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Minute three

We’ve just done our third HIT session and all I can say is that I’m glad each segment is no longer than 20 seconds, and that there are only three of them!

I guess that our natural instinct is to hold back something in reserve, and we can only overcome this default setting because of the short durations involved.  At the rate I was pushing, arms and legs pumping away like a steam train on full tilt, I would flat out on the floor even at 30 seconds!

Having only completed three minutes of exercise in the last nine days, it’s possibly too early to look for signs of progress… but it’s fair to say that none are yet apparent!

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Avoiding the circuit breakers

One of the reasons that people often end up breaking their New Year resolutions is the way that the mind works… or should I say, minds.  Our subconscious is basically a series of computers which manage local services within our body.  They react to both internal and external stimuli, but otherwise they quite simply execute habitual behaviour.

Our habitual behaviour (aka habit) towards the end of a year is generally eating and drinking to excess and doing little exercise… a line of computer code that our subconscious is happy to run for us.

When New Year comes and our conscious decides that we’re going to diet and exercise more, the subconscious is still trying to run the old line of code, so there’s a little battle of willpower.  In most people, the subconscious is way more resilient, having had years of getting its own way and at some point, maybe in February or March, we pause our exercise routine for some reason and forget to get back to it.  At lest until our next reminder when the swimsuit comes out of the cupboard in the summer.

Meanwhile the subconscious goes back to running its old line of code and when we realise that our new routine has lapsed we often get frustrated or depressed, all of which the subconscious wraps into its memory of that new diet and exercise behaviour… essentially making it harder to get back to in the future.

To overcome this cyclical frustration we must simply approach the challenge in a different way.

First, we must accept that the new behaviour of dieting and going to the gym will definitely lapse.  For sure!  So there is no point in getting upset about it.

Second, we should recognise that we won’t pick up on the fact that it has lapsed, at least to start with, so once again we should not be upset with ourselves when we do finally realise.

Third, we should just pick up again where we left off.  In doing this we are essentially offering up a new line of code for the subconscious computer to run.  It will eventually adopt this new code as a default behaviour, although you will undoubtedly have to go around the circuit… lapse, realise and re-present, lapse, realise and re-present… a number of times first.

Except for one week, we have so far managed to stick with the Monday circuits class this year and have even started to add our extra minute from time to time… an indication that the subconscious likes the dopamine rush that exercise gives.  Our good intentions will undoubtedly lapse at some point, as other things distract us, but when they do, you now know exactly what we’ll be doing about it.

Last night there was a round of applause for Peter, whose birthday it is this week.  He quietly works his way around the exercises just like everyone else and has apparently been coming for quite some time.  I think his conscious must be quite resilient though, compared to many people, since he will turn 83 tomorrow.

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Six of the best

I was a bit miserable this morning, having missed a 40th birthday party that I was really looking forward to last night.  Kim thought it was later in the month and I didn’t realise until too late.

My neighbour’s wonderful cats cheered me up a little (I occasionally act as their food-on-feet service when my neighbours are away), a quadespresso and a little guitar playing brightened me further still and finally a great friend called from the other side of the world for a catch up, which was top banana and improved my morning no end!

It was raining persistently outside which, though GREAT for the garden and water-table, since we’ve been on drought alert, was not so appealing to run in.  So, risking the mirth of Cliff & Co, I opted for a run on the machine.

I’d still not had breakfast at this point so I downed a banana (the largest I’ve seen in an age) by way of sustenance before  jumping straight on and winding the speed up… somewhat against Kim’s advice.  As normal I moved the speed up, up, up or down at each quarter-mile and by the time I reached 9mph had decided that I would complete 6 miles… which is about the time that I got the stitch, that big banana fighting back against being digested!

My plans for greater speed disrupted, I was adamant that I wasn’t going to acquiesce to my subconscious by stopping at 4 miles and calling it a day.  Instead I just lowered the speed until I managed to catch my breath and then started increasing it again, this time every eighth of a mile.

I crossed the 6-mile line in 48 minutes, an average of 7.5mph on the nose, before cooling down for a quarter mile at a sedentary 3mph.

Cooling down is a misnomer… I was so wet with sweat when I finally stepped off that I looked like I had just stepped out of the shower.  Realising that I wasn’t going to cool down for quite some time, I capitalised on the rain outside by going to wash Kim’s car… using less water than normal in the process and saving me the effort of rinsing or drying it!

I’m now finally back down to normal working temperature and am also actually really glad that I didn’t go to the party last night.  I’m pretty certain that it would have been a tediously boring evening…

…without all those people, including the host, who will be attending it next weekend!  Needless to say that I’ve not yet told Kim… I reckon I’m going to get six of the well-deserved best when she reads this!

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Minute two

Sitting here PANTING after our second minute of HIT (High Intensity Training).

My goodness, what an amazing workout!  Though my body clearly didn’t register the sports-scientists assertion that you can do it without sweating… I am HOT!

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One minute of exercise

If anyone could have looked into our kitchen just now, they would have seen both Kim and I running on the spot, flat out, arms and legs working like dirling whirvishes.

And not once, or even twice, but three times, for 20 seconds each time, with a couple of minutes for recovery in between!

We must have looked really silly!

This is further to the Horizon programme last night (previous post), which showed that people can gain a demonstrably positive health effect from doing just one minute of exercise in this way, three times a week.

We don’t have a cycle machine, and our running machine doesn’t change speed that quickly, so we are going to be testing the technique over the coming weeks by running on the spot instead.  I can report that it certainly gets the heart racing!

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Breaking news!

If you didn’t see Horizon tonight and are interested in the health benefits of exercise, it makes essential watching! http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01cywtq/

The bottom line is that three bursts of max activity, duration 20 seconds each and interspersed with a recovery period, three times a week, can have a dramatic effect on both insulin retention and VO2 max levels… even within the first month!

Worth a watch… and a try too!

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Skipping training

After the Saturday gardening, the Sunday run and the Monday work challenges, the idea of skipping training was appealing, but fortunately remained a pipe-dream.

Even as we drove to Haywards Heath, my right ankle and left calf were complaining about their respective tasks in the driver’s footwell.  The warm-up jog was almost enough to finish me off entirely.

But once my body had got over it’s initial recalcitrance, we (being the collection of my body and various minds) had a fun session.  After hurting my back the other week I opted for lower weights, but still pushed hard in other respects… apart from mirth, since Tony & Lee were out of speakable range and I was partnered with Graham, Denise’s (the instructor’s) other half.

The flow of ‘in-dolphins’ was palpable by the time we got home… all weekend and Monday pains & stresses forgotten!  I’m even half inclined to consider taking a further class during the week!

It might even mean that I learn how to skip properly!

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Legs out and a lot of fun guys

Okay, so I knew it was a mistake putting old mushrooms in the compost heap last year… I even remember thinking so at the time.  What came as a surprise however, was the return on my error.

The bag was heavy enough that it felt like it contained potatoes… had my brother Nigel been around to advise on their edibility, I’m sure we would have had mushrooms for tea, and probably for about a week!

There had been a rat or mouse in the compost heap, evidenced by a very curious cat hanging around last week, so I decided to empty it yesterday.  Aside from the aforementioned mushies, my willing assistant Kim spent most of the afternoon sieving out around 200 litres of light compost from the heap, while the rest was returned to break down a little more.

While Kim worked her way resolutely through this task, I hollow tined the lawns front and back of the house (an equally thankless job), cut the edges and then scarified… thankfully using the machine!

It was a wonderful way to spend a beautiful spring day!

We awoke this morning to a second glorious day and after reading for a while, I got out to do my normal Sunday jaunt… somewhat surprised that I could walk after our garden exertions yesterday, let alone run.

With my sights set firmly on the Beacon and my legs out for all to see, I had a really enjoyable run out past Oldlands Mill and down through Ditchling.  There has been much in the news about low ground water levels and this was apparent from the comparatively small amount of mud.

One walker warned me that it was ‘a bit mucky up ahead’ but he and I clearly have different concepts of mucky… mine being that my runners are completely caked and I am slithering around like a speed-skater on ice, with mud splattering half way up my back.  There were a couple of muddy-ish pseudo-puddles but it was pretty much dry really

In contrast to last week, I had more than enough energy and ran up the Beacon, reaching the top in about 52 minutes.. the same sort of time it took me to run there with a pack on last summer.

I stretched out my legs a bit coming back down the tricky Beacon path (which again speaks volumes about how dry it was) and then down the next section to Ditchling.  This is often where I start to feel weary, but not today.  I ran up Lodge Hill with ease and back across to Oldlands Mill.

From here it was a relatively easy run back along the road to Burgess Hill and home.

10 miles in 1.41 meant that I had run a rare negative split and averaged 5.94mph, at least a little faster than my ‘pack’ runs last summer.  My prize was to allow myself to ignore the other chores I had planned for this afternoon… with a little help from the sofa!

Now, I wonder what’s for tea?

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Five months between blinks

BIG man Daren is ever-present in our thoughts and our conversations so, although I’ve not run with him since September (can that be so?), it seemed like we’d only seen each other yesterday.

We met at Jack & Jill windmills (we call it ‘Upstairs’, for obvious reasons… huh?) which this morning was as windswept as a windswept thing, with a powerful South-South-Westerly blowing straight down the car park!  So much so that I actually changed into my muddy runners IN my car, which is pretty-much unheard of!

We followed our normal 10km circuit, which took in Pycombe, Wolstonbury Hill, the ‘Downstairs’ car park at Clayton Rec, and the Tank Tracks, which we goaded ourselves to the top of without stopping.    At the top we had our cobwebs blasted away by the wind, before running back down to Jack & Jill.

I note that our 1.14 time for the 6.2 miles was slightly slower than September, but averaging 5mph with a couple of serious hills to contend with (not to mention 5-months of conversation to catch up on) is not at all bad going.

As ever, a thoroughly enjoyable run!

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Lacking daisicals

One of the keys to developing strong organisational strategies is deciding what you will not do.  This was a little like the challenge I faced this morning, with too many options and only one pair of legs.  Except that I didn’t really feel like doing any of them.

It was a sunny day and that’s great for running from my folks’ place, but I didn’t feel like driving anywhere.  The Beacon is also a great place to run to when the sun is shining, but after a week of feeling listless, I didn’t have the energy.  It would have been very easy to run on the machine, but the sun was streaming into the house, which would have made for a hot run and also made me feel guilty at not being outside in the fresh air.

So the choice came down to either a road run, or an off-road run, the former winning, but in a half-hearted, lackadaisical way.  I set off into the sunny day wearing three layers under my jacket, two hats and a pair of gloves… which is a lot of gear and reflects the iciness of the temperature out of the sun.

Within a mile I was struggling, physically and mentally… my energy was absent and my sub-conscious was exerting strong pressure to turn around and go back.  I managed to stagger on, having the same internal dialogue several times before I had even reached three miles.

Ironically, maybe the chief reason for continuing was to deny my sub-conscious the upper hand… I’ve been writing about the subconscious in my slowly growing manuscript this week and have invoked irritating old habits in the process, so I didn’t want to give it any more latitude than I had to.

Runners are often tired, but that tiredness takes many different forms… this wasn’t heavy legs, or inability to breathe, but rather more of a general reluctance, but I soldiered on.

It wasn’t even that my mind was elsewhere, working on an interesting challenge… instead it was clattering, like having engaged a false-neutral in an old gearbox.  Not in any particular gear, but making a great deal of noise about it.  It’s useful for my work to allow these brain patterns to play out sometimes, besides which I lacked the motivation to do anything else.

I reached the five-mile mark in 48 minutes and ran back even more slowly.  I had taken my jacket off on the outbound journey, the sun in my face and the wind behind, but now the temperature dropped palpably as I ran back into the wind so the jacket went straight back on!

The rest of the run back was… well, I think that you probably get the picture, so I’ll save you the effort of reading about the effort and instead cut to the chase… 10 miles in 98 minutes, 6.1 mph.

Of course, there is always good value in celebrating the successful execution of a strategy that you did choose… which in this case was really about running and writing, rather than vegetating!  Well done Foster!

Now, where’s that sofa?

PS. Congratulations to Clive in the Brighton Half Marathon… 123 minutes is very respectable for an old bloke like you!

Oh to be the youngest in the school year!