It’s probably been a year or so since I have written a blog but I thought with so much that has changed over that time and my new adventures with G and J Personal Training now would be a great time to start them again. I thought for the first one of 2019 I would give you a bit of an update on my personal events for this year.
After all the events of last year I decided that this year I would take part in less events but would concentrate on my fitness for those I did enter. My first event was last week, and I have just about recovered!! It was the Paras10 event in Colchester which involved a 10 mile run kitted out in military trousers and boots, while carrying a 35kg in weight Bergen on my back. My training for the event saw me upping my mileage on training runs, training in the combat trousers and boots, along with carrying the Bergen. I did a lot of the training at the local gym too on the stair climber. I got a lot of funny looks during my training both on runs and in the gym and found out 1 week before the event that I had actually been training with my Bergen weighing an extra 10kg at 45kg. I managed to complete it in 1 hour 54 minutes which was within my desired 2 hour time, however I feel as though I could have done it quicker. I realised that I had not actually trained as much as I should have in my combat trousers and found that my legs were getting overheated during the run, which impacted my ability to run up some of the hills. Once we had completed the run we received a medal which made all the hard work worth it. My Grandad was in the Paras and this run had been something I had wanted to do for years. To gain the medal meant the world to me and I hope I made my dear Grandad proud. My next event is at the beginning July and is the Fan Dance, which is another 10 mile run in military trousers and boots up and over the Brecon Beacons. I am already in training for this event!
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So its been over two weeks since my first event. Time has flown by as it doesn't seem that long ago!
I spent a good couple of days taking things gently to allow my muscles and joints time to recover, as they were a little tight and sore which was to be expected. After I had allowed my body time to recover it was time to get out and start training again, starting with some upper body exercises just to loosen everything up again. My first run followed shortly after with a gently 5 mile run just to ease myself back in to it and get some miles back in to my legs. This first run was tough, but it also felt great afterwards. With the recovery period over its time to start training again as the next OCR event is in a couple of weeks - Man vs Coast, which involves 20+ miles along the coastline with high cliffs, moorland, crashing waves, rough-hewn rocks, water jumps, short swims and of course a few obstacles. With this in mind I really need to start working on the mileage as unlike the Dirty Weekend Event, there will be a lot more running, rather than stopping for obstacles (there was over 200 last time). I also need to train with my water pack on to ensure that throughout the run I can take on necessary fluids to keep me going. Trust me though... I pick the hottest day of the year so far to do my first long run. After a great 5.5 mile run with a client I decide to run back and add another 11.5 miles on! It was great to see a lot of the area that I don't usually get to see from the car, and to start building up the mileage again. Thankfully I had my water pack with me to ensure that during the increasing heat I didn't get dehydrated. This week I will continue to concentrate on training with my full kit and will start increasing the miles again. I am looking for routes which will push me rather than just running on the flat so I can build up my stamina throughout the distance (getting ready for the cliffs and moorland as well as the crashing waves). So excitingly the weekend started on the Friday morning with me packing my car with hopefully everything I was going to need for the weekend: · Tent and a big comfy air bed · Lots of water · A lovely pasta bowl for dinner on Friday evening · My drinks for hydration the night before and re-hydration for after the run · of course, all my running gear including trainers, base layers, shorts and a shirt · …and not forgetting my toothbrush It was then on to pick up Craig who was doing the event with me before heading off to Stamford to get booked in and registered for the run!! We then had the task of setting the tent up ready for a comfy night’s sleep but not before having some dinner and going for a quick walk around the event village!! We were very good though and ensured this was not a late night as we would be up early in the morning getting ready for our 09:15am wave. So on the Saturday morning we got up nice and early at 07:00am, got washed and dressed putting on our running clothes on, and drank some of our hydration drink to keep us going through the run. At 8.45am we walked up to the event village where the start and finish line is, locked our valuables safely away, took our little energy drink and headed for the start line to get warmed up and stretched off ready for the race. There are various waves setting off while we are preparing for our wave, and suddenly it’s our turn…we head of on our journey of 20 miles and 200 obstacles mixed in!! During the event we were having to run mainly over grass and completing obstacles ranging from: · 4ft to 20ft high walls · monkey bars · swinging hoops · open lake swim with inflatable obstacles to climb over · high tree top rope climb to name a few!! We ensured we made use of the water and snack stations to keep our fluid and energy levels up!! Towards the end we found ourselves facing the travellator, a 50ft high pyramid climb and then a slid down the other side towards the finish line…6 1/2 hours of running and completing obstacles and we cross the finish line a pick up our medals. It was then time for us to grab our things and head off for a nice hot shower before heading back to the tent to get some well-earned rest for an hour and take on some fluids before getting ready to go out to the after party and replace some of the calories we had burnt off doing the event.
After a good night’s sleep and resting our aching bodies Sunday morning come around quickly and time to start packing everything up and to head home. A lovely hot bath to help relax my muscles and joints waited for me!! …. it’s now time to start preparing for the next event on my list of big challenges this for this year – Man vs Coast!! So, it’s been a few weeks since I last posted as its been the Easter holidays and with the kids being at home all routine has gone out of the window! I have managed to keep on top of my actual running training thankfully apart from the actual Easter weekend when I was away (although I did manage a couple of trips to the gym then)!! It’s now only a month until my first event and I started to step up the training over the last couple of weeks to get the miles in. The mileage for this event is not as key as it is for the other events as there is a lot of obstacles to tackle on route (although the wife has signed my up for a half marathon the weekend before)!! This first event has 200 obstacles so to ensure I can tackle all of them well I have really started working on my upper body strength! Now a typical week for me would be as follows: Sunday - rest day Monday – home based workout Tuesday – out for a run Wednesday – home based workout Thursday – out for a run Friday – home based workout Saturday – out for a run For 2 of my weekly runs I have upped my distance to a minimum of 7 miles, ensuring that I keep these at quite a quick pace to work on my fitness levels! I am now managing to complete this distance at a time of 50mins – 55mins, with my recovery for pushing myself this bit hard improving each time. Then 1 morning a week I go out on a longer run hitting the 15 mile mark at a slower pace just so I know I’m getting the millage under my feet. With all 3 of these runs I ensure I keep it to 90% cross country or in the woodlands as all the events I’m entered in to will all be across country. Now with the home workouts, my main attention has been working on my upper body strength and I’ve been including a lot of pull ups, press ups, as well as working on many exercises with the battle ropes and punch bag. I also love working with the TRX bands as these give you a great all over body work out hitting the upper body and the core as well. As you can see it has been very muddy, which has made training interesting!! So this is the first of my blogs, and I thought of a way of introduction I would explain what I have planned for the next 6 months which is going to require me to up my own personal fitness training.
Myself and a close friend of mine have decided that this is the year we step up our fitness and see how far our bodies can be challenged by entering 4 big endurance events which are part of the RatRace series!! So the events are: RatRace Dirty Weekend in May RatRace Man vs Lakes in July RatRace Man vs Coast in July RatRace Man vs Mountain in September Just to give you a little bit more information about the events they are all marathon distance, across country and with many different obstacles along the way! If you go to www.ratrace.com, on the events page there are videos of what we are going to be facing and just to give you a rough idea the first event is 20+ miles with 200 obstacles between start and finish. We will also be doing these events to raise money for Make A Wish foundation and if you would like to help us reach our target please click on the link to our Just Giving page http://www.justgiving.com/Chris-stoodley2?utm_id=27 ....all donations are greatly appreciated. I will update this page at least once a week (sometimes daily) with an overview of my training/progress and any hints/tips I can offer you if you are also in training!! |
AuthorI'm Chris a qualified Personal Trainer (G & J Personal Training). I am also a keen endurance runner in 2018 completed 4 events, including Man vs Lakes and Man vs Mountain. 2019 see's me take on the Paras 10 and Fan Dance! Archives
May 2019
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