Welcome to 2017

Good Evening my Running Readers,

Welcome to my first post of 2017, I am a bit late on the uptake I know, however, one thing I was told as a child, if you have nothing worth talking about don't talk.  In fairness, I have never listened to this snippet of advice, but I have not been doing much training during January due to my quad/hamstring strains.

So, I have been taking it easy, and mainly been doing x training at the gym until this last week where I have managed a full weeks training.

You may remember that at the start of December I started a new gym, Anytime Fitness in my home town of Hertford, well I loved it then and am still loving it.  I cannot fault it (actually I could be picky and say that they could do with a plug socket in the bathrooms.  Just so I could use my straighteners as my hair is now the type of style I HAVE to straighten at least the fringe or hide away in a dark room).

I have joined their 12 week challenge where they took photos of my semi naked body, squeezed all my inches of fat with some plastic contraption, weighed me and then kindly told me I was extremely overweight...  I already knew this, of course I did, that is half the reason I use a gym, the other half is to build my strength, core and do my x training.  So after receiving my facts and figures they presented me training plans to help get fit and lose weight, however they understood that I would have to fit what I could in around my running.  All this was for free by the way, as part of the membership I have with them.  All of the staff are so friendly and helpful, when you go in if they are not showing someone round or training them, they are more than happy to chat with you about the different machines, work outs and so on.  They never make you feel that you are being a pain, and they really are interested in your story and what your goals are.  

So myself and Rob have literally changed so many things about the way we eat, making lots of food now completely from fresh ingredients, lots of good vegetables, adding in fish to our diets and so on. I have bought the first book from Joe Wicks - Lean in 15, we are not following them as a plan but getting some fab ideas for food so we don't get bored.

So that has been pretty much it, I am hoping that I will now be able to move forward (without anymore injuries or illness) stick to a good diet and see the results.

This week I have done an interval session in the gym, a short speedy run along the river path, and a LSR over the trails around where I live.  I found this particularly hard as I am so used to flat roads/paths, but it is something I need to learn to love as I know it will help with my strength as a runner, and the views are stunning.

So before I go, I have a couple of reviews:

ASICS - Hat and Glove set

(won from Twitter comp.)

The hat fits like a swimming cap but not quite as tight, it is very light material, and fits right down over my ears without covering over my eyes. I love it, it helps keep my earphones from sliding about, it doesn't make me too hot and also stops the normal sweat from pouring down my face!

10/10

The gloves are a little too big, although have a tightening around the wrist so won't fall off, but feel a bit weird being so roomy.  Doesn't bother me too much as I am slow running, but wouldn't want to wear them in a race.  The material however is perfect, again doesn't make my hands get too hot,and I found that my hands didn't swell as much as they normally do.  Another big big plus is the rough extra piece of material on the thumbs and first fingers which mean I can still use my touch screen on my watch without having to take them off.

8/10

All in all, I am not one that normally wears hat or gloves when out running, however I will definitely where the hat whilst we still experiencing this cold weather, and the gloves when out on my slower runs.

Garmin VivoActive HR

So I have had this now for about 4 weeks, and I love it!  It is everything I wanted and more.  I wear it 24/7.  The battery is great, lasts at least a week wearing it with Bluetooth on constantly updating to phone with notifications and a couple of GPS runs a week, and a couple of sessions using it at the gym.

Some reviews have said that the back light is rubbish and hard to read, but I have not had any problem with this.  You can customise it using a PC and download other apps.

I love the fact I can get emails and other notifications on it, and the fact that when I missed a call once in my car as forgotten to put my bluetooth hands free kit on, (and my phone was in my handbag) I could just tap my watch and it dialed the person back for me (after I had turned the handsfree on of course)!

I love the fact it tells me how much I have moved during the day, how I have slept (however this is not very accurate and quite often tells me I have already gone to a bed when I have been sitting watching a film, but it isn't a feature I am bothered about) and other info such as my HR, resting average and highest over certain periods and of course the day in general.  It also tells me to move, which as I sit in an office all day, is very useful and I do listen to it and go for a little walk when it shouts at me.

So on to sports, GPS is fantastic, picks up really quick, I have tested its accuracy on a known route and it is spot on.  Another downside I have been told is that watch HR monitors are generally not as accurate as a chest strap, however I have tested this by wearing two watches this one and one synced to a strap, and again as long as I position the watch correctly on the arm it was within 1bpm of the strap monitor.  Have also tested against the monitored on the treadmill and again pretty much spot on.

I have not used all of its features yet, I am still to learn how to make my interval sessions on it, but am currently using the treadmill for these but will update the reviews page with newer info as I go.  I have used it for gym sessions, and it does seem to be very inaccurate on treadmill runs, which I expect (generally tells me I have done a good km more than treadmill) and here is where my only negative comes in, with my old TomTom watch when you finished your session on the treadmill and stopped the watch it asked you if the distance was correct and allowed you to change it before saving.  I cant seem to be able to do this with the Garmin, you can edit the activity on the app, however by then it has integrated with Strava and myfitnespal with the incorrect info.  This is something I would have liked, but is a small negative as once the weather turns I am more likely to run outside using the GPS.

9.5/10 (Subject to change when full use of features trialed)

So that is it from me for now, I will keep you up to date on my diet, fitness, runs and more as the weeks roll on.

Much Love

FBB