growing in confidence with the downhill, which is heartening. Last time I ran down the same route I was much more afraid and less surefooted. Perhaps my feet are strengthening, but I have a sense that I am also becoming less afraid.

There were also three interesting dimensions to this run.

First, I had not eaten since the night before, when I had eaten a mackerel. Yet I was able to fuel nearly 30 minutes of hard running, then drive home for 45 minutes. At no point did I feel faint.

Second, I have been on a virtually zero carb diet since Monday - there were no vegetables with that mackerel, as the photo shows.

Third, earlier that day, I received two combination vaccination jabs for a variety of diseases. Can I workout later? had been my question. Just make sure you eat plenty was the response, which as you see, I duly ignored.

I must confess that at the start of the race, my legs felt heavy. I am not convinced this has anything to do with any of these factors though. They had felt heavy all week, even before I started the change in diet. I attribute it more to the combination of a long, easy run on Sunday after 'incorrect nutrition' the night before!

Update: Lightning has posted a few videos from his headcam, which he cunningly secreted aongst the branches of a tree at the start/finish. Here is one of them. You can see me trundling home in the last 20 seconds, and can tell that by this point my feet were feeling the wrath of the stoney ground.

... Read more

Easy Wrekin Trail & Impromptu Weights Same Day

Location: The Wrekin and My Dad's Garage
Date: 18th April

Morning workout: run round the Wrekin hill - route and GPS map on Lightning's blog.
Evening Workout: weights in my Dad's garage
- 9 dumbbell bench press @60lbs
- 15 upright row @30kg
- 7 pull down with narrow reverse grip @ 160lbs

Total time for run: 1 hour 18 minutes
Total time for weights: 5 minutes

Post Workout Nutrition: fasted until the evening, so no food after the run, but this 30 minutes after the weights.

To understand the humour in these pictures, you may need to read my post about the book Born to Run...

[click for larger picture]

I hadn't intended to do the weights as well, but my Dad and I were standing around in his garage-based gym chewing the fat when the urge to do a few sets took me. This feels like the random event we would have encountered in the wild, so I was comfortable with doing more exercise than might be sensible on typical workout days. ... Read more