Just to Clarify - It's not about the coffee!

Yesterdays post might of caused some confusion. I suggested I might be wrong. Many people thought the post was about coffee. I apologise if this gave the wrong impression. It was not. I still feel coffee can have a detrimental effect on health. If you are stressed, tired and anxious then coffee can exacerbate those symptoms. The post might of been more to do with the use of my time. I think the following story that came up on my facebook newsfeed sums my thoughts quite nicely...

The Mayonnaise Jar

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and two cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and fills it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “YES”.

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - God, family, children, health, friends, and favorite passions. Things, that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car. The sand is everything else -- the small stuff.” he said.

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “There is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you...” he told them.

“So... pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Worship with your family. Play with your children. Take your partner out to dinner. Spend time with good friends. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the dripping tap. Take care of the golf balls first -- the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled and said, “I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”

My point was the coffee shop - a place to relax with William was my golf ball. :-)

Thanks to Oliver Chapman for sharing this story.

I Was Wrong: Time To Just Be

I’ve come to the conclusion I might of been wrong all along.

Sitting in Starbucks last week with William I learnt a valuable lesson.

We had been out for a run in the morning, went off to watch one of my young clients play tennis and ventured in to Guildford to pick up some coconut oil.

Obviously after all this action daddy and Will needed a rest. We popped into a coffee shop and invested in a vanilla spiced latte and a classic blueberry muffin.

Sitting on a comfy chair watching the world go by and spending some time with William was fantastic. He is now fifteen weeks old and spends his time between naps and filling nappies babbling and smiling.

It is genuinely exciting to watch him develop. Most days I come home and he is up to something new. And here in lies my brand new revelation...

I have always loved coffee. I’ve always loved the taste, the smell and the culture.

...it is perhaps this last point that is most important. In our lazy Sunday morning wander around the shops of Guildford and our hour or so sitting and relaxing in the coffee shop I felt the most relaxed ever.

The moment of creamy vanilla spiced deliciousness created a disconnect second to none.

Relaxing there amidst the aroma and gossip watching people struggle to stand up on those beautiful cobbled streets reminded me of whats important in life.

It really is nothing to do with the coffee. I guess it can be anything for anyone. I suppose some people enjoy a glass of wine. Taking time to just ‘be’ is what it is all about.

Over the last few years I have sought experiences, spent time building my business and studied. It has been great. But taking the time to just ‘be’ is something I need to practice.

I suppose I find a certain amount of disconnect in exercise. I can turn the phone off and escape the hustle and bustle of the world for an hour or so, I also like to spend time on my sofa watching films with EJ. These are things I need to do more.

I guess if it involves drinking coffee so be it. The classic blueberry muffin is just a bonus.

The Plan: How Do You Train For a Seventy Mile Run?

I’m now two weeks into my training and the old familiar feeling of flow I get when I start to improve my fitness is coming back. My running seems to feel more fluid again, rather than the clunky uncomfortable unpleasant and atrocious runs I was doing a couple of weeks ago.

I’m not a runner and when in between challenges I don’t keep running to maintain fitness so when I start training for a challenge I literally start from scratch. Please understand this is not ideal - for anyone this approach comes with an increased risk of injury and a HUGE feeling of frustration when you don your running shoes and start up again. Yes - I get that too!

I’m not quite Ricky Hatton - I don’t put on three stone in weight between races - I just don’t run as part of my weekly routine.



I haven’t really trained for a running event in over a year. I realise my ironman had a marathon on the end of it, but this was small fry to me seeing as I couldn’t swim over a mile and didn’t own a bike (let alone have any proficiency on it!) before I started to train. Therefore for the 32 weeks of Ironman training I only really did 1 or 2 runs a week and that’s not really enough to develop marathon fitness.

I digress. The point is this - I don’t run and so I’m starting from scratch.

I now have just under twenty weeks to go and I know you guys want to see my training plan. The truth of the matter is the running part is simple for me. Being a fitness expert who is well versed in advanced anatomy and physiology, biomechanics, psychology, program design, blah, blah, blah, I suppose I should give you a complicated intelligent explanation about what I’m doing and why. I’m sorry to disappoint you...

The truth of the matter is despite what you read on the running forums, running is a low skill activity and it’s perhaps the stuff I do around running which is more important.

Please don’t confuse what I just said. Running might be simple, it is not easy. You still have to train. But, it’s just not as complicated as ‘experts’ make out.

To build a program I find a plan that has worked for me well in the past and amended it. The simplest best plan I’ve found is on the Runner’s World website and is free.

I’m planning on running this race doing only three or four runs per week. This goes against the grain a little. Most endurance training plans require you to ‘get time on your feet’ which basically mean running five or six times per week. I want to do it as part of a reduced volume plan for experimental reasons.

In the past with endurance training plans as the demands become greater I become hopelessly addicted to caffeine and chocolate. By running at a lower volume I hope to keep my diet in check and substitute the extra runs with strength training and soft tissue work (massage and foam rolling). This way I will be strong and healthy.

It has always crossed my mind that you only need three runs to be a good marathon runner. One fast run, one moderate distance run and one long run - anything more seems to be less meaningful practice and more junk mileage. What is a recovery run anyway?? (cue a series of angry emails from runners...)

Therefore, I printed this off the program from the website and highlighted the runs I wanted to do. I am building up to doing 22 miles in about 10 weeks time and from there I will build up my moderate run to a similar amount. With good nutrition, strength and adequate recovery I be able to manage this. It will culminate in me doing back-to-back 22 mile runs six weeks out from the race.

Sounds insane, right? :-)

I plan on taking little baby William with me for some of it. This will give EJ a rest and William some fresh air. This will mean it doesn’t effect family life too much... Maybe.

I’ll keep you posted.

Tough Guy. Yes I am.

This weekend I went off to take on the Tough Guy challenge up in Wolverhampton.

The Tough Guy race is hideous cross-country adventure race in which competitors brave muddy water obstacles, crazy-high 40ft cargo nets, fire, ice, electricity (seriously!) and much more. Words can’t really explain how horrible this race is...

Check it out here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMbmlmaN3XA&feature=fvwrel

You can tell from the video it’s mean.

I’ve done this race a couple of times before and this year I took one of my friends/ enemies/ bootcampers Joe Bakey with me.

It’s fair to say Joe is young and foolish. He’s a bit like me just better looking and a bit slower. Joe has lots of good banter (and lots of bad banter too) which makes him the perfect partner in a race like this.

If there wasn’t already enough stuff for me to take the piss out of Joe for, he also brought his mum along with him (to hold onto his inhaler) and his girlfriend (to keep her company whilst she held onto his inhaler). Fortunately, I know Joe's mum, Claire, and Joe's girlfriend, Chloe, and they were great fun to have on the road trip too.

En route to Wolverhampton we enjoyed a gourmet cooked breakfast and I managed to convince Joe he needed to wear goggles for the race... This made for a great journey.



We arrived in plenty of time to recce the course and for Joe to realise the goggles were not essential. Shame. We kept them on anyway...

Soon enough the race started and Joe through caution to the wind...

(Ala Albert Brennerman throwing the inhaler in the film Hitch... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npy6SXS1LDA (17 seconds in...)

We set about our task with intensity and vigor. It’s difficult to do a race like this together because of the type of obstacles and within the first mile we were separated. So we went our separate ways...

I have done this race several times before, but never has it felt so cold. I’m not sure if I’m getting old or if the water obstacles were a bit deeper or perhaps I’m just a bit ‘softer’ but it was HARD.

The bitter coldness was mega. People were dropping like flies. But not Joe and I. We both ‘manned up’ and made it to the end. Fortunately our support crew (between hot chocolates...) were there to welcome us back with warm clothes and cheer and we were quickly back into a nice warm car and on our way home...

Not so quick that Joe’s mum couldn’t take this great video...



The Tough Guy Challenge is one of the hardest races I’ve ever done (...did I mention I’ve run six marathons in six days and Ironman??) but the satisfaction of finishing the race was AMAZING. Definitely worth the extortionate entry fee, long journey and listening to Joe’s boring stories about the wonders of barefoot running...

Thanks to everyone for the messages of support, Claire and Chloe for the warm clothes immediately after the race and to Joe for surviving. Same time next year? I think so.

The Ultra-Distance Experiment

I’m not trying to re-invent the wheel here, nor am I trying to flick the bird at all the runners out there who regularly train hard every day to shave a second here and a second there off there PB. I don’t doubt the training principle of specificity (i.e. You get good at what you repeatedly do), if you want to get good at running you have to run. All I’m trying to say is there is more than one way to skin a cat.

The Ultra-Distance Experiment was born out of my interest in what is necessary and what is not. I’m working towards a race in June called The Wall. The Wall is a seventy-mile race from Carlisle to Newcastle along the length of The Hadrians Wall. The vast majority of which is off-road, hilly and knowing that part of the world wet and windy.

I suppose I’m an unlikely candidate for this type of race. Up until 18 months ago I hadn’t run a marathon. In fact I hadn’t run anything over 10 miles and I certainly hadn’t trained for a race. My friend pulled up a week before the London Marathon with a calf strain that meant he could not run. With less than a week to go and lots of money raised for charity I stepped in and took his place and the rest they say is history.

Later that year I took part in a race called the Trans-Britain a 156 mile footrace that takes place over six days (the equivalent six marathons in six days off-road) and runs from Gretna in Scotland to Ruthin Castle in North Wales. Since then I have run several marathons (none of which I have trained specifically for) and competed in Ironman France having never owned a bike nor competed in a triathlon before starting training.

I don’t class myself as a runner nor a triathlete. I don’t run regularly. I guess I’m just a broken rugby player with a bit of courage. I suffered a wrist injury and after having it pinned back together didn’t fancy going back to the sport and breaking it again. There is perhaps one factor that might go in my favour - I am of course a personal trainer.

Everyday I work with people to help them achieve there health and fitness goals. Perhaps it is this that has inspired The Ultra-Distance Experiment. I realise that regular runners are often ambivalent about other factors that contribute to fitness and performance. Things like strength, structural integrity, soft-tissue release and mobility, preferring instead to run, run, run instead of utilise other more scientific and intelligent approaches to achieve optimum performance.

Just to reiterate I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel here, I just want to help people recognise there is more to running a sub-40 10k than just ‘time on your feet.’ I realise my proposition might cause some athletes to get on there soap box. I mean how dare someone suggest there is another way?! I mean I understand that runners like to run and cling to it like religion. Believing the key to success is hard work and only hard work. How dare someone suggest otherwise?? Especially someone who up until 18 months ago only donned a pair of running shoes once a month to take part in an occasional trail race...

Let me just confirm - I have trained. I followed a sixteen week training plan for my six marathons in six days Trans Britain race and I followed a thirty-six week training plan for my Ironman. Both of which, in comparison to my peers were perceived as relatively time-friendly reduced-volume approaches and both which gave me relatively good success. My experiences up until this point have all eluded to one thing. Training less and more intelligently can often bring about faster performance and fitness improvements than training more.

Wow! Quite a statement, I know. It’s not that I necessarily believe in overtraining, I think under-recovering is more the truth. I believe many people (especially runners) are ignorant to other factors such as rest, good nutrition, strength and mobility can have on performance. And that perhaps if these things were given a little bit more respect people would see a vast improvement in speed, a greater reduction in injury and a lot more joy and satisfaction from there sport.

The Ultra-Distance Experiment is not an absolutist approach. What I am proposing is more of an idea. I want to put myself up as an example. I am planning on racing in a seventy-mile race, running just three or four times per week and supplementing the rest with gym work and recovery (eating better, foam rolling, massage, etc). I also want to raise MASSIVE amount of money for my local charity which supports people with learning difficulties (but I’ll elaborate on that in later posts...)

I’m looking to represent the time-shy athlete who wants to participate in something purely unique. I’m looking to give hope to the guy who feels they ‘don’t have the time’ to train for a marathon. I want to prove low-volume training is a safer, more sophisticated and healthier approach to achieving success in any sport - most noticeably in this example - running.

I’m not trying to challenge the tried and tested approach of getting time on ones feet, you most certainly do get good at what you practice and for optimum running performance you do need to run. But my question is where does it start and where does it stop. I genuinely believe there is some advantage to most runners skipping a training run and having a massage once every fortnight.

Take for example my challenge, I can’t run anywhere near seventy miles in training. The further I go in training the greater the risk of injury. The most I could perhaps do is run between 20-22m on a training run which let’s be honest is a drop in the ocean in comparison. This would be like training for a 100 metre race by doing one 30m sprint each week, right?!

What I’m suggesting is following a 20wk training plan with three or four runs a week. One long run, one fast interval one and one somewhere in between. It will be progressive, structured and periodised. It will utilise aspect such as rest, recovery and cross-training. It will bear in mind important factors such as sleep, stress management, childcare and family life - I too have a wife and twelve week old baby! We could look at nutrition, stretching and fun too.

The lower-volume means I will be able to put forward my best (or most appropriate) effort at every training session. This means when I schedule a hard run it will be that, and when I schedule an easy run it will be that). The lower volume means I will be able to maintain health as I will not burden my body with stress which is so often the case with endurance training programs and I will not become helplessly addicted to unhealthy foods such as chocolate and caffeine which is so often the case with the typical marathon training plans.

I’m gonna write about my experience, impart a bit of knowledge on alternative ways to run quicker. Stuff like how to strength train to improve running and why most so-called sport specific strength training plans are woefully inadequate. I can elaborate on why soft-tissue release leads to far greater performance gains and why when your muscles are softer and more pliable they actually perform better. I will provide examples of the benefits of creating good health with good nutrition will lead to far greater performances. I can highlight how once you have cleaned up your diet supplementing can be helpful and why supplementing with something like magnesium, whilst not an ergogenic aid, reduced my cramps during ironman training.

So here it begins... 21 weeks to go... Wish me luck and stay tuned!!!

A Delicious Healthy Fat Burning Curry

Yesterday on my facebook page I promised those who liked my post a delicious healthy fat-burning curry recipe. I couldn’t find one with all the ingredients but I’ve done the next best thing - I’ve found one with a good amount of spice and several other really healthy ingredients.

As you know I’m a big fan of real food and this recipe is exactly that! From yesterdays post you will recognise it has the metabolic super-power of red chillis, ginger and turmeric in it. It also has red onions which contain quercetin a natural anti-inflammatory that enhances liver function (important for fat loss), jumbo prawns which is good quality protein which is great for balancing blood sugar, and full-fat coconut milk which despite being a saturated fat actually aids fat loss.

If you want to make it even healthier have it with quinoa instead of rice...

This recipe serves 2 and is ready to eat in about 20mins. Enjoy!

Kerala Prawn Curry

Ingredients
2 red chillies split, cut into quarters lengthways and seeded
1 small red onion , chopped
2.5cm piece of fresh root ginger , peeled and chopped
1 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
½ tsp fenugreek seeds
14 curry leaves , fresh or dried
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp cracked black peppercorns
250g jumbo prawns , leave some with their tails on if you like
150ml full-fat coconut milk

Method
In a food processor, blitz the chillies, onion and ginger with 3 tbsp water into a smoothish paste - you may need to scrape it down the sides.

Heat the oil in a heavy pan or wok. When hot, toss in the mustard and fenugreek seeds, and curry leaves - they'll crackle and pop - and fry for 10 seconds. Add the onion paste, turn the heat down a tad and cook without colouring for about 5 minutes. Splash in some water if it starts to catch.

Add the turmeric and cracked peppercorns and stir the spices around for a few seconds before tipping in the prawns. Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer, stirring all the time. The milk will take on a yellow colour from the turmeric. Cook for 1 minute until everything's heated through. Squeeze over some lime, sprinkle with fresh coriander and serve with rice.

I’m not so clever to make this up! I adapted from the BBC Good Food website. A great website full of ideas...

Five Spices To Accelerate Fat Loss

If you regularly tune into my blog you will notice I don’t normally get mixed up in nutritionism (the over analysis of food). Many of the so-called benefits of individual nutrients seem massively overstated and I feel with so many variances on the human condition (stress and sleep patterns, digestive function, food quality, etc) life just isn’t that simple.

Whilst my approach to nutrition might seem radical to some (cutting out processed food, sugar and alcohol is ‘radical’ - please note: sarcastic tone) I do understand that some elements of nutrionism might just work when all the other bases are covered.

One area that I cannot find fault in is the use of spices. In my opinion, even if they don’t accelerate fat loss, they make your food taste nicer and that’s a good thing, right?

So here you go... Five Spices To Accelerate Fat Loss (and make your food taste good)

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is great for controlling blood sugar and improving insulin sensitivity. By controlling blood sugar you prevent the fluctuations that cause cravings therefore it naturally suppresses your appetite and prevents you from overeating.

Ginger

Ginger is great for two reasons. Firstly it aids the digestive process which leads to better absorption and consequently better nourishment. This is a much understated element of fat loss. Ginger also has a thermogenic effect which increases the rate you burn calories.

Red Chilli Powder

Like ginger, red chilli powder has a thermogenic effect. You probably feel it if you eat to much and start to sweat! Nutrients within the red chilli also contain potent metabolism boosting ingredients.

Cardamom

Cardamom is another spice thats great for your digestion. It cannot be overstated the benefits of improving your digestion. Your gut is like your second brain. Treat it well.

Turmeric

Turmeric improves your digestion of fats. This is never gonna be a bad thing. It also is a rich source of antioxidants. That’s why some people consider it a super-food.


I could go on and on. Including spice in your foods is great for health and fat loss.