Keep Fit Club - ALL exercise types!

[charlesr]

Just tried the adidas springblade shoe! Crazy stuff. Definitely smooth. Need a proper run to find out more.

[charlesr]

Here's the first write-up of the 2014 gear: http://gearselected.com/adidas-2014-...running-shoes/

[Taka]

Love the look of the orange Adios Boost. Wasn't keen on the initial purple colourway.

[charlesr]

Yeah, want! I like the purple with silver stripes, but the new tiger colours are top notch.

[PeteJ]

Ever wanted to kayak the length of the Thames but dont know where to start? Lucky for you there is now a guide available on Amazon for just that purpose!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kayaking-Thames-From-Devon-Meridian-ebook/dp/B0092RG9K2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382778727&sr=8-1&keywords=Thames+kayak

All based on my little adventure last year

[charlesr]

Cool. I've spammed that in a few places.

[Kit]

22% BMI

22% Body fat

????

[PeteJ]

Cool. I've spammed that in a few places.

Thank you so much, it's now a number one best seller on Amazon UK
(*cough*, Kayaking section *cough*)

[gunrock]

Just dipped below 20st for the first time in about 10 years. 19st 13lb.

My exercise was fine but my diet was rubbish. Breakfast, lunch and dinner all good and fairly clean but the chocolate! So I've gone back to MyFatnessPal and been logging.

I just need to beat the chocolate/cake weakness. I've started imagining the chocolate covered in Branston pickle (which I hate; the look, the smell, the chunks) which helps curb it a bit. I'm also trying the tapping thing - looks a bit odd when I'm filling my water bottle at work near the vending machine, tapping my eyebrow and eyebags. I must look like a madman!

[Taka]

Finally home after a week in New York.

The running scene is huge over there and I was practically in nirvana, both with running locations and shops etc to visit.

My hotel was a minute's walk to Central Park in the Upper West Side and what a park it is! The sheer size and scale of the place is incredible and I'd never seen so many runners before at all times of the day.
My first run there was at 7:30am and I saw hundreds of people pounding the pavement - all shapes, sizes and ages. I covered a clockwise loop of the outer drive which was surprisingly undulating and full of twists and turns, helping to disguise the fact that you're in a huge park in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world. I even managed to run under the 25 and 26 mile marker as well as the finish line for the New York Marathon that was due to take place a few days later.

I tackled the reservoir in the middle of the park later in the week, though I managed to run past my point of entry to end up on the East side of the park, so had to make a massive detour to get back to the hotel... The reservoir had some stunning views of the Manhattan skyline, especially at sunrise and offered a softer flat track to run on with water fountains every so often.

I took the subway to China Town and then ran to and over the Brooklyn Bridge and back again. Plenty of runners and cyclists taking in the bridge and the views it offered. These locations were all so mentally stimulating for me after repeatedly treading the same ground at home for so long.

We also visited the NYC Marathon Expo to collect our bibs and timing chips for the NYRR Dash to the Finish Line 5k. The expo, like everything in the States, was huge. All the manufacturers were present, bar Nike, and plenty of smaller stalls. Spent ages talking to the guys at the Disney race stand, admiring the absolutely massive medals they give away at their races.

Ended my trip with the 5k race. It started by the United Nations building and I saw a couple of elites warming up including Shelane Flannigan and Evan Jager.
Was hoping to hit sub-20 but I'd massively over-indulged in the local grub and despite running every day, it was still too much. My legs were also tired from an aggressive itinerary which saw my girlfriend and I sightseeing, shopping and more from 9am until 9pm followed by a few drinks at the local bars to end the night.
The start pens were a mess with people that entered their estimated finish as their 5k PB, forgetting that they would be taking it easy given many of them were running the NYC Marathon the next day. Despite putting a target time of 19 minutes (my 5k PB is 19:18) I had to dodge and weave for the first 800m or so, with people WALKING in the first 100m! The course was steadily uphill so I knew a PB was off the cards but was still on target for a sub-20 finish. I couldn't maintain the pace once I'd entered the undulating Central Park and tried to merely reel runners in, eventually crossing the finish line in 20:13. I also finished 181st out of 8178 runners! Goodie bag contained a pretty spiffy looking long sleeve tech t-shirt with the race logo on.

I now need a holiday to recover from the holiday!

[charlesr]

I must look like a madman!

You are probably the sanest person there! Well done gunrock. Also, imagine how easy the exercise is going to be after you've purged a few more - after carrying that amount of weight around, you must have muscles of steel!

[charlesr]

Went for my first "long" run today. 7.7km. But it ended up being 2km under water (the tide was the highest I've ever seen it, obliterating the trail) I almost wimped out, but after taking the first photo, I couldn't come home and say look at this lake I didn't run through. That would have been lame!
Pics:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1424167244468525.1073741835.1422263221325594&type=1

In positive news, the achilles is clearing up. Not as quickly as I'd like, but at the fastest end of what sites suggest (3-6 months they say). My plantar is still giving me grief, but my anti-sex sock (strassburg sock) is helping.

[gunrock]

after carrying that amount of weight around, you must have muscles of steel!

Thanks. Muscles of steel? Only from the waist down. Shifting 20 stone around takes a lot of energy!

[H-Man]

I finished the Spartan Beast on the weekend and am pretty chuffed about it! The actual experience of running the course alternated between awful and bloody awful! - they increased the length from 12 to 16 miles (all my trail running training had been for 12 miles!), the water was freezing and the obstacles energy sapping - but stumbling through the finish line felt great. 3hrs 15 minutes of self inflicted pain in all. Along with Tough Mudder and the other 2 Spartan races, that's all the targets for the year met - which I'm really pleased about as at the start of the year I'd never run more than a very slow 5k If anyone's interested I really can't recommend trail running and obstacle races enough. They're not all in the cold and when you get a bunch of mates together what used to feel like an endless slog up a never ending road becomes an adventure in the mud!

[Kit]

Trying to figure out how to keep in shape after having surgery on my arm. Can't run, do pulls up, weights, etc... I've streamlined my diet but apart from that what can I do?