24th March 2011

We talked about cycling in a different way yesterday, lets talk about different ways of running today.

First of all, running on mindless flat roads is one of the most boring things I could think about doing, some people enjoy it but I like to make things a little more interesting and a lot more productive in terms of results!

Since we live in a pretty hilly country, there’s never a hill that far way fortunately, and sometimes vicious hills!!!

Hills will always get you working harder, going uphill works your legs better, makes your lung capacity push on to new levels, helps bring your body fat down quicker, gives you a greater sense of pride and achievement having completed them, gives you some great views when you get to the top and in general provide some great workouts!!!

This is why I head straight to them every time!!!

Another thing you have to look at. On sunny days, you will see plenty of people walking or running on flat roads. You won’t see many if any people running or walking hard up hills, those you do see working hard up hills will nearly always be in good shape.

If you want to look at where people in great shape train, go to the more obscure parts of the area, these people are never on show and never want an audience. They want a place where is quite but offers great challenges in terms of terrain. You feel great when you walk hard or run up a very steep hill or even mountain, there’s nothing like that feeling when you develop your potential from only being able to walk 10-20 minutes on the flat to being able to run up a mountain, it may sound far fetched to some of you but it is totally achievable, I can guarantee that!!!

So today, tomorrow or the weekend, by all means warm up on the flat roads or track, but head for the hills and experience a brand new set of results that will astound you in all sorts of ways!!

February 8th

Now your basic level of conditioning is in, its time you thought about raising your performance!

Before getting into different ways of doing so on a traning basis, i would look at your diet before you do anything at all. If you keep eating rubbish foods full of fat, sugar and salt, you will be HIGHLY unlikely TO GET INTO GOOD SHAPE FULL STOP!!! This is the first thing you need to do before you move forward, or everything becomes a real struggle for you and things will not be easy for you, no matter how hard you work on your training. Its time to be honest, realistic and blunt if it means you getting to your goals quicker, if at all!!!

The old saying that you can eat anything you want as long as you train hard is totally false, and perhaps one of the most misleading claims you have heard for years but was foolishly wrong! You lose nutrients out of your body when you train hard, so it becomes vitally important to replace them as soon as possible.

Good food is good for your body in so many ways, in fact don’t see it as good, see it as vital in your goal to become the best you can be.

It makes sense to say that if you are 15 stone to start, and begin training hard, life will become a lot easier when you are down to 14 stone. Simply being lighter allows you to move more free, you will have less strain on your joints, you will have more energy and you will be far more positive because you have already lost a stone. You will develop the required momentum to easily come down from there.

The key to this remains your eating, without repeating myself too much, this has to be in place before you waste too much effort. Approach your eating and training with equal effort, and this way you get double results!!!

More on training improvements tomorrow!!