Wind and rain but no white stuff

January 6th, 2012

Well the snow never materialised and the sledge has stayed packed away in the loft for another winter! Unless we are forecast some more snow I think my outdoor sessions will have to involve the standard surfaces of grass, sand and tarmac..

2012 so far has seen the clients I've trained doing a combination of kettlebell lifts, intervals, boxing, bodyweight exercises and Pilates. Sure everyone is carrying a few extra kilos from the festive period but I'm a firm believer in the 90/10 rule: 90% of the time eating well and moving your body and the other 10% doing (and eating) a little of what you fancy. Notice use of the word "little" though, no splurges allowed. New year normally means renewed impetus for most people's training and this can quite often result in the xmas weight-plus being lost, for clients whose goal is weight loss.

My own new year always starts with me sitting down with a bit of paper and writing out all the years races I plan on doing and all my fitness goals. I totally recommend doing this as it gives you a clear view of what training is expected for the year and allows you to plan holidays and other commitments around events. Here's a bit of what 2012 holds for me:

April - North Tyneside 10k + trip to Cyprus hopefully to participate in a Triathlon in warmer temps.

June - Busy one...QE2 triathlon Ashington, Blaydon Race (150th anniversary), Midnight Run half marathon in Tromso, Norway.

July - Hebburn sprint triathlon and Ripon olympic triathlon

August - Allerthorpe classic olympic triathlon

Whatever your own goals this year, have fun and train hard :-)

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Let it snow..

December 7th, 2011

As we approach Christmas its the time of year now when most people start to wind down with their work life, spending time with family and friends becomes more important, and all things related to fitness tend to go out the window as the 2 for £10 tins of Quality Street start calling. Well for most people...


A lot of people see the winter as a great chance to get some alternative training in; different methods and a different approach to their normal routine. Some people who participate in what would be called Triathlon and other “summer-sports”, not that we had much of a summer here in the north-east in 2011, call this the off-season and a chance to begin laying down the building blocks for next years events. For road runners, this is essentially a year-round season so a lot of races take place over the festive period. Indeed one of my own favourite races takes place on December 17th this year at Saltwell park in Gateshead, so definitely no off-season for me and the rest of the runners there.


To illustrate some of the various training approaches, I’ll use a couple of clients I’ve trained this week: Firstly my Tuesday morning client who amongst other things would like to shed a stone before Christmas. Already quite a keen runner and kettlebell enthusiast, his mornings and evenings are spent doing treadmill intervals, kettlebell circuits, and core workouts in his garage. I’ve also set a variety of challenges, such as time targets for completing reps using KBs, for him to push himself further. Secondly, my Tuesday lunchtime client, who is preparing for the Cleveland Steelman Triathlon race in July next year. 2k swim, 90k cycle and 21k run are the race distances, so her winter is going to be spent doing turbo-trainer sessions (indoor cycling), running between 10 and 20k, hill intervals, twice weekly swim session with her tri club, and of course her weekly PT sessions with me. We focus mainly on core work in her sessions using different tools, and I was actually called an “evil genius” this week for my use of a rope and tyre on the sand.


The winter throws up some different challenges for my work too. The obvious travel limitations of driving a rear wheel drive car in the ice and snow being the first one; god bless public transport and my own two feet. The second is actually how to train outdoors in challenging conditions. Last year saw me breaking out the sledge from the loft and strapping weights to it, allowing me to conjure up a really challenging outdoor workout with a winter theme. The half dozen or so clients who did this at the time loved it. This year the thinking cap is definitely on and I forsee sledges, tyres, walking poles....


Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..

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Getting caked in mud, soaked through, but loving it!

October 16th, 2011

Along with 3 clients, a handful of mates, and about 800 other people, I took part in the Newcastle Stampede this morning. This consists of a 10k cross-country run through the woods and trails around Gosforth Park Racecourse. Obstacles included hay bales (god, loads of hay bales..) to jump over, tunnels full of mudied water to climb through, trenches and mud pits to crawl through and the odd rope or other assorted random obstacle that the marines who organised it fancied putting in. The course wasnt anywhere near as challenging as last year; a good example being the stream of water which had to be waded through for a good half mile this year was replaced with a jog alongside it. I'm guessing they just had too many people last year turning ankles or getting legs bloodied from some of the more extreme obstacles. Still a good challenge for everyone who took part.

It did get me thinking about some of the races which are available to road runners, fell runners, triathletes, adventure seekers and the like. These days instead of running a flat 10k on tarmac, substitute this for a hilly run around Kielder Water. Instead of a normal sprint or standard distance triathlon there are guys who take part in the Helvelyn Triathlon, culminating in one of the toughest runs (well, power walk so I've heard) around. It really goes against the back to basics approach of a lot of the fitness industry elsewhere, and is actually quite refreshing to have such a choice of things to tackle. One of my own personal (crazy) goals for next year, is to participate in the Midnight Run in Tromsø, Norway, where the 2 main things setting this race apart are the fantastic scenery obviously, and the late start time of 8pm due to the 2 months constant daylight there at that time of year. Should be fun..

Back to today's race: much better conditions than last year when it bucketed down and was about 10 degrees cooler. As mentioned earlier it was easier but not easy, still a load of fun and one I'll be signing up for each year. Watch out for me next year if youre there; I'll be the one caked in mud at the finish, no wait.. thats everyone..

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Going hardcore (but lightweight)...

October 12th, 2011

Been going a lot more hardcore with some of my training methods over the last month or so, whilst at the same time simpifying some of the tools I'm using. Looking back when I first started PTing, it was pretty common for me to turn up at a client's property with a Reebok step, sometimes a mini trampoline, dumbells and huge kit bags full of assorted "toys". Not sure to this day how I got around with all this gear....

Fast forward to 2011 and in the boot of my (now smaller) car are such delights as kettlebells, a sledgehammer, a tyre (to whack the hell out of with the sledgehammer - obviously!!), sandbags, water cannisters (for a tough farmers walk), and a much smaller kit bag with ultra-portable training tools like skipping ropes, resistance bands and ankle weights. I hope karma factors this in after my years of carbon-emissions from lugging all that chunky stuff around in a big saloon car...

There's definately a trend in the fitness industry to a more back to basics approach. Crossfit classes are based on traditional Olympic bar lifts, Kettlebells go back centuries if not millenia, and sledgehammer training has been massive in the states for many years. Sledgehammer training is really challenging, really beneficial in whole body strengthening due to the primal movement patterns involved, and most of all is great fun and a fantastic way of letting off steam.

Now if you see me arrive at a session with a client, pulling out a tyre and a sledgehammer, and a pack of playing cards (random it may seem) then it'll be one hell of a workout..

Les, my client in the pictures, knows what the pack of cards are for ;-)

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How to stand out in the Great North Run

October 1st, 2011

What do you do when you've ran the Great North Run 15 times already, and want to really stand out? You run it wearing a fridge on your back of course.

I first met Tony Morrison in March 2011 at the offices of his company, Targets Located, in Gateshead on a Wednesday lunchtime to discuss possible training. 5 minutes into his consultation and he had told me he intended to firstly run the Great North Run wearing a plasma TV or fridge (he wasn't sure at that stage), then run from Wembley to St James Park in Newcastle in as little time as possible, then compete in the 2012 Badwater Ultra Marathon; a 135 mile non-stop race from Death Valley to Mt Whitney in California in temperatures up to 55 degrees. "Is this guy serious?" I found myself asking silently.

Then Tony expanded on some of the training he had completed already. A keen runner, passionate about forefoot running and Newton Gravity trainers, he had already completed the London Marathon several times, Edinburgh Marathon, was signed up to the Barcelona Marathon, and routinely ran 20-30 miles. His favourite run at that time had been a recent effort where his wife Janita drove him to Hexham and dropped him off there, letting Tony run a picturesque route home. To Hebburn where he lived..

I began training with Tony the next week with my initial remit being to improve core strength and improve lean muscle mass whilst attempting to lower body fat, all in order to benefit his running and keep him in the best shape possible for his challenges to come. We began with Kettlebells and within 2 sessions Tony was hooked; on arriving at one session I noticed he had purchased a set of shiny cast iron Kettlebells all of his own to use. Soon the lifts began to take shape and he was throwing the weights around with increasing confidence, real progressive overload taking place, and he was getting stronger and stronger.

Towards the middle of the summer we incorporated weighted bag running. I used a pretty standard Nike backpack with magazines, a kettlebell and towels stuffed in (to stop the Kettlebell jumping around), and we headed out on between 4 and 6 mile runs. Sometimes hilly, these training runs were invaluable if Tony was to complete his Great North Run target.

In the 2 month period before the Great North Run Tony's training increased onto longer runs, with and without the extra weight, and probably the hardest half marathon I've ever done; Tony's "Angel run" from his home winding up the old waggonways to the Angel of the north monument. Hilly in parts but very scenic.

In the 2 week period before the Great North Run, Tony began attracting quite a bit of media attention for the "fridge run". It began with a front page spread on the local Shields Gazette, quickly picked up by the Newcastle Journal, then a mention on Channel 5's "The Wright Stuff", followed by a feature on BBC Look North where Tony and I were interviewed about the run. He was featured on Metro Radio in the week prior to the race, then was featured on the BBC One coverage on the actual day being interviewed by Jonathan Edwards.

I'm really pleased to say, after a long and hard slog Tony completed the Great North Run, carrying a 40kg fridge on his back, in an amazing time of 2 hours 51 minutes. He was running for South Tyneside Football Trust, a local organisation providing community based football activities for the area.

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