Health and Fitness Routine Update

[Wils]

Wils, I am not form Telford, I am from Holyhead!

And yet that post did not contain a single "yeah,"  "dol"  or "iawn."

How long did you think you could fool us yeah, dol.

[Rascal]

Today I went for a swim and did
300m swim
300m pull
300m swim
300m paddles
3 x 100m catch up

Then in the evening it was the shuffle.  Pete Plant was there and I ran with him for the first section until we got the The Legends and young Robbie was there too.  We got to The Salmons house and he came around so I went around twice.  On the second lap there are a couple of hills and on the first on, The Legend and myself shot off and when we got to the top we doubled back for Robbie and The Salmon.

On the second hill, which is not that steep at the start but gets steeper towards the end but it is a long old drag.  So at the start of this hill, I shot off at a very good pace and kept this up until the hill gets steeper.  At this point I opened up a bit and thought that Robbie would make a dash to beat me to the top.  Then with 100m or so to go I could hear Robbie so bolted off and just about beat him.  He is going to be one fast runner if he continues to train hard.

The Salmon and myself completed the second lap and I did a final mile by myself to make it a cool ten miles.

[Rascal]

Lugged 3x2 slabs, sand and a shed before assembling, then in the evening went to circuit training.  Was with Cathy whom has come on the shuffle and a couple of Sunday runs with us and she is very fit.  I really like being on the same circuit as her because she is a very nice person and always works hard at circuits.

[Wils]

Ffernol.

[Tecsyn]

This morning I walked to Porthdafarch and back, a cool but clear day. Then after a , I drove to South Stack and walked down the steps. I resolved to try not to stop for breath to admire the view on the way back up and was amazed how hard that was. Believe me I wasn't rushing either! It took 8 minutes to walk back up - something to improve upon... The cliffs were lined with thousands of Guillemotts, all jostling for nesting space, and jeering at my efforts with their raucous cries! Down at the suspension bridge I could see hundreds more floating on the sea, diving under from time to time. Must be some fish down there yeah! I tried a photo of the birds on the cliff with my pocket camera but it's blurry, but the lighthouse stayed still long enough for a piccie

I am 48 in April and have set myself a target weight to achieve by then - In the past two weeks I have shed 5lbs - 12lbs to go! So far so good yeah, but I'm skiing in a week and will not be dieting with all that scrummy alpine food Still, skiing burns a lot of calories I think - just as well aye...

[Wils]

Keep it up Tec, sounds like it's doing you good.

[emmerson]

What a beautiful day!

[Tecsyn]

What a beautiful day!

A shivery-cold north easterly breeze though Emmz...

[Rascal]

Thats a cracking photo and write up Tec.  Well done on the weight loss and good luck with the rest of it.  You can do it!

Today, The Salmon came round with his two girls and we went ice skating.  It was really good fun and the little ones improved immensly from holding on to the sides to being able to get all the way around without doing so.

We then went on the shuffle route for a nice and easy five mile recovery run.

[Rascal]

One heck of a session at swimming today

500m swim
9 x 100m (3 sets of 100 on 2:10, 100 on 2:10 100 on 1:50)
2 sets of 8 x 25m (on the first set odds fast, evens slow and vice verca on the second set)
10 x 50m
500m pull
200m catch up
200m swim down

total 3,200m

[Rascal]

Took Rascal Bach swimming 9-10 and then at 11:30 went for a run around the Wrekin with The Salmon.  He seemed to run a lot better today and was two minutes quicker over the same route as last week.  I wore my cross country shoes and they make one heck of a difference with the grip.

[TreFFS]

Took Rascal Bach swimming 9-10 and then at 11:30 went for a run around the Wrekin with The Salmon.  He seemed to run a lot better today and was two minutes quicker over the same route as last week.  I wore my cross country shoes and they make one heck of a difference with the grip.

Yes, but do they help with the strap on?

[Rascal]

Cross country shoes with a strap on!  I'm not a weirdo you know.

As it is half term, Rascal Bach is off all week so I took her swimming 12 -1:30 today.  We did some serious swimming but the majority of the time was spent diving for Zogg Balls that she got for Christmas.

In the evening it was circuit training.  The people on the same exercise as me were slow so I tried to do two exercises for every one of theirs.  Then my friend Marc was behind so I started counting the number of reps per set and telling Marc whom then tried to do as well.  He did better on some but not on others, but that is not the point, it is just a way of pushing yourself and not being slack.  The Salmon did really well on the press ups and he has improved massively since he first started.

[Rascal]

Decided to have a rest day today and not go to the running club, part of the reason was due to being tired and hungry and also because it would have been a massive rush to get there and I would have missed pancakes with Rascal Bach.

[Tecsyn]

I too am having a rest now before travelling to France on Sunday to ski. I hurt my foot on the mountain a few days ago and it seems to be taking a while to recover. I just turned down the offer of a walk in Snowdonia The scenery will be spectacular, but though conditions are clear we have had a very cold night and there will be a lot of ice...

[Llaingoch]

I am also having a rest from health & fitness related stuff.

[Rascal]

Well I was back into it today with a swim consisting of 25 x 100m on 2:10 (every fifth one was with a pull buoy, just to break the monotony).  The last couple of sets were difficult with only a couple of seconds rest.

Then in the evening, as it is Wednesday, it was the Shuffle.  I met up with The Salmon and we got to The Legends in very good time.  We waited there until half past before setting off again with The Legend and Shady Lane, young Robbie was nowhere to be seen.  The Salmon kept up a very good pace even though he was hungry.  For some reason he has not been eating well, I don't know if this is just on Wednesdays because of work commitments or if it is every day?

When The Salmon split off after five miles, the pace picked up a bit and the three of us made good progress.  After Shady Lane split off, we picked up the pace even more and again when The Legend went home I really opened up the throttle and banged out the last two to three miles and one heck of a good speed.  I kept on looking at markers such as lamp posts or hedges and making short dashes to each of them, this is one way I can keep focus and manage to keep my speed up for a much longer period that I would if I just thought that I had three miles to run at a fast speed.  I was very happy with tonight's run.

[Rascal]

Had a good session at circuits tonight.  I didn't realise this all day but when I started exercising, my legs were very fatigued after last nights effort.

[Rascal]

Went for a swim today and did

4 x 200m swim
4 x 200m paddles
4 x 200m pull buoy
4 x 200m swim down  (all with 15 seconds rest between)

and then went with The Salmon for a slow seven mile run.

[Mab y Mynydd]

Have you discarded the strapon?

[Rascal]

Absolutely not, it still gets a daily airing.

[Wils]

And a weekly fumigation.

[Rascal]

Here is todays swimming session

700m warm up

100m time trial (1:37)

3 x 100m on 2:00
200m easy
2 x 100m on 1:50
200m easy
1 x 100m on 1:50
200m easy  

4 x 150m pull 150m swim

6 x 50m polo stroke up, no breaths down.

Total 3500m

[Rascal]

It was beautiful on the Wrekin today, the snow was still fresh in places and in the sunshine it was glorious.  The views over Shropshire are superb and well worth the effort of a Sunday morning run or like most there, a gentle walk.  Anyway, we did an anticlockwise route again but this time we turned right just after the stile by the old rifle range, dropped down to the bottom path then when we got to the farmers gate and can't go any further along that path, we turned left and up to the permissive path and along the main path.  At this point I had been going off and waiting for The Salmon to catch up so we didn't get separated by taking one of the many paths available, but as we both know where we are going on the permissive path, I shot off and didn't stop until I got to the sheep field and then doubled back until I got to The Salmon and then turned and ran to the bottom of the half way house, up over the hill there and then back down the beech trees.  There, the difference in temperature can really be felt as the sunshine is left behind and the wind sails in, uninterrupted along the Cheshire plain until it hits the side of the Wrekin.  A very nice run even though at times my legs were feeling very heavy from training I put in the effort on the hills and the cross country shoes make a tremendous difference to the grip in the snow and long thick stretches of mud.  The Salmon was suffering quite a bit as he had two bottles of wine before going onto the whiskey last night.