Christmas is over, but my birthday is only a month away…

I want this…

Nike+ Amp Remote

My birthday is 1st Feb, so all donations gladly received!!

A Personal Trainer is not just for Christmas, it’s for life…

Yep, I’ve got personal trainer (PT). And, yes, it’s worth it. Cos I’m essentially an idle bleeder Dave gives me the kick up the butt I need from time to time to get motivated and continue with my goal of getting the weight down, the fitness levels up and generally has helped to keep me healthier than I’ve been in years.

I’d been a member of Fitness First for a year or so before deciding on getting a PT, mainly because I thought I could do it without help, and I probably could, it was just taking too long. Getting a PT has also taught me a variety of exercises, such as core fitball stuff, that I otherwise wouldn’t have even considered.

My gym routine is flexible and varied, but essentially involves a level of CV and weights, with some circuit stuff thrown in to really get a burn going.

A typical circuit involves:

1. 500 m run on treadmill at speed 13 or 14.
2. Sprint up and down the small gym 4 times
3. 20 shoulder presses
4. Sprint up and down the small gym 4 times
5. 20 squats
6. Sprint up and down the small gym 4 times
7. 20 lunges
8. Sprint up and down the small gym 4 times
9. 20 crunches
10. Sprint up and down the small gym 4 times
11. 20 crunches
12. Sprint up and down the small gym 4 times
13. 20 bicycle crunches
14. Sprint up and down the small gym 4 times
15. 20 bench presses
16. Sprint up and down the small gym 4 times
17. 20 bicep curls
18. Sprint up and down the small gym 4 times
19. 20 press ups
20. Sprint up and down the small gym 4 times
21. Repeat twice

Doing that should burn about 800 to 900 calories.

Generally, I work out in the mornings when I have the time, though during the winter I have been going to the gym after work, but it is a real pain trying to get onto any machines with all the posers looking in the mirrors at their muscles!!

A PT also helps by providing dietry advice and Dave has helped me set targets (which I usually fail to meet!) to aim for. My next target is the half-marathon training and I have 3 months to get ready.

Feeling Guilty for not posting?

Yep, well I guess I do feel guilty for not posting, not that anyone is gonna read this stuff, but more because I told Shiny I would start bloggin my progress. Well progress has been made, it’s just that none of it has been blogged. Sorry Shiny. God, reading that blog is such a good read it makes me consider giving up, but I figure what the hell, it will at least be like diary I can pass onto my World of Warcraft playing obese grand children who will have never seen a park, let alone gone for a run.

Anyway, this is 2 posts in one day, so it’s at least a good sign that I have actually started blogging my half-marathon training, just gotta start the training part and all will be well.

Get Fit Activity

• KM Run: 0
• KM Rowed: 0
• Gym Circuits: 0
• Gym Weight Sessions: 0
• Calories Burnt: 0
• Current Weight: 96kg

Not running, but currently listening to:

• Pendulum
• Kings of Leon
• Dizzee Rascal’s cover of the Ting Ting’s ‘That’s not my name’

From July to December – or why I haven’t really got this blog going!

So, I had the grand ideal of recording my plans to get fit, but life kind of got in the way.

So since my last post I have made a purchase of a new iPod Nano with Nike+ kit (very nice and when I use it it motivates me!). I signed up to the Nike+ site after my first run with the kit and it’s great, it records distance, pace, calories etc. It works with a sensor that sits in your Nike+ trainers, or a trainer pouch, if, like me you don’t have Nike+ trainers. The sensor communicates with a small sensor that connects to your ipod Nano. When you are ready to run you set the distance you wish to go for, choose your music and away you go. Every 1km (you can set it up for miles but kms work for me) a voice tells you your distance, calories burned and, if you press the middle button on your ipod, your pace. As you get towards the end of a run the voice counts out your decreasing distance in smaller increments (e.g. 500 metres to go, 400 metres to go etc) – this actually works as a motivator to push yourself for the final sprint.

Once back home, you plug your ipod into your computer and you can send your run info to the Nike+ website where your runs are stored. The site is great and records all your run information as well as allowing you to set goals and challenge other runners.

Once logged in you can view your historic runs:

Nike+ Runs Chart

You can also delve into the detail of the run by clicking on one of the green bars above.

Nike+ Run Detail

You can the name the run so you remember where you failed to meet your goals!

Overall the Nike+ kit has been worth it as it has pushed me to actually set goals for my runs. Since using the kit my pace has gone from 6′18″ per km to 5′27″ per km.

So what has that done for me? Well I started out my training (which includes the gym – I’ll blog this later) at 104 kg (fat b*****d) and got down to 94 kg (not so fat b*****d) and, due to slacking off and Christmas am up to about 96kg.

I’ve got 2 goals over the next 3 months – get down to less than 90kg and be ready for the Reading Half Marathon. Bring it on!!