Get fit like a Royal Marine...or something...

I saw an advert last night for the Royal Marine Commandos- apparently the Army is recruiting.  For some reason (great marketing technique?) the advert led to me check out their website...and I came across their Get Fit to Apply page  You've got to be really fit before it's even worth sending off an application form to join the Green Berets...these guys are absolutely something else and to be in with a chance of being selected for training, you have you prove that you've got what it take...but to help people get to that stage, the Army offer loads of really useful exercise advice on their website.

I may have had an inclination to join the TA once upon a time in my teens, but I'm certainly not planning on applying for the Marines!  However, their exercise information is really well put together, and they've got a suggested, generic, circuit training plan based just on resistance exercises, and also one that they will personalise for you depending on you current fitness level including cardio training. I thought I might just be able to use some of the information to help me build the core fitness/strength that running alone doesn't seem to have given me.

So, I delved a bit deeper and there are easy to follow, simple videos (using a very fit, vest-clad marine doing the exercise) and detailed instructions for how to do warm up stretches and the exercises included in the circuit training, and it's all very straight forward. In fact I was a bit inspired by the whole thing, so this morning, I did one of the generic circuits.  It nearly killed me, and I couldn't do all of it, but think I may well start doing this on the days that I'm not running, particularly as I seem to have got bored with the gym recently.

So, if you're looking for some information about exactly how you should be doing those exercises that just don't seem to be working, or need an idea for a challenging circuit training plan that doesn't need any equipment other than yourself, or just some well put together health and fitness advice, this would be a really good place to start!

Speed pace or easy pace, it's just not my pace

I've had a pretty easy week - it was intentional to ensure I'd recovered from my Achilles problem - and I've only done 20 miles, finishing with just under 7 miles for my "long run".  It was a great run though - one of those really enjoyable ones, that make you remember why you enjoy being a runner, and that you're not just in it for the medals ;)

However...the long run of the week is meant to be slow, and easy!  I keep making the mistake that apparently many runners make, and run all of my runs at pretty much the same pace.  I do try and make sure that when I'm doing intervals I run a big faster on the fast sections, but it's all a bit hit and miss...and I think it's probably holding me back, and stopping me from improving.

On the Runner's World website there's a really cool training pace calculator.  I've used it loads of times before but have never paid a huge amount of attention, and while I've read lots of articles about training pace, I still keep ignoring the advice which always seems to be the same - run long and slow for the majority of your training, always include very fast interval/speed training, and run your tempo run at your expected race pace.  Everyone says that without varying the pace of your runs, quite simply you will never push your body, and improve your times.  I know that running the long runs at easy pace helps build skeletal and muscle strength, but more importantly (especially bearing in mind I'm trying to lose weight) it also encourages your body to efficiently burn fat as fuel, rather than carbs...which is also really important in the marathon as when you've run out of carbs at about mile 20 your body needs to be used to burning fat and be able to quickly switch! You'd think this would be enough to slow me down on those Sunday outings!

Anyway, after completing the training pace calculator, apparently my easy runs should be at least 10.40 mins/mile, I should be hitting 9.02 mins/mile for my tempo run, and an incredible 7.33 mins/mile for my fast runs, which is much much faster than I ever train, and bearing in mind I ran my easy run today at 9.20 pace, I'm clearly not doing it right...I really must start training a bit more scientifically!

Package from Amazon

I'm a bit of a book fiend and read all the time, but I've been particularly excited about my most recent purchase, "Once a Runner" by John L Parker.  By all accounts it's a bit of a legendary running book, and after enjoying "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall so much I wanted to read another one.

So, Once a Runner arrived last night and I started reading it this morning...have only got a short way into it but loving it so far.  I don't think it'll be as important to me as Born to Run, which I've still got on my bedside table, but I find reading books about running incredibly motivational, and really recommend it :)

Today will be the day...again

Well this healthy eating, food for fuel idea that I had really isn't going well.  I've put on another four lbs in the last two and a half weeks.  It is amazing just how good I am at putting on weight :( 


I can use all the excuses in the world about being injured and not being able to run, but nothing changes the fact that I binge, and eat too much food that has too high a fat content.  I just don't seem to be able to get started....and stick to...this weight loss/healthy eating element of my running lifestyle, although I know it will make a really positive difference to my pace and how I feel about myself.  I keep promising myself that today will be the day, this week will be the week...even though it doesn't seem to happen...but I wont give up, and today, I will try again to eat normally.  

Daily Mile = awesome

I've discovered Daily Mile which really does seem like a fantastic tool for recording my marathon training and keeping my running logs up to date - it even automatically links to my Garmin watch, and below is an example of one of their blogger widgets.

If you've not seen it yet, well worth checking it out.  It's everything I need in one place, and gives me a tool to track my races, daily, weekly, monthly and annual training, the map of my routes and even more, all with a really cool and intuitive interface.  Perfect :)