Author: jogblog

Why I love my gym

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gym

 

I love my gym. Here’s why.

1.  It’s posh.

Well, it’s posh compared to all the gyms I’ve been to in London. Admittedly, the only gyms I’ve been to in London have been City branches of Fitness First and although spending my lunch hour there was infinitely more enjoyable than sitting at my desk listening to secretaries cackling, they are small, dingy, windowless, overcrowded and cramped (except for the one in Leyton which was big and had windows opposite the new flats which meant I could watch people eat their breakfast).

My gym is clean, big, bright, airy, has huge floor to ceiling windows and there’s never any queuing for machines. It also has the music on at a reasonable level and doesn’t play that ravey shit but plays some decent stuff. I went in the other day while they were playing Black Crowes’ Hard to Handle – how cool is that? 

2.  It’s cheap.

My big posh gym only costs £25 a month. There is a Bannatyne’s in town which is apparently proper posh, and I recently met a woman who’s a member there and I asked her what extra did she get for £80 – a fluffy white towel? and she said they used to give out fluffy white towels but they don’t any more. So what does the £80 give you that I don’t get? For my £25, I get to use the gym whenever I want, classes, swimming pool, steam room, sauna and café. I just have to take my own towel but, hey, life’s a bitch sometimes.

There are cheaper gyms in town. Fitness First is only £19.99 a month and The Gym Group is only £16.99 a month (or £10.99 for students) but they’re about another half a mile away and I bet they’re not as nice as my gym anyway.

3. It’s inclusive.

My gym has thin people, fat people, young people, old people, people with all kinds of disabilities and a few of your usual gym bunnies and meatheads. I don’t understand people who say they want to join a gym but are too self-conscious. NO ONE IS LOOKING AT YOU. Even in London where the clientele were mostly City-types, they’re all doing their own workout and are not taking the slightest bit of notice of anyone else. I have the lowest self-confidence of anyone I know – I’m so scared of using the phone, I can’t even call the speaking clock, but I’m completely comfortable at the gym.

4.  I get to see pony sex.

I cycle past a field that has a horse and two ponies in it. Sometimes I get to see the horse have sex with one of the ponies. It’s over so quickly that I don’t have time to get my camera out and take a photo so I just stand there and watch instead. I do feel sorry for the pony though – the horse’s dick is bigger than the pony’s head, ouch. And I also feel sorry for the other pony who never gets any pony sex. And now I’m going to shut up about pony sex in case I start sounding weird.

So, that’s why I love my gym. What do you love about your gym?

Win a place in the inaugural Red Bull Steeplechase!

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Nick Gracie performing at the course of Red Bull Steeplechase around Castleton, Peak District, UK, on the 2nd of April 2012

 

Test yourself against the Great British countryside in this unique knockout race

The Red Bull Steeplechase is giving you the opportunity to win a place to take part in a good old-fashioned test of British grit and determination across the beautiful peaks of the Pennines on Sunday 7th October.

red-bull-steeplechase-logo Following a 21 mile running course, across 4 stages, taking runners from steeple to steeple across the Peak District’s fields, woods and trails, 250 contestants will battle to stay ahead of the pack and ultimately being cut from the trailing group. In a competitive twist to the experience, the lowest 50 places to arrive at each stage marker will be cut from the event meaning that competitors will be pitted against each other in a bid to stay in the running!

The application process for the challenge is now closed due to demand Red Bull is giving wings to distance runners through this new and totally unique race.

I’ve teamed up with Red Bull to give away 10 final places to lucky entrants. Got the spirit?

Answer this question:

Which of these is not a stage on the Red Bull Steeplechase:

-A) Edale

-B) Glossop

-C) Hope

-D) Bamford

Email your answer to cathy@jog-blog.co.uk with ‘Steeplechase’ as the subject and the winners will be chosen at random after the competition ends at midnight Friday 28 September 2012.

Visit the Red Bull Steeplechase website here for more information.

Competition: Train with Jessica Ennis!

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My VFF competition ends today (you’ve got until midnight tonight to enter if you haven’t already) but fear not, I’ve got another competition for you.

Here’s your chance to train with Jessica Ennis. Ok, not the living, breathing, hot as hell skin and bones version, but on an adidas miCoach game thingy. I don’t know a single goddamn thing much about game thingies, so here’s the official blurb:

adidas_micoach_jessica_ennis

Hot off the heels (quite literally!) of Great Britain’s recent success, we are giving you the chance to win a copy of adidas miCoach Game, starring Jessica Ennis.

Learn the individual techniques of globally recognised athletes, while they help you to reach your fitness and training goals.

miCoach features 18 of adidas’ athletes across 6 different sports, including Kaka, Manuel Neuer, Jessica Ennis, Ana Ivanovic, Will Genia and Ma’a Nonu for you to train side by side with.

Every athlete also presents a master class specific to their sport and there’s a special bonus master class from the manager of current La Liga Champions, Real Madrid’s, Jose Mourinho.

Find out more about miCoach here: http://micoachgame.com/, watch the trailer or check out their Facebook and Twitter profiles.

miCoach is available on Kinect for Xbox360 and PS3 Move.

To enter simply tell me which sport Jessica Ennis competes in, by emailing your answer to me at cathy@jog-blog.co.uk with ‘miCoach comp’ as the subject. Competition ends on: midnight Friday 14 September 2012.

Introducing the Sex Pest Test

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You probably all think I’ve been slacking. Well, ha! I haven’t (much), so there. I’ve been following the Hal Higdon half-marathon schedule which I’ve imported into Outlook via Your Training Calendar – thanks to Warriorwoman for discovering this, it’s brilliant (you can also import other Hal Higdon schedules into other programs – Google Calendar, etc.)

Anyway, here’s how my training’s going so far.

schedule

The top row on each date is what I should have done, the row(s) beneath are what I did or didn’t do.

Also, along with diligently-ish following my training schedule, I have also been inventing new rates of perceived exertion. This came about when I was running one day and stopping before I’d even reached a mile and so gave myself a stern internal talking to and asked myself – on a scale of 1 to 10, how out of breath was I? and the answer was usually only about 4 or 5 and so I told myself I couldn’t stop until I was at least a 7 and after a while of carrying on running and carrying on stopping and carrying on with the 1 to 10 thing, I got bored and invented the Sex Pest Test instead. It goes something like this: the phone’s ringing and you go to answer it. What do you sound like?

phone_sex_pest

Level 1: You’re in the shower and ignoring it.

Level 2: You’ve picked up the phone that was next to you on the sofa.

Level 3: Walked slowly down the stairs.

Level 4: Ran down the stairs.

Level 5: Ran for a bus.

Level 6: Just seen a massive spider and there’s no man/brave person about.

Level 7: As excited as a small girl who’s just been given something pink.

Level 8: A teenage boy about to have his first shag.

Level 9: Panting like a paedo outside a primary school at playtime.

Level 10: Aaarrrgghh, SEX PEST, CALL THE POLICE!

Do you think it’ll catch on?

Review: MSC Pocket Mobile Solar Charger

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Let’s get the good bit out of the way:

It looks nice. See?

solar_mobile_charger

Sorry, that’s it. This thing drove me crazy trying to work out how I’m supposed to use it. The instructions did not help.

mobile_charger_1

Can you understand that, ‘coz I bloody well couldn’t. I understood ‘please recharge the power pack fully via its cable when use it for the first time’ and that was about it. I plugged it into my pc with the supplied cable and all the blue buttons flashed and then went off and there seemed to be no way to tell when it was charged so we (I’d roped in Shaun to try and decipher the instructions) decided that it had come fully charged and so I had a go charging up my iPhone with it and yay, it worked. It worked flipping quickly, too. Impressively quickly, in fact (you can stick that in as no. 2 good thing above).

Then I tried to recharge it by sticking it in the sun. I tried following the instructions. Yes, I should have known better.

mobile_charger_2

Well, it’s been in the sun for about two days now, either outside or in the conservatory and it’s still saying it’s on low (as you can see in the photo, there are three buttons to say how much power it has in it). I looked at the specification sheet that came with it and it says it takes 8 hours by laptop or 28 hours via solar panel, under full sunlight conditions. WHERE THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND 28 HOURS FULL SUNLIGHT CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND IN AUGUST, HUH?

Well, it worked fine straight from the box, I’m just not sure how much use it would be if you actually needed it as an emergency charger, if you can’t actually get the damn thing charged to take out with you in case of emergency. I suppose you can charge it via pc or mains, but doesn’t that kind of take the point of solar charging away?

Maybe I’m doing it wrong, I don’t know. Anyone had any experience with these things?

The MSC Pocket Mobile Solar Charger is available for £19.99 from Mobile Solar Chargers

Goshawks, dead foxes and bum/slope dilemmas

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I’M ON THE TRAIN! No, really, I am. I didn’t have time to blog after my run this morning and so because I am so dedicated and committed to blogging every run, I decided to take my netbook with me on the slow train and blog during the journey.

Anyway, my run this morning. Yes, I did one. I am diligently following my Hal Higdon half-marathon plan to train for the Great South Run. I’ve been diligently following it since Monday and so far have only slacked on two out of the four days.

My run last Saturday was eventful. I was running down the trail and there was a man in front of me with a black dog, two young girls and… A BIRD OF PREY ON HIS ARM. I stopped running in case I scared the bird and hoped I could walk quickly enough to catch him up and say ‘oi, what’s that?’ and I did catch him up and I said ‘hello, what’s that’ (I left out the ‘oi’ bit) and he said ‘it’s a goshawk’ and I said ‘a what?’ and he said ‘a goshawk’ and I said ‘oh, a goshawk. That’s not something I see every day when I’m out for a run’. I didn’t have my camera on me, but here’s a photo of a goshawk.

p031_Birdwatch_March_2005.pdf

And then one of the young girls said ‘I bet you’re in the Olympics’ and the man said ‘no’ and I thought ‘DID YOU HAVE TO SAY THAT QUITE SO QUICKLY? COULDN’T YOU EVEN HAVE HESITATED FOR A MOMENT BEFORE DISMISSING QUITE SO EASILY THE CONCEPT OF ME BEING IN THE OLYMPICS?’ and I thought that’s as bad as the supermarket self-service thingies when you have to wait for a member of staff to come and tell the machine that you’re ‘clearly over 25’ and they do it immediately without even hesitating and weighing up whether you are ‘clearly over 25’ or ‘hmm, borderline, but I’ll let her have that bottle of wine anyway’ and I was so offended at the man’s impudence that I couldn’t think of anything witty and, hopefully including a mention of Jessica Ennis, to say and came out with a lame ‘no, it’s sixty miles away’ which is probably the lamest response ever ever ever and then I say to the girls ‘I bet you can’t catch me up’ and they start running and the man calls them back and I think oops, maybe I shouldn’t have encouraged two young girls to go running off into the bushes with a stranger even if it is a stranger who is a) clearly over 25; and b) clearly not in the Olympics and I carry on with my run and I get over the ditch which isn’t full of water despite it having been raining heavily and then I see a dead fox and I don’t want to step over the dead fox but it’s too narrow to do anything but step over it and I wonder how it got there as there’s no road except for the one over the fence and maybe someone hit it with their car then stopped and got out and threw it over the fence or maybe it was in someone’s garden and they killed it and threw it over their garden fence and I’m brave and step over it and carry on my run and I can’t remember if anything else eventful happened on that run.

Today’s run almost didn’t happen as I set my alarm for 8 as I had to be back and ready to go to London at lunchtime to see Abigail’s Party in the afternoon (I like the matinees – plenty of time for going to the pub after) with Helen and as it takes me aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages to get ready (or more realistically, it takes me aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages to be arsed to get ready) but I didn’t get up ‘til 9 and so I didn’t get out for a run ‘til 10 and I put on my Asics and went on my run and didn’t see any goshawks or girls who think I’m in the Olympics or men who don’t think I’m in the Olympics and even the dead fox wasn’t there anymore and I wondered where the dead fox went and then I got to the slopey bit and there was a man at the top and I decided it would be shameful to let him see me walk up the slopey bit and then I realised my lace was undone and I wanted to do it up but didn’t want to bend over and have my bum sticking out in the air in front of the man and then I wondered which was more embarrassing; being seen to walk up a slopey bit or sticking my bum up in the air in front of him and I ran up the slope then I saw a railing thingy I could put my foot on and lace my shoe up without having to bend over too far and therefore not put him through having my bum sticking up in front of him and the rest of the run was uneventful and free of bum/slope dilemmas and I got in with plenty of time to get ready and then I go and get the train and I think that is where this story began.

p.s. Abigail’s Party was fab.

p.p.s. I’m not on the train anymore.

My evening at the Vibram FiveFingers Clinic, Runners Need, Holborn

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As you know, last week Vibram FiveFingers® started running a fortnight-long series of drop-in clinics in London welcoming runners of all abilities to come in and find out a bit more about minimalist running.

On Monday, I went along to the one at Runners Need in Holborn. On arrival, I was greeted by fitness journalist and guru Julia Buckley, Running Bug founder and all round top bloke John Griffiths (both of whom I’ve known online for a few years and so was delighted to meet), Women’s Running Magazine Online Editor Carys Matthews, and a couple of cute Italian men (aka the Vibram experts).

First up was a presentation by Coach Corrado Giambalvo who went through the past, present and future of Vibram and also taught us how to pronounce Vibram properly – it’s ‘vee-bram’, not ‘vie-bram’ (ha, you didn’t know that, did you?) Also appealing to the trivia-geek side of me, was the snippet of information that the name Vibram came from the founder, Vitale Bramani.

After the theory, we had the practical. Coach Corrado asked us to take off our shoes and socks. What? No one told me the clinic was going to involve getting my feet out in public. Still, being the brave, carefree and reckless soul I am, I took off my checkerboard Vans (you’ll see them on the floor in the video in a mo, they get shown more than I do) and went through the warm up exercises that were demonstrated.

You too can play at home with the video Julia took (I’m the uncoordinated one inappropriately dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with a picture of a lion saying ‘woof’, standing at the back looking scared).

(Video © Julia Buckley, originally published on her Fitness Rocks website)

I was fine with the exercises where we rocked onto the sides of our feet and onto our heels and stuff but then we had to start moving our arms and legs in unison. NO ONE TOLD ME THERE WERE GOING TO BE GROUP ACTIVITIES AND I WAS GOING TO HAVE TO MOVE MY ARMS AND LEGS AT THE SAME TIME IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!

Of course, I did it wrong and the coach dude had to stop me and correct me (very nicely, of course). I willed it to be over and it was eventually, then it started again. I wondered if I could go and hide behind Julia who was still videoing it (although, thinking about it now, Julia’s tiny and I probably would have been better off hiding behind John, who was photographing everything) but decided not to draw attention to myself and so I tried to join in and not look like I’d rather be in the pub where the only kind of active group participation thingy is to get a round in when it’s your turn.

Exercises over, we were asked if we wanted to go for a run. Unfortunately, I had to decline as I was meeting a friend in the pub but Coach Corrado asked me if I wanted to try some Vibram FiveFingers® on and so I said yes and I eventually managed to get them on my feet (with a lot of help) and wow, they were really comfy. These are the ones I tried on (I think).

vibram_fivefingers

All in all, it was a fab, informative, informal and friendly evening and I recommend it to anyone who can get to one. There are three left (although it looks like only one of the dates is holding a clinic):

Weds 8th August – 6.30pm
Sweaty Betty- Kings Road
Run only

Thurs 9th August – 6.30pm
Altimus- Holland Park
Clinic & run

Friday 10th August – 7.30am
Sweaty Betty- Kensington
Run only

And if you need any other incentive to go, at the end I got a goodie bag containing a step-by-step guide to running in Vibram FiveFingers, a lanyard, a foot-shaped keyring, a shoe-shaped keyring and a shoe-shaped memory stick.

vff_goody_bag

If you can’t be arsed to get yourself down to the clinic, but fancy giving minimalist running a go, don’t forget about the competition I’m hosting to win a pair of Vibram FiveFingers® (ends 31 August).

Vibram FiveFingers Clinics & a chance to win a pair!

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Vibram FiveFingersStarting this week, minimalist footwear brand Vibram FiveFingers® will be hosting a fortnight-long series of Runners’ Drop-In Clinics across London. They are all FREE to attend and most take place in the evening or early morning so that people can come along either before or after work. It’s a great opportunity to get an introduction to the basics of minimalist running, including getting advice on getting started and on selecting minimalist footwear.

Present at each of the events will be the Vibram FiveFingers® Tester Team, including Corrado Giambalvo one of the world’s top minimalist running coaches. The Team will be on hand to advise on training and running for all levels of runner from beginner through to highly experienced. After the clinic sessions there’ll be the option of joining a FREE group run, which will also be the perfect opportunity for anyone wishing to try out the shoes for the first time to run in them under expert supervision.

You can also get your hands on a pair of Vibram FiveFingers® absolutely free by winning this competition.

Just answer the following question:

Which city are the Vibram FiveFingers® clinics being held in?

A. Cardiff

B. Edinburgh

C. London

Email the answer to me at cathy@jog-blog.co.uk with ‘VFF competition’ as the subject and I’ll pick a winner at random after the closing date.

Competition closes midnight, Friday 31 August 2012.

In the meantime to keep up to date with the Vibram FiveFingers® clinics and run, head to the dedicated blog at http://www.fitnessrocks.co.uk/blogs/julia-b

hp_Clinic_Run

List of Vibram FiveFingers® Runners’ Drop-In Clinics

Thurs 2nd August – 7.30am
Sweaty Betty- Harrods
Run only

Thurs 2nd August – 6.30pm
Run & Become- Victoria
Run only

Fri 3rd August – 6.30pm
Iso Store
Clinic & run

Monday 6th August – 6.30pm (I’ll be at this one if you want to come and say hello)
Runners Need- Holborn
Clinic & Run

Tues 7th August – 6.30pm
Runners Need- Canary Wharf
Clinic & Run

Weds 8th August – 7.30am
Sweaty Betty- Harrods
Run only

Weds 8th August – 6.30pm
Sweaty Betty- Kings Road
Run only

Thurs 9th August – 6.30pm
Altimus- Holland Park
Clinic & run

Friday 10th August – 7.30am
Sweaty Betty- Kensington
Run only

PC Fitness–Your Personal Trainer

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pc_fitness_DVDI’ve got a new personal trainer. She’s called Maya and lives in my PC. As you know, I love my body pump class at the gym but there’s only one class a week that’s at a time that suits me (first thing Monday morning – no thanks) and I want to do weights on other days of the week too. Weights in the main gym on my own don’t appeal; partly because I’d be too self-conscious to use the free weights in front of everyone (although I know no one actually gives a toss what anyone else is doing) and partly because I wouldn’t know what I was doing, and I get bored doing weights at home. So I got myself a DVD.

The PC Fitness: Your Personal Trainer DVD is cool. It’s not just weights – you can choose your workout from 500 exercises including Pilates, yoga, cardio fitness, flexibility, strength training and weight loss routines. You set up your profile and control the music, setting, length of workout, what days you want to workout and how tough it is. It even has meal plans worked out based on your personal info, although I haven’t used any meal plans yet as it was a bit of a hunt for any vegetarian recipes.

I’m loving this DVD; so far I’ve done Pilates and yoga for the first time (blimey, that was hard), lots of cardio (I’ve finally got star jumps sussed – yay, me), and strength training. If you’re like me and get stuck and can’t follow the routines, there are tutorials to talk you through the moves. Also, you can tell it which equipment you own from a choice of hand weights, stability ball, heart rate monitor and step, and the workout will incorporate these. Although the equipment isn’t necessary, I like buying things, so I bought the Biosync Fitness Set which comes with two hand weights (useless really at 0.5kg each but hey ho), a stability ball, step and resistance band.

I can’t fault this fitness DVD – it’s so much fun. Maya even says good morning to you when you log in and says she missed you if you miss a session. She’s pretty cool for a CGI chick (was almost tempted to say ‘pretty fly for a CGI’ but stopped myself).

One of the best things about it is that you don’t have to leave the house to do your workout. I would advise getting dressed in your running/gym gear though, as it is a proper workout and you will sweat and, as I’ve found out, doing it in jeans and normal bra isn’t a great idea – so get that sports bra on, girls! (I fancy this gorgeous purple one); also wearing some light trainers such as some New Balance Minimus will stop your feet from hurting during the jumping up and down bits.

This DVD can’t be used on your TV, you have to use it on a computer and you do need a bit of space, so I’ve been using it on the laptop in the front room instead of on my main pc in the small room I work in. 

I bought PC Fitness: Your Personal Trainer from Amazon for the bargain price of £3.99 including postage and totally recommend it (although it’s turned me into even more of a hermit doing my exercise indoors instead of going out running, cycling or going to the gym).

New Balance Giveaway–Winner Announced!

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I couldn’t choose one of the haikus, they were all so good. So I asked Highway Kind – what with him being a highly respected member of the running community and that and who undoubtedly would be impartial and not just choose one of his mates – if he would choose a winner and he suggested that I choose my favourite six, then randomly select one.

But even that was too difficult, so I pulled a number from the virtual hat at random.org and the winner was:

Capture

Jules

Well done, Jules! Email me your address and shoe size, and I’ll pass it on to the giveaway people so they can send you your trainers direct.

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