What’s The Best Way To Keep Fit?

It’s that time of year, lots of adverts for the latest keep fit gadget, slimming groups and offers to join gyms. But what is the best way to keep fit?

Over the last few months fitness industry magazines have been going on about the latest big craze, HIIT. If you’ve not come across this it stands for High Intensity Interval Training. I’ve read a number of articles pointing out the benefits of HIIT, particularly concentrating on weight loss, including one by a Personal Trainer stating that just 4 minutes of this activity can help you to lose weight. But, HIIT is nothing new, it’s been around for years in the sports world, I’ve certainly been using it for my own training since I started running, back in the last century.

It’s true HIIT is very effective in getting you fit, no matter what sport you play or if you just want to improve your fitness levels, or lose weight. But I’m sceptical about any claims that state you can lose weight by doing just 4 minutes of it. 4 minutes of it during an overall session that lasts more than 20 minutes maybe. The length of and number of intervals will depend on what your goal is. Most trainers would have their clients do intervals of well under a minute, because as a beginner your stamina will be lacking, but as you get fitter you can increase the duration of and number of intervals. Having used it regularly I know it is the cornerstone of my own fitness. In particular it has helped me to quickly regain lost fitness due to injury layoffs. I use it with many of my own clients and it has been effective for them too. But it doesn’t necessarily suit everyone, I work with a number of clients on rehabilitation from injury or illness, HIIT is not suitable for them until they have strengthened any weak areas and built up their fitness levels to a reasonable standard.

For many years it has been believed, within the fitness industry, that cardio vascular training carried out in the fat burning zone (60-75% maximum heart rate, though if you read numerous articles you’ll find that this figure varies from 60-70% to 60-85%). Will help you burn off the most calories, hence the name of the zone. However I’ve never been a strong advocate of that principle, because I’ve always believed that interval training is a better way of burning off fat. However because you need to work out in this zone for at least 20 minutes, preferably an hour, but even more effectively once you dip over the hour, it would be very hard, and ill advised to do HIIT every day. Therefore carrying out a fat burning zone session on alternate days to HIIT would work well.

Many PTs will tell you that resistance training, using heavy weights to build lean muscles is the most effective way to lose weight, because it raises the metabolism, thereby burning more calories. Whilst I agree it will help you to lose weight and will also help you to build strength, it will also change the shape of your body, which may or may not be a good thing for you. I’ve never been totally in agreement that this is the best way to lose weight and from a personal fitness point of view it is not the most effective way to gain cardiovascular fitness. To back this up I recently read an article that stated that endurance training was a more effective way to lose weight than resistance training. Interestingly I prefer to use endurance within my own resistance training and that of my clients. This still builds up strength, without any significant muscle bulking, but because I use exercises that use multiple body parts and also encourage movement around the training area, which gives a cardio boost, I find it very effective in both burning fat and building fitness.

Diet! Can be a contentious subject, there are many of them out there. A lot of people do seem to lose weight during dieting, but many others do not. Some maintain that weight, others do not. My personal opinion on dieting is that your diet should not be restrictive of food types that do you good, it should be balanced and you should eat an appropriate amount to what you require to get through your day. If you exercise more you will no doubt have to eat more. I also believe that eating, like exercise, should be an enjoyable experience so try to pick foods that are both healthy and tasty, and remember a little treat will not hurt, every now and again.

So that’s the pre-amble over, what do I think the best way to keep fit is? Firstly I believe that you are more likely to stick to an exercise regime if you enjoy it. Probably the best way to enjoy it is to do it with friends, but also, for the bulk of us, adding some sense of competition to your regime will really help. On the whole, I firmly believe that a mix of HIIT, steady state endurance training, resistance work and dietary control is the answer. It’s what I do, it works for me, but it may not work for everyone. Mix it up to make your week’s workouts more interesting, but I also believe that you should make your training challenging.

The longer you work out the more calories you will burn, but you need to build up to this, you can’t suddenly go from nothing to a two hour session. My weight is a constant 10 stone 10 to 11 stone at the moment, which for a man of 5’10” is ok, particularly considering my age. The one time I took it below 10 stone, apart from when I was a lanky teenager, was when I trained for the marathon, in 2003. At the time I was doing long interval sessions, long steady runs, no resistance work at all and eating all the time. Further evidence that endurance training will help you to lose weight and get you fit. But of course not everybody can afford the time or has the ability to do two hour plus sessions. So, as I said before, a mix of all types of training for sessions around 1 hour should serve you well. But if you can’t manage an hour in one go, break it up into chunks. This is again something I do; 45 minute interval session followed, later in the day by a 15 minute cardio blast and a 20 minute resistance session.

What I’ve been up to:-

With no more cross country races until the new year I decide to treat myself to a parkrun this Saturday. It was the inaugural parkrun at Congleton, around Astbury Mere. Ray and Sharon came along with me as we tackled this relatively flat but muddy course, 3 laps around the mere. 88 other runners turned up for the event, which is a great number to start with. I’ve finished first in all the parkruns I’ve done this year, even I don’t know how I’ve managed that, but this week I was confident I wouldn’t win. I felt sure a number of good runners would turn out to check out the course, believing it to be fast, and I would surely be fighting to get into the top 10. As it turned out I was completely wrong, I led, unintentionally, from the off. I could hear that I had company, at least two runners, not far behind on the first lap. They, or at least one of them, sounded closer during the 2^nd lap and I thought it was just a case of when, not if, they would take the lead from me. But my strength is my endurance and during the 3^rd lap I sensed I was pulling away. With half a lap to go I gave it one final push and surprised myself by winning yet another parkrun event. Because this was the inaugural event I obviously hold the course record, but I don’t expect that to last more than a week.

Leading the Congleton Parkrun, event 1

This weekend also saw Sports Review of the Year. I haven’t always watched this event, it has been a bit tedious at times, but this year it was irresistible. So many Brits have made some fantastic sporting achievements that I just had to watch it. Even as a runner I’m not surprised, or disappointed, that Bradley Wiggins won. Though I think anyone in the final selection can feel proud of what they have achieved, on other years any one of them could have won. Mind you I was surprised Mo Farah didn't make the first three, but that’s how it goes. I was pretty touched by the award to Martine Wright, I remember London 7/7 well, I was lucky enough to be on a different route to work but still got caught up in all the confusion of it. I can look back at all the things I've achieved since that day, and hopefully more for the future, and they all mean so much more because, had I been on a different route or had the bombers chosen different locations to cause their destruction, non of those achievements would have happened, plus all the new friendships I've made since then wouldn't have occurred.

This will be my last blog of the year. I've a lot on during the next two weeks so won't have time to write one. Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all, and if you don't celebrate Xmas or New Year, for whatever reason, just be happy anyway.

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

Tapering For Races

Tapering is the term used for reducing your mileage or effort level in the run up to an event. Everybody has there own version of a taper, which may differ for different events. The point of a taper is to make you feel fresh on the day of your event, however some people do have a problem easing back, possibly believing that they will lose fitness if they do less in the days before a race. The truth of the matter is that you will lose very little, if any, fitness with a complete week’s rest so your event is more likely to be affected by overtraining than under training, in the final week. Of course if you race weekly your overall fitness will probably suffer if you do a full taper before each one so it is important to distinguish which events are important and either don’t taper for the less important ones or reduce the taper. One must remember that some races are goal driven and others are merely a means to an end.

As an athlete with nearly 24 years experience behind me and one who’s always looking for something, legal, that might move me up the rankings, you can imagine I’ve tried various things for my own taper. I’m still not sure which is best because I’ve been successful with all of them and not significantly more successful with one more than the other. So my ‘important message’ from this blog is find what suits you, to ensure that you are feeling good at the time of your important races, don’t worry too much about the minor races. Be prepared to change the taper for different races and most importantly; should circumstances prevent you from carrying out your planned taper, don’t panic, you can do more damage by doing too much rather than too little.

But what are these tapers, I hear you ask. Well here’s a few examples of what I and people I know have used.

I do know some people who run every day of the year, Ron Hill being a famous example of that. My old mate and former training partner Charlie Dickinson would often go weeks without a rest day, though you could guarantee his run the day before a race would be easier. I have run every day of the week on occasions. Usually it’s down to circumstances, such as this week where I was heading to Edinburgh for the weekend so did a Friday morning run, even though I was planning to run the Edinburgh parkrun on Saturday. I knew the weather forecast wasn’t good and therefore there would be a chance I would not be able to run at the weekend, plus the parkrun was more a social visit than a race.

Through the majority of my life as a runner I have taken the day off the day before a race. I suppose that’s not strictly true because if I had a midweek race I would always run on the previous day and often on the lunchtime of the race. However as most races were weekend races I would generally take Friday off, though I would transfer this to Saturday if it was a Sunday race. This worked well for me as I got to rest the day before a race but even if I wasn’t racing I got a day of rest. Through out my, normal, working life it actually always felt like I was working a 4 day week. Monday to Thursday I trained twice a day and worked a full day’s work. Friday I would just work and Saturday and Sunday I would just train. So although I was doing something that can be adjudged to be hard work on 7 days, I had a reduced workload on 3 of those days, hence a 3 day weekend.

At one stage I started to take Thursday off and run Friday, race on Saturday. I even went through a phase where I would do a short run on the Saturday morning, before a race in the afternoon. They both worked, but I don’t do them anymore. I went through a phase whereby I just ran steady runs, no quality, the week before a race. I’ve taken two days off, completely, before a race. I know of people who like to do a few reps the day before a race, and I’ve tried that too.

When I ran my marathon my pre-race training week looked like this:

Monday – 46 minute run (approx 6 miles)

Tuesday – 3 x 1600m at marathon pace (actual times 5:38 / 5:37 / 5:39)

Wednesday – 30 minute run (approx 4.5 miles)

Thursday – 20 minute run (approx 3 miles)

Friday – rest

Saturday – rest

Sunday – London Marathon – 2:34.

These days I’ve found something that works for most races, I have a different taper for championship races. I don’t taper for parkruns. My current, general taper is.

Monday - Full quality run session plus core session

Tuesday – 6-8 miles steady, plus kettlebells

Wednesday – Reduced quality session, i.e. 16 x 1 min at 85% effort, plus core session

Thursday – 6 miles plus upper body weights (I don’t do legs this close to a race)

Friday – core session

Saturday – Race

This doesn’t take into account any client work I may be doing, so I sometimes have to factor that in and adjust accordingly (or if it’s a major championship that I want to win I will say no to clients towards the end of the week, unless it fits in nicely with what I was planning on doing myself). That probably means little without knowing what I do on non taper weeks, my 2^nd quality session would be longer, my steady runs would be longer and I would include another cardio burst within my gym sessions, I would also include legs in my Thursday gym.

So this week Carole and I ventured up to Edinburgh, my favourite city in the UK. We had a great time and, yes, the weather did affect my running. Though I do have one word of complaint, TRAMS! What on earth is going on? Somebody had the idea of building a tramway where there is already a successful bus service. Ok so that provides an element of competition, but the tram works and all the disruption that goes with it started before I left Edinburgh, over 3 years ago, and it’s still going on. Worst, I haven’t got a clue how much longer it will be going on. It’s made a real mess of the city centre, and it’s inconvenienced a lot of people. No trams in Northwich, though we do have an interesting one way system!

 

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk

A Weekend of Two Races

This weekend I did a couple of things a little different to what I normally do on a weekend. Firstly, I raced both Saturday and Sunday. This is something I’ve only done twice before. Mind you it wasn’t the same as racing both races flat out as the 2^nd thing was that I paced a race. I’ve never, officially, paced a race before, though I was once asked if I would like to pace a group of runners in the Edinburgh 10k, I had to turn it down as I was working that day, so this was going to be a unique experience for me.

So as the title suggests, lets separate this blog into two parts and concentrate on Saturday first. On Saturday Salford were taking part in the 3^rd race of the Manchester Area Cross Country League. I’d run the first one, finishing 39^th and 5^th M45, but missed the second one due to my training trip to Spain. This weekend we were racing in Wythenshawe Park, a place I’ve not visited before. Heading off to the venue I was fairly confident that it would be less muddy than the Heaton Park course, but this illusion was quickly dismissed as I checked out the course, skipping through muddy sections followed by sections of waterlogged grass. There was also a stream crossing, I ‘m wary of stream crossings they always offer an opportunity for a catastrophe to occur. Despite the conditions, which were definitely not to my personal preference, I was feeling oddly confident. I’d perked up as the week progressed and was keen to make a more robust effort in this race than at Heaton Park.

Unfortunately, in the preceding Ladies race one of our Ladies had come a cropper at the stream crossing and had broken her wrist. But I didn’t let this get to me, when I’d surveyed the course I’d leapt over the stream like a gazelle and landed sure footedly. I lined up for the race, right on the front line, but there was no countdown, just the noise of the starter. I was caught mid jiggle (if you don’t know what that means, watch the video) and quickly swamped by a mass of athletes as we headed out on the short lap. I got into my stride and started picking my way through the field, I could see Graham MacNeil and Dave Lockett up ahead of me, both rivals for ‘old man of the week’. And then before I knew it there was a pile up as a group of runners went too wide and hit the tape. I’m sure one went a over t and I could see that Dave had been affected slightly. My poor start meant I had time to adjust my line to avoid becoming embroiled in that. Dave was quickly into his running and pulling away from me at a rapid rate. As I watched him vanish into the distance I waved goodbye to any chance of catching him in the Salford veterans standings for this year’s cross country championships. So I switched all my attention on Graham, it was time to win the battle of the ‘redheads going slightly white’.

As we continued on this first lap I seemed to be matching Graham but not making any headway on the distance between him and me. I was finding it tough as I slipped and slid around parts of the course, there was very little of it that was firm, but I kept my focus on Graham all the same. Despite the slipping and sliding I was making my way through the field and managed to pass my team mate Billy MaCartney on the way to the crowd area. Coming round the encircled crowd was a real fillip, hearing all the Salford mob, and even some of the Vale Royal mob, cheer me on is always uplifting and I seemed to find my stride again. As I crossed the start line, for the start of the first of the two larger laps, somebody shouted I was in 40^th position. Not bad I thought and quickly passed team mate Howard Mead to equal my position from the first match. Now I was on a MacNeil mission, can’t have him beating me, he’s over 50. Not only that but there were 3 Wilmslow runners, who all looked like they were masters, lined up ahead of me. They’re a strong masters club so I couldn’t afford to let all 3 finish ahead of me.

This was the lap we encountered the stream for the first time but I picked my spot and landed perfectly and up the other side without a hitch, just as another Wilmslow athlete came past me. I latched onto him and it was a good move as he dragged me round past his team mates and I’d got the better of Graham at last. I felt good but, hang on a minute, wasn’t that Dave up ahead. Still with a gap but it now seemed achievable, especially as I had this Wilmslow youngster helping with my pacing. Back round to the crowd and more cheering, I was still with the Wilmslow guy and Dave was getting closer. A few hundred metres later I’d pushed for it, seeing Dave up close I’d made my move to pass him, uttering some encouragement as I passed, after all he is a team mate. I also seemed to drop the Wilmslow guy but just before the stream crossing he’d gone back past me.

As we came to the stream the Wilmslow guy leapt and was away. My attempt was a little less graceful as I jumped like a buffalo shot mid flight by Bill Cody. I landed with my right foot ankle deep in mud and as I tried to move forward I fell forward smothering my knuckles in mud. By the time I scrambled back up the Wilmslow guy was long gone and I had a group of runners, including Dave, hot on my tail. I got back into my stride and pushed for home. Entering the woods I took a sneak back to see where Dave was and nearly missed the turn, but once out of the woods it was plain sailing, although I did have a fast finishing Tom Bush hunting me down. I finished 29^th, 3^rd M45, and my win over Dave gives me a fighting chance in the Salford champs.

All in all I felt I ran well, the two M45s to finish ahead of me were over a minute clear of me but that doesn’t actually concern me as much as you’d think it would. I know there’s a lot more to come and the cross country is just a stepping stone for me. My victory over Dave was fortunate, I don’t think he was at his best on the day, but it does give me a little hope for the rest of this championship year. As a team we’d done well, but we can do better. Home for a shower, my kit was straight into the washing machine and it took me 20 minutes to get all the mud off my legs.   

It had been a reasonably mild day but overnight the temperatures dropped, far from perfect for an early morning start on Sunday. Sunday was the day I was due to pace Lee Riley to his 6^th world record as he tried to duck under 46:04 in the Wrexham 10k (carrying his 40lb pack). I was to be at Lee’s for 8:30 but as I scraped the ice off my windscreen and stretched my aching legs I wondered if I’d be any use to Lee at all and wouldn’t it be more sensible to go back to a warm bed. Still a commitment is a commitment and I never let anyone down. So I set off through the icy back lanes and arrived at Lee’s in plenty of time. The rest of the team were already there; Jacqui (designated driver, sandwich maker, holder of the scales and Lee’s publicist) and Llorenc Sales Ferre (a young Spanish athlete from Stoke AC who would act as 2^nd pacemaker and cameraman).

Off we headed for Wrexham, but as we drew close the sky turned darker and there were occasional showers. A quick circuit of the course, in the car, showed it was relatively flat, a bit narrow in places but a good surface, however there was one bit still affected by the flood that had occurred the previous week, giving us a big puddle to traverse with muddy patches just after it.

Back to the club house we went through all the admin of setting a world record, weighing, photographing and the witnessing of everything by officials from the club. I have to say the race officials were very helpful and willingly gave up their time during a period that was very busy for them. I’d worked out all the k splits for our attempt, based on beating 43 minutes (Lee’s goal) but also what it would take to beat 46 minutes, which was all we really needed to do, but there were no k markers, only mile markers. Still 7 minute mile pace would give us 43:something so that was all we needed to achieve.

And then it was time to head to the start. A minor issue as we struggled to get Lee’s pack as tight as possible but we got there in the end. The organisers had allowed us some space at the start, which was much appreciated but as the race set off we did find it difficult to settle into position for the first mile as it was quite congested. We didn’t panic and settled into a pace which seemed quite comfortable and yet fast enough. I’ll point out here that I didn’t use a garmin, I like to run how I feel and I’ve worked with Lee for some time now, gaining a good understanding of how he’s running. I knew he’d gone off too quickly during his 5k record, only a few weeks ago, and suffered for it towards the end, but I was feeling confident Lee could handle this pace. Still even I was a bit surprised when we went through the first mile marker in 6:19.

Oh well no point in worrying about that now, I checked how Lee felt, he said he was good. We still had a good way to go but we settled down, I put the faster first mile down to having to accelerate as we passed a number of people who had gone off too fast. I felt the 2^nd mile was slower and more consistently paced, and it was, 6:21. Wow, we were 1 minute 20 ahead of a schedule that would see us smash the official world record, so we had plenty in hand. Still if Lee felt good lets keep it up. At this point Lee was thinking sub 40 but I told him to wait until 4 miles before considering that, I felt if we pushed too hard now we would lose it all in the last two miles.

Lee did feel good but that 3^rd mile was slower at 6:46. Still not complaining it was still faster than our schedule. At all these mile markers Llorenc would sprint forward to the marker and film Lee and myself crossing the line, he’d then get me to shout the time into the video recorder. There was no marker for 5k, which was a bit of a shame, but I’m confident we were close to Lee’s world record time for that distance, and I wasn’t worried we were going too fast. Lee was looking good, sure it was hurting and there were signs of fatigue but I could see that Lee was on for this, he had his race face on.

During the next mile we passed through the puddle and the muddy patches but still Lee forged on and although slowing, slightly, it was still a sub 7 min mile. I can’t recall exactly what the time was for this mile, I was too busy providing motivational pep talks to Lee to let it sink in. However, with just over two miles to go we were around two minutes ahead of schedule.

The 5^th mile proved a tough one, Lee went outside of the schedule, 7:05, but we still had plenty in reserve on our schedule and then a further 2 minutes and more on the official world record, so we could afford this. Lee was looking tired, I could see that he was working hard to maintain pace and I was a little worried that he could run out of steam, but this wasn’t a marathon and, although I don’t know how it must feel to be carrying that weight around, surely we couldn’t drop more than 3 minutes in the next mile and a bit. Even so I wasn’t going to chance it, I gave Lee every bit of motivation I could, all the stuff I know that works for me when times are tough.

Lee rallied, we reached the 6 mile point with a 7:01, surely we couldn’t fail now. I urged him on over those final 346 metres, making sure it was a sustained effort rather than an all out kick too early. As we reached the line Llorence and I drifted to the side, we didn’t want to get in the way of the timekeepers or mess up other runners times and we certainly didn’t want a post 41 minute 10k time attributed to our CV’s (at least not yet), but we heard the officials shout out 41:24 as Lee passed the line. A fantastic New World Record, breaking the previous one by 4 minutes and 40 seconds. That’s Lee’s 6^th different world record distance, I haven’t kept count of how many he’s actually taken, he’s broken his own time on occasions, but of course he still holds all 6 distances at the same time (400m, 1 mile, 5000m, 10k, Half Marathon, Marathon).

Apart from the time I paced Lee, in a time trial, to equal the mile world record, which he subsequently broke, this was my first time pacing Lee to a new world record. I have to say it felt good to be a part of it, I’ve been working with Lee on these records for about two years now and we’ve become quite close. It means a lot to me to see Lee achieving each one, though usually I’m away when he does them, so it was particularly good to be a part of this record attempt. We went through all the post race weighing and officialdom, once again thanks to the officials for their assistance and then it was off to consider what next!

The video will be edited and Lee will be posting it on youtube, along with those of Lee’s achievements that are already there. Plus the Wrexham 10k organisers can boast that it had a world record set on their course.     

Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk