In 2013, I ran 1226 miles; I had my 40th birthday; completed two marathons and three half-marathons; I started a running club in my children's primary school; I learned to do chin-ups; I joined a gym for the first time in nearly a decade; I totally overhauled what I eat. It's been my best fitness year ever.
In January I was rather miserable and got poorly.
In February I started training for the Edinburgh Marathon, feeling daunted but quickly realised that I could regain my speed and increase confidence.
In March I passed my CYQ Level 2 Gym Instructor qualification! It took a lot of hard work and practice but I'm really proud to have held my own in a class of people half my age and feel so much more confident in my fitness knowledge and my own fitness.
In April I finished up my HNC in Fitness, Health and Exercise from
Edinburgh College. I'd originally signed up for the HND - one more
year's study - but the course was geared towards university applicants,
so I took what I had and decided to work for a Personal Trainer
qualification in January.
In May, I completed the Edinburgh Marathon in 4 hours and 12 seconds, and accordingly developed a monkey for my back about getting a sub-4-hour marathon.
In June became a coaching client of Angie Spencer at Marathon Training Academy and learned the value of having a coach and mentor and exactly how that can make me a better runner.
In July I took a month off running to see if I could cure the plantar fasciitis which I'd suffered from since May. It didn't work but I did enjoy working out in the gym instead, including the lovely Elite in Broadstairs and the glorious Fitness First in Brighton.
In August I had one of my favourite, most transformative runs, 8 miles up and down the Royal Mile with Vicki Weitz, when I realised for the first time that running need not be solitary and need not be non-stop.
In August (also) I started a few new college courses: CYQ's Exercise to Music qualification via Edinburgh College at Granton; Applied Nutrition, and Pre- and Post-Natal Fitness, both at Edinburgh College at Milton Road (same institution, a few miles apart but a world of difference!)
In September, I completed the Loch Ness Marathon in 4 hours 7 minutes and learned how much fun running a marathon can be, especially when the scenery is beautiful, the race is well-organised and there's a bit of tourism involved.
In October I switched to a No Sugar, No Grains diet and loved it, and I'm still thriving on it, delighted to no longer be a slave to sugar and to instead have long-lasting, fat-fuelled energy.
In December, I managed to do 40 chin-ups in one week before straining a pec and having to take the rest of the month off, but also managed to run 40 miles in the week of my birthday, including a brilliant 22-miler on my actual birthday.
If you'd like to see some of what I plan for 2014, nip over to my fortyfest blog, for some forthcoming fitness fun. There will be more too, as I study for my PT qualification and set up as a PT - can't wait!!
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Monday, 30 December 2013
Saturday, 13 April 2013
Marathon ranting
I had a marathon moan a few weeks ago, and now I'm going to tell you about my marathon rant!
Yesterday I had the chance to bore the pants off my classmates about my marathon training. It was (for me) brilliant.
As part of the HNC course, we do a unit called Personal Development Planning. We each select five goals (academic, professional, or personal) and track our progress towards them. Theoretically it's a helpful skill to aquire, but it's impossible to make people achieve goals if they're not motivated towards them - which frankly is the main problem with the course. "You WILL achieve your goals, or else!" - it's not the best approach.
So anyway, part of the course was treating our classmates to a five minute presentation on the progress so far we'd made towards one of our goals. Looking at my goals and realising that there'd been a distinct lack of progress on four of them, I sighed deeply and opened PowerPoint to write about my marathon training.
My goal is to run this year's Edinburgh Marathon in a personal best of less than 4 hours. Cue a SWOT analysis of the goal, photos of last year's race and details of my training programme.
The truth is that once I got going, I really enjoyed telling everyone how I was getting on. Perhaps all I really wanted was the chance to share how my training was going - I don't really have anyone to bore with the facts of my training, and these guys had to listen - or at least, they had to not fall asleep. I finished off by giving them a jelly baby each - after all their are the secret of my training success. Why was I surprised to get the bag back afterwards to find all the black and red ones gone?
It also gave me the chance to look at my statistics and realise that I'm making progress.
Yesterday I had the chance to bore the pants off my classmates about my marathon training. It was (for me) brilliant.
As part of the HNC course, we do a unit called Personal Development Planning. We each select five goals (academic, professional, or personal) and track our progress towards them. Theoretically it's a helpful skill to aquire, but it's impossible to make people achieve goals if they're not motivated towards them - which frankly is the main problem with the course. "You WILL achieve your goals, or else!" - it's not the best approach.
So anyway, part of the course was treating our classmates to a five minute presentation on the progress so far we'd made towards one of our goals. Looking at my goals and realising that there'd been a distinct lack of progress on four of them, I sighed deeply and opened PowerPoint to write about my marathon training.
My goal is to run this year's Edinburgh Marathon in a personal best of less than 4 hours. Cue a SWOT analysis of the goal, photos of last year's race and details of my training programme.
The truth is that once I got going, I really enjoyed telling everyone how I was getting on. Perhaps all I really wanted was the chance to share how my training was going - I don't really have anyone to bore with the facts of my training, and these guys had to listen - or at least, they had to not fall asleep. I finished off by giving them a jelly baby each - after all their are the secret of my training success. Why was I surprised to get the bag back afterwards to find all the black and red ones gone?
 |
| (red and black ones still shown) |
It also gave me the chance to look at my statistics and realise that I'm making progress.
- My average speed for my easy runs has increased by 36 seconds per mile
- my average speed for my long runs has increased by 18 seconds per mile, and
- my 20 mile run time predicts a marathon finishing time 3 hours and 55 minutes.
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
BodyAttack
Ooh, did I just find my favourite gym class ever?!
There's nothing new about BodyAttack, it's just that I've never tried it before. I think it's the 'attack' bit that put me off, but it turns out that BodyCombat is the martial arts class and that BodyAttack isn't. Edinburgh Leisure helpfully describes the class as "A simple, motivating and satisfying workout which will deliver results... using high energy interval training techniques", which doesn't exactly give much away and is probably why I've avoided it for so long.
D'y'know what it was? Aerobics!
When I say aerobics, I think of these key components:
I felt really nicely knackered by the end of it, nothing totally killed me (well, a final set of squat pulses at the end was kinda horrible, but this was my second workout of the day) and I felt like I'd 'done enough', which is a feeling I don't get from many classes.
It helped that the teacher at Meadowbank, Vicky, was really good - no nonsense, great cueing, clear demonstrations; that the class wasn't so busy that I couldn't see; and the music was - well, it was okay, I won't say it was any better than that - more crowd-pleasers would've been good.
I liked it better than Zumba because I didn't feel like an idiot doing daft moves.
I liked it better than Sh'Bam because I didn't feel like a complete idiot doing really daft moves.
I liked it better than BodyPump because I sweated plenty and got to jump about.
I liked it better than BodyCombat because there was more counting to 4 and only really easy technique.
BodyAttack is now my gym class of the moment! What's yours?
There's nothing new about BodyAttack, it's just that I've never tried it before. I think it's the 'attack' bit that put me off, but it turns out that BodyCombat is the martial arts class and that BodyAttack isn't. Edinburgh Leisure helpfully describes the class as "A simple, motivating and satisfying workout which will deliver results... using high energy interval training techniques", which doesn't exactly give much away and is probably why I've avoided it for so long.
D'y'know what it was? Aerobics!
When I say aerobics, I think of these key components:
- Start the move. Do it four times. Change the move. Do it four times. Repeat.
- Have music on.
- Do different sets of moves to different music.
- Use these moves: grapevines, sidesteps, run forward, clap. Jumping jacks, squats, lunges. Kicks, skaters, plyometric jumps. Knee lifts, knee repeats. (plenty of old skool aerobics moves!)
- No weights.
- Abs track at the end, on a mat.
- Sweat plenty.
I felt really nicely knackered by the end of it, nothing totally killed me (well, a final set of squat pulses at the end was kinda horrible, but this was my second workout of the day) and I felt like I'd 'done enough', which is a feeling I don't get from many classes.
It helped that the teacher at Meadowbank, Vicky, was really good - no nonsense, great cueing, clear demonstrations; that the class wasn't so busy that I couldn't see; and the music was - well, it was okay, I won't say it was any better than that - more crowd-pleasers would've been good.
I liked it better than Zumba because I didn't feel like an idiot doing daft moves.
I liked it better than Sh'Bam because I didn't feel like a complete idiot doing really daft moves.
I liked it better than BodyPump because I sweated plenty and got to jump about.
I liked it better than BodyCombat because there was more counting to 4 and only really easy technique.
BodyAttack is now my gym class of the moment! What's yours?
Saturday, 22 December 2012
End of Term review
College is over for the Christmas holidays and it seems like a good time to reflect on the first four months of my HND course at Edinburgh College.
So, how's college going? It's brilliant.
I last left full time education was in 1996 (when some of my classmates weren't even born) when I finished my honours degree in Politics. At the time I thought I'd enjoyed my time at University, but I don't think I had nearly as much fun in those five years as I've had in the last four months. (Although in those days I could tell you who was top of the hit parade and knew how to dress like a student, I can't do those things any more.)
First of all, on a basic level, I get to go somewhere warm and comfortable four days a week, where people have prepared things for me to learn, which I'm interested in. And every so often, they prepare wee hoops for me to jump through, so I can see whether I'm doing all right or not, and then they tell me whether I've done well or not. That is FUN. I don't have to be responsible for anybody else, I get to dress the way I want, and the coffee is very cheap.
The teaching quality is variable. Some of the staff on the course are great, committed and easy to understand, delivering the quality content in a professional way and willing to work with us to help us get through the course. There are other staff who I've had to learn to get along with, which has been constructive and valuable, since we all come from different backgrounds and we can't expect to hit it off with everybody straight away. And then there are others who make me wonder what quality control the college implements.
The content of the course is fine - learning to instruct clients in the gym is obviously useful; the basis of nutrition, anatomy and physiology which we'll build on as the course goes on; health screening for future gym clients has been quite low on content but interested - and I've already passed my First Aid certificate, which is great!
As far as how I'm doing, all seems fine - I'm passing my assessments and assignments without too many difficulties, and even the practical gym instruction assessment I was so worried about went fine.
I'm unsettled by how easily I've taken to the uniform. It's not compulsory but the gym trousers and big hoodie are really very comfortable, and it's much easier to wear them than it is to lug a change of clothes around all day. I need to be careful I'm not lowering my personal standards - I got a new pair of cherry red DMs for my birthday so hopefully that'll help me keep up my sartorial qualities.
The revelation has been the class, which has turned out to be amazing. There are about 20 of us, I'm the oldest by a decade and I'm twice the age of some of my classmates, and while I don't ever *forget* that, it's a whole lot less relevant than I expected it to be. They're a great group of people, much more tolerant of a mature student than I was as an undergraduate, and there isn't a day that goes back at college without me laughing out loud.
One of the tougher things I've come to terms with is my inner lech. Plenty of the lads in the class are in extremely fine physical condition, which, frankly, makes the days pass a bit more pleasurably. Now, in my defence, I come from a dancing background, and if a dancer looks great or does a move beautifully, I will watch her, enjoy watching, and usually tell her so. This is because she's a dancer, a performer, who expects to be watched, dances in order to be watched. It's part of who I am! However, this doesn't translate terribly well to a gym environment, particularly when the individuals are young males.
It got to the stage where, when one lad was doing chin-ups, another lad rushed over and put his hands over my eyes, saying "you're not to watch, Elspeth - it'll get you going." What a reality check - was I a cougar? The resident old lady enjoying the boys working out a *bit too much*? I took a good look at what I was doing and I summed it up as "I appreciate their bodies - but I don't want to hold them close to mine!". I appreciate the work that they've done to build muscle, get rid of any fat, and seeing a well-executed deadlift is pretty much as good as a well-executed bellydance technique. And there's no doubt I'd be the same about the girls in the class if they were buff or ripped - but the truth is that they aren't really! (Sorry girls, but I think you know it's true!)
I feel that I have a "mummy" role in the class sometimes too, especially as I bake cakes and cookies for the class to share. (I thought that a fitness class would shun such sugary treats, but I reckoned without those boys whose muscles mean they "just can't eat enough" (can you *imagine*?!), and white choc chip cookies are very popular.) Then my niece ask whether this wasn't tantamount to not only being a lech, but asking the young things if I could give them sweeties before I took them to see some puppies.
Our Christmas night out was a great night - I even ended up in a nightclub where I occasionally forgot that I was the oldest person there!
So the last four months of 2012 have been brilliant. I've loved college and seem to have managed to balance it without too much disruption to my family or work. I've just asked my son who says the only difference is that I take him to school less (his Daddy takes him a couple of days a week now), but that it's fine because I'll have a better job afterwards. Wise beyond his years (this is the same boy who told me that ATP was "20p short of a pound, mummy.")
Fingers crossed for more time at college like these last four months!
So, how's college going? It's brilliant.
I last left full time education was in 1996 (when some of my classmates weren't even born) when I finished my honours degree in Politics. At the time I thought I'd enjoyed my time at University, but I don't think I had nearly as much fun in those five years as I've had in the last four months. (Although in those days I could tell you who was top of the hit parade and knew how to dress like a student, I can't do those things any more.)
First of all, on a basic level, I get to go somewhere warm and comfortable four days a week, where people have prepared things for me to learn, which I'm interested in. And every so often, they prepare wee hoops for me to jump through, so I can see whether I'm doing all right or not, and then they tell me whether I've done well or not. That is FUN. I don't have to be responsible for anybody else, I get to dress the way I want, and the coffee is very cheap.
The teaching quality is variable. Some of the staff on the course are great, committed and easy to understand, delivering the quality content in a professional way and willing to work with us to help us get through the course. There are other staff who I've had to learn to get along with, which has been constructive and valuable, since we all come from different backgrounds and we can't expect to hit it off with everybody straight away. And then there are others who make me wonder what quality control the college implements.
The content of the course is fine - learning to instruct clients in the gym is obviously useful; the basis of nutrition, anatomy and physiology which we'll build on as the course goes on; health screening for future gym clients has been quite low on content but interested - and I've already passed my First Aid certificate, which is great!
As far as how I'm doing, all seems fine - I'm passing my assessments and assignments without too many difficulties, and even the practical gym instruction assessment I was so worried about went fine.
I'm unsettled by how easily I've taken to the uniform. It's not compulsory but the gym trousers and big hoodie are really very comfortable, and it's much easier to wear them than it is to lug a change of clothes around all day. I need to be careful I'm not lowering my personal standards - I got a new pair of cherry red DMs for my birthday so hopefully that'll help me keep up my sartorial qualities.
The revelation has been the class, which has turned out to be amazing. There are about 20 of us, I'm the oldest by a decade and I'm twice the age of some of my classmates, and while I don't ever *forget* that, it's a whole lot less relevant than I expected it to be. They're a great group of people, much more tolerant of a mature student than I was as an undergraduate, and there isn't a day that goes back at college without me laughing out loud.
One of the tougher things I've come to terms with is my inner lech. Plenty of the lads in the class are in extremely fine physical condition, which, frankly, makes the days pass a bit more pleasurably. Now, in my defence, I come from a dancing background, and if a dancer looks great or does a move beautifully, I will watch her, enjoy watching, and usually tell her so. This is because she's a dancer, a performer, who expects to be watched, dances in order to be watched. It's part of who I am! However, this doesn't translate terribly well to a gym environment, particularly when the individuals are young males.
It got to the stage where, when one lad was doing chin-ups, another lad rushed over and put his hands over my eyes, saying "you're not to watch, Elspeth - it'll get you going." What a reality check - was I a cougar? The resident old lady enjoying the boys working out a *bit too much*? I took a good look at what I was doing and I summed it up as "I appreciate their bodies - but I don't want to hold them close to mine!". I appreciate the work that they've done to build muscle, get rid of any fat, and seeing a well-executed deadlift is pretty much as good as a well-executed bellydance technique. And there's no doubt I'd be the same about the girls in the class if they were buff or ripped - but the truth is that they aren't really! (Sorry girls, but I think you know it's true!)
I feel that I have a "mummy" role in the class sometimes too, especially as I bake cakes and cookies for the class to share. (I thought that a fitness class would shun such sugary treats, but I reckoned without those boys whose muscles mean they "just can't eat enough" (can you *imagine*?!), and white choc chip cookies are very popular.) Then my niece ask whether this wasn't tantamount to not only being a lech, but asking the young things if I could give them sweeties before I took them to see some puppies.
Our Christmas night out was a great night - I even ended up in a nightclub where I occasionally forgot that I was the oldest person there!
 | ||
| You get your photie taken in clubs nowadays. Who knew? |
So the last four months of 2012 have been brilliant. I've loved college and seem to have managed to balance it without too much disruption to my family or work. I've just asked my son who says the only difference is that I take him to school less (his Daddy takes him a couple of days a week now), but that it's fine because I'll have a better job afterwards. Wise beyond his years (this is the same boy who told me that ATP was "20p short of a pound, mummy.")
Fingers crossed for more time at college like these last four months!
Sunday, 9 September 2012
Fashion or Fitness?
Jillian Michaels tweeted an interesting article tonight. It's from the New York Times, about a gym chain called Equinox which is about to open it's first branch in the UK. You can read it here.
The piece focuses on Bianca Kosoy, the Creative Director of Equinox. First off it seemed a bit weird to me that a gym has a Creative Director, but I guess they're always on the lookout for new clients, right? And not everybody loves to workout, so perhaps selling a gym as a lifestyle choice - rather than a life choice - isn't so crazy.
The article paints Kosoy as a pretty unsavoury character - a drinking, tattooed tough-talking sexual predator, using exploitative sexual imagery to sell a gym. Well, you know, if the journalist doesn't like you, they're not going to flatter you. I'm not going to judge Ms Kosoy when I haven't even met her.
“I never work out,” Ms. Kosoy said. “I think fitness is a fraud. That’s why I try to make it look like fashion.” Let's leave aside for the moment the epic statement "fitness is a fraud" - I'd really like to unpack that, but the journalist seems to have left it out of the article. The Chief Executive of Equinox says "Bianca’s unique vision blurs the traditional lines between fashion and fitness,” which sounds to me like a ringing endorsement of her approach - she's no loose cannon, and is clearly taking the company in the direction it wants to go.
I don't go to a gym. It's been 9 years since I've been a member of a gym, and I can't remember how many people I thought were there to pose, or look at other people posing. I do remember lots of sweating and feeling really rather unattractive as I skulked back to my office desk with sweaty hair. Not much of fashion statement.
If you go to the gym in the same way you buy the latest clothes - not the clothes you love but the clothes you simply have to be seen in, well, you're not doing me any harm, but I'm not sure you're doing yourself much good either. Frankly, I'm don't think I'd like to be going to the same gym as you. I don't think my pants would be up to scratch in the changing room - although I'm sure my performance on the gym floor would.
Fitness is about finding a goal - weight loss, muscle mass, event training, endorphin rush - and pursuing it. It can make you a stronger person, physically and spiritually. It can make you a healthier person, enabling you to live a longer, happier life, giving you more quality years with your children. I don't think fashion achieves these aims.
Maybe this is exactly why the fitness industry needs Creative Directors. To make very clear the dividing lines between the sort of gym you go to as a fashion statement, and the gym where you can pursue your fitness goals.
Me, I'm happier than ever working out in my living room and running on the shore.
The piece focuses on Bianca Kosoy, the Creative Director of Equinox. First off it seemed a bit weird to me that a gym has a Creative Director, but I guess they're always on the lookout for new clients, right? And not everybody loves to workout, so perhaps selling a gym as a lifestyle choice - rather than a life choice - isn't so crazy.
 |
| Bianca Kosoy, and some chains (unexplained). |
“I never work out,” Ms. Kosoy said. “I think fitness is a fraud. That’s why I try to make it look like fashion.” Let's leave aside for the moment the epic statement "fitness is a fraud" - I'd really like to unpack that, but the journalist seems to have left it out of the article. The Chief Executive of Equinox says "Bianca’s unique vision blurs the traditional lines between fashion and fitness,” which sounds to me like a ringing endorsement of her approach - she's no loose cannon, and is clearly taking the company in the direction it wants to go.
I don't go to a gym. It's been 9 years since I've been a member of a gym, and I can't remember how many people I thought were there to pose, or look at other people posing. I do remember lots of sweating and feeling really rather unattractive as I skulked back to my office desk with sweaty hair. Not much of fashion statement.
If you go to the gym in the same way you buy the latest clothes - not the clothes you love but the clothes you simply have to be seen in, well, you're not doing me any harm, but I'm not sure you're doing yourself much good either. Frankly, I'm don't think I'd like to be going to the same gym as you. I don't think my pants would be up to scratch in the changing room - although I'm sure my performance on the gym floor would.
Fitness is about finding a goal - weight loss, muscle mass, event training, endorphin rush - and pursuing it. It can make you a stronger person, physically and spiritually. It can make you a healthier person, enabling you to live a longer, happier life, giving you more quality years with your children. I don't think fashion achieves these aims.
Maybe this is exactly why the fitness industry needs Creative Directors. To make very clear the dividing lines between the sort of gym you go to as a fashion statement, and the gym where you can pursue your fitness goals.
Me, I'm happier than ever working out in my living room and running on the shore.
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