A Simple Life of Luxury

I had a nice mountain-bike ride last night, despite the fact that there were frequent torrential hailstorms. It was pretty cold up in the hills and the rain held off for most of the ride but the puddles were deep and the river crossings cold.

It did however give me chance to try out my new Goretex cycling shoes and the worked well. Coupled with a pair of waterproof Sealskinz socks and my waterproof cycling trousers I felt ready for anything the welsh weather could throw at me. It seemed to work. Despite being completely immersed in water up to my knees now and then I finished the ride with perfectly dry, and more importantly, nice warm feet.

It is definitely worth having the right gear as it makes things so much more comfortable and therefore more enjoyable. As i’ve heard said before… “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes!”.

Looking forward to some nice wintry rides now… And maybe some waterproof gloves!

We’ve just had another action packed weekend here in rural mid Wales. Thanks to our local katabatic wind I managed to windsurf every day last week and although the wind wasn’t forecast to be great for the weekend, Ivor kept blowing and I managed to windsurf on Saturday and Sunday morning in the estuary at Ynyslas.

The flat water conditions do get a little boring after a while so I spiced things up trying silly tricks like body drags and carving 360’s. Both of these are fairly pointless tricks but fun to try and I guess blasting backwards and forwards across the estuary is fairly pointless in itself anyway.

After our Saturday morning windsurf session Steve and I headed off to the hills for a mountain biking session. We drove up the mountain road behind Talybont and parked on the forest road at the top of this, then headed down and around Angler’s Retreat and up my favourite little gulley before heading across to and down the chute, climbing back up to the top and then virtually retracing our tyre tracks back along the gulley in the opposite direction and back to the car. The route was only just over 12 miles, but it was all offroad and therefore fairly slow. I came off once on a tricky rocky step. I very nearly made it, but the last rock caught me out and i ended up on the floor with a sore arm and bruised ego. Later in the ride a tree got the better of me too. I tired to brush past it as it only looked like a little branch, but it was having none of it, spring back at me and sent me flying.

Steve faired worse then me though with quite a few off’s and once the cleat on his shoe broke meaning he couldn’t unclip from his pedals he went to pot and ended up upside down stuck under his abike a couple of times!

All good fun though and a good day of activities in Wales. Click here to see this route on ShareMyRoutes.com ere is the Summary view of the route topography along with me heart rate and speed.

Sunday was hot and sunny again so I headed off to Nant-yr-Arian where there was a moutnain-bike demo being held. It was of course very busy there and there were lots of nice bikes about. I set off on my bike for a little circuit around part of the Pendam Trail and then went to the Specialised marquee to collect a lovely lightweight carbon fibre S-Works Epic for a test ride.

It certainly was a nice bike. £4000 worth of full suspension loveliness! I’ve never ridden a full suspension bike before and it certainly make s a difference on the downhill sections and over the bumps. The tricky, bumpy uphill sections were easier too as the suspension allows the back wheel to stay in contact with the ground better and therefore gives more traction. It felt a little slower on the uphill forest track sections, but in fact after looking at my GPS track it was actually a little faster uphill too, although much of that was probably due to the lighter weight of this expensive model.

Would I get one? Yes to full-suspension, but no to that particular model  as it isn’t perfect for the type of riding I do. Yes its very light, but I had to get off the bike to lockout the rear suspension and I’d rather be able to do that whilst riding along, either via a remote lever on the handlebars or on a bike where the rear-shock is within reach from the normal riding position. I’d probably be better off with one with a little more travel that the S-Works epic too. I quite like the look of the Specialised Stumpjumper or the Scott Genius… I’d better start saving my pennies!

An earlier post all about keeping motivated with respect to keeping fit suggested the purchase of some gadgets. the idea being that spending money on them will mean you have to go out for a run to justify the expense, and the new gadget will encourage you out so that you can play with it. Well, I took my own advice the other day when Apple dropped the prices of their iPod shuffles and bought myself one. OK, OK I know, I already had a 30GB iPod video so why do I need a shuffle as well?

Apart from the fact that I couldn’t resist it especially at less than £30, the shuffle is my better for running and cycling with simply because of its size. I’m able to clip it on anywhere and get out there for a run without having to wear clothes with pockets in to fit my bigger iPod or even worrying about breaking it.

Unfortunately my back has been hurting a bit lately, so I haven’t had much chance to use the shuffle yet, but I will do soon.

So, how are you all doing, no doubt many of you started a fitness regime in the New Year and now its crunch time. Have you kept to it? Are you still motivated? How can you keep it up?

It can be difficult, work and family commitments get in the way, the weather isn’t great, the days are still short and you have learned to live with the extra few pounds put on over Christmas, but don’t give up now. Staying motivated is difficult, but you’ve put in a month of work to develop a base to work from so stick with it. Hopefully this article will provide you with a few tips for staying motivated.

Record your Training
Athletes record their training so that they can track their progress and find out what works for them. Now, i’m no athlete and you might not be either so you may think that recording your exercise sessions isn’t necessary, but it all helps with the motivation. It is all too easy to miss a run because it is pouring with rain or not go for a swim because it is cold and dark outside and there is something on TV that looks interesting. Such things are fine, but before you know it you haven’t done any exercise this week, and then that becomes none for two weeks and that’s it, game over your new exercise regime has ended. Keeping a record of what you’ve done makes it easy to look back and see just how good you have been. Lazy weeks are fine, but knowing you have had a lazy week means you can make up for it the next week. Seeing lots of entries in your training diary is a boost and helps keep you motivated to do more.

It is up to you how far you take this, you can use sophisticated fitness training software to analyse your performance, track distances, times, heart rate, diet and much more, or you can just make a note of each session you do in a simple diary / notebook, but keeping some sort of record is a great way to stay motivated.

Spice things up
Fitting training into our busy schedules often means a quick run around the block or local park and doing the same route time and time again can get monotonous. Try to spice things up a bit, plan a run or bike ride somewhere you haven’t been before. Not only will it make you look forward to it, but the new sights will take your mind off the training and make you enjoy the experience.

Alternatively, do something different. if you always just run, then go for a bike ride or a swim. Go to the gym, play squash, anything really. It’ll break the monotony, motivate you and will also work different muscles and maybe teach you new skills. After all, if you can enjoy your exercise then you are going to stick to it.

Spend some Money
Always a good one for me. if I spend some money on a new toy; new running shoes, new bike, heart rate monitor, then I feel compelled to use it. I do of course love gadgets, so getting a new one motivates me to get out there and use it. Once again, it adds a new dimension to the monotony of training and helps me stick with it. It doesn’t have to be a new toy either paying for a gym membership can work just as well.

Train with friends
Training with friends can be a great way to keep you motivated. Once again, it doesn’t have to be full-on training, just taking a friend out for a nice bike ride is enough. First, if you make arrnagements to meet someone to go for a run, bike ride or for a game of squash etc. then it isn’t so easy to just not bother. They are relying on you to be there so whatever the weather and other excuses that may have persuaded you not to go on your own, you;ll still turn up. You’ll enjoy it more with company, and often the comnpetition element will spur you on to work just that little bit harder.

Training with people of varying abilities is good too. If they are a little better than you then you are motivated to try a little harder and being a bit better than someone ele is a great morale booster.

Learn to enjoy it.
It is all to easy to think of your exercise sessions as a chore. But why? No doubt once you are out there doing it you are actually enjoying yourself and the sense of acheivement afterwards makes you feel great. So, why is it a chore. More to the point, however reluctant you are to get out there, it has to be better than work or slobbing in front of the TV. Spice it up, do something you enjoy and excrcise becomes something to look forward to rather than dread.

Join a Club
There are clubs out there for all sorts of sports, joining one can provide you with motivation, new training partners and the ability to learn new skills. Almost all clubs cater for and welcome beginners, so don’t worry about being the slowest. In fact you’ll probably be surprised as there is almost always other beginners, some of whom may be less fit than you, which can be a great motivation boost in itself. And even if you are the slowest then you will be welcomed with open arms/

Think of the benefits
I’m not going to go into the health, weight, physical or physcologial benefits here. We all know them and we are all exercising for one reason or another. But remind yourself of these now and then to keep yourself motivated. It felt worthwhile doing it when you started, so it is still worthwhile now.

Think of the downsides
For some people thinking of the benefits is enough motivation in itself, but thinking of the downsides can be more motivating. Don’t just think of the health risks of not exercising but think of the work you have put in until now. Stopping now will undo all of that just as you are getting to a point where it is starting to do some good. Progress can be slow, especially to start with and building a suitable base takes time, but once you have done the exercise sessions become more enjoyable and the improvements really begin. Don’t stop now and undo what good you have already done.

Set yourself an aim
Your first aim was probably just to do some exercise. Now that you’ve started why not challenge yourself. maybe you could enter a race? Its not as mad as it sounds, most races have entrants with all levels of abilities and having something to aim for can keep you motivated and training hard. if racing isn’t your thing then just set yourself goals to run for a certain distance or time, to cycle a certain number of miles in a week. Having an aim can make it all seem more worthwhile and the feeling of acheivement when you fulfill your aims keeps you going for the next challenge.

So, there you go. No excuses now, get out there, get fit and ENJOY IT.

You may have noticed a lack of entries about my new fitness regime for a few days… Don’t worry, I haven’t given up on it before the end of January. I decided to take a few days off running after a little groin strain last Wednesday, but did have a fairly active windsurfing session on Friday afternoon. I met a local student Andy at the train station after he’d caught the train complete with all his kit from Aberystwyth and for a change went out windsurfing from the middle of Borth Beach. I don’t very often sail from here as it means driving down with my kit rather than my usual walk across to the beach with my kit on a wheelbarrow, but I’m glad I made the effort as it turned out to be a really good sail. Well powered up and with some nice waves to play on. Anna and Morgan even stopped off on their way home for a little watch.

We were then away for the weekend so my rest from the training continued. I have however attempted a little run today, but after about a mile there was a bit of discomfort in the strained muscle so I thought it would be best to stop and walk home… I did get my heart rate up to a ridiculous 211bpm though! I shall try anice easy bike ride this afternoon instead I think.

Anna probably won’t forgive me for mentioning this, but her fitness drive to get ‘fit for snowboarding‘ is supposed to start today… I wonder what exercises she’ll be doing?

I’ve recently decided to try to get a little fitter again, so as well as buying some gadgets I wanted some software to track my progress (or lack of progress as it may turn out to be). I’ve been looking at various applications for the Mac and evaluating them so thought I’d share my thoughts on some of them here. Hopefully it will give others in my position an idea of which applications will be best for them.

My main objective was to use the software to record any training sessions so that I could look back over time and see improvements. keeping such a journal also helps with motivation. My first port of call was a journal and scheduler on the Nike website. It was very nice, had a nice Flash based interface and did many of the things I wanted it to do, but really I wanted to be able to store the data locally so the next apps I looked at were iSmartTrain and WeightMania.

iSmartTrain
iSmartTrain allows you to manually enter data about your training sessions, or download them from a compatible (Polar) Heart Rate Monitor. It has a nice Mac style interface, (although it isn’t a full cocoa-based app) and I really like the main calendar view which allows you to see all of your sessions colour coded according to the type of activity (running, swimming, cycling etc.). The calendar view then has a nice weekly summary showing your weekly stats for training duration, distance, number of sessions, calories burned and a few other bits if info.

Also in its favour is the way it presents the graphs, allowing you to see most of this data in a nice clear format so that you can see the number of sessions, distance, time etc for each activity over a set period of weeks or months. All very clear and easy to use and at first I thought this would be the package for me.

iSmartTrain also allows you schedule events for the future, further helping to keep you motivated.

However, after the purchase of my Forerunner 305 (GPS and Heart Rate Monitor) iSmartTrain became less attractive as it isn’t compatible with Garmin devices and doesn’t have any mapping facility to show you the routes you have been on. For those without such a device though it could be ideal.

WeightMania

WeightMania is a huge app with so many options it is difficult to know where to start. More than just a training log, it is a complete lifestyle log allowing you to record not only your activities but also every single calorie, gram of fat, carbohydrate and anything else you eat as well as probably every bodily function you could possibly think of! It really does have it all, including a huge database of food types with their typical nutritional values. It also has tools such as body fat calculators, BMI calculators, BRM calculators and many more, and even goes as far as having recipe managers and grocery lists. For those of you who want to record and manage your entire lifestyle this tool does it all.

The Mac version has a nice modern interface and despite its numerous functions is relatively easy to use. You can of course just ignore the bits you aren’t interested in if you wish.

For me it was just overkill though and once again without compatiility for GPS mapping and connectivity to the Forerunner it wasn’t quite right for me. I also felt that I would spend so much time trying to record everything that there would be little time left to actually get out there and do some training.

Garmin Training Centre

To help keep me motivated I bought myself a new gadget, a Forerunner 305 GPS and heart rate monitor, armed with this my requirements from my software app changed a little. I now needed compatibility with the Forerunner 305 and something that would take advantage of some of its features. Garmin Training Centre software is a free download, so that made it attractive to start with, but once I started playing with it I found it a little limiting.

The maps produced are basic to say the least and the overall appearance and usability isn’t great. It is also lacking in features and just not quite up to scratch. I have to admit to not having explored its potential fully, but part of that is simply because it didn’t inspire me.

Ascent
Ascent is described as ‘GPS trainomg for the Macintosh’ and is fully compatible with the Garmin GPS devices. Simply plug in the device, and sync it with Ascent and your latest training sessions are added to the journal. Not only that but it overlays your route onto a Google Earth map and produces traces of your heart rate, speed, pace etc. All very interesting and it all works well.

The app itself is very Mac-like, but it does have a few little interface peculiarities that you need to get used to. For example, clicking on a toolbar icon with an downwards pointing triangle which normally indicates that the button contains a drop down list, performs an action. To get the drop down list you need to click and hold. Other than this it seems to do exactly what I want it to and does it very well. The maps are great as are the data screens and your training sessions can be viewed in a list or in a calendar view.

Also in its favour is the fact that it is still being actively developed and the developer is approachable and answers questions quickly via his forum. This is the app that I have decided to use and have now coughed up the registration fee for. However, there are still some improvements I would like to see.

The calendar view s OK, but I think it could display more info, entries could be colour-coded by activity and it would also benefit from a weekly summary similar to that of iSmartTrain. Also, the Summary graphs are very limited. and not very well presented. You can’t determine the period of data that is displayed, you can only select a weekly or a monthly view and you can’t distinguish between activites either. Instead all activites are grouped together and the total distance, time etc is displayed whereas I would like to see the total distance ran separately to the total distance cycled. Hopefully such things will be added / improved as the app continues to develop.

TrailRunner

I also looked at this app along the way. It looks really nice and although designed as a route planning app that allows you to plan routes on a map and then upload them to your GPS device it also allows you to import and analyse your routes /workouts. It has a diary feature for recording these workouts and an exercise planner.

The app looks really nice and is under constant development, but I never quite got the hang of it. I think part of this was because I was approaching it from the point of view of recording my training rather than using it to organise and plan my training. It is certainly worth a look, but I didn’t persevere enough with it. I may take another look at this one soon though.

TrackRunner

On paper this looked like the ideal app, all the mapping and data analysis of Ascent, coupled with the calendar and graphs views of iSmartTrain. Compatible with my Forerunner 305 and other Garmin devices and donationware too. The screenshots made it looks as though it was just what I was looking for.
Unforuntaley it just didn’t work properly. First of all you need some other software (LoadMyTracks) in order to import data from your GPS device into it and secondly I couldn’t manually enter data into it. Well, I could but I couldn’t change the date fields on it so I could only enter training sessions on the day I did them! It certainly has some potential, but was too buggy and crashed a couple of times so I soon gave up on it. I’m sure it will improve in future versions, but at the moment it wasn’t quite up to scratch which was disappointing as it looked so promising.

Summary

To round up, none of the applications were quite perfect for my needs, some came close and with a few tweaks any of them could be right, but I’m currently using Ascent and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the developers continue to improve it by adding to the graphing capabilities and improve the calendar view a little. I’m sure they will come up with other enhancements that I haven’t thought of too. lets hope that keeping a record of my activities keeps me motivated and helps me improve my overall fitness.

I thought getting fit was supposed to be good for you, but it only seems to hurt!

Running on the roads hurts my knees, running on the sand hurts my Achilles tendons.

I went for a nice run yesterday along the beach. Nothing too strenuous as I was trying to keep my heart rate down so my pace was a really slow 9 minutes per mile and I only ran 5 miles. The tide was low so the GPS generated map (left) made it look as though I was swimming rather than running, (in which case 9 mins/mile would have been good!) All felt good though and I enjoyed the run itself, but as soon as I stopped I developed a pain in my groin… Seems as though I now have some sort of groin strain which has now prevented me from going windsurfing today, depsite the fact that there has been a perfect wind all day and the sun has been shining.

On top of this, the running has caused chaffing in places you don’t want to know about and I even have a mild case of runners nipple! I think I shall have a few days off before doing some nice easy short runs again.

I haven’t lost any weight either as it makes me hungry and there’s nothing better than a BIG bar of chocolate after a physical workout!

It isn’t all bad though as I’ve been enjoying it and I think the fresh air each day does me good, and those endorphins must be having an effect on my overall sense of well-being.