Not Too Shabby!

I went back to BMF after a break following the minor knee booboo. The good news is, my knee only hurt when I had to leopard crawl along the floor. When running around it was great. The other good news is, apart from once or twice, I kept up well with the running, and my legs didn't hurt me. I'm definitely going to start eating a protein bar before every session. I honestly don't think I could afterwards as well, though. I may start buying a piece of fruit to eat after or something. They're a whole meal supplement, I can't eat two in the space of two hours!! Besides I think you can go overboard with all this protein nonsense. It's not like I'm doing it daily or excessively. I think if I was in green I'd need to, but I'm not so I don't.

Good sesh, next stop, Saturday!

My Knees are OK!

Well thank God my knees have settled down. I was genuinely worried about them, given the pain I was suffering on Monday. Yesterday wasn't so bad, it was mainly the shockwave up my leg of getting off the bus, or walking down stairs, or whatever. This morning, however, all seems well.

Having a think about it, I've noticed a pattern in how easy/hard my sessions are. Thursdays are okay because I've had a two day break between. Then Saturday's are okay because it's early, I haven't been to work and mentally or physically drained myself. Then Monday? Ouch. The one day break is catching up with me, and the two previous sessions so close together must wear me out.

That isn't to say that I intend to stop going on Mondays! I'm just going to have to ensure I do plenty of pre-BMF stretching.

I have noticed that they don't tend to warm up and get going gradually. Usually, one can differentiate between the warm up and the actual exercise. We literally go from standing around at the beginning waiting to go, to running, jumping, squatting, SWEATING. Within a few short minutes everyone's faces are bright red and my legs are killing me. I almost feel that if just for five minutes they built it up a bit - say jogging on the spot, a few squats, then star jumps, then jogging with momentum... I don't know. I feel this nought to sixty regime is sometimes a bit much, especially since they don't 'stretch' us at the beginning (something which I fully intend to start doing as of Thursday).

Something to think about.

Sixth Session, Worst Session

I can't wait until payday. Because I am flat broke right now, I can't afford to buy myself post BMF protein bars, or really decent protein rich food, to help with muscle repairs and strength. I'm living off noodles and junk food that I've got lying around at the moment. Can't be doing me any good.

I had my sixth session last night, and it was awful. My legs absolutely killed me all the way round, and I could do little more than hobble. Sit ups, press ups, squats, no problem. I put my all into them. But the running? Jesus I thought my legs were going to give in altogether.

I'm not going to give it up, but I had one of those 'lost faith' moments last night. My weight still isn't going down (despite the last three weeks eating better and doing alot more exercise, since before I was doing none), my fitness level feels like it's decreased (my legs didn't ache at first, now at the start of every session they're like rocks for the first 20 minutes - nobody else seems to have that problem and it's ruining it for me, I'm in constant agony).

It makes me chuckle how everyone there complains at how unfit they were, but they always keep up with the running, never have to stop and never seem to be in any pain.

Grumble. I'm going to enjoy my two day break and hope it improves for Thursday.

Gimme Five!

Today was baking hot, but it was lovely out there. Given that the temperature and lack of shade was so unforgiving, our instructor (a new one for me, I didn't catch his name) kept it mainly game and relay based, along with plenty of static but still challenging exercises.

No falling over today, mighty proud, and I only had to walk one time -- it's ALWAYS the bit where we have to jump off to the side, do five sit ups, squats, press ups or whatever, and then join the group at the back when they run past you.

Other than that though, I kept up well with the running. I'm proud!

Back again on Monday for number six.

Ooh, So Organised!

I did some research yesterday, and found out exactly what the army is likely to expect of me for my fitness entry exam. This isn't entirely what they want, but I should imagine if I can do this, I can keep up on any level.

49 press-ups in 2 minutes

59 sit-ups in 2 minutes

1.5 mile run in under 10 minutes

You've no idea how hard that information was to find. The official Army website doesn't have the specifics (I guess so people can't coach themselves to pass the specific tests, so it's like a proper exam) so I've had to ask around and go by what people tell me.

I have read that they also test you carrying ammo boxes (small, but heavy) across planks of wood and lifting them into the back of an army vehicle, and there is a teamwork exercise and you're assessed on whether you pass the exercise and I guess more personally on how much you do (or don't) contribute.

Going back to the fitness test results above, they look like hard work. I went for a mile long walk on Wednesday and it took me about 20 minutes. Having to RUN half the distance extra alongside that in half the time sounds impossible at the moment, but it's not.

To help myself, I've made up a chart to track my progress. On the last day of every month, I'm to attempt the sit-ups, press-ups and running, and I need to time myself so that I can make a note of how I do. The video below explains how I the little chart works. It's quite simple!

Session 4 - Knee Booboo

So here's the video blog I made about yesterday's BMF session. I apologise for how rough I look, my phone isn't the most flattering and it was all done a bit spur of the moment (rather than planning, I just switched my phone on when I felt like talking). I might do these whenever I have a BMF session, or when anything to do with the army comes up.

I was wondering how long it'd take me to faceplant the mud (intentionally or otherwise) and yesterday I broke my mud faceplanting virginity. We were doing a relay where we had to sprint from A to B, and on our return, had to fetch the next person in our team and link arms with them, continuing the relay. Well the guy who I had to link arms with was probably about 6 foot 4 (I came up to his ribcage, and I'm 5 foot bang on), and having a larger stride, literally just dragged me along the floor.

Apart from that initial 'ouch!' feeling you get, I was okay, so I got straight back up and continued running. Paul even told everyone to give me a clap when I hobbled in last place to the finish. What I like about BMF is the encouragement they give you. A gym group or aerobic group wouldn't have that 1 on 1 attention despite there being a group.

Other than that it was a very good session -- my running is definitely improving! As with Monday, my legs turned to concrete at the beginning, but after about 15 minutes, loosened up and not only did I find myself keeping up with the jogging for the most part, but I found myself overtaking one or two people as well! I can't quite explain it, this energy just seemed to come out of nowhere!

My goal currently is to do an entire session without having to walk one of the jogging bits. Let's see how many sessions that takes me!

Vlog? No. Doc? Yes!

One of my all-time favourite hobbies is videomaking. I love making little documentary videos, editing them and then putting them online for anyone who is interested to see. Today at work, whilst I was hiding in the basement (ok I was stationary hunting), I got out my phone and made a 1 minute video, talking about my pending career change. I then thought it'd be great to have a video blog on this website, done in a series of mini documentaries (so it's edited together with a commentary, in segments rather than just a long ramble to the camera in front of a web cam).

I don't know if it will work with my rubbish phone camera, or my digital camera's equally rubbish video setting, but I think it could work potentially. Watch this space, the ideas are swooshing around in that big old empty space between my ears!