My jaunt up Moel Famau

The alarm went off at 7:30. It was switched off but I was unable to get back to sleep knowing that someone else - Mark, to be specific - was packing his bag, donning his running kit, and making his way in the rain to the base of Moel Famau. So up Rich and I got, debating whether extra hoodies were going to be necessary, and off we went.

The extra hoodies were necessary. Rich took great delight in telling me every time the temperature gauge in his car dropped half a degree. By the time we were at the base of Moel Famau (the second car park - closest to the hill), it was cold.

Not that we needed that snowflake to advise us as the windscreen was white with hail. We took our time putting our headphones in, making sure our woolly hats were on straight, fastening our running belts, regretting wholly our choice of shorts as opposed to trousers...

My soundtrack for this run was Fleetwood Mac - 'Go Your Own Way', Placebo - 'Running Up That Hill' and Chicane & Bryan Adams - 'Don't Give Up'. Every pun intended.

I took the easiest route of course, with it being my first attempt. I started too quickly and ended up gasping quite quickly. But I levelled my pace out, controlled my breathing and carried on. As the wind got stronger and the hail beat me around the face, I admit I had to stop a few times and put my back to the weather. That hail was like tiny little needles all over me, especially when my skin was starting to feel red raw, even through my windbreaker. I also had to walk up the steep slate path only because running would have been risking actual death, it was so slippy. I ran where it was safe to, but I did start wondering when I'd get to the top. I was completely alone, not even the sheep had bothered to come out. I dropped to tie my shoe lace, then as I cast my eyes above, the cloud cleared and I saw the Jubilee Tower.

Victory!

At the top, I sought shelter in a doorway of the Tower, feeling pretty happy with myself, when a man appeared from around the corner, casually jogging along as if the terrain was a calm beach. He caught sight of me cowering amongst the rock, and yelled 'Morning!' whilst waving. These proper fell runners are truly insane.

The descent hurt more than the ascent because the hail was on the back of my legs, again like tiny little needles. I found it was easier to run like I was running through tyres, like footballers do in training, to try to avoid the rocks, but also to avoid getting into too much of a rhythm and running myself off the edge of the hill.





I was victorious at the end of the run and remained so for around 5 minutes but then the shivering set in and didn't stop until around an hour later.

It was totally worth it. I know it's not a huge deal to most people, but to me, running up that hill was a victory. And yes, it's a hill, not a mountain, which kills my buzz just a little bit. I think it's only about 6km at the most. Next time I'm doing it in dry weather, or at the very least, wearing trousers and waterproof gloves.

   

week 5

Calories 1863 (Thursday)

This week's training regime may as well have been flushed down the toilet. Monday I did the following using the 'Time Under Tension (TUT)' technique, which means counting to 4 on the lift and 2 on the descent.
3 x 12 reps with 10kg DB bench press
2 x 10 reps with 8kg then 8 reps DB incline bench press
7.5kg skullcrushers, 3 x 10 reps
3 x 8 reps with 8kg DB military press
3 x 10 reps barbell upright row, 15kg
Barbell preacher curls - I don't know what the bar weighs for this. Rumour has it, it might be 15kg. I just Googled it, asking 'how much does a preacher bar weigh?' and it tried to autocorrect me to 'how much does a preacher get paid?' So that was interesting. Anyway, I curled whatever the bar weighs plus a whole extra 2.5kg. Boy, I felt stupid struggling to lift that small a weight. I did 3 x 10 reps with a whole 2.5kg. Proud day for Gina...
100 crunches & 100 bicycle crunches

Monday went to plan. Tuesday did not. I couldn't get to the gym so I had to make it up on Wednesday. Wednesday I did 1 set of 12 squats with 35kg, but that was easy so did a further 2 sets of 12 reps with 40kg
12 reps with 40kg deadlifts, then did a further 2 sets of 12 reps with 45kg, and then I nearly died. Seriously, using the TUT technique for deadlifts is not recommended. I thought about sitting on the floor in the free weights section of the gym to stop the blood rushing to my head any more, but refrained since I can't bear the thought of being the girl who nearly passed out because of a 45kg deadlift. That would be up there with my achievement of curling 2.5kg.
Leg press machine with 70kg, 3 x 10 reps
Hamstring curls with 32kg, 3 x 12 reps
Calf raises with 8kg KB in each hand. I tried to do it slow but ended up losing my balance, a lot. So I did what I could for 3 sets of 12 reps
After this, I did a 30 minute jog but didn't have time for a further 30 minutes of cycling as per Tuesday's workout. So I had a debt of 30 minutes HIIT cycling to carry on to Thursday.

Thursday I did 100 squat jumps 30/20/20/20/10, 100 bodyweight squats 40/40/20, 100 russian lunges 20/25/30/25, 200 line jumps 176, tripped and then completed the last without a break. I'd have done it in one had I not tripped! 50 burpees 25/15/10. And then 30 minutes HIIT cycling. At that point I wished I was dead.

Today is Friday so I should have done Friday's workout, but once again I couldn't make it to the gym so I'll have to pick it up tomorrow. Then Sunday I'm hoping to run up Moel Famau, but can't guarantee that'll happen.

Why did I start this again?
Answers on a postcard.

Let phase 2 commence...tomorrow.

Calories today - lost count. Lots.

Thursday I did the last leg workout of part 1, and Friday I went on a 7 mile run which took me 1 hour, 11 mins. I know that's not a brilliant time but it's steady so I'm not going to beat myself up too badly. At least I know I can do 10k without a great deal of preparation. My first 10k is 13th May, and I'm not worried about that one. I am, however, very worried about my second 10k which is the Total Warrior on August 4th (http://www.totalwarrior.co.uk/).
So anyway, check out part 2 of my regime. http://blog.shareitfitness.com/2012/03/14/do-this-look-like-that-total-body-blitz-workout-part-ii/
This starts tomorrow.
The key point in this section is that it is going to 'help shift those stubborn last pounds', which is what I need. Ideally I only want to lose a maximum of 6lbs, but I want to look and feel great - even if the pounds don't come off. At the moment I don't look OR feel great. Boo. So tonight I'm having one last 'hurrah' with just a few more biscuits than I might normally eat. Tomorrow it's going to be strictly clean eating, and I'm going to give the carbs a go before I go to the gym.

I'll level with you, my sparse readers, I'm losing the will. All I want to do is eat what I want without feeling like I've betrayed myself, and not have to avoid food without calorie counts on the label. But I guess this feeling is rather ordinary, and I will toil through.

Tomorrow is a new day, so on we plod.

Week 4

Yesterday's calories - 2050

I have three new least favourite exercises.
1. Rowing.
2. Cycling.
3. Calf raises.
Yesterday I completed 20 minutes of HIIT cycling, then 20 minutes of skipping and finally 20 minutes of HIIT rowing. The rowing and cycling nearly killed me. How people do this for hours on end I've no idea. Then I did my boxing class, which was good, taking me upto a good 90 minutes of cardio.
Today I did 3 sets of 20:
1 set 14kg DB bench press, 2 sets with 12kg DBs
incline bench press 10kg DBs
rope pushdowns (instead of tricep pushdowns - my shoulders hurt too much to do that effectively) with 40.8kg
1 set 6kg concentration curls with right arm, got to 15 reps on my left and failed. So dropped down to 4kg and did the rest with that, on a count of 4 on the lift, which was time consuming
23kg lat pulldown, on a count of 4 on the way down
2 sets of 10kg upright rows, then my wrists stopped playing along so I switched to shoulder presses with the 10kg, I did two sets of 10. I don't think shoulder presses work the same muscles as upright rows but at least I did something
30/30/30 bicycle crunches
20/20/20 decline sit ups, on a count of 4 on the way up
I didn't do the hanging leg raises because of my loose shoulders so I did leg lifts on my back instead, 20/20/20

I did a weigh in today, and believe me when I say I am not happy. I've been working my backside off for a month now, only to find I have actually put a pound on so I'm 11 stone, 1 lb. I know what you'll be thinking. It's muscle, right? Wrong. I did a fat percentage check, and that's gone up from my first weigh in as well. It was 22.something %, but now it's 23%, 16.2kg of fat. So, all of my good feeling and positivity must have just been pure placebo, because there has been absolutely no improvement in my stats. As I said, I am not happy. All the fitness experts say that a good physique comes from 40% what you do in the gym and 60% what you do in the kitchen. I'm starting to understand this much more now. I'm not being naive; I'm not suggesting that after only 4 weeks of training hard I should have a rippling six pack and veins popping out of my biceps. But I have actually been training relatively hard for nearly 2 years now, and I am nowhere near the physique that I really want. I try and watch what I eat, and I have recently made some modifications but it seems I'm going to have to get really specific. I asked a few of the personal trainers in Klick, Steve and Terry, who suggested I replace 180 calories worth of 'fatty' food for 180 calories worth of carbs, preferably one to two hours before training. Apparently my body will metabolize those carbs and burn them without eating away at my muscle, thus resulting in a loss of body fat percentage - in theory. So maybe I'll give that a go, although it is difficult to work all this around a full time job and only being able to train once a day.

Now I must end this entry, I have a date with Ed Norton circa American History X. Yes, he has a swastika on his chest. But my, what a fine chest that is.

on a nutritional note...

Just a very quick one tonight - at 22:55 on a Saturday night. Rock on.

On a nutritional note, I have discovered a wonderful recipe which tastes remarkably like a chocolate digestive milkshake (if that exists...although it probably does in Shakespeare's milkshakes, Oxford - http://twitter.com/#!/0shakespeares0, seriously if you live near Oxford, well worth a trip). It's skimmed milk, or I'm using Kara dairy-free coconut milk alternative which is lower in calories, with a scoop of chocolate protein and a heaped dessert spoon of flaxseed.  It's so tasty and really good for you too. The flax adds extra protein and fibre.

Another thing I have discovered is the ultimate lazy girl's fajita. Usually I hate pre-cooked meats, especially poultry because they use all the off-cuts and it's revolting. I thought I'd risk it today though because I was feeling extra lazy after spring cleaning the spare room all day (again, rock on). I picked up some turkey tikka (Bernard Matthews), some Weight Watchers wraps (do check the calorie count on wraps - they can range from 98 calories each to 250!), light Philadelphia with roasted peppers and some salsa. Zap the turkey (obviously making sure it's piping hot...), spread half the wrap with Philly, the other half with salsa and load it up with turkey, adding some low fat Cheddar if you like. I think 'yum' pretty much covers it.

Week 3

I thought I'd give myself a week off this week, which is why it's been quiet on the blogging front...

Psyche!

It's been quiet because this has been a tough and time consuming week!
Monday was a nice little day, skipping for 45 seconds then 12 box jumps which I did on the higher level then rest for a minute for 20 reps. It was a good exercise, nice and steady. I have a fancy skipping rope which counts how many skips you do, and in that set I did 2209 skips which I don't think is too shabby!
Tuesday was meant to be 5 sets of 8 close grip lat pulldowns, single arm dumbbell rows, dumbbell bench press, dumbbell flyes, incline dumbbell curls, standing barbell curls then lat pulldown burnout (100 reps on low weight). I knew it would be time consuming, but I didn't get to the gym til later on because of work, and a boxing class I went to last Tuesday started at 7:30 so I thought I'd give that a go. Once that finished I tried to get stuck into the workout, but got to the dumbbell bench presses and realised I was being lazy in order to rush through the workout, so I was sticking to my 'safe' zone of 14kg. At this point I stopped and thought I'd just do two workouts on Wednesday instead.
So Wednesday I started with Tuesday's workout:
68 kg on lat pulldowns,
12kg on single arm DB rows
1 set 14kg DB bench press then did 4 sets at 16kg DBs
8kg DBs for flyes
At this point, I actually experienced my first pectoral spasms. I usually struggle to work my chest properly because my shoulders tend to take over but I seem to suddenly have overcome that little issue!
6kg DBs for incline curls
10kg standing barbell curls
For the 100 reps lat pulldowns, I tried to do as many as possible with 45.6kg (22.8 each side) but it got hard quickly, I did 30 reps then 20, 15, 30 then another 25. I gave the weight below that a go, but that was only 26kg, it really didn't even feel like I was doing anything so I just stuck to as many as I could with 45.6kg.
And then I did as Monday, with the 20 reps of 45 seconds skipping then 12 box jumps.
Thursday - are you bored yet? Thursday was 100 body weight squats which I did in two sets- one 60, the next 40. Then 60 crunches (in one set), 100 alternating lunges. I did these jumping lunges, 30/30/30/20 (consider the extra 10 a penalty for having to do them in sets). 60 bicycle crunches in one set, 100 knee tucks 30/30/30/20. 100 flutter kicks in one set then 3 minutes plank which took me 3 attempts in 1 minute slots. This didn't take very long at all so I attended a little Combat class at Klick, which was good fun and then went on to muay thai for an hour. In hindsight, I expect I overdid it. I felt great at the time but then today when I came to do Friday's workout (30 mins HIIT cycling 20 secs high intensity then 1 minute 60% effort followed by 30 mins HIIT running, 0.2 miles sprinting then 0.2 miles jogging and so on) I was tired. I did the running first as I expected the cycling would stiffen me up too much to run afterwards. That was fine, I jogged between 5.6 mph - 6mph and ran between 7.5 - 8mph. I ran for the last 2 and a half minutes at 8mph just to push myself that little bit harder. Then came the hard bit. I set myself up to cycle for 30 minutes, but my knees felt stiff and heavy so I thought I'd move to the more upright bikes. After a few minutes on that my hips felt as though they were tightening and I know my body well enough to realise that I wouldn't do myself any favours to push through it. So I tried the cross trainer - by which time I'd already done 5 minutes cycling so I reduced the time on the cross trainer to 25 minutes. I did not do interval training. I was lucky to get 25 minutes done at all, I actually stopped the program twice and tried to get off but a little devil in my brain started yelling at me to 'get your lardy bum back on the cross trainer!' I obliged, but believe me when I say I hated every damn second of it.

On a progress note, I'm quite happy with the small results I've seen so far. I'm 3 weeks in and I definitely feel that muscles are a little tighter, especially around my tummy. Visuals below, although I wouldn't say there's much to see. Excuse the toilet behind me!

Week 2, Friday

Yesterday's calories 2372 (not good...)

5 x 8 reps - 60kg deadlifts
                   20kg bulgarian squats
                   20kg lunges
                   50 squat jumps in 2 sets
                   50 calf raises with 8kg dumbbells in each hand, 20/15/15
                   plank - 2minutes/1minute
                   60 reverse crunches in two sets
                   And again, I didn't do the 60 hanging knee raises. I gave it a good go, and got to a whole 7 reps before my shoulders gave up. So I punished my weak ligaments by doing 60 slow crunches and then 2 sets of 20 more reverse crunches. Needless to say, my abs hurt a little today (the day after...)

There's nothing much of note from this workout, apart from a source of fresh inspiration. I went into the free weights area to start my deadlifts, only to come across another woman! It's pretty rare to find another woman in the free weights area, although I don't fully understand why. Please don't think I'm making some anti-feminist sociological statement with that comment, I'm speaking only from experience. When I discovered another woman, I was curious as to what she might be doing. She was doing some pretty heavy clean lifts, and I have to admit I was in awe. My awe only increased when she bench pressed 42.5kg repeatedly, unsupervised. At the height of my strength training I was able to press 45kg once, shaking like a defecating dog the whole time, and that was only with the security of a spotter standing over me (there have been rumours that I've managed 50kg - but I was blindfolded at the time - this is apparently a legitimate training technique, but as a consequence of my blindfold, I do not believe that I fully pressed 50kg). Anyway, this woman just repped out, seemingly without even thinking. Suddenly my 60kg deadlifts seemed rather measly, and my routine rather pointless. I suppose everyone has their moments of feeling inadequate, and this was one of many for me. But I take my sweatband off to her, she looked fantastic (both aesthetically and in terms of technique) and deserved to be told as much, so I did. I asked her how long she'd been training and whether she competed. My eyes were green with envy but I still felt I needed to pass on my kudos. I am banking that feeling of envy and drawing on that for my next workout.

I have one more thing to note. I have made the decision to re-introduce a very limited amount of bread into my diet. This decision has not come to me lightly, and those of you who know me (and  those who have bothered to read this far...) will realise that this decision incites cold hard fear into the deepest, darkest crannies of my soul. I gave up starchy carbs in a bid to lose weight a number of years ago, and consequently lost 2.5 stone. I am now terrified that if I start eating these carbs again I'm going to expand at an alarming rate. My reasoning for starting to eat these carbs again is because actually, I'm really tired of being hungry. I'm not going to start eating massive portions of pasta or whole loaves of white bread. And I'm not quite ready to eat normal bread, so I'm going for a spot of Burgen bread with linseed and sunflower seeds. Because I've not eaten bread for some time, my body has forgotten what it's meant to do with it. I've had probably 4 slices in nearly 3 years, and each time it has nearly killed me. So I figured I'd start with a lower carb, lower GI bread and hope for the best. I'm also experimenting with flaxseed and some nuts. Nuts have been firmly on my 'banned foods' list but apparently it's good for me to have some almonds and peanut butter with my low GI bread. It's essentially a diet-overhaul. Believe me when I say I'm worried, but I will keep strict tabs on my weight as well as my athletic performance and also my constant feelings of hunger. If I can eat this way and perform better whilst still maintaining a satisfactory weight then I'll be a happy bunny. (That's my nod to Easter.)

Week 2, Wednesday & Thursday

Calories 2201

Yesterday's workout:
5 sets of 8: incline bench press, 1 warm up set with 10kg then 5 sets with 14kg
                  clean and press - 20kg
                  overhead tricep extension - 5 sets of 8 with 6kg, each arm
                  bent over barbell row - 1 set with 25kg, 4 sets with 27.5kg
                  concentration curls - 2 sets with 8kg (each arm) then dropped down to 6kg for a set, tried to move back to 8kg...and failed. So final sets with 6kg
                  upright row - 20kg

This was a good workout, nicely varied. I do have a bit of a mental block when it comes to the difference between clean lifts and jerk lifts though. So what I did was probably a bit of blend of both. I had delusions of grandeur with the overhead tricep extensions. I had 10kg dumbbells ready, but thought I'd start 'easy' with the 8kg. I was able to do the 8kg a few times, but I had to hold my shoulders in place. I dropped to 6kg, and did it quite easily so I think 7kg dumbbells would have been my Goldilocks weight but alas, 7kg dumbbells are not so common!

Today's workout was scheduled to be an hour of HIIT running. I thought I'd get it done in the gym because after last week's 60 minute outdoor jog turned out to be dull as dishwater, at least in the gym I can people watch and time my intervals accurately. The treadmills don't have an interval training program though, so I had to just crank the timer up and manually change the speeds.

I cheated a little. I only did 40 minutes. I know - shocking, and I'm ashamed. Actually, I'm not because I cut it short to go to my muay thai class, which probably burnt more calories in an hour than a further 20 minutes of running would have done. I jogged at a speed of 5 mph, and ran at a speed of 8 mph. I could have gone faster, and spent the last 2 minutes sprinting at 8.5mph. I have a fear of flying off the treadmill. Everyone has seen someone who has gone A over T on a treadmill, and there is no way of flying off the treadmill and maintaining any degree of dignity. It can't be done. So that's why I kept my speed down.

Anyway, my muay thai class was awesome, as usual. And I was inadequate, as usual. Although I found out that a guy who trains in the same class lives literally round the corner from me - and I completely embarrassed myself by doing the Michael McIntyre thing where I got really high pitched when I found out we were neighbours.

On a progress note...there is none. I took some photos to put on, but they were appalling so I can't bear to put them on. I'm hoping to upload some next week.

week 2, Tuesday

Calories 1984 I don't think I need to go into great deal about my 60 minutes HIIT cycling. It wasn't fun, and I had to split it into two sets of 30 minutes like I did last week just so I didn't a) die of boredom and b) lose all feeling in my bum. In between my 30 minute sets, I did 10 crunches and then decided I was taking the easy route so switched to 20 reverse crunches, but my abs were still quite raw from yesterday. And then it was back to the bike. I planned to go to muay thai after that. Aside from things I've already mentioned in previous posts, I don't like going to a class where I know I'm going to make things difficult for other people, so I thought it was better to give muay thai a miss as my energy levels were incredibly low. I didn't want to struggle holding the pads for anyone again, as I think it's unfair for them to pay for a class that I can't help them with as much as they can help me. I noticed there was a new boxing class at the gym so I thought I'd give it a go. It made a nice change to have a female instructor who was interested in technique rather than just punching pads badly. It was a good class, and I was suitably exhausted although that was more likely to be because of the 60 minutes of cycling beforehand. I am missing muay thai though, but it was arrogant of me to believe I'd be able to do this program as well as 3 classes. I'm hoping to go to at least one of the classes on Thursday. I feel almost guilty for not going, like I'm not working as hard as I could be. But for anyone else who might be thinking I'm not working as hard as I could be...

week 2, Monday

Calories - 2350 I think 'owch' pretty much covers it today. But I knew it was going to be hard though so I was ready. 5 sets of 8 deadlifts 70kg. This felt very difficult today. Last week felt quite easy at the same weight but I hadn't done any deadlifts for a number of weeks, so I think my body forgot what a challenge deadlifts can actually be. My back felt weak, and the last sets were done quite slowly and split into sets of 4 with a very short break in between. 5 sets of 8 bulgarian squats. I did 16 each set, so 8 for each leg. I did one set with 15kg but that was too easy so added an extra 5kg. 5 x 8 lunges with 20kg, again I did 16 each set. The workout then says '5 sets of 50: squat jumps...' But it does then say the 50 squat jumps should be done in as few sets as possible so I think it should only be the one lot of 50. I was open to the prospect that it may actually mean 5 sets of 50 squat jumps, so I cracked on. After my first set of 20 (I didn't manage to 50 in one set) I realised only the devil himself would ask someone to deadlift, squat, lunge and then jump 250 times. So I just did the one set of 50. I did the 50 in two sets of 20 and a 10. 50 calf raises with 15kg in sets of 20/15/15. They hurt, I'm not going to lie. I have a confession to make at this point. I spent the next few minutes on my knees, but only because it was the best position to stretch out my ankles after the calf raises. Anyone who has trained with Team Forge 54:16 (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61407337&ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Team-Forge-5416/143280055715698) will know that if you drop to your knees you get yelled at. To drop to your knees is a sign of surrender. Whilst Team Forge have ran off to greener pastures in Dubai, that sentiment stays with me. I do not drop to my damn knees! Anyway, I got a personal best for my plank, I did a 3 minute plank in two sets but the first set was 2 minutes. I've said it once, I'll say it again - hooray for small victories! 60 reverse crunches in sets of 30,20 then 10. Who knew reverse crunches were so hard?! I did 3 sets of 10 hanging knee raises. With this exercise, I met my first failure within this regime. I couldn't make it to 60 reps. My excuse is that I am hypermobile (Google it!), but in a nutshell my tendons or ligaments or whatever don't hold my joints in place quite as well as they should. It makes for some awesome party tricks, but it's not great when I'm trying to train. Basically I can't hang for very long because my shoulders dislocate. I attach the photographic evidence, just in case anyone suspects I'm fibbing...

As a forfeit I did another 3 minutes of planking. I'm not on board with making things easy for myself, so if I can't do an exercise I will swap it out for something just as hard, if not harder. Tomorrow I'm ready for my 60 minute HIIT cycling. I think.