Be Excellent To Each Other

Which one are you doing?

I went and did a 20 mile race yesterday. It was rather hilly.

I managed it in just over 4 hours. I ache a little today

Bedford Autodrome, August 4th!


Great work!

Gaz you should do it next year..

Which one was it?

Ashby 20. It makes Broseley look fat.

I'm assuming you mean 'flat'... in that case, I'll leave it for now

yes, yes I did

Less than four hours of the shitty bits of training left, then the lovely taper.

Got my number.. Not panicking yet.

Due to pain in my feet and calves and knees, I hadn't done any serious exercise between the end of June last year and Christmas, this lead to me putting on a quite a bit of weight

I started going on walks again in January, and although I have not done as many as I would like, I have still walked over 220km this year. I have also not had any alcohol since about 03:00 on Jan 1st (that's just over 100 days)

Despite that, the last time I weighed myself, I was exactly the same weight I was on Jan 1st

I know it's not all about weight, but I don't feel or look any slimmer either. I think the pain in my lower legs was partly caused by the stress of being the weight I am.

There's no really point to this post, I just wanted to moan about the lack of progress

You are more active than you were, so you must be converting fat to muscle and - even more importantly at this stage! - supportive/connective tissue, and doing cardiovascular improvement.

I fully understand the frustration; I never lost more than 4kg from starting weight 4.5 years ago and in fact weigh more now, no.matter the combination of diet, booze, exercise and illness, I never looked any slimmer or trimmer (and again, look fatter now) but the results absolutely speak for themselves, I move more weight more times and hold better form doing it.

That is intended to say - don't be disheartened, mirrors and scales only tell a specific measure of the truth, not the whole truth.

Good luck to our BeExer London Marathon runners tomorrow!

Have fun!

That was intense

Tower bridge was just a wall of noise.

At about 23 miles there were some fellas waving red pint cups shouting "free beer". I accepted and smashed back half a pint of ale in the final stretches. Way better than the lucazade.

Good job runners! I am very impressed.

There's lots of energy in a half, it's the ideal energy drink. Quick energy, a bit of alcohol to numb the pain and hops to aide the healing process.

I did the same when I ran it - reckon it was the only reason I finished

Superb!

Not going to lie: running down the final 3km right next to to barriers, hearing the crowd cheer my name and high fiving all the raised hands as I went past was fucking epic.

Me in Lego.

Awesome! Wolverine, eat your heart out.

The triathlon... Hurts every time.

Did my first day of airsoft in a good few years, yesterday. At West Mids Airsoft HC2 in Rowley Regis. An indoor, close-quarters battle site, with a surprisingly big arena, very friendly staff and an on-site shop.

I covered nearly 4 miles over the course of the day, just running and walking back and forth during the games. One hell of a workout, especially as I had four layers on (undershirt, t-shirt, thick hoodie and then a plate carrier) and it was a HOT day. I'm spotted with welts and bruises from being shot at all day, including around my groin and thighs -- those ones particularly smarted.

Awesome day though, and it was good to get back into it. I've left one of my guns with them for servicing as all of my airsoft weapons are literally old enough to drink in pubs now (when the guy at the shop asked what manufacturer my MP5 was, I said "ICS" and he said "oh... that's retro!") and I'll take my others back to them at some point too -- and once i've got three games under my belt and can register under the UKARA, I might buy some more modern equipment.

Received my race number for the Port Sunlight Dual 5K/10K race in a couple of weeks that Mali persuaded* me to sign up for... will be the furthest I've run, albeit not in one go as there'll be a short respite between the two races.

Between that and the training plan for the half marathon in August, which I started this morning, my legs are going to be screaming.

Plan for the dual race is to take it steady for the 5K, so that I can push it a bit harder in the 10K. We'll see how well that plan works though

* He didn't have to persuade me particularly hard, tbh!

I'm SUPER OLD THIS YEAR (50) and so I've had to adapt my fitness training from things I like to things that don't actively injure me.

I started running maybe 6 or 7 years ago. Was doing Park Runs and a few 10Ks. Slow but never stopping to walk or whatever. Annoyingly I did all the training for a half marathon but got ill two days before and couldn't do the run and never attempted it again because the training was so miserable.

But my knees were trashed by it so now I do a spin class thing instead. Clearly not as effective but now the stairs don't hurt.

Bailed on martial arts (Muay Thai) for similar reasons in that I kept getting injured.

I think the best combo now would be weights/yoga/spin. I just need more motivation.

On the plus side, I discovered the 16/8 intermittent fasting thing (only eat in an eight hour window) and that's great for losing weight and keeping it off. I've also discovered cooking and baking though.

Yeah, we're pruning our freezer contents as one needs to go next week, which led to a big batch of Bolognese with pork belly in it.

That's a box it's going to be difficult to close again, but can't become the norm.

I know it's not all about weight, but I weighed myself this morning and I was 114.4 kg, which is the lightest I've weighed since November 2022. At the start of March this year I was 122.2kg (which I'm pretty sure is the heaviest I've ever weighed)

I've still got a long way to go, but I've been wanting to break the 115 barrier for a month, and I've finally done it (now I've got to find a way not to cry when I inevitably go back above 115 tomorrow)

Stubbed my toe and I think it's broken. Got two races a week tomorrow so that could be interesting.

Nah, it's fine

Phew

Alas I've done the same thing. Went to Llandudno two weeks ago and ten minutes before I left the house, I stubbed my little toe and it was basically death. Anyway, I was still able to walk on it but it's still painful now and if I grab the toe and wiggle it around it definitely crunches. Apparently the only thing to do is leave it to heal over 4-6 weeks.

Anyway, I'm still doing spin classes on it but running would definitely be out.

I've been doing 50 push ups and 100 sit ups every day. Well, most days. Well, some days. I keep forgetting. In fact I'd better do my reps right now.

I was in Llandudno the day after it happened. Place is cursed.

Still gonna risk the races?

Yeah, I stuck in five miles this morning and all seems fine.

I should book us some lunch.

Sounds good to me, although don't underestimate how long it'll take me to get the 10K done on already-having-done-5K legs

Turns out not as long as I expected!

33:05 for the 5K, and then 1:08:05 for the 10K.

Doubled my lifetime medal count in 2 hours

You did brilliantly. Looked really strong at the end of 10k.
That eight year old is going be back next year and even quicker, isn't he?

Excellent going fella

Cheers dude, thanks for the support!

As for the kid, that depends on whether we sweep the leg near the start or not

well done, man.

Decided to get back to lifting at the gym.

I was really doing well at it (by my standards) in 2022 but then managed to hurt my back doing proper squats with a bar and then when I didn't lift for two weeks, it turned out the lifting had been the only thing stopping me have a frozen shoulder which then kicked in badly. Took ages to sort that out and that killed all my momentum.

Back on it now though. It's pretty important to do weights as you turn into an old man apparently. I'm just using the machines at the moment. I don't want to hurt myself doing deadlifts or whatever.

On the plus side, I've got a really good app that tracks what you lift and tells you how much to lift in your next session. It's called Stronglifts. It's based on a very good weighlifting routine called 5x5 Stronglifts but if you pay for the premium version you can edit in your own workouts. Bit pricey though.

Been fairly consistent with gym and swims lately. Working from home 3 days a week really helps. Not ripped yet though but surely not long to go now.

Been waking up at 6am pretty consistently for some reason so I figured I'd make use of the time and was at the gym before 7am. Did my lifting and was home and showered by 8:15. Seems doable. I'm so not a morning person but I'd have either just tried to go back to sleep or would have been on my phone browsing, so this seems like the way forward.



WFH is so great. I couldn't possibly go back to the bad old days of being stuck in an office for 5 days a week. I do my spin class at lunchtime on Mon/Weds/Fri (albeit at the mercy of countless dickheads who love to put lunch time meetings in your calendar) and the extra time not travelling/being in the office means I can make much better food too.

It's just under £40 a year which, compared to a lot of apps or e.g. online coaching, is an absolute bargain, trust me

Approaching the halfway mark in my half-marathon training. Gotta do a 4 mile run later today, another on Friday -- and then on Sunday, I've got to do a 'simulated race 5K' where, to stick with the plan, I have to run 5K faster than I ever have done before. I'm not terrified at all.

For fun (!?) can you switch it round and do the 5k on Saturday? Being at a parkrun with other people will probably help with the running faster.

JBR's idea means you also wouldn't have to worry about feeling rough the night after BBQ...

Yeah, I considered that. Haven't ruled it out yet.

I just entered a park run, or did the route