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ultra-FIT MAGAZINE
Fitness lifestyle for Men + Women
Dance Fitness Vol.21 No.10 November/December 2011 £3.99
MeTABolIc BoosT!
Metabolic
Boost Burn more FAT!
VoluME twENty oNE NuMbEr tEN
Time saving workouts Page 71 Run 100 miles
www.ultra-FITmagazine.co.uk
Pilates for Fitness www.ultra-FITmagazine.co.uk
ZUMBA!
®
Festive Fitness
Training Plan & Gear
Hydro Bags ski Training
ultra-FIT - your 24/7 personal trainer
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festive Workout
Photography: simon Howard www.snhfoto.co.uk Model: Carla Curva www.curvyc.co.uk
i
t’s approaching that time of year again when our minds turn to snow, Santa, skiing and shopping! All of this festive fun can make keeping your regular workout schedule very challenging so we’ve put together a 12 day cross training plan to help you a) maintain a good level of fitness during the festive season and b) help ward off the damage done by that, ‘oh go on then, just one more’ mince pie. As with all exercise, warm up before and cool down after to minimise your risk of injury and post-exercise muscle soreness.
the Workouts strength training Strength makes everything better. An increase in muscle strength means that just about every physical activity you perform is easier. Strength training also helps develop better posture, increases insulin sensitivity, improves bone mass and enhances neuromuscular functions such as balance, coordination and proprioception. Bottom line – strength is an essential component of fitness. The programme you’ll be following is a whole body workout built around compound or multijoint exercises. These exercises can be performed using a variety of implements - so if your gym is closed for Christmas, you should still be able to follow this workout using a Powerbag, dumbbells or whatever other heavy object you can find near to hand. To save time that could better be spent wrapping presents or drinking eggnog, this workout uses supersets for all the upper body and core exercises. To perform a superset all you have to do is perform the first exercise in the pairing, designated ‘a’ and then with no rest, move on to the second exercise, designated ‘b’. Rest for 90 seconds and then repeat the pairing twice more. The exercises designated as AMRAP are bodyweight exercises. As it’s hard to prescribe an appropriate volume for all exercisers, simply perform as many repetitions as possible.
12 Days of Christmas Workouts
the Plan Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Strength
Cardio
Circuit
Rest
Strength
Cardio
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Circuit
Rest
Strength
Cardio
Circuit
Rest
exercise 1
Zercher Squats
2a
T Press Ups
2b
Body Rows
3
Reverse Lunges
4a
High Pulls
4b
Push Press
5a
Single Leg Plank
5b
Sky Divers
reps
sets
recovery
8 to 12
4
60sec
AMRAP
3 Supersets
90sec
12 Per leg
4
60sec
8 to 12
3 Supersets
90sec
30 to 60sec
3 Supersets
90sec
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Zercher Squats festive workout
Zercher squats work your legs and lower back and can be performed using anything heavy that you can rest in the crooks of your arms. ✱ With your feet shoulderwidth apart, rest your chosen weight in the crooks of your arms. Clasp your hands together and bend your arms so your hands are near your shoulders ✱ Push your hips back, bend your knees and squat down to around a thighs parallel to the floor position ✱ Drive down through your heels to stand back up ✱ Keep your chest lifted and lower back slightly arched at all times
Zercher squats work your legs and lower back and can be performed using anything heavy that you can rest in the crooks of your arms T Press ups
the humble press up is one of the most effective exercises for your pushing muscles: pectoralis major, deltoids and triceps and also works your abs and even your legs. this unusual variation also works your core’s obliques and shoulder stabilisers. ✱ Adopt the press ups position with hands shoulder-width apart and arms straight ✱ Bend your arms and lower your chest to the floor ✱ Drive up off the floor and simultaneously take one arm and raise it toward the ceiling, rotating your torso as you do so. Your body should resemble a T lying on its side ✱ Return your hand to the floor and perform another rep. Raise the opposite hand ✱ Continue alternating hands for the duration of your set
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BuilD GreAT Arms PArT 2
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Build Great Arms Part Two
By Patrick Dale Photography: www.snhfoto.com Model: Nyisha Jordan (Team Grenade athlete and Fitness Figure winner, Fitness Britain)
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Arm Workout One
There are two workouts this issue. Remember to warm up thoroughly before each and finish off with some stretching to minimise adaptive shortening and muscle soreness. And don’t forget to perform one or two non-arm dominant workouts for your remaining muscle groups to help keep your physique balanced during your week’s training.
Arm Workout Two
Exercise 1a
Barbell Preacher Curls
Repetitions
AMRAP
2a
6 to 10
2b Narrow Grip Bench Press 3
Barbell Reverse Curls
Recovery
Training System
4 sets
90sec
Superset
4 sets
90sec
Superset
3 sets
60sec
N/A
6 to 10
1b Barbell Power Curls Barbell Lying Triceps Extensions
Sets
AMRAP 8 to 12
Supersets involve moving from one exercise designated ‘a’ to another designated ‘b’ without any rest in between. You rest only after you’ve completed the second exercise in the pairing. AMRAP means ‘as many reps as possible’ and that’s just what you go for in the allotted time.
You rest only after you’ve completed the second exercise in the pairing Exercise 1a
Repetitions
Chin up
1
1b Barbell Curls
AMRAP
1c
Parallel Bar Dip
1d Triceps Reverse Grip Cable Push Down 3
Dead-lift Hold
Sets
Recovery
Training System
2 sets 180sec
1 2 sets
Super Slow Giant Set
AMRAP ALAP
3 sets
90sec
N/A
This is the workout you will love to hate! It consists of a four exercise ‘giant set’, including super slow chins and dips. This is a short brutal workout. A giant set requires you to move continuously between exercises and sets, with virtually no rest. Super slow involves, as the name suggests, moving very slowly. Momentum is eliminated - so that 100% of the load, in this instance your bodyweight, is on your muscles. To perform a super slow chin, hang from the bar using an underhand grip. Then taking 30 seconds, slowly pull your chin up to the bar. Without pausing, lower yourself back down to full extension. Immediately proceed to the barbell curls and crank out as many - or as few reps (!) - as you can manage. On completion of the curls, perform a single super slow dip. Start in the bottom position and take 30 seconds to push yourself up and then 30 seconds to lower back down. Immediately proceed to the triceps push down and perform as many reps as possible. Rest for three minutes and repeat the entire sequence once more. Always perform the eccentric (lowering) phase last as this is the strongest part of the movement. You can adjust the duration of the super slow chin and dip to suit your individual strength level for example, 15 seconds instead of 30 seconds. It’s a good idea to have view of a clock with a very visible second hand or use a training partner to call out the time when performing super slow otherwise it’s all too easy to move too fast and negate the benefits of the workout. The final exercise in workout 2 is a simple weight hold (the dead-lift hold) – you just hold the weight for as long as possible - notarised as in the workout table as, ALAP.
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buIld gREAT ARmS pART 2
In part 1 of this programme in our last issue, we started to lay the foundations for bigger, stronger arms. Now we take your arm development onto a whole new level by including some more advanced training techniques and exercises.
get out there
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get out there
world Duathlon Championships
Nik Cook represents Team GB at the World Duathlon Championships in Gijon Spain.
F
or a few years I’d toyed with the idea of racing at international level in duathlon or triathlon. With the 2011 World Duathlon Championships in Gijon in Northern Spain and a solid 2010/11 winter’s training behind me, I set my sights on the Clumber Park qualifying race at the beginning of March. In mid-Feb I was going great. I won the Fearless off-road duathlon at Coed Llandegla and felt super strong. I was then struck down by a particularly stubborn chest infection, didn’t make the start line at Clumber Park and any high intensity training was impossible. After five weeks and two courses of antibiotics, I finally shook off the infection and still had a chance to qualify at Oulton Park at the beginning of April. My running was well below par but I’d managed to retain reasonable bike fitness and figured I had nothing to lose by giving it a go. My runs were both slow but by hammering the bike, I just managed to scrape into the team. Training went well through the first part of the summer. I rode regular 10 and 25 mile time trials and subjected myself to the pain of running track sessions. Having spent ten years focusing primarily on ultra distance events trying to get some speed into my legs, especially on the runs, was proving a bit of a struggle. With a couple of low 34 minute
10K’s though I was getting there and feeling confident. However, with six weeks to go, injury struck in the form of an annoying knee niggle and although manageable, it meant I wasn’t able to properly sharpen my running and would be reliant on my bike. Friday morning and Stansted Airport was full of stressed looking people with bike boxes. Apparently EasyJet hadn’t twigged that although everybody would have booked their
Spanish weather - pouring rain, thunder and lightning and freezing cold wasn’t what I’d been expecting. Saturday morning was spent having team photos taken and attending the Team GB race briefing - I really felt part of the team and with all the athletes in team kit, we looked pretty impressive. We then cheered on the elites, including Katie Hewison who won the women’s race and finally spent a grueling couple of hours queuing to have our kit checked, rack our bikes and trying to work out the way in and out of transition. It’d been a long day and worryingly for Sunday’s race, I’d spent far too long on my feet and my legs felt tired and heavy. With a 10:04 start time for my wave,
bikes on to the flight, space might be a problem! Fortunately it was sorted and all our luggage and bikes made it to Gijon. Team manager Jez Cox took a group of us for a ride around the bike course in some decidedly un-
breakfast was at a fairly civilised 07:00 and with a stomach full of butterflies, I slipped on my Team GB tri-suit and made the five minute walk to the start. The Sprint Distance (5km19km-2.5km) race was already in progress
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ProFessor FITness
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Making a
Splash! Hydro Bag training
You may remember The Karate Kid training in the waves or Rocky and Apollo running through the surf on the silver screen in Rocky, well training in water has been around for a while and not just in the movies – many athletes from numerous sports perform pool sessions for example, with flotation vests. However, now there is a way of training with water without getting wet! Written and modelled by Ben McDonald aka ‘Professor Fitness’ Lead photo: www.snhfoto.co.uk
H
ydro Bags are a superb piece of training equipment, fresh and highly effective they allow for a great all-action workout. Hydro Bags are cylindrical and come flat and feature a non-return valve on the top so that they can be filled with water and the
that can be done with them is incredible. The instability of the water challenges the positional sensors of the body (the so-called sensorimotor and proprioception systems) so you will have to work far harder to stabilise yourself when lifting hydro bags. Think about it like this: although our body is the ‘master
Hydro Bags are a superb piece of training equipment, fresh and highly effective they allow for a great all-action workout
The Workout
Warm up with a couple of minutes of light CV work and perform functional movements for all body parts.
Beginner: Perform the following exercises over 3 sets of 15-20 reps with 1min rest between sets
Intermediate: Perform the following exercises over 4 sets of 12-15 reps with 1min rest between sets and increase the amount of water in the bag to increase the intensity
Advanced: remaining space with air. This allows the water to move around and so the challenge of the exercise is increased. The bags have two types of grip, neutral (thumbs up) and barbell (as you would hold a barbell) so the amount of exercises
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adapter’ and will adapt to any stress we place upon it, water will move slightly differently every time we use it, so our body will be constantly trying to adapt to a different stimulus and will thus be working that much harder.
Perform the following exercises over 4 sets of 12-15 reps in a circuit style, taking no rest between each exercise and 1min rest between each circuit lap
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professor fitness
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SAVE timE Workout
SAVE Workout Tips
TiME By Patrick Dale
S
ometimes, despite your best intentions, life gets in the way of your fitness and health endeavours. This is especially true around the festive season when there is likely to be a lot of competition for your valuable time! parties, gift shopping, family commitments and probably more parties and yet more shopping can make it hard to maintain any semblance of your normal regular workout routine. Don’t worry – help is at hand! Believe it or not, we at ultra-FiT are human too and suffer the same multi-directional demands on our time that you do. in addition we also have editor John shepherd breathing down our necks to get our assignments in to ultra-FiT HQ on time (hmm, what card to send him this year?). so in this article, we’ll provide you with a number of useful tips and tricks that you can use to maintain the level of fitness you’ll have probably spent the past last 11 months and more developing.
1
Hack your workout
You might not realise it but a lot of the exercises in a standard resistance training programme overlap. That’s to say that while chest presses target your chest, they also work your deltoids or shoulder muscles as well as your triceps. This means that many muscles get hit more than once per workout
when in actuality one exercise will do the job in much less time. By eliminating overlapping exercises from your programme, you can work all of your major muscles in as little as 20 minutes and you only need to hit the gym twice a week – a great option if you are short on training time.
Day one squats, Bench press, Bent Over Rows, planks Day two (performed 2-3 days later) Deadlifts, shoulder press, Lat pull Downs/pull Ups, Cable Russian Twists Use your normal set and rep scheme and be safe in the knowledge that these select few exercises will keep all your major muscles in great shape until you have time to return to your regular workouts.
2
Sprint, don’t jog
Long slow distance training is the most common form of cardiovascular exercise seen in gyms. LsD for short, this type of exercise, as the name suggests, involves covering a long distance slowly. While LsD is an effective exercise option that will burn fat and increase fitness, it’s not a very time efficient training method. That’s where interval training comes in. interval training involves alternating periods of high intensity
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Save Time wORkOuT
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exercise with periods of low intensity recovery, for example sprinting alternated with jogging. Not only are interval training workouts very time efficient they also elevate your postexercise metabolic rate far more than LSDtype workouts. That’s right – intervals although they take less time - actually result in greater calorie expenditure. It’s like all our fitness Christmases have come at once!. You can perform interval training on most types of cardio machines and the length of your efforts and rest periods are related to your current fitness level and experience. If you are new to this kind of exercise, try four to six repeats of 30 seconds interspersed with 90 seconds’ rests. For more advanced exercisers, work up to five to eight two minute efforts with no more than two minutes’ recoveries. Remember, intensity is key to interval training so make sure you ‘push it’ so that you finish each effort feeling like you have worked much harder than normal. Row, cycle or run – interval training delivers great results in minimal time.
Super super-sets Day 1: 1a and 1b for the Squat and Bench press super-set Day One
Sets/Reps
1a
Squats
4/12
1b
Bench Press
4/12
2a
Bent over Rows
4/12
2b
Planks
4/30 sec
Rest Period 60 to 90sec 60 to 90sec
3
Super super-sets
If you analyse your workout, you may be surprised to find that you spend half of your gym time or more resting between exercises. You do a set, recover for 60 seconds or so and then repeat. If you do 25 sets per workout, this means you spend upward of 25 minutes doing absolutely nothing! Hardly effective time management. Super-sets reduce the amount of time you spend resting by arranging your exercises in pairs. By moving from one exercise to another without pausing, you not only save time but you increase the overall intensity of your workout. Better results in less time – sounds like a fitness infomercial but it’s true. Using our minimalist approach to resistance exercise described in section one, your super-efficient workout now looks like the tables above right:
4
workout at home
Just getting to the gym can eat into valuable time; especially if the roads are packed with panic-stricken shoppers or the weather is bad. If getting to the gym uses up so much time that you don’t have enough left for your workout, maybe you should consider exercising at home. Up until very recently, I trained at home 90% of the time and developed a very high level of fitness using nothing much more than a handful of resistance bands, some home-made sandbags and two kettlebells. In actuality, most of my workouts used simple bodyweight exercises and required no equipment at all. There is no reason that you, with nothing more than a folded towel to lie on, cannot do the same. Here are a couple of my favourite no-frills workouts that will help you maintain a good level of fitness despite requiring no exercise equipment. As with all exercise, make sure you warm up before and cool down after your workout.
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Super-sets reduce the amount of time you spend resting by arranging your exercises in pairs Day 2: 1a and 1b Deadlift and Shoulder press super-set Day Two
Sets/Reps
1a
Deadlifts
4/12
1b
Shoulder press
4/12
2a
Lat Pull Downs
4/12
2b
Cable Russian Twists
4/12
Rest Period 60 to 90sec 60 to 90sec
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SkI-FIT woRkouT
Ski-FIT By Patrick Dale Photos: Simon Howard www.snhfoto.co.uk Model: Tom Reader www.tomreader.co.uk Gym: Zone Gym, London 020 8881 8222
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ummer seems like a distant memory and Christmas is right around the corner so it’s now time to start thinking about winter holidays and more specifically skiing. For many people, the annual skiing trip is the longest period of sustained physical activity of the year. It’s no wonder then that many skiing holidays end in severe fatigue and even injury! Being an ultra-FIT reader, I make the assumption that you are already a regular exerciser and in pretty good shape so we can skip having to work on your basic fitness before embarking on a more skiing specific workout routine. However, if this is not the case, please spend six to eight weeks doing some basic conditioning before following this programme.
The Demands of Skiing Although the aim of skiing is to glide effortlessly down a snowy mountain, this requires a lot of coordinated work from all your major muscles. Successful skiing - and snowboarding for that matter - is essentially a full body activity. In addition to muscular strength and endurance, you need balance, coordination, cardiovascular fitness and a degree of bravery to get the most from a skiing trip – especially if you want to be skiing as strongly at the end of the week as you were at the beginning. Most skiing injuries tend to happen near the end of a skiing trip so building a reserve of fitness means that not only will you ski better on a day-by-day basis, but you’ll also injury-proof your body so that you aren’t one of the unfortunates who spend the last two days of your holiday on crutches! Not so many years ago, skiing conditioning programmes were built around an exercise called ski squats. Ski squats involved leaning against a wall, bending your knees to 90degrees and then holding this position for an extended period of time. While this exercise does cause a lot of exercise-induced discomfort in the quadriceps or thigh muscles, it has actual little carry over into the movements of skiing. The ski squat is an isometric exercise, which is to say that although your muscles are working very hard, they do not change length. Skiing is a multidirectional and dynamic activity and as such, your training for skiing should reflect this.
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Fit For the Slopes workout Assuming you are already reasonably fit, perform this programme two to four times a week on non-consecutive days during the four to six weeks prior to your skiing holiday. On the final week before you depart, reduce training volume, intensity and frequency so you ‘peak’ before your holiday rather than arrive at the slopes feeling tired.
warm up Spend five to ten minutes performing some light cardio to increase blood flow and body temperature. Increase the speed/intensity gradually so you finish your warm up feeling slightly out of breath and ready to get on with the main session. Using the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale of one to ten, with one being very easy and ten being maximal effort, you should feel around five at the end of your warm up. Once you have finished your cardio warm up, perform 12 to 15 repetitions of these skiing-specific dynamic stretches. Dynamic stretches are ‘stretches on the move’ that also mobilise your joints. These exercises are so good that I suggest you perform them before you do any skiing during your holiday. 1. Squat with overhead arm swing With your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands by your sides, push your hips back, bend your knees and squat down until your thighs are approximately parallel to the floor. Stand up and swing your arms
up and overhead. Lower your arms, squat down and repeat. 2. Lunge with a twist Stand with your feet together and your arms above your head. Take a large step forwards and bend your legs to lower your rear knee to within a cm or so of the floor. Swing your arms over and down to the outside of your leading leg. Push off your front foot, return to the starting position while simultaneously raising your arms. Perform another repetition to the opposite side. 3. Step back and row Stand with your feet together and your arms held at shoulder-level in front of you. Step back into a gentle calf stretch and pull your arms back as though performing a seated row. Reach forwards and recover your back foot to return to the starting position. Step back with your other leg and repeat the arm action. As skiing is as much about local muscular endurance as it is cardiovascular fitness, this workout is designed to be performed as a circuit. Move from one exercise to the next with as little rest as possible. On completion of the final exercise, rest for one to two minutes and then repeat. I suggest you perform two circuits on week one and then add a circuit each week up to a maximum of five. Strive to increase the weights - where applicable - each week so that you systematically raise the intensity of the exercises and therefore, your fitness levels.
Exercise
Repetitions/Duration
1
Squat and Cable Row
12 reps
2
Rotating Overhead Press
12 reps per side
3
Thrusters
24 reps
4
Medicine Ball Slams
24 reps
5
Lateral Two Footed Jumps
24 reps
6
Kettlebell Swings
24 reps
7
Press Ups
AMRAP*
8
Bird Dog
12 reps per side
9
Waiter’s Walk
30sec+ per side
* AMRAP – as many repetitions as possible
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SkI-FIT workoUT
2. Rotating Overhead Dumbbell Press
Skiing uses considerable leg movement combined with torso rotation. This means the muscles of your core are vitally important. Your core transmits the efforts of your arms or legs to the rest of your body and a weak core can limit your skiing. This exercise trains your core muscles to work in synergy with you upper body. ✱ Stand with a dumbbell in each hand and your feet shoulder-width apart ✱ Bend your knees slightly, lift your chest and press the dumbbells to shoulder-height so that your palms are facing forward ✱ Drive one dumbbell up and overhead while simultaneously twisting your hips and pushing off the same-side leg ✱ Lower the dumbbell back to shoulder-height and then repeat the movement on the opposite side. Perform 12 repetitions on each arm
1. Squat and Cable Row
Combing arms and legs, makes this is a great all over body exercise that works virtually all of your major skiing muscles. ✱ Stand facing a low pulley – take the pulley handle in your hands and take a large step back to tension the cable ✱ Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your chest lifted. Your arms should be extended ✱ Squat down to parallel and simultaneously pull your hands into your abdomen. Lead with your elbows and keep your wrists straight ✱ Stand back up and extend your arms. Reset your position and repeat
3. Thrusters
Comprising of a squat and overhead press, thrusters will crank up your heart rate and also increase full body muscular endurance. Use a medicine ball so that you can move quickly from this exercise to the next. ✱ Hold a medicine ball at chest-level and stand with your feet shoulderwidth apart. Your elbows should be below your hands and the ball cradled at the bottom rather then held at the sides ✱ Lift your chest, push your hips backwards and squat down to parallel ✱ Extend your legs and simultaneously push the ball over-head. Use the momentum generated by your legs to help assist your arms ✱ Lower the ball to your chest and then descend into another squat. Try to establish a steady rhythm and stick to it for the duration of your set
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reader Story
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100 Running
miles
In August reader Stuart Blofeld took part in a new 100 mile ultra race in the UK called the North Downs Way 100 (NDW100).
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daughter. But such moments are very brief. I refilled my bottles with what was on offer - GU electrolyte brew, took some nuts and an energy gel for later and went on my way. The next section was 11 miles and I was starting to heat up now as we approached midday. With 32 miles in my legs things were only really just beginning. I was very happy with my pacing and didn’t feel that I had pushed too hard to get where I was. But with 70ish miles ahead, now was not the time for selfcongratulation. The miles wore on as did the continuous climbing and descending. It’s all relative of course and I realise that with 11,000ft of climb over this 100 mile route it’s far from the ‘hilliest hundred’ out there but by the same token it never felt flat. The climb up to Botley Hill at 43 miles was another power hike with arms and legs used to good effect. I can’t remember much about the next section, apart from a long road section past the biggest houses you’ve ever seen. I longed to get to the half-way mark and hopefully eat something ‘proper’. On reaching, I got some hot tea, which was good and drunk half a cup of what was supposed to be chicken soup, had another meal replacement shake, a banana from my bag and was off. My time at the half-way point was 9:40hrs which equated to an average pace of 11.30min per mile.
the 50 miles back… What I haven’t said is that because this is an out and back course I had the chance to see who the leaders were and work out my position. Amazingly I left the half way mark in fifth place, which gave me a mental boost. I’m not going to try and cover my return in any detail as there isn’t really much to say up until when I got to Box Hill to meet my dad. Suffice to say that things got tougher and slower but no less enjoyable - enjoyable from the poignant view that I was enjoying the challenge and the journey that I was on, enjoyable that I was still on my feet and moving forward, enjoyable that I was simply able to take the 100 miles on and hopefully learn something or even a lot from the whole experience. The eating issue continued and hit a climax at the Reigate Hill CP at the 68.5 mile mark. The previous section was 11 miles and I arrived at Relgate Hill wearily and in need of something to eat and drink. Iron bru was on offer so I had a few cups of that, and a jam sandwich, a few cookies and then some ham too. What a feast, accept my stomach didn’t agree and promptly ejected it’s entire contents out again! Despite this I actually felt much, much better for it. The aid station crew were great and made sure I was ok before I set off on my way to Box Hill. The light was now fading fast and in the woods it got dark very quickly so I had to get the head lamp out and navigate using a sole
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reader story
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tuart takes up the story: “The format was simple - 100 miles out and back along the North Downs Way. The field was made up of both 50 mile runners going ‘out’ only and finishing at Knockholt Pound and those of us also making the return leg. We all lined up together and were off at 6am. The first section of the course characterised what to expect for the rest of the 100 miles technical single-track trail, gravel farm paths, fields, country roads, short sharp climbs and some longer gradual ones, as well as steep ones too! The weather was perfect... a cool morning with some dampness in the air and quite refreshing. I wore my Injinnji compression socks, lycra half length shorts and a simple technical T-shirt and had two handheld water bottles and a waist pack with all the mandatory equipment, plus waterproof and some energy bars. Super light was the key! My approach for the race was to go out steady and get some miles under my belt. I felt relaxed and just went with it. The ‘memorable’ moment of the first section was when I heard a shout from behind, ‘YOU’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY’. I looked curiously behind sure that I was on the right path. But sure enough after tracking back down I had missed a small marker post pointing left for the NDW. You had to be very eagled-eyed not to miss it! The first checkpoint (CP) at 6.6 miles was a brief affair. I didn’t need to refill my handheld water bottles or grab any food so I ran straight through. I was feeling good and carried on to the next CP at what felt like a similar pace. And this continued for much of the first 24 miles down into Box Hill and past Denby’s vineyard. Box Hill was the 3rd CP and I reached it in 4:11hrs at an average pace of 10.30min per mile. Box Hill was also the first drop bag point too which meant that I could tuck into some food and ‘secret supplies’, which I was hoping would fuel me through the miles ahead. This is where I made my one big mistake in simply not packing enough variety. At the aid stations they had plenty of snack food such as mars bars, jelly babies, nuts, crisps, cookies and so on, but nothing substantial - nothing that would really fuel you well for 100 miles. I had a meal replacement shake that packs in the calories and a reasonable amount of carbs and protein and grabbed a pork pie, which I ate on the way up the 280 steps that ascends the steepest part of Box Hill. The combination of climbing and eating was not ideal, but at this stage I just needed calories however difficult it was to eat. Leg 4 was an eight mile section with lots of ascent and descent. This made the going slower. However, I could look forward to seeing my family at CP 4 which was 31.8 miles in and it was really good to get there with my folks, wife and son and
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Photos: Simon Howard www.snhfoto.co.uk
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indsay Jay is a world-class International fitness presenter specialising in body conditioning, yoga and Zumba® fitness. Her You Tube channel has attracted over 8 million views over the past year. As a sports model Lindsay Jay has worked with brands such as Reebok and Nike and as a businesswoman, she has successfully launched the online store www.zumbawearuk.com selling fabulous Zumbawear ™ apparel. Zumba® seems to be the ‘class of the moment’, why do you think this is? Zumba® is huuugely popular!!! Well, the obvious thing to say is, just give it a go then you’ll know why! It’s totally infectious. Exercise without feeling you are exercising. How does it get any better than that? Also I guess Latin music, Pitbull, Salsa, Samba, all these things are so much more mainstream than they have ever been. And honestly who doesn’t like great music and the chance to get fit and shake your bootie! Hee heee. All women, including those who may lack some confidence, feel really safe to lose their inhibitions and be sexy and expressive in a Zumba® class without any judgement. Tell us a little about Zumba®... The Zumba® programme is all about partying yourself into shape. It’s an exhilarating, effective, easy-to-follow, Latin-inspired, calorie-burning dance fitness-party. Since its inception in 2001, the Zumba® programme
has grown to become the world’s largest – and most successful – dance fitness programme, with more than 12 million people of all shapes, sizes and ages taking weekly Zumba® classes in over 110,000 locations across more than 125 countries.
Honestly who doesn’t like great music and the chance to get fit and shake your bootie!
You are heavily involved in selling Zumbawear™ clothing in the UK. Is the clothing as popular as the Zumba® fitness programme? Totally! Its crazy, instructors and Zumba® fans go mad for it. The colours are so bright, fun and the clothes stand out which promotes the Zumba® brand and the instructor’s classes. The Miami based designers are amazing, there are 12 launches a year, 3 each season of new clothes and accessories so they really have to work hard and are so creative coming up with new ideas and concepts all the time. For example, we now have carpet gliders to put over your trainers to make it safer on your joints if you are working out on carpets at home or at big fitness conventions, like the one held in Florida every year. Also our brand new Z Performance line has been perfectly designed for all active sportspeople and not just Zumba® fanatics. Take a look at www.zumbawearuk.com What are your top 5 tips for getting the most from your Zumba® class? 1. Leave your inhibitions at the door! The more you let go the more fun you’ll have - a free spirit will burn more calories!
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