Review: Loxley Suspension Trainer

Loxley Sports asked me if I wanted to try out their suspension trainer. I had no idea what a suspension trainer was but I looked on their website and saw it was yellow and as I like yellow I thought I’d give it a go.

A compact box arrived containing the main trainer straps, a door anchor, a strap extender, a door warning sign and a meshed bag.

loxley-inside-the-box

The first thing I noticed was the quality. This is a sturdy, well made piece of kit. Just the feel of it convinces you you’re not holding something cheap and flimsy. I’ve had a floppy pink plastic tube resistance training thing for a while now but that remains coiled up on the floor of the conservatory like a floppy pink thing; a simile for which I am far too ladylike to post on this blog.

It only takes a few seconds to put the suspension trainer together but then I had a dilemma. It can be used indoors by hooking over a door or locking over a beam/joist, etc. or it can be taken outside to be used on a tree (or maybe a football goalpost or something if you have no trees in your area). We don’t have many doors in this house and those that we do aren’t really in a position to enable comfortable training. I also wasn’t sure if any of the doors were strong enough for me to be pulling on but then wondered maybe if because you’re pulling the door towards you, maybe the door frame prevents any risk of the door falling off. But that’s sciency stuff and I don’t know any sciency stuff. Anyway, I decided on the bedroom door as that meant the whole landing would be behind me.

loxley-bedroom-door

As you can see, the straps are long. As you can also see, we have very low ceilings, so there wasn’t going to be any jumping up and down happening while doing the suspension training.

I eventually worked out how to shorten the straps and it was time to do some exercise. Unfortunately, the supplied leaflet, although it gives you five foundation exercises, it doesn’t actually tell you how to do them.

loxley-exercises

I had a look on Loxley Sports’ website and there aren’t any exercises on there, either. This is a massive oversight and I hope in the future they’ll provide some exercises on their website with an accompanying video.

Still, youtube to the rescue! First of all, I found this girl doing some exercises that looked far too hardcore for me (she’s using a different make of suspension trainer but the one from Loxley Sports does the same thing).

Then I found this bloke who at first I thought looked a bit of a twat but actually, he’s okay and explains the exercises well and isn’t a twat at all.

Some of his exercises aren’t suitable for the hooking-the-suspension-trainer-over-the-door method though and are more suited to those exercising outside. So I found this one that shows some door-only exercises.

I then decided the conservatory door would be better because then I a) would be able to have the laptop next to me so I can follow the exercises; b) can have the back door open; and c) I can get my cat to do the exercising for me. After going through a few of the exercises, my arms were aching – the suspension trainer definitely gives you a decent workout. It’d probably give me an even more decent workout if I wasn’t scared of the door falling off and therefore not using all my resistance (which is the whole point of it, duh).

loxley-conservatory-door

 

If you watched the above videos, you’ll see that there are loads of exercises to be done with a suspension trainer. In fact, it made me sad to see I was limited by what I could do inside so I looked in the garden for a suitable tree and hurrah, I found the perfect branch and gave it a bit of a tug to see how strong it was.

branch

It seemed strong enough to hold my weight and I’ll have all the space I need, so now I just need to pluck up the courage to exercise with the risk of being seen by the neighbours. Hmm.

I’m impressed with the Loxley Suspension Trainer. It’s well made, easy to use and you get a decent workout from it. And from what I can see, at £44.95 it retails at a competitive price. Some training videos on the website would be an improvement though or, ideally, ship it with a training DVD.

Juneathon 2014 – Day 19 – 20 miles before lunchtime

I’m taking part in the Great Kent Bike Ride on Sunday. It’s a great ride through gorgeous countryside and on the two previous years I’ve taken part, I’ve cycled the 35 mile route. This year, however, as I’ve got more cycling miles under my padded shorts now, I’ve decided to be hardcore and do the 60 mile route.

I haven’t been out on my bike much lately though as I joined a local social riding group but the last time we went out, I was too slow for them and I had to turn around half way and go back which isn’t very social, if you ask me (I should probably point out I wasn’t asked to turn back – I just didn’t want to spend the next 30 miles feeling bad for holding people up). This made me a bit despondent and demotivated and I haven’t fancied going out on my own since but as I’ll be doing 60 miles in a few days, I thought I’d better get on my bike and get some mileage in.

A 20 mile route was downloaded from Strava and added to my Garmin Edge Touring. The Garmin Edge Touring  is a sat nav for bikes and I love it so much. I’d been wanting one for a while now but they’re not cheap – I think the one I’ve got is the cheapest available and that’s around £200 – but it’s totally worth it. You can let it choose a round route for you or you can create your own routes on your app/website of choice and export them to your Edge. Select your map and off you go with no worrying about getting lost, just enjoy the ride. Because it’s a sat nav for bikes, it’ll choose the quietest route and you can also tell it to avoid hills where possible (an option I have permanently ticked).

garmin-edge-touring

The only criticism I have of the Edge (apart from now reminding me of U2, dammit) is that unless you’ve plotted out the route yourself on roads, it’ll try and make you go down trails/paths if left to choose for you. You can ignore this and carry on going though and after bleeping at you for a while for going off course, it’ll recalculate the route and get you back on track.

I hadn’t meant this to turn into an advert for the Garmin Edge Touring but if you want to cycle further than say about 10 miles, you should get one of these – I’ve cycled to lots of different places since having one without wondering if I’ll be able to find my way home again. Love love love.

Review: TomTom Runner GPS Watch

Although Garmins have got more attractive over the years, no one’s ever going to accuse them for putting looks before functionality. So, when a pretty watch comes out, there’s a collective gasp of (at least from the more shallow amongst us) ‘ooh, pretty watch’.

tomtom-arm

The TomTom Runner GPS Watch definitely comes under the ‘ooh, pretty watch’ category, despite it being not exactly dinky. I do like chunky watches though. Just not as chunky as my old Garmin 301 which took up most of my arm. The Garmin being compared below to the TomTom is a Garmin 405.

tomtom-garmin

(Now is probably a good time to confess – as you’ve probably spotted the date in the photos – this review is a bit overdue. Oops. If you didn’t notice the date in the photos, well, um… as you were.)

If you get bored of your chosen colour, the screen snaps out of the strap so you can change this, as I found out when I was playing with it (I’m assuming that’s why it snaps out, anyway – it could be for a far less girly reason than this).

tomtom-strap 

It’s easy to set up. You just plug it into your computer and set up TomTom MySportsConnect desktop application and it asks you a load of stuff like what do you want to call your TomTom Runner. I unimaginatively called mine Tom. I know, I know… It also asks you your date of birth so your performance is measured more accurately, and if you have an account with one of the MapMy thingies (Run, Fitness, etc.) it’ll link you up automatically.  If you don’t have a MapMyThingy account, you can see your stats in MySports or download them in various formats.

tomtom-website-options

But what about the actual functionality of it? The actual ‘how does it work on a run’ bit? Well, it got a signal as quickly as my Garmin and gave a little vibration when it was ready to go. This means you don’t have to stand there staring at your wrist – you can just stand in your front garden in your running gear like that’s a perfectly normal thing to be doing.

staring-at-garmin

As you can see from the photos (no, not the one with the girl staring at her wrist – the ones further up the page), it’s got a big, clear screen which you can change to show the usual distance, speed, calories, etc. I wore my Garmin and the TomTom together and the results were almost the same, only the calories burnt were shown to be higher on the TomTom.

The TomTom doesn’t have the multitude of functions a higher spec Garmin has (it’s purely for running, no option for cycling) but if you want a basic GPS watch for running, then the TomTom is a good choice and not just because it’s pretty.

As Seen On TV – The Running Mat

the-running-mat

If you watched Dragons’ Den last night, you’ll have seen The Running Mat (if you didn’t watch it, you can see it on iPlayer from about 14:30 onwards). The grumpy Scottish one wasn’t impressed; he said, ‘is this a joke?’, ‘you can not be serious’ and ‘are you taking the mick?’ while the tall one was equally unimpressed and called the nice blonde Geordie girl who brought in the Running Mat a ‘numpty’.

Still, that didn’t matter, as the new Dragon who looks like Chrissie in Eastenders (you know, the one that was married to Den and helped murder him) and Deborah liked it  and made her an offer so now she’s got two Dragons on board (although, personally, my favourite Dragon is the tall one and not just because he’s tall. *is totally because he’s tall*).

Because I am soooooo bang on trend, I already have a The Running Mat. Not that I’ve used it as I don’t usually stop to do floor exercises when I’m out for a run. Shaun said it would be handy for people who do BMF but then we thought if people turned up with mats, the BMF army boy twats would shout at them, take their mats away and make them do press ups in a muddy puddle. I’ve never been to BMF, so if it’s not run by army boy twats who make you do press ups in a muddy puddle, my apologies. I bet it is though.

Anyway, here I am demonstrating The Running Mat. As you can see, you can run with it

the-running-mat-running

Do press ups on it (handy for ‘athons, eh?)

the-running-mat-press-up

And do crunches on it.

the-running-mat-crunches

I like The Running Mat, don’t listen to that grumpy Scottish man.

 

 

 

London Duathlon training: Day 2

Duathlon T-shirt
T shirt image from Zazzle

I screwed up my schedule. Yeah, already. I’d already reserved (in my head) Sundays off and so all training days were going to shift backwards but I took yesterday off as a rest day and I shouldn’t have. Duh. (I enjoyed the wine Wednesday night though.)

So, today I was supposed to do 45 minutes cycling and then strength training and on Sunday I’m supposed to do 75 minutes cycling, so I decided to do the 75 minutes today in case I don’t feel like doing it on Sunday. Hopefully I’ll be energetic enough to do the 45 minutes I should have done today, on Sunday.

I got all motivated this morning because I’VE BOUGHT A NEW BIKE – YAY! Here it is:

GIANT_DASH_4

It’s a  Giant Dash 4, from RM Cycles and it’s all white and red and pretty and stuff which is all I was worried about, as I let Shaun worry about the technical specifications. Unfortunately, despite ordering it through the internet, it didn’t get delivered by squeezing itself through the Ethernet port, so I’ve got to wait until Monday before trying it out. Unless ‘next day delivery’ includes Saturdays, which I’m assuming it doesn’t.

STOP PRESS

I got excited thinking about my new bike, so stopped writing this and phoned the bike shop and asked if next day delivery meant tomorrow (Saturday) or Monday and the man said it’ll be delivered probably Wednesday or Thursday. WHAT PART OF ‘NEXT DAY DELIVERY’ DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND, MR BIKE MAN, HUH?

Yeah, okay, so the bike has to be delivered to them and then they have to build it and send it out to me but I thought ‘next day delivery’ meant ‘next day delivery’. Silly me.

END OF STOP PRESS

Still, I may not have a new bike to play with yet but I did have my new bike phone mount I bought on Amazon. It was a bargain £3.99 and delivered by the postman the next morning (and they didn’t even specify next day delivery).

cycle-mount

I was going to use the Rhythm armband and app again this morning but then had a look on my phone to see if I had any cycling apps and found this Cycling Watch one. It seemed ideal for my needs and it had a little camera icon and I wondered if that was to video the route but it was just for still photos. Still, that planted the idea in my head to video my route one day. Anyone out there used the video function on their iPhone on a bike? Is it wobbly?

The app was great. For the 30 seconds it stayed awake. I thought maybe I had to cycle Speed-esque stylee over 10mph or something to keep it from blowing up awake and so I thought, yay, I can pretend to be Sandra Bullock and I wondered if she looks as sexy in her cycling hat as I do in mine but, no, the app wouldn’t stay awake even if I put a bit of effort in and so I cycled the 16 miles with a black screen in front of me. Can someone recommend a good cycling app that stays on?

I don’t know why the app has the camera function integrated into it but I took advantage of it and took a photo of this HUGE mushroom you can’t tell is huge as, for all you know, it could just be a close up photo of a small mushroom.

mushroom

Although it wasn’t windy today, my time was slower as I was a bit of a slacker and not putting much effort in but I told myself as I was doing my Sunday ride, it should be a long, slow one, not an all-out-lungs-bursting-eyeballs-popping ride (yeah, because I’m always making that much effort mid-week, aren’t I?) I’m not sure 16 miles counts for long on a bike though. Ho hum.

Stats (cycling)

Distance: 15:89 miles
Time: 1:28:25
Speed: 10.8mph
Calories: 562
New bikes: 1
Next day deliveries meaning next day: 0
Phone bike mounts: 1
Cycling apps that stay awake: 0
HUGE mushrooms: 1

p.s. A  cyclist said hello to me. I HAVE ARRIVED!

Scosche Rhythm Armband Heart Rate Monitor

On the first day of ‘proper’ duathlon training, I ignored my 7am alarm and went back to sleep for an hour. Well, I didn’t want to cycle in the rush hour, did I? And I especially didn’t want to cycle when school run mums were about, oh no.

As I was doing proper training, the pink bike (Lady of the Manor poncey thing with a  basket) was ditched in favour of the purple one (£35 battered mountain bike with road tyres from some bloke on Gumtree) with jeans and t-shirt being swapped for running kit. I even put my hat on.

I was a bit perturbed by the schedule calling for minutes, not miles, as I haven’t a clue about 45 minute loops for cycling but Shaun said ‘do an out and back’. I said, ‘I hate out and backs’ but he said, ‘it’s training, you’re not supposed to enjoy it’ and I had to concede he kind of had a point, in a no pain, no gain kind of way.

So, I was all ready to go. I also had a new gadget to try out – the Scosche Rhythm Armband Heart Rate Monitor. I’d tried the previous model of this – the Scosche Wireless Pulse Monitor – which I reviewed, not particularly favourably, here. I’m pleased to say it’s improved (despite being pink because it’s ‘for women’. Bleurgh), but more about the improvements later.

scosch-heart-rate-monitor-pink

Because it’s a heart rate monitor, you’re supposed to – duh – monitor your heart rate with it. But, I was going to be on my bike and how was I supposed to see the screen when the phone was going to be on my arm? I needed an iPhone mount for my bike and didn’t have one. I didn’t even know if such a thing had been invented. Of course it had – there were thousands on amazon when I came home and had a look; I bought this bike phone holder for £3.99. Yay.

Still, finding out something had been invented an hour after needing it didn’t really help at the time, so I set the Scosche Rhythm app up by telling it I was going cycling for 45 minutes and wanted the GPS on, stuck my phone in my armband and hoped no one saw me while I was out as, on the other arm, I had my Garmin on my wrist, along with the Scosche Rhythm armband and I looked – to be blunt – flipping ridiculous.

But I had a new gadget to play with and gadgetry comes before vanity, yeah? Well, no, but ho hum. I got my bike out of the garage, started my Garmin, started the Scosche Rhthym and I was off.

rhythm 005

My usual cycling speed is around 9-10mph (stop laughing). Look, I’ll prove it (screenshots taken from SportTracks):

mile-splits-cycling-1

But because I was doing proper training today, I made an extra effort and you know all those times in the past I’ve said ‘cycling’s just sitting down’? I take it back. Cycling takes effort; who’d have thought it? Mind you, despite all that extra effort I made (including mental effort by not braking going downhill, eek), I still only averaged 11.5mph but, in my defence, it was windy out there this morning.

mile-splits-cycling-2

When you finish your workout, the Scosche Rhythm app shows you a screen with all the stats.

rhythm 006

The speed and calorie burn wasn’t too dissimilar from the readings on the Garmin and, unlike the previous model (which used the myTrek app), this one tracks you on a map.

rhythm 007

I also used it while I did body pump after the bike ride.

rhythm 009

You can set up the app to suit your own workout – set your goals for heart rate or time, performance or weight loss and, after your workout, it will automatically upload everything to the Scosche dashboard where you can also upload your stats to various websites, including www.myfitnesspal.com (which I found really handy).

If you want to play music while you’re working out, you can control the music player from the armband.

The Scosche Rhythm Armband Heart Rate Monitor is a vast improvement on the Scosche Wireless Pulse Monitor and I’ll be using it again (especially when I get my bike mount). It costs $99.99 and more information is available at the Scosche website.

NOW running app

I have somehow managed to go through my entire life without buying a ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ album. Not even when the series started in 1983, when I was 13 and probably knew not only the words to every track but also the names and favourite colours (thank you Smash Hits) of each member of every band on it.

Last year, the ‘Now That’s What I Call Running’ box set was released, and now, NOW have released a running app.

You decide how long you want to run for, and the app will create a playlist of that duration from the tracks on your phone. Or, alternatively, you can buy tracks from the complete NOW catalogue from within the app. You can also choose the energy filter which will create the playlist based on the energy level you set.

It has an incredibly intuitive interface, and I was set up in a few clicks.

now-running-app-setup

now-running-app-time

Not wanting to break my 30 year streak of never owning an NOW album, I let it choose 30 minutes of music from the selection on my phone.

now-running-app-playlist

As you’d expect from a running app, it tracks your distance, pace and calories and lets you share your run with Twitter.

now-running-app-stats

This is the perfect app for people (like me) who can never decide what music to play. Please excuse the pathetic time it recorded. I’d foolishly gone for a run after having a dodgy stomach and anything above a walk had me almost doing a Paula.

NOW Running App costs 69p and is available to download on iPhone  and Windows Phone 8.

Go-ID Personal Emergency ID Kit

I used to have the Cram Alert ID, but that’s a subscription based ID and it expired aaaaaaaaaaaaages ago and I wasn’t going to renew it, especially as I could never do the stupid thing up. I looked at other IDs but didn’t get around to buying one, which means I go running ID-less.

Then I got the chance to try out Go-ID which lets you create your own ID online, then print it out in your own home.

When you buy your ID kit, you’ll be sent a metal fob that you can either affix to your running watch, or tie to your shoelace or hang on your zip or backpack. You’ll also get everything you need (except the printer) to print your label; the label (including extra labels in case you mess it up), the laminate to cover and protect it, velcro for affixing it to your watch and a silicon cover and metal hook for attaching it to your shoes or zip.

Sounds like a bit of a faff? Yeah, it is. It totally is, but I managed to print off my label with emergency contact details the first time I tried, albeit after a bit of tweaking to make it fit nicely (you can preview the label before printing).

go-id-label

go-id-hook

I really can’t be bothered to tie ID to my shoelaces, partly because I then spend most of the run looking down to see if it’s still there and partly because if I wanted to wear a different pair of shoes, I’d have to untie it and retie it and meh to that. So I used the supplied velcro to attach it to my Garmin.

go-id-garmin

However you want to use it, there’s plenty of instructions and diagrams on the website, which will walk you through step-by-step to make your ID.

The Go-ID kit costs $18.95 and is available in four different colours.

Sanity saved with Sennheiser

As you know, I recently went back to my old gym as I wasn’t making enough use of the gym in the town centre. One of the reasons I left my old gym was because customers had control over the music and could whack it up as loud as they wanted, which drowned out my own music on my iPod.

Now the stereo’s been moved into the office, customers can’t control the sound level themselves. But they can ask a member of staff to turn it up – and they do. The other day I almost gave up my workout early as the merging of my and their music was driving me mad.

I’m too shy to complain. I can moan, but I can’t make a complaint face to face. I used to have a friend that would complain about everything – she’d complain about the noise of the air conditioning in a hotel room, she’d complain about the table she was given in a restaurant. I wanted to die with embarrassment when I was with her when she was complaining, although secretly I admired her assertiveness.

So, when I got home, I emailed the gym and asked if they could keep the music at a reasonable level (I know, how pathetic of me). I also got on Twitter and asked for recommendation for headphones that totally cancelled outside noise out. A friend recommended these Sennheiser earphones,

sennheiser-earphones

so I bought them and they’re great. The sound is a lot deeper and richer than my previous earphones so I hear a lot more of the sound I want to hear, rather than outside sound that I don’t want to hear.

You already know I’m a massive fan of Sennheiser’s Thru the Gears Audiofuel collaboration, and now I’ve got some of their earphones to listen to it through. Sennheiser impress me. Well done, Sennheiser.

Where did you get that hat (and gloves)?

Of course, I had to go and Google for the lyrics to that song and found out that for nearly forty-three years, I’ve been singing the wrong words (not that I sing it often, honest). I always thought it went something like:

Where did you get that hat

Where did you get that hat?

Isn’t it a lovely one

I’d like one like that

only to find out that it’s actually:

Where did you get that hat

Where did you get that tile?

Isn’t it a nobby one

And just the proper style

Which, although having impeccable rhyme and metre, doesn’t make much sense – to me, at least. If someone called my hat ‘nobby’, I’d think they were either saying I looked a bit of a dick (which, admittedly, isn’t beyond the realms of feasibility) or that my hat was in need of a JML de-bobbler.

Anyway, back to my hat. My hat is an iHat and it has speakers in it and a cable to plug into your phone or MP3 player. I took it for a trial run on a run this morning.

ihat(Yes, I know I look like I’ve been caught on CCTV robbing the local offy.)

All was ok with my iHat at first. It was warm and comfy and I could hear the music over the noise of the traffic on the busy road I live on but it didn’t take long until the iHat started slipping down over my eyes and so I tried rolling the front up and that was okay for a bit but then it started slipping down again so I tried rolling it up again but it kept slipping down and so it’d be great for people who like wearing hats when they’re running (it did a great job at keeping my hair out of my eyes) but only if they haven’t got little pea-heads like mine.

The iHat is only £9.99 (at the time of writing) and has been updated since I received my one, as it now comes with handsfree capability with an integrated in-line microphone, volume control and selection button.

The iHat looks better on the girl in this video. Hard to believe, I know.

Onto my new gloves. I used to have some touchscreen gloves (I say ‘used to’ as the last time I saw them, they were languishing in a bin in a toilet in Plymouth two miles into the Great South Run. I was happy to dump them because they weren’t responsive and they weren’t warm enough when it got really cold. These new touchscreen gloves are incredibly responsive and they’re woolly and warm and also have the added bonus of looking like normal gloves.

touch-screen-gloves

These touchscreen gloves are only £3.99 at the moment and also come in pink (they didn’t have pink when I got mine, bah).

Paramount  Zone don’t only sell hats and gloves though, oh no. They have tons of funky stuff on there, including loads of ideas for Christmas presents.

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