Pump up the Volume

I thought I’d do a bit more of a fun article based around one of my big motivators and I’m sure it works for plenty of others,  MUSIC. I’m sure we’ve all used it for that extra bit of speed in our runs for that extra push/rep on the weights. Grrrr

There have been plenty of studies to support the positive impact of music on athletes.  Tracks with specific tempos have been shown to improve an individual’s pace in long distance runs.   Also something as simple as music just being a distraction can help mask the fatigue that you may be experiencing.

For me its normally some heavy metal in some peoples words “raaa” music, does the job for me and gets me pumped.

Whatever you do it always helps to have those specific tunes that help to get you going.

So what are they?

I’m going to list my top ten and break them up into categories to give it a bit of variety.

The Classic
It’s a classic in every way the sort of track you love as well as everyone your age, the sort of track you want or do hear at a disco.

Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel

The Pump
The track that has a bit of oomph, that gets your blood pumping even when you’re not exercising. The track that’s just dragged your lazy arse off that sofa

Cochise – Audioslave

Down with the kids
New music, a track you’ve recently discovered that will always be part of your work out playlist

 Break a sweat – Skrillex

Guilty Pleasure
You know you shouldn’t but you love it, let’s see those S Club 7 & steps fans

We didn’t start the fire – Billy Joel

Who?
Hidden gem, your friends haven’t heard of them, you’d never heard of them but you’re glad you discovered them

Iron – Woodkid

And then let’s just have the top 5

5 – Fitzpleasure – Alt-J

4 – Slither – Velvet Revolver

3 – Curl of the Burl – Mastodon

2 – Ten thousand fists – Disturbed

Numero Uno – Black Betty – Ram Jam

Artist / Band
Haven’t got your playlist then which band or artist do you rely upon for that motivation

Disturbed

I’d love to get some feedback on what your music choices are please, so leave a comment

Bye for now

Chickpea and Spinach Curry

This recipe is suitable for vegetarians and at the end of the day who doesn’t love a curry. The aim with all my recipes is to try and make them healthy, quick, simple, easy and low in calories.

Ingredients (serves  4)

3 Garlic cloves1 chopped green chilli
1 tbsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Ground Coriander
1 tbsp Gara masala
1 tsp turmeric
Good pinch of salt & black pepper
Tinned chopped tomatoes (400g roughly)
1 Onion
250ml Yoghurt
Water
Tin chick peas (400g roughly)
Bag of spinach or similar
1 green pepper
Olive oil – good glug

Instructions

1.     Dice the onions, garlic & chilli, fry these in the olive oil along with the cumin seeds for a minute.

2.     Add all the spices to the pan along with a splash of water

3.     Heat until it is a nice thick sticky paste

4.     Now chuck in the pepper (obviously sliced) and chick peas.

5.     After a couple minutes put in the rest of the ingredients (tomatoes, yoghurt, spinach and about 100ml of water)

6.     Now let that simmer down until its nicely thickened should be 20-30 minutes

7.   Serve

I have it on good authority that this recipe is rather tasty so give it ago.

You can obviously bulk it out with rice or anything else of your choice.

For those interested a portion of this homemade curry is only 7 weight watchers points.

Enjoy

Race Review - Water of Life Half Marathon

So on March 24th 2013 at 10:00am, myself and a couple of friends took part in the Water of Life Half Marathon at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre. This is a review of the race there was also a 10k run as well that day. It would be interesting to see what this race was like as it was voted 5th best half marathon in the country in Runners World 2011 listings.

It was a nice sunny day which is always a good start to any race however not too hot so almost perfect weather.

Getting there was no problem and the car park setup was fine plenty of room with just a little walk to the start of the event.

Registering was nice and simple with no problems.

Only problem to arise was me putting on my chipped time tag. After weaving my laces through the holes and with it securely attached to my trainer I suddenly realised I’d done it wrong.

What a donkey! Turns out the instructions quite clearly show that there were little tags to tie it to our laces.

There was quite a good atmosphere the organisers were trying to encourage a couple of runners to do it in a toilet and tap costumes. As tempting as it was I decided to pass, I do like a dress up or even a dress down ;) but not today.

 

To the run itself

We got away bang on time followed by the usual proceedings with those try to get ahead and others settling in to a rhythm. 

We had a few bottlenecks early doors with a few narrow passages followed by a couple of bridge crossings. I always find this frustrating but I accept that this is likely to be part and parcel of every race.

The route itself was very pleasant and sedate, running alongside the river Thames. Passing by other walkers, runners and plenty of dog walkers.

It was a relatively flat course and despite the potential for a good time I knew early doors that I wasn’t going to achieve a time that I wanted. Previous day’s football had taken a lot out of me but in the end I got an ok time.

Conclusion

All in all it was pleasant day, flat scenic course and decent atmosphere so it was an enjoyable run.
There wasn’t much in the way of a goody bag just a banana and water but to be fair they were doing this for charity and to generate awareness so in my book that’s fine.

Only down side for some of us was a lack of a burger van, I know but for some people (Mr Spratt) they like to treat themselves after a workout.

Ratings out of 5 for the Water of Life Half Marathon

Organisation	««««
Atmosphere	«««
Route	«««
Goody Bag	«
Recommend	«««
OVERALL	«««

Teriyaki Salmon and stir fry vegetables

This is a great recipe as it ticks all the boxes. It’s healthy, quick, simple, easy and low in calories.

The recipe is choked full of goodness so great if you’re trying to build muscle, lose weight or just eat healthy. The salmon is high in protein and high omega-3 fatty acids, kale is high in vitamin K & C.

Ingredients (serves  4)

Salmon Fillets x 4
Teriyaki sauce – good glug
Kale – bag
Bean sprouts – bag
Mange tout, sugar snaps, baby sweet corn – a good handful of each
Spring onions – 4
Ginger – 2cm chunk
Garlic – 2 cloves
Chilli – tsp
Soy sauce - tbsp
Sesame oil or olive oil –tbsp
Lime – tsp
Sesame seeds – optional

Instructions

1.     Marinade the salmon fillets for half an hour, get them covered in teriyaki sauce and then chill in the fridge for 30 minutes

2.      Heat you griddle pan, George foreman grill or your standard grill.

3.     Heat the sesame oil in a wok then dice the ginger and garlic also chop the spring onions in to 1cm pieces. Add the ginger, garlic, spring onion and chilli to the oil and heat through for a minute.

4.     Pop the salmon in the pan or grill, it only needs a few minutes each side in the pan. I quite like my salmon a tad under cooked but it’s entirely up to you.

5.     Lob in all the veg to the work, add the soy sauce and lime, give it a good stirring it should only take a few minutes to cook.

6.     The sesame seeds are optionally I personally sprinkle some in to the veg and over the top of the salmon

7.      Then serve

As you can see it’s a very quick, healthy and tasty meal. You could make this even quicker if you have your ready done garlic, ginger and chilli there’s no reason why you couldn’t bang this out in less than 10 minutes if you exclude the marinating.

You can obviously add whole grain rice or noodles if you’re requiring carbs in your diet.

Also its worth bearing in mind that you can change the veg around, pak choi would work well and even a frozen stir fry veg pack.

Anyway enjoy.

Race Review - Demon Run, Bracknell



So this was the Demon Run, a 10 mile run (there was a 5 mile option) through Swindley Forest, Bracknell. I guess you would class it as a cross county or adventure race as it had various obstacles and challenges along the way.

First obstacle ... finding the bloody thing

Now I hold my hands up I took the directions from the address on the website unfortunately there was an email sent out stating that we should be using another entrance.

You’ve probably worked out by now we went to the wrong entrance however we weren’t alone, there was quite a few people waiting at the wrong place.

I have to say though you’re given the impression from the email it’s just round the corner but it’s not and when you finally get to the entrance, whah we see our first sign. However be careful not to blink you may miss the A4 sign stuck to a post.

We managed to register with about 5 minutes to spare but soon realised that it was going to be a late starter which was just as well for us.

So we waited, then we waited, then we waited a bit more and finally ....we can line up, 10 minutes to go. I think it was more like 20 minutes when we got going and I don’t know what time we set off but it must have been pretty close to 11am which is an hour after the scheduled start. Now things go wrong and problems do happen but there was a distinct lack of communication as to why & how long.

To the run itself

It started in the usually fashion some trying to get ahead early doors but through the woods and few ponds it was tricky.

Wait...We’ve gone the wrong way!!!

We were lost after just a mile or so, unbelievable so we in the front runners had to turn around and go back the way we came.

I myself was just following the pack but the problem occurred because you hit a T junction and there was no sign to point us in any direction.

Once back on track we started to hit the obstacles but the problem now was there’s a whole bunch of runners in a group because we had to loop back on ourselves.

To make matters worse all the obstacles were single file so we were all grid locked through the net, all the waist high watery bogs and under a tunnel.

Eventually though we did get clear and had some clear running space in fact we had quite a bit.

The route its self was very scenic and popular, you had a lot off family’s walking dogs along with other runners and cyclists.

There were a couple of obstacles along the long running stretch but we started to get back to the bulk of them about 2.5 miles out.

On a personal level I was flagging and have to admit for the first time ever I think I hit the wall 2 miles out. It took me by surprise as I did a half marathon only last month and my last run on Monday night was a hilly 11 miles. I must confess football on the Saturday afternoon and few bevys that night probably wasn’t the best preparation.

However I think the killer was the lack of food in my system, I was starving therefore my body had no fuel and I was running / plodding on empty.

To compound this I took a wrong turning and then a group of us got lost again. I eventually made my way through the woods and ended up in the car park.

To say I was relieved when I finished was an understatement. I was light headed and had spots before my eyes but I’ll tell you what, a banana never tasted soooo good.

Conclusion

At the end of the race I was pretty p’d off and in the cold light of day I’ve calmed down.

It still doesn’t really change the facts though that there were quite a few problems but for me these were all avoidable.

Despite being emailed directions they should have been prepared for people going to the venue published on the website. There was a lack of directionally markings to the race. If you’re going to have a delayed start we should have been informed. The route was not clearly marked out and too many bottlenecks occurred plus there were and no distance markers. It felt like it was designed by someone who hasn’t run a race of this nature.

On a personal level I would have preferred the obstacles more spaced out say one ever mile and for them to be tougher.

The positives were I really appreciate other well organised events and bananas. Oh and seeing a mate fall on his arse in to ditch before the race had even started. It was then topped off with a young lady telling us how fun it was to see it.

Ratings out of 5 for the Demon Run

Organisation	«
Atmosphere	««
Route	««
Goody Bag	«
Recommend	«
OVERALL	«

Race Day Diary - Water Aid Half Marathon

So I ran my first half marathon of the year on Sunday and despite not achieving the time I wanted I’m glad I did it and it was an enjoyable time.

Let me give you a quick rundown of my preparation.

Nothing earth shattering really I was going to train up until the Friday but I got called up to play footie on Saturday so gave myself Thursday & Friday off training.

Carb loading time then on these rest days chip buttys all round. Only joking I generally try to eat wholegrain carbs with everyone of my meals and that’s pretty much it. Saturday I made sure I took on plenty of calories and carbs with a big breakfast of porridge oats and protein shake.  Toast, fruit plenty of fluids around lunch time and packed a meal replacement bar (high protein & carb) for after the game.

Now one thing that I didn’t prepare for was 2 hours of football as I was filling in I expected to be a sub for the game but 90 minutes later, extra time and penalty’s I knew I’d have to revise my times for the next day.

So the day started with me waking up at 7am normally, this was just as well as I had set my alarm clock wrong. Now I knew about the clocks were going forward but still managed to get it wrong, don’t ask how.

7:30AM is when I finally got up and dressed. First port of call was to lighten my load if you know what I mean.

7:45-8:15AM breakfast of porridge, honey & cinnamon. I also had a can of nourishment (high protein & carb) with my supplements and vitamins.

8:30AM all ready to go and awaiting my lift from my good friend Chris Spratt
8:50AM lift finally arrives so it’s off to Bisham Abbey
9:15AM Arrive

9:20-9:55AM Get registration info, number, chip timing and generally get yourself sorted. I put my chip timer on wrong so had to do that again. Usual dash for the loo 10 minutes before the start. Taking on plenty of fluids and I must confess didn’t do a proper warm up & stretch.

9:56AM Get in to position

10:00AM and were off

First couple of miles was a little on the tight side and I’m not talking about the muscles...ok maybe a little but some of the route forces you into 2 at a time in the earlier stages.

I realised at the 4 mile mark I was going to struggle to get out of second gear and concentrated on keeping my rhythm & technique going.

I did however find another gear / second wind reaching the 9 mile mark and started to tick along quite nicely.
Into the last mile and I started to dip big time and needed that line to appear.

In the end I finished with a time of 1hour 42 minutes and 13 seconds.
I was slightly disappointed as I wanted to be under that 1h 40 mark but it wasn’t to be.
The positives though were I’d beat my previous half marathon time and without football I know I would have shaved off 4-5 minutes.

I ran with 2 friends of mine and they did manage to get one over on me with Chris Spratt 1h 36 and Miles Smith 1h 39.

But there’s always next time

First event of the year

I haven’t been keeping you up to date with my half marathon training but it’s a bit late now as its on Sunday.
As per usual I haven’t done the amount of training I'd like to but I have managed more than I did when I last ran a half-marathon.

As I play football I've integrated this as my interval training. Footballs stop, start nature is very similar to the sort of interval running I would do to prep myself for a run.

A very basic plan for preparing for a race like this would be based around 3 good runs a week. These would be a long run, interval training and a pace run.

The long run is like your practice and the one that pushes your endurance. I have only managed 2 of these and covered just over 10 miles. Some people like to cover the whole distant maybe more but I was wary of pushing too hard and not allowing yourself the adequate recovery.

The reason you do just the one long run is as I've stated already allowing yourself time to recover plus pounding the streets still takes its toll whoever you are.

I've been experiencing some niggles with my knees recently so I'm listen to my body and therefore I'm taking it just far enough I am getting older you know.

Interval, power training or hill running is all very similar. Interval training such as sprinting for 30 seconds, walking 30 seconds, sprinting 30 and so on for ten minutes can improve your fitness even more than your long run. Along with power training this can improve your explosive power, now this may not be as essential to long distance running but I believe it all helps to making you a faster runner.

Examples of power training are exercises like burpees, jump split squats and even clap press ups.

Hill running is good if you’re in a race that...duh, consists of hills. More importantly it can help to train the muscles in your legs to move faster. When running up hill your foot strikes the ground quicker and coming down encourages you to go faster so therefore your memory muscle is absorbing all of this.

Pace run is the final one and actually the one I haven’t done. This is obviously setting yourself a target pace over a shorter distance. You may do something like 5-6 x 1 mile runs with a break at a set target pace. Again this is another one that’s good for prepping you body (memory muscle) for the race to come.

One thing I have done is a couple of cardio sessions in the gym using either a bike, rower or both.

Two reasons for this one, it takes stress off of the knee's and the other in doing other cardio it just raises your all over level of fitness.

So watch this space and see if I got the training just right or I was under cooked.

I have 3 target times, one I want 1h 30mins, one I'll settle for 1h 35mins and my can’t go over whatever happens time 1h 40mins.

Bye for now

Simon