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.

Friday: Flowers and Feeling Fine

Happy Friday one and all! How have you all been? I almost published a different post today but thought I'd not written a personal one for a little while (thanks to having forgotten last week - oops).

Flowers for the house, courtesy of Anita-the-housemate

So what's been happening in my world? Working, eating, sleeping, studying, working out... repeat to fade. Thanks to the pills and potions (iron, B12, vitamin D) I'm pretty much feeling back at full strength again which is absolutely fantastic. I have continued to mark the days in my diary as red, yellow or green according to how I've been feeling and the amount of energy I've had. There have been no red days in a while. My housemate even commented that I've been a lot happier lately which I put down almost entirely to having managed to do some sort of exercise 5 or 6 days of the week. The frustration I'd previously had has simply melted away. I've also been eating well and including even more veg in my diet than usual so it's all good.

All the CV equipment to myself!

My twitter feed has been full of people in the final throes of marathon training and/or off to run in Berlin this weekend. It's hard to believe that this time last year I was also nearing the end of my marathon training. Berlin sounds fantastic though, and it's somewhere I'm really keen to visit. Getting time and money together this year is looking increasingly unlikely but I'm hatching a plan to run the Berlin half next year... In the meantime I am sending mildly envious good luck wishes to everyone out there.

Primrose in the garden

The study load feels heavier at the moment. I think I have less time now I have a housemate. Things take a little longer, there's more chat, a certain amount of planning around each other. But we get on great and generally we're a good influence on the other. Study-wise it's a case of finding an hour here or there, usually late in the evening, to cram another lesson in. How much is sticking, I'm not sure. I think I have a little more time than I think I have to complete all the lessons for my Advanced Anatomy and Physiology and Level 3 Exercise Programming and Coaching but revision needs to be accommodated for as well. It's not meant to be easy and hard work will get me there.

So that's my challenge at the moment but life is good. There are flowers and empty gyms and friends and food and that's just about all I need in life. Apart from lycra. There's so much gorgeous lycra out there at the moment and I'm coveting some, even though I have two drawers and a gym bag overflowing with kit. Oh and trainers... I'm trying to convince myself I don't need a pair of gym trainers but it's not working too well so far. All I've managed to do it tell myself "maybe next month".

So what's new with you? What's good in your life and what are you coveting?

Four Seasons In One Day : New Forest Running Festival

It’s not too often you have to content with ponies on the course in a race but that’s part of the beauty of the New Forest Running Festival. Over the course of two days there are six events to take part in ranging from 10k to 50k. The OH challenged himself to three half marathons in three weekends, of which this was the last. We’d run Surrey together, I marshalled last week and although tempted by another half, I’m still trying to be sensible so signed up with the 10k instead.

My Tough Mudder experience is still vivid in my memory as I cowered in the car praying for the hail to stop. If it hadn’t I almost certainly wouldn’t have run and that would have been a mighty shame. As the weather downgraded from “filthy” to “miserable” the 100 or so 10k’ers huddled in the tea tent to listen to the briefing before being led up to the pub at the top of the road, not for a warming brandy but for the race start… a sort of 3-2-1-GO! Die-hard cross-country runners, average Joe’s and one delightfully enthusiastic cani-x stormed off.

Keeping warm with a hot chocolate and three layers between races

An out and back along the main road ensured we hit the distance and gave us a good idea of what was yet to come… hills. I’m not much for hills. I am one for scenery though and this race has it in buckets, if you can remember to look around every now and again and trust your foot won’t find a rock or dip. It reminded me of summer runs with my old run club and having forgotten my Garmin I decided to just enjoy it. I wasn’t likely to get a PB on this sort of terrain so I let myself walk some of the tougher inclines but enjoyed being able to power up most of them. As I’ve often found in smaller events, there was a lovely sense of camaraderie amongst the runners and as the weather finally decided to settle at “glorious” with blue skies and sunshine it was all the more enjoyable. There were no race markers on our route (or water stations that I saw for that matter) so I had no idea how far I had run or what my pace was like at any point until mile 5 when the lady next to me announced that we only had one mile to go. Surely not? I honestly felt as though we were only half way round. The joys of running free. The last half a mile was all downhill and as we passed the pub I was challenged to beat the guy I’d just passed. A sprint finish ensued, down the dirt track path and into the finishing field. I didn’t beat him but I finished with a grin.

OH crossing the line

Medal, water, banana and race time collected I sat in the car to keep warm for an hour before heading back to the finish line to cheer the OH home. A few ponies decided to venture onto the home straight and one even thought about crossing the finish line for a while. Thankfully no harm came to ponies nor runners. Each runner was congratulated over the line by the wonderful announcer and we happened to be present for the half marathon prize giving which was fun. The race and the day went all too quickly. 

No PB but a time and medal I'm very happy with

The races are organised by Naked Strength and your race entry (a reasonable £15 for 10k and £22 for half marathon distance) includes a tech t-shirt, medal and goody bag featuring a clif bar and sweatshop vouchers. Race HQ was at a campsite in the forest so facilities were clean and plentiful. Parking was a breeze, as was registration, and it was nice to pass the time browsing the sweatshop stall between races. I would definitely consider doing the 10k again, or maybe the half if I was feeling brave. Someone had completed the 50k, 20 miler AND half marathon over the weekend… with that gorgeous scenery I can understand why. A beautiful and slightly challenging event that’s got a lovely friendly vibe.

Different distances, same event, both happy

Pro-10 Soy Protein Powder

I write quite a lot about protein because it’s something I’m always trying to get more of in my diet. I’ve yet to build a proper habit with taking shakes or using powders in other ways so writing about it is part of my voyage of discovery.

A few months ago I got sent some strawberry flavour soy protein from Pro-10 to try. All the protein powders I’d tried up until then were whey so it was good to be offered the opportunity to try something a little different. I put off trying it for ages. I had fun flavours from other brands, I was getting into protein porridge and strawberry just seemed a bit… dull.

My first experience with it was blending it with frozen banana and milk to make a smoothie for breakfast. It was really tasty and a great consistency but I wasn’t blown away by it; it was the same consistency as I’d expect from any smoothie really.

My second experience was of mixing it with skimmed milk in a shaker bottle for a post weights snack on a day I was being “good” about these things. I was blown away. Most of my other shakes tend to be quite thin, sometimes slightly powdery or gritty, although tasty but this was so smooth and even when mixed with 200ml of milk (the higher end of the usual suggested range) it was really smooth and thick and actually reminded me of strawberry Angel Delight before it’s set properly… which gave me the idea that if I used slightly less milk and chilled it, I'd have a filling version of Angel Delight, and you know what? It worked!

1 scoop strawberry soy with 150ml skimmed milk

As a drink it was so satisfying that I could have gone without dinner afterwards. I’ve never felt satisfied after protein shakes before, unless mixed with additional fruits, oats and so on, so I would definitely use this as a snack and not just for recovery. As such it would definitely help me with fat/weight loss. I’m not sure if it’s due to it being soy and not whey, some change in the powder consistency or something else.

Looking back at my comparison chart this is low fat and at the top end of the chart for cals, protein and carbs but as I said before, it depends what your goals are as to whether those stats are good or bad. I’m inclined to rate it above TheProteinWorks (and you know I'm a fan of theirs) but below MyProtein. It’s a pity it only comes in plain or strawberry at the moment, as does their whey protein. I’d love a chocolate or butterscotch one for the true Angel Delight experience. Until then I think this will be my “snack” protein of choice and the others will be relegated to recovery/ingredient status.

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.

Event Review : Leith Hill Half Marathon - A Marshal's View

Despite having been a part of dozens of races and events over the years, it’s usually as a participant and without much thought given to how much organisation it takes. A lot of people have a hand in organising and running races and many of those are volunteers. As demonstrated by parkrun very week, volunteers are the back bone of most of the races and events in the UK. They help to mark the course, direct you at tricky points, man your water stations, hand out jelly babies, offer encouragement and make sure you get a medal at the end. Without volunteers, or marshals, races would not be as we know them today.

Gorgeous dogs who accompanied our briefing with "singing"

I have started to realise what a difference a cheery, helpful marshal can make to my own race experience and that’s why I decided to volunteer my services on Sunday to help out at a race the OH was taking part in, rather than just standing on the sidelines. Leith Hill Half Marathon is arguably the hardest half marathon in England, from Dorking to the highest point in south eastern England with 1836 feet of ascent. It’s one of around half a dozen fairly mental races organised by Rob McCaffrey of Trionium. These events have a reputation of being well organised, fun, friendly and a little bit special. Some 300 runners were registered for the event which was preceded by a wife-carrying race that unfortunately I missed. Last year the event took place in snow. This year we had 20 degree heat!

Marking tape on the route. That track is much steeper than it looks!

I was surprised to discover that there were only around 15 marshals for the event. If there had been less willing volunteers, could the race have taken place at all? Rob briefed us all, assigned jobs and made sure we all had a way of getting to and from our marshal points. It’s an out and back course so walking to your spot wasn’t really an option. I was assigned a spot just passed the second water station at the 5.5/7.5 mile point to direct people around a corner. I had the St John Ambulance team to keep me company and a handful of spectators to help cheer everyone on. I made it my mission to be as loud, enthusiastic and encouraging as I could be.

Being briefed by organiser Rob

Everyone had their names on their bibs which, once I’d realised this, made it even more fun. One chap actually doubled back to ask how I knew him as he hadn’t realised his name was below his number. At least I made him smile. It’s a hot, steep and exhausting course so I hope I succeeded, I certainly enjoyed myself! Most people looked utterly spent but it was lovely to see some smiles, and a thrill seeing the front runner come through with a 2 minute lead.

St John's taking it easy before the runners got to us

My station happened to be across the road from a pub whose landlord had not been informed of the race and who took great offence at me standing there in my hi-viz vest. According to him I was stopping people from getting into his car park (I turned no one away) and I was told in no uncertain terms that I should think about where I stood. Apparently the safety of 300 people was not a concern of his. Runners already had to contend with horse riders, hikers and cyclists! Thankfully, aside from that and two injuries that St John’s dealt with, it was fairly uneventful and I even had time to get back to the finish once the sweep had been past my station to see the OH. 

Big up to the fantastic water station crew!



In position. Thought the t-shirt was appropriate

Every finisher got a fantastic medal, a pint glass and a t-shirt with all the entrants’ names on the back. In addition the race HQ was a school and they were able to offer changing facilities, use of a swimming pool and a cooked breakfast for everyone including the marshals. We also got a t-shirt and pint glass for our help as well as a free entry into one of the events in the future. I’d honestly have done it for the joy alone, as I suspect many others would have done. It was fantastic just to be involved and I got just a big a buzz from being on the other side of proceedings but it did make us feel valued. I’ve seen other events give out special volunteer medals or t-shirts (Fleet Half, London Marathon, Crowthorne Triathlon) which is also a lovely token of appreciation.

Race spoils



Fantastic medal

I have a huge amount of respect for everyone who took part in the event and I really hope it was enjoyable. I’d encourage everyone to marshal, just once, even if you’re not injured or know anyone in the race, to get a little insight into what it’s like. It’s brilliant fun and just reinforces my view that runners are a really special and wonderful group of people.

Another Week, Another Deficiency

I know a few of you are interested in my health saga and how I’m coping/improving as a runner so here’s the next instalment. Although I’m no longer anaemic (huzzah) and I was given a B12 jab, more blood tests were requested to see whether there was anything else contributing to my symptoms. This set was testing for indicating factors, thyroid and vitamin D levels. The only flag was against vitamin D to show that I’m deficient.

Apparently this is very common, especially at this time of year amongst people who are office workers and vegetarians. Vitamin D is found in fish oils, eggs, fortified milk and cereals, beef liver and cheese but it’s very hard to get sufficient amounts from food so getting sunlight is key. Severe symptoms include rickets but general tiredness, vague aches and pains and a general sense of not being well are the more common symptoms. A level of 50 nmol/L to 200 nmol/L is considered adequate for healthy people and I'm at about 29 nmol/L. It just so happens that there was an article about this very thing in Women's Running this month. Taking supplements should see me right, even my doctor takes them so I have faith, but rather than the vitamins you can get off the shelf I've been prescribed super-duper strength ones to get me back on track quickly. I’m still on the iron tablets and I've also been recommended B12 supplements rather than the injections going forwards so I’m nigh on rattling these days!

I’m feeling better this week than I have done for quite a while, despite a hard week at work, late nights and a very full weekend. A few weeks ago that would have wiped me out for a day or two but I’m craving exercise and keen as mustard to sign up to more events. Sunday's half marathon was a good measure of my ability at the moment and I can now see how I can progress from a comfortable 10k to the longer, tougher events at the end of the year. I’ve held back from entering a half marathon in a fortnight’s time, based on how I felt after the Surrey Half, but I have entered a 10k distance instead to start me on the journey and I had an amazing run with new housemate Anita-the-Crazy this week which got me buzzing.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the gym!

Event Review: Surrey Half Marathon

It was a busy ol' weekend for half marathons if my twitter and RSS feed are to be believed. In my part of the world a lot of fuss was being made about the inaugural Surrey Half Marathon which was held on the closed roads of Guildford. I'd entered last year with the hope of being able to attempt a PB but unfortunately it was not to be. That said, my own performance is the only thing I'd fault about the day. Right from registration onwards the organisation was great; the race packs were sent out well in advance with our bibs, bag tags and a buff for every runner. An app was available to download which had masses of info about the course, race village, car parking, FAQs and a tracker. Results were available on the app shortly after finishing too! 

We were blessed with gorgeous weather on the day. Brilliant sunshine and a balmy 17 degrees, very warm for the time of year and ever so slightly too warm for my comfort zone when I'm running. Car parking was a breeze and there were loads of marshals on hand to direct us to and around the race village, all with extremely cheery attitudes. Bag drop was a cinch and even at 20 minutes before the start there were no loo queues! That's practically unheard of. 

The out and back course lined with spectators most of the way around and dotted with all kinds of bands from steel drums, to brass and rock. I'd been undecided as to whether to run with music and had wired up in case but I didn't feel the need in the end. At around mile 4 the elites passed us coming the other way which was both fun and disheartening at the same time. The ripple of cheers as they whipped by was fun to be part of. 

Given it was such a hot day one or two extra water stations would have been nice. There were three on the course, all serving up sports capped bottles and the one at half way had gu gels too, but there was little shade and I saw a lot of people being tended to by St John's at the side of the road. One guy was even on an IV drip!

Another fab medal for the collection

There were few hills, which I'd been warned about, but nothing too major. But those and the heat, plus my clear lack of training lately meant that my on-track-for-a-PB pace went out the window after mile 8 and I ended up walking a bit. The finish was in the stadium around the track which is always a winner as far as I'm concerned… makes me feel like a real athlete! A lovely chunky medal and bottle of water was presented to all finishers but there were no goody bags. It wasn't the slowest I'd ever completed a half marathon in though so I'm hanging on to that thought.

It was definitely al fresco lunching kind of weather so I rested my uncharacteristically achey legs in the garden whilst refuelling with soup, homemade rolls and bakewell tart and a mug of tea. It was all incredibly lovely.

All in all it was a fantastic day; the organisation was superb and the race really enjoyable. It was lovely to see so many friendly faces at the race too, a real community vibe. I would definitely recommend signing up for it next year if you get the chance. I'm considering entering it again myself!

Vegans! Look Away Now! Cheese!

Cheese. Glorious cheese. I'm a fan of both the dairy product and the Tim Minchin song. When I used to work as a silver service waitress I used to scoff whole wedges of brie that had been left on cheese plates, in the kitchen after service. It was glorious. As a vegetarian it took me a long time not to rely on it as a protein source. It is, of course, a fantastic source of protein and with so many delicious varieties out there these days it's a miracle I don't eat more of it really.

Lunch at La Fromagerie in London

As I do like to indulge occasionally it's handy to know what the better options are so here's a handy table. Stilton, cheddar and parmesan are the most calorie and fat heavy where as ricotta and cottage cheese are the lowest in terms of calories and fat. I'm glad to see that halloumi isn't too calorific… I do adore halloumi. The saturated fats are important. Government guidelines suggest that we get 30-35% of our calories from fat with 11% being saturates. On a 2,000 kcal diet this amounts to 74g of fat of which 24.4g are saturated. It soon mounts up.

per 25g	Cals	Carbs	Protein	Fat	Saturates
Blue Stilton	103	0	6	9	6
Brie	86	0	5	7	5
Camembert	73	0	5	6	4
Cheddar	104	0	6	9	5
Reduced Fat Cheddar	69	0	8	4	3
Cottage Cheese	51	2	6	2	1
Cream Cheese	62	1	1	6	4
Feta	63	0	4	5	3
Goat's Cheese	80	0	5	7	5
Halloumi	80	1	5	6	4
Mozzarella	64	0	5	5	4
Parmesan	104	0	9	7	5
Ricotta	36	1	2	3	2
Wensleydale with Cranberries	94	3	5	7	5

Of course this is just a small sample of cheeses and certain cheeses are necessary in some situations, however it's useful to know that mozzarella on a pizza is better than cheddar, for example. All figures have been taken from Carbs & Cals which is a handy book if you're doing a lot of nutritional analysis as it features pictures of portion sizes.