A light-hearted look at running, cycling and general fitness
You’ll remember a couple of weeks ago, I hosted a competition to give away a copy of Down And Dirty – The Essential Training Guide For Obstacle Races and Mud Runs, and I’m pleased to announce the winner is:
Well done, Vikki – I hope it helps you with your Tough Guy training!
Well, I certainly can’t be accused of slacking yesterday, even if I didn’t blog in the evening. I’m not much of an evening blogger – I’m not much of an evening anything, really. I used to blog all the time in the evening as I used to blog as soon as I’d come back from a run, whatever time that was, even if if was straight after a run commute from work. So, yes, my blogging over the years has definitely slacked off – a bit like my running, I suppose.
Anyway, yesterday morning I went for a five mile run, then in the evening I went to the gym and spent 30 minutes on the rowing machine, then 15 minutes on the cross-trainer, before going to a 45 minute spin class. This morning, I had planned to do my body pump DVD (the 30 minutes of it I like, anyway) but I couldn’t be bothered. However, as we all know, in Juneathon slacking is not an option, so I got on with it.
I do need to do some walking later though as I was perturbed to see I’d lost my number one position on the Fitbit leaderboard and after holding the top spot for a few days, I’ve become pettily competitive about it and I want to be number one again. Stupid Fitbit.
On Wednesday I revealed the cover of The Flash Mob. Now it’s available for you to buy on Amazon for just 77p – that’s £3 cheaper than a pint of lager costs in my local pub.
The cast of characters includes a reptile girl, a zombie or two, a time traveller, a stalking pensioner, a young man stalked by a pensioner, a story written in the style of A Clockwork Orange and lots more.
The Flash Mob, written by me, Lisa Richardson, Jack Stephens and Sarah Kay Hair is available at Amazon UK and Amazon US.
If you’ve got an excuse for not getting fit, you’ll probably find it in What’s Your Excuse … For Not Getting Fit by Joanne Henson.
The book covers excuses that could have been written just for me, such as:
‘I’m hungover’
‘I want to go to the pub instead’
‘I want to watch Eastenders’
‘My iPod needs charging and I don’t like to exercise without music’
and other excuses like:
‘It will mess up my hair’
‘I’m too fat’
‘I walk to the station and back every day, isn’t that enough?’
‘I hate the gym’
‘It’s too cold/hot’
Joanne covers all these excuses and how to change your habits and attitude. This isn’t a ‘how to get fit book’ but more of a ‘there are no excuses to not get fit’ book.
Giveaway
What’s Your Excuse … For Not Getting Fit is available on Amazon, but I’ve got a copy of it to give away. Just leave a comment below letting me know what your excuse is and I’ll pick a winner by random after the closing date of midnight, Friday 27 September.
38-year-old New Zealander Rhys Chong completed an Ironman in 12 hours 55 seconds. Then he wrote a book about it. First Time Ironman is a slim volume; at only 120 pages, you’ll get through it in a couple of hours.
With it being such a short book, it’s neither an in-depth guide to Ironman training (you won’t find any training schedules or meal plans here) nor did I feel like I was with Chong every second throughout his journey to Ironman finisher. Given that his recollection of weeing himself during the bike leg of the race is the most graphic part of the book, it’s probably a good idea that I wasn’t with him at that particular moment.
Chong comes across as committed and focused during his training. Either that or he didn’t want to waste the money he’d spent on his team which comprised a head coach, swim coach, bike mechanic, nutritionist, massage therapist and mental conditioning coach (Chong’s a physiotherapist, so he didn’t need one of those). In case we didn’t guess at that point that this dude has a bit of cash, he tells us he almost bought a bike for £7,000 and spent £1,500 on wheels. His coach talked him out of it; maybe he was worried his bill wouldn’t get paid. Chong also mentions his house has ‘several flights of stairs’ and I’m guessing this isn’t Chong poshing up the fact he lives on the top floor of a council tower block.
At the end of most of the fifteen chapters are three tips. Don’t expect anything mind-blowing or illuminating. The first tip is ‘Make the decision to do an Ironman by paying the money and entering’. Not very deep. And as for, ‘Don’t buy gadgets you don’t need’. Well, where’s the fun in buying gadgets you don’t need, huh?
As mentioned above, Chong comes across as committed and focused but not in a way that’s arrogant or pretentious. What is lacking, however, is any warmth or light-heartedness and the overall tone of the book is rather dull. I haven’t read any other Ironman books, but there’s bound to be better out there. Still, if you want a quick read about one man’s journey to Ironman, then Chong’s your man.
First Time Ironman by Rhys Chong is published by Ecademy Press and has an RRP of £12.99.
I got sent a book. A really big book. It’s a book containing the names, dates and times of the 780,000+ people who have run in the London Marathon between 2001 and 2010.
When I received the book, I immediately went to the back where the really slow runners male runners from 2010 are listed and looked for Shaun. He was there, nestled amongst eleven other male Burgesses; the fastest coming in at 2:54:53 and the slowest at 9:02:35.
As well as being a directory, there’s also a foreword by the marathon’s race director David Bedford, year-by-year overviews from veteran distance runner and London Marathon Trustee, John Bryant, stories from runners about why they ran the marathon and the charities that have benefited. There are also exclusive celebrity photos, photos of elite athletes and photos of those in fancy dress.
The only thing wrong with this book is that I’m not in it.
It’s not cheap. The Official Register of London Marathon Runners 2001-2010 costs £60 but you can get it half price from Aubrey’s Books.