Skipping A Training Session Does Not Equal Failure

The mentality around training can be a tricky thing. I'm all for planning, putting sessions in the diary like any other appointment, and coming up with alternatives when circumstances change. I'm comfortable with the idea of resting when sick and not trying to play catch-up afterwards. One thing I rarely do, and wouldn't go so far as to advocate, is purposefully skipping a session. Yet last weekend, over the Bank Holiday, that's exactly what I did.

In my diary, on Sunday, I had written in a 2.5hr training run. And I chose not to do it. It wasn't because I didn't feel up to it, or that plans had changed, but that I chose to spend my time differently. And that's fine. For at last two months it had been arranged that my mum would come to visit for the weekend. We had no fixed plans as such and I'd set the expectation that on Saturday I would need to work for an hour and that I had some training to do. I did my work, and we did parkrun together but for the majority of the weekend I decided to prioritise relaxation over my training. Juggling the last weeks of my day job with training and ramping up my PT business means I'm usually always in work mode, thinking about what else I can do towards building my business and so being able to disconnect and be frivolous was a true joy. It felt as though I'd had a holiday!

We had fizz and chips by the lake, went to the cinema and ate breakfast al fresco each day. We made use of our National Trust memberships by visiting Mottisfont, Greys Court and Cliveden, wandered around the grounds, took a boat trip on the Thames and indulged in cakes and ice creams. I bought an early Jamie Oliver cook book in one of the second hand shops and cooked from it that same night. We took a picnic to Virginia Water and walked around the lake afterwards. Frankly, it was delightful.

And it's not as though I've been sitting around. I've run 13 miles this week including the parkrun with mum. The Virgina Water walk was 4 miles and we covered several more miles in purposeful walks and finding our way through mazes. I took part in a circuits class with Barnes Fitness on Monday and got in a bike set before work on Wednesday. Apart from Sunday I've hit every training session this week.

So I'm still taking it seriously but "training the soul", as someone put it, is also important. Constantly thinking about work and training can be exhausting and counter productive and there's truth in the adage "everything in moderation". Sure I agonised a bit over skipping the run but ultimately I'm glad I did. It's not a regular occurrence and does not equal failure. I just picked up from the next session.

One of the pieces of advice I've been given as I move further into the PT world is that just as you would block out time for appointments and work, block out time for relaxation, because it's very easy for things to take over. Taking that advice I made time to go to the UK Fitness Bloggers meet up on Wednesday night (such a fun evening) and watched a film with a friend over skype last night. Ain't technology great?

Was your Bank Holiday weekend more training or relaxation? Do you find it hard to get real downtime?

Get My Mojo Working : Run Or Dye

In the interests of disclosure, in return for sharing a discount code and writing this post to promote the event I will be given a free place in a Run or Dye event this year. Thank you.

I've been looking over my race calendar for the remainder of the year and I've realised that I've got four fairly significant events in as many weekends in September. I never intended for that but Things Happened. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to each and every one but I know that I'll need to be something fun and relaxed afterwards to get my mojo working again.

Which is exactly why I've got my eye on the Run or Dye series. Back in 2013 (no way! really?) I took part in The Colour Run and LOVED it but this year I'm going to sign up for Run or Dye instead. In essence the events are very similar; you run/walk/dance around the 5k course, get covered in eco-friendly, plant-based powdered dye every kilometer and get to party on down at the Finish Festival.

I know from experience that these events are not races, not really even runs, they are experiences and very inclusive ones at that. It's all about having fun so it's a great event to do with friends or family regardless of fitness level. There are numerous events across the UK throughout the year so there's bound to be one near you. Visit http://www.runordye.co.uk/ to see where the parties are! Entry is £27.50 (kids 6 and under are FREE!), but you can get £3 off your entry fee by using the code KISDISCOUNT.

You could argue that this is pricey for a 5k but consider the organisation involved and that Run or Dye is also an event with a heart. The organisers have been inviting the public to nominate worthwhile causes that are in need of some colour; whether that’s repainting the local playground, creating a bright and exciting mural for a community space or simply arranging for a bunch of blooms to be delivered to someone in need. Unfortunately, nominations are now closed but Run or Dye will be selecting a number of those in need close to the UK Run or Dye event locations so keep a look out for extra colour in your locality.

If you're still not sure just how much fun these events can be, check out the video below! Maybe I'll see you there...

My Year in Running

I've seen a few of these posts recently and enjoyed reading them a great deal. So I thought I'd write my own. It's a cool way to reflect on my year.

Best Race Experience
Equinox24. Hands down. Sure, Gatliff was awesome because it was my first ultra but Equinox24 was super special. A team cobbled together from Facebook and twitter met in a field at night in the rain and then proceeded to support each other while we ran day and night. The course was my favourite of any I've run. The race team were incredible. I've never experienced another atmosphere like it. I met Alexa, Sid and Marathon Man. I bumped into TC in our PJs while I was brushing my teeth. I ran 30 miles and clocked up my fasted ever unofficial 5k times. And there was lots of cake.

Best Run
A whole year of running, over 1000 miles and you want me to pick just one? The parkrun at which I got my first official sub 27-minute 5k was pretty special and I've adored every single run I did with Anita (how we managed to run that fast and still gossip remains a mystery) but I think my favourite run was with Bear last weekend. It was a beautiful sunny wintry morning and I got to run the footpath to the forest which I adore doing at the moment. Plus the forest is stunning. We stomped in muddy, icy puddles and got a little bit lost. First run I've ever enjoyed with a guy. Seriously.

My forest. I adore it.

Best New Piece of Gear
I have a top three. Is that allowed?
1) The new Garmin I got for my birthday that can find satellites in under a minute and lasts for 6 hours in the wilderness
2) My leggings from Crewroom. They are my go-to running leggings now it's colder. Stylish, comfy, warm and flattering.
3) My race vest that I used for Gatliff. Oh how I umm'ed and ah'ed over buying it. I even tried to cancel it after I placed the order. In the end it was exactly what I needed and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to use it more often.

Best Piece of Running Advice I Received
Walk the hills. That or keeping my forearms low. Both have made a remarkable difference to my running in very different ways.

Best Inspirational Runner
Oh lord there's a lot of them out there. There are a lot of my twitter running pals who I find incredibly inspirational and who either manage to coerce me into doing races or send me the most wonderful messages of support. Big shout out to all of you. But if I had to choose one person, while not strictly a runner per say, then I think it would have to be Sophie Radcliffe. She is a constant inspiration, for her achievements, outlook and sweet personality.

If you could sum up your year in a couple of words, what would they be?
Beyond expectations.

2014 - what a year 

She'd Fly Through the Air with the Greatest of Ease...

...that daring young girl on the flying trapeze!

Do people still dream about running away to join the circus? Did that fade away with our childhoods or is it still fuelled by things like Cirque du Soleil? I hope we still do and it’s not just me.

There must be a few of us because there are a handful of circus skills workshops you can do as an adult, one of which I did with Alex recently as part of my “34 things before 34” list.

The workshop took place above a music shop, in a “business park” in green and leafy Mill Hill at the end of the Northern Line (the long journey time providing me with some much sought after reading time). Unfortunately there was no bareback horse riding or acrobatics but we did get to try our hands at juggling, tight wire and static trapeze for about an hour apiece. In between activities we had the chance to gawk out of the window at muscle men performing power cleans outside in aid of a promo video. You’d have done the same. Don’t lie.

Muscle men. Love the weights you hate.

We started off with some games designed to warm up our muscles, minds and coordination then built up to some three-ball juggling. It’s quite amazing how the right teacher and learning steps makes all the difference. There was much hilarity as balls ended up all over the studio, and shrieks of delight as we started to manage a few rounds.

I never progressed past this point

Next up: the tight wire. It’s amazing how high up you feel when you’re standing only two foot off the floor on a wire cable. Balance is the name of the game here I felt a little too self-conscious to try the tight wire much. After a couple of turns the other 2 people in my trio weren’t that keen and I felt awkward carrying on. Also wobbling away in front of the whole group was daunting so if I got the chance to do it again I’d make the most of it.

Alex on the trapeze

Finally we got to the static trapeze. This was the thing I’d probably been looking forward to the most and it was indeed great fun. Only two moments of embarrassment: firstly a trapeze with a longer drop had to be brought down on account of my height and secondly actually getting up there in the first place was about the most graceless thing I’ve ever done. But once I’d hauled myself onto the bar the few simple balances and moves had me beaming from ear to ear.

Me, making a reasonable attempt at mermaid pose

The best part, for me, was coming away having learnt to juggle. I had a set of juggling balls for years but eventually sold them at a car boot as I never quite got the hang of it, something I’m deeply annoyed about now. I’d always wanted to be able to juggle and although I’m by no means proficient, it was made to seem straight forward and manageable by building up from simple coordination exercises.

As far as I can tell, there aren’t that many opportunities to take things further as an adult, which is a shame, although there are plenty of kid’s classes. If you are looking to do something similar, look at how the classes are run; you are likely to get more out of ones where the groups are split up and rotated through the activities. If I lived closer I'd definitely consider the adults aerial classes; you get to work with silks and hoops as well. In the meantime I'll be found bruising fruit in the kitchen as I hone my juggling skills and leave you with this ditty...

Berkshire Fitness Scene : Pole Fitness

If you ever thought that pole dancing was glamorous, you would be sorely mistaken. Sorely is a good choice of word actually. My foray into the world of Pole Fitness took me to a grimy, industrial gym, appropriately called Fitness Warehouse; a relatively new facility underneath a multi-storey car park, surrounded by greasy food establishments, pool halls and taxi firms and populated largely by burly men hefting weight around in stringer vests (not string vests… that would be even worse).

Car park turned gym

It’s a cheap and basic facility that serves a purpose. No fluffy towels here, but you will find a handful of classes such as Spin, Tae Bo, Thai Boxing, circuits and Pole Fitness. You may have seen me expressing nerves on twitter about the class and what to wear… shorts and a t-shirt or vest are fine but leggings are best avoided as you get better grip without. You can wear socks if you like (I did) but most girls were barefoot.

There can be up to 12 in the class but this evening we were 6. We shared four poles and because I was a newbie I got one all to myself – bonus! Our instructor, who was the spit of the girl from Flashdance, took us through a circuit style warm up and then talked the girls through level one and two moves in between showing me some basics. I was soon tackling basic and cross legged fireman, crescent moon, attitudes and a bunch more I can’t remember the names of. I became familiar with cup and baseball grips and was allowed to attempt flag poses, holding myself sideways on the pole.

My instructor... honest!

Although I was the novice the class catered for all levels. I spent a fair portion of the hour letting my arms recover while watching the experienced girls climb and perform more acrobatic poses. I felt quite bulky in comparison to the other girls, which is probably more a reflection of my lack of elegance on the pole rather than a comment on my weight. There is some emphasis on looking good on the pole, pointing toes, arching your back and sticking your bum out… years of being told to “tuck your tailbone under” meant that the latter was hard to get used to, but by the end I was throwing some reasonable shapes.

One of the more experienced girls warming up before class

If you’re planning to be showing your legs off in the warmer weather I wouldn’t recommend pole fitness. I had a bruise showing by the time I got home from class and more the next day, not to mention aching in places I didn’t know it was possible to ache (armpits… seriously). No doubt that this is hard work but more for your muscles than your CV capacity. Lean limbs and strength are likely to be your outcomes here.

Would I do it again? Well at £5 for an hours class it’s fun, affordable and challenges me in a different way but I don’t think it’s going to become a regular part of my regime.

Berkshire Fitness Scene : Trampolining

My local area is proving to be full of surprises as I discover there’s a dedicated trampoline centre in Bracknell hidden away a bit behind a school, albeit signposted from the main road. It’s the kind of place you only find out about via word of mouth, a google search or eyes that aren’t focused on the daily commute. There is nothing quite like jumping to make you feel childish and giggly.

There’s a whole host of kids classes but plenty of adult sessions too such as rebounding, and they even offer stunt development classes. I’ve never been in a dedicated trampoline centre before, and not been near a trampoline since school unless you count the time at Run To The Sun festival when someone in the party produced a massive trampoline from the back of a van and we all camped around it. It’s clearly a facility in short supply as one guy admitted to travelling from Basingstoke twice a week to attend sessions.

OH and I dropped in to a PAYG adults class which only had 8 of us in total, with abilities ranging from “here for a laugh” and “here for fitness” to “learning complicated somersaults”. Half of the warehouse type room was taken up with large free standing trampolines where young girls in leotards were putting on amazing acrobatic displays and the other half featured three floor-level beds and a foam pit which we used. Our lovely Danish instructor, Pernille, who had once been pro for her country, was really encouraging and made sure everyone got some coaching.

Spot the girl doing it properly in the background

We spilt ourselves amongst the beds and took it in turns to play. I say play because it was immense amounts of fun. I started off with some simple bouncing, twists, tucks and pikes that I remembered from school and was then encouraged to try seat drops, swivel hips, front drops and back drops. I was given some proper pointers on technique and encouraged to try things like front drops on a mat on the trampoline first to build my confidence. Failed attempts were met with Pernille’s catchphrase “I like the idea…” and gentle corrections. OH had bags more confidence than me and was doing front somersaults by the end of the 90 minutes. The last 20 minutes or so were spent playing in the foam pit or with skipping ropes. Having spent the whole session concentrating on staying in one spot, bouncing forwards proved surprisingly challenging and there is no way to exit a foam pit gracefully.

I was surprised by how puffed out I got and while I didn’t work up a sweat it's very testing. My shoulders, the heels of my hands and, oddly, my elbows got pretty sore and most of me ached for a good three days afterwards. At only £6 it’s a brilliant way to spend an evening, even on an ad hoc basis. You can use the session as you want and I found it to be a really friendly and supportive environment. As we left OH declared that he would definitely like to do that again… a resounding endorsement indeed!

If you fancy giving trampolining a go but don’t have a centre near you then see if your local sports hall hosts something similar; quite often they do.

Berkshire Fitness Scene : M.TV Dance

I'm still absolutely buzzing from a new class I tried last night. It was my first foray into discovering the Berkshire fitness scene. My aim is to find out what my local area has to offer outside of a standard gym, yoga, zumba and BodyWhatever classes. I'm not saying that these aren't great facilities to have but with the ever increasing number of fancy studios and classes I see advertised for the London area I was keen to see if I could find similar things that didn't involve having to fork out £16 for a train ticket.

After a little web searching I came up with a list of possibilities and decided to try a dance fitness class called M.TV Dance. Actually I had decided to try Bokwa, another style of dance fitness class, but was told it had been changed and the online timetable not updated. So M.TV Dance it was. The premise is simple enough; much like zumba you are led by an instructor through some routines drawing on a variety of commercial dance styles to classic and up to date chart and dance tracks. You learn some of the moves in the videos and work up a sweat. This appealed to me particularly as I used to take salsa, adult tap and modern jazz classes. I really really miss it but I'd yet to find a class or instructor that I liked enough to go back to it.

The classes are run by Fizzy Jamz who seem to be exclusive to the Berkshire area. Most of their classes take place at Reading University SportsPark and are open to members and non members alike. I was a bit nervous that I would be the eldest person there, given it was on campus, but thankfully that was not the case. Our 55 minute class was lead by "Jammer Jade" a petite, smiley and blond package of energy. You can see her in the promo video; she was awesome! We warmed up with some dance moves that drew on Latino styles and a bit of Oops Upside Your Head type fun before grabbing a drink and getting into the real fun.

The studio has wall to wall mirrors so you can see how you measure up to Jade's amazing choreography, and fancy disco lights set the mood perfectly. The music was one long mix of tracks from Michael Jackson, Britney, Madonna, Lady Gaga and more. Over the course of the class we started to learn the routing, but in a way that didn't feel like learning. We'd do a couple of moves, add something on, repeat some sections, do something else, add that on somewhere, repeat. It was fantastic and Jade somehow managed to teach the whole class mainly with actions and facial expressions. The class culminated it putting the routine we'd learnt to N-Sync's Bye Bye Bye. Yes we almost looked like that… honest!

It was an amazingly fun class. I sang most of the way through, worked up a sweat and claimed my first stamp on my fizz tank card. I am now a Dance Jammer Junkie people! FizzyJamz run a loyalty scheme which rewards you with gifts and prizes the more classes you do. Given the number of classes that take place in a week you could conceivably fill the card in a little over a week, trying different styles of class. 

The SportsPark is a great facility and I can see myself going back there for other classes for sure. And I'll be trying Bokwa another time.

Classes are £6 for non-members at the SportsPark and you can find the timetable for FizzyJamz classes here.

Treasure Hunting with Fitness Playground

A couple of weeks back, at the Lunges & Lycra social event, I took part in a Fitness Playground event. Fitness Playground already run a variety of sessions in the South Bank and Canary Wharf areas of London but this was a bit different to their usual group training sessions... this was a treasure hunt!

We were split into teams of 3-4 people with a nominated leader who was in charge of receiving the clues on their phone from a member of the FP team and sending answers/proof back. The aim of the game was to solve a number of clues to get to various locations in London, complete a challenge at each and get back to the start location within 45 minutes. This was a competition and the rules were thus:

• First team back gets a number of points, the second back gets less and so on.
• Any team back after the deadline is deducted points for each minute they are late
• Extra points are awarded for completing the challenges as each location
• Bonus points are awarded for completing bonus challenges that we were given a web link to

So you could still lose the competition, even if you're first back. This makes for a very interesting playing field! 

I think these girls made his day

It was a mad dash to exit the hotel we started from. Some of us may have gotten lost within the hotel... Once outside phones started beeping, announcing the arrival of the first clue and it was very much a race to the first location but as the first challenge could only be completed by one person at a time we were soon all travelling at different paces, balancing speed with completing other challenges en route. Our treasure hunt took us to Soho Square, Phoenix Garden, Seven Dials, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, The Mall and Piccadilly Circus before a mad dash back to the hotel.

I'm not sure he really understood what was going on, bless him.

We did prove to be quite a spectacle as we legged it round central London. 20-odd girls in vibrantly coloured lycra and multi-coloured war stripes... we were bound to draw some attention. It didn't take long for people to cotton on to what we were up to and my favourite moment of the whole event was probably a group of burly men in hi-viz jackets hollering "It's this way girls, the rest of them went that way!" at us as my team tried to find the next landmark.

Peace and tranquility on a busy pavement

On our travels we tried to cram in as many of the bonus challenges as possible. These broadly fall into "photo" and "collect" categories. We left many a bemused tourist and policeman in our wake, got told off my the Trafalgar Square Security Guards for assaulting the lions and busted out some yoga poses in the middle of busy pavements. And that only scratches the surface... do you know how hard it is to get business cards from people these days, or a copy of yesterday's paper?! Our site challenges included table tennis, races, climbing, deciphering roman numerals and finding out bits of local history. We were tested physically and mentally! 

You're not allowed to sit on the lions anymore, apparently...

Fitness Playground are hoping to start running these more often so do look out for them. It's fantastic fun, a great way to explore London and a real giggle. These sessions would be great to do with a group of friends as an alternative birthday or hen/stag event or perhaps as a corporate event, if there's an active culture. Connect with Fitness Playground on twitter or facebook to make sure you don't miss out, and check out their current set of group sessions if you haven't already... they're all fantastic.

This is not a sponsored post and all opinions are my own.