How Drinking Water Can Help You Lose Weight

You probably know that water is good for you, but despite knowing it’s good for them, most people don’t actually drink enough!

One reason why I would recommend that you aim to drink plenty of water is that water helps you to function as a human being.  If your system is only slightly deficient in water, which, unfortunately, many of us are without realising it, the body cannot function on all cylinders, and as a coach, I want for you to be firing on all cylinders, and raring to go!

I could write a whole book on the benefits of water, but to keep this short and sweet, I would just like to draw a few facts to your attention.  Did you know, for example that with only a slight deficiency in water (perhaps 4%), you could be losing up to 30% of mental capacity.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I think that is a good reason to drink some of the stuff!

You probably already know that water helps flush through your system, and takes away waste and toxins, but how about this for those of us who would like to lose a few pounds… an increase in water intake can actually reduce fat deposits (and studies have shown that a decrease in water intake will cause fat deposits to increase)!

You may also be interested to know that water naturally suppresses the appetite and that many people mistake thirst for hunger and eat when they really need to drink some water!

So how much water is enough?  Well, there are differing opinions on this, but a good level to aim for most people is 2 Litres a day (more if the weather is hot, or if you’re exercising a lot).  That’s 2 Litres of water, drunk as water, and not as tea, coffee, juice, fizzy drinks, or any other form of liquid.  In fact, drinking anything that contains caffeine (or alcohol) means that you should drink extra water to compensate for the diuretic effect.  Again, there are differing opinions on this, and current thinking is that if you drink coffee or other types of drink then it will help with your total liquid intake total, but personally,  I don’t think you can beat pure water, the stuff of life )

Achieve Your Weight-Loss and Fitness Goals by Making your Workout an Appointment in Your Schedule.

You only have one body, and it serves you well.  You make a lot of demands of your body and expect it to serve you without complaint, which most of the time, it does.  Now you owe it to yourself to look after your body like it deserves.

You already know that working out is the healthy thing to do and you probably  intend to work out regularly, but do you let other things that come up push your workout out of your schedule?   A top tip for achieving your health and fitness goals is to make your workout a fixed appointment in your diary.  Once it’s booked, don’t allow it to be pushed aside by something that comes up.

For example, imagine that you have a note in your diary that tonight it falls to you to collect your small child from school. If something comes up last minute at work, what is your response?  “Sorry, I can’t, I’ve got to get to the school to pick up my child…”  Quite right too.  It’s unthinkable to leave your child sitting on the pavement.

Well, your body deserves to be treated with as much priority.  When you have a workout booked into your diary, that should be a firm commitment that has high priority and should not be pushed aside when something comes up.  Imagine the scenario: you have a workout booked in for straight after work.  There’s five minutes to go until you are due to leave and your boss comes over to your desk – there’s an important matter to deal with.  What would you do?  Forego the workout?  What if you were just leaving to collect your child…you couldn’t just fail to turn up.

OK, there will inevitably be occasions when you really can’t make your workout, but think about what you would do if you were due to pick up your child.  You would do everything in your power to be there, and if you really couldn’t make it you would have to make alternative arrangements.  That should be the way you think about your workout.  If you really can’t make it, then you should be thinking about how to fit in that missing workout. 

To your health and happiness

How to Run a Marathon

I have now finished my marathon manual, I started it ages ago and had mostly completed it but some final work was required.  I finished the content and Leigh has edited it and finalised the layout and so it is now completed.  

 

The manual is designed for running beginners to be able to complete a marathon.  It covers all aspects of training, as well as information on warming up, stretching, and nutrition etc. etc,  Importantly, it also passes-on many of the time-saving and pain-saving tips that I have learnt over my years of training for and participating in running marathons. 

 

It’s a manual not to be missed if you are new to marathon running or if you want to improve your previous best marathon time.

 

For more information visit www.going4it-marathon.co.uk

An update on my recovery from surgery

I am now free of my cast but have an Aircast to wear.  This is a ‘ski boot’ like device which I put on to hobble about but can take off for physio treatment and to aid scar healing etc.

 

I went to the physio last week and he will let me start to swim next week if the scar is healed sufficiently.  The healing was going OK apart from one small area of the scar which was a bit sore.  The reason for this became apparent on Thursday when I did the typical bloke thing and was picking at the scar.  I thought I found a bit of dead skin but as I tugged at it, it was clear that it was the tip of an internal stitch.  I duly despatched it with a sharp tug and pulled out a piece of thread about 10mm long.

 

I was really pleased as I thought this was what was delaying the healing and now it would heal quickly and swimming would be on the cards.  However, Friday had me picking at it again only to find another piece of thread.  This time I tugged very hard but it didn’t want to shift.  Off I went to clinic to let the nurse have a look.  She decided that it wasn’t going to come out either and cut it as short as possible and dressed the wound in the hope that it would start to dissolve and allow the scar to heal properly.  So, I am hoping that when I remove the dressing tomorrow the scar will have healed sufficiently, as some form of exercise would be really good. 

 

The nurse also gave me a severe talking to as she found out I had been walking around at home without my boot on.  This is clearly a no-no and she read me the riot act.

 

If I can start swimming next week that’ll certainly help me to start to regain my fitness.  The next step is more physio and then in three weeks time the ski boot may be able to be dispensed with.  If the Prof (Surgeon) is happy with that the physio will let me do some static cycling and this should really help speed my recovery and with any luck soon after I may be able to start jogging.

 

We had some friends round last night and one of them was working hard to convince me that my Achilles will never be the same.  That’s the second person to try to ‘be helpful’ with information about my recovery.  Is it just the nature of us Brits to be so bloody pessimistic?  I include me in that of course.

 

Meanwhile I am gradually getting my RAAM experience down on paper but it is taking much longer than I thought and I feel that I am only covering the surface of things and not really getting in to the nitty-gritty of all the finer points of the personal interactions and emotions that the team went through.  Maybe I’ll have to put that in later as a separate section rather than threading it throughout the entire read.

After RAAM nick puts his feet (foot) up

Well the deed has been done.  I spend six and a bit days with a team cycling across America and then come home and within a few days have an operation on my leg which leaves me helpless and reliant upon Leigh to help me out with just about every task.

The operation was planned after I went to see the specialist in January to see what exactly was causing the pain in my right heel.  The pain was only apparent in the mornings but was particularly apparent after I had run the previous day.  The result of all of the X-rays and MRI scans was that I had two bone growths on the rear of my right heel, one being a bone spur and the other a ‘Haglunds’ (a growth of additional bone on my heel).  The spur in particular was causing the discomfort as it was interrupting the smooth surface of my heel on which the Achilles tendon would slide and was slowly damaging the Achilles.  This damage was more apparent after a nights sleep when the Achilles became inflamed and resulted in the tightness of the tendon and the need to hop around for quite some time until I had managed to stretch it out and get back to a near normal gate.
The only course of action was to grind off the spur and Haglunds to recreate a smooth running surface for the Achilles.  Unfortunately, the only way to access the bone growths is to cut through the Achilles vertically and spread it apart.  Once the bone was ground off the Achilles could be repositioned and my heel stitched up.  To ensure recovery is swift and no lasting damage is done, my leg requires two weeks in a cast and then a further four weeks in a specialist ’ski boot’ removable cast, after which a course of physiotherapy will be required.

So, I now find myself on the settee with my right leg propped up on pillows, taking pain killers.  Despite the pain killers my heel still feels like it has been beaten severely with a cricket bat!  Still, hopefully the pain will subside quite quickly and I will just have to deal with not being able to carry anything around as my hands are filled with crutch handles.

Nick with his feet up

The other thing that surprised me is that when I first awoke after the operation I couldn’t feel my leg due to pain killing injections but my throat was very sore.  It seems this is from the tube that would have been inserted whilst in theatre, nothing drastic but something I wasn’t prepared for.  It’s still a bit sore now but only when I eat, which is often at the moment and something I need to watch.  I can’t eat the same amount as I usually do and not exercise whilst staying the same weight.  I really don’t want to put on weight whilst I’m laid up.  Starting exercising after such a long break will be hard enough as it is, let alone whilst carrying more weight.

The trip to the hospital and operation were actually very pleasant.  I had my own room and there were lots of nurses and assistants looking after me.  I was only in overnight but was thoroughly spoilt by all concerned.  I hadn’t experienced a general anaesthetic before and was amazed at the complete loss of the time whilst I was in the operating theatre. Once awake I was constantly monitored until after I had eaten and peed (peeing seemed particularly important) had my leg plastered and was ‘checked out’.  I say checked out, as the hospital was more like a hotel than a hospital, not that I’d want to go back regularly but the experience overall was pretty good.

Leigh is now having to help me big time as although my manoeuvrability on crutches is good I can’t carry or move anything so Leigh (what an absolute star) is pandering to my every need.

I have been ’signed off’ for 6 weeks but have no chance of getting bored.  I have plenty to do including catch up on some reading, do a few blog entries and try to write about my RAAM experiences as well as a list of things Leigh would like me to try to get round to.  Clearly, all of these jobs are non physical jobs but jobs which I normally struggle to find time to do.  It will be nice to be able to ‘blog’ a bit more and also take a well earned rest from work.
It’s already two days after my operation and I am sure the 6 weeks will whiz by and I won’t get anywhere near the amount of things I would like to do, done.  But I will hopefully fully recover from my operation and at the same time recharge my batteries.

I’ll update you again soon, in the meantime there’s a TV programme on ITV 4 on Saturday 5 July at 20.15 about RAAM.  I don’t think it is about this years race as it too soon after the event but I think it will give you an insight into RAAM and what Leigh, me and the team went through.

RAAM – Mission Accomplished!

RAAM is done, and we got through in one piece.  Here’s a brief summary of how we got on.  I was hoping to send reports throughout the race, in fact everyone on the team planned to keep a diary at the end of each shift/day but there was absolutely no time to spare.  We were rushing from one thing to the next and keeping a diary was on our minds but not possible.

Next Tuesday I go under the surgeon’s knife for an operation and will need 4 to 6 weeks off work to recover, during which I hope to put pen to paper and recount my RAAM experience.  So, until then I just wanted to give you a top line update.

We completed the ride – 3,014 miles (including cycling up the Rockies and the Appalachians) in 6 days 22 hours and 48 minutes.  This was well within our target  as we had a target of 7-8 days.  As a team we averaged 18.07 mph which again beat our target of 17 mph, and we faired well in ranking at the finish.  An extremely good result for a rookie RAAM team of triathletes (not cyclists) and support crew who all had a very steep learning curve.

Upon my return to work and when asked by people how was it, the simple answer is that none of the 4 cyclists found the riding hard.  Sure there were some tough climbs and tricky descents but at the end we all had strong legs and bags of energy left.  We all felt we could have gone on a lot longer.  We had no sores or aches and pains and at no time during or after the event suffered any stiffness or muscle concerns.  This could be down to two things, a good training plan which we followed leading up to the race and the fact that we all thought it would be much harder and psyched ourselves up for it.  The hardest parts of the race were the sleep deprivation, team dynamics and logistical challenges.

Sleep was in short supply.  Riders were lucky, we got to rotate in 6 hour shifts (6 hrs riding, 6 hrs recovery).  The crew, however, had a much tougher job.  The crew were supposed to work for 12 hours and rest for 6 but for some of the crew this didn’t happen.  For example, Leigh, my wife, was in charge of all nutritional aspects of the race for all of the vehicles but also got roped into RV navigation, laundry duties, food and ’stuff’ shopping etc. etc.  At one stage Leigh was ‘on shift’ for 48 hours before she got about 90 minutes sleep and then was on shift for another 36 hours.  As you can imagine the crew struggled to carry out simple mental challenges, so organising the logistics of moving this caravan of people and vehicles across the USA as a race team brought its challenges.

Even as a cared-for rider on my second shift on day three I fell asleep on my bike three times only to be awoken with a start drifting across the road and I also had a couple of hours where I was hallucinating quite badly.  This improved on day 4 as the tiredness increased and I became able to catnap anywhere and actually got a reasonable amount of sleep.  The crew on the other hand struggled to get sleep on their rest shifts let alone at any other time.  The RV driver managed to get about 10 hours sleep throughout the 6 plus days of the event hence Leigh was navigating for him (Leigh’s main job here was to ensure he didn’t drift off to sleep).

We had our ups and downs as the race progressed and the exhaustion grew.  We did have one or two upsets but mainly got on with the job in hand.  Some of the other teams struggled to hold it together and after blazing rows just went to pieces and became a team of individuals.  Far from an ideal situation for a race team.

So, some of the things we expected to be hard weren’t whilst other things which we hadn’t even considered became challenges to overcome.  Not only did we struggle to work out what day of the week it was, we struggled with what time of day it was too. We had to work on two clocks, everything reported to RAAM HQ (at each of the 54 time stations we had to report the time the rider passed through) was in Eastern (New York) time whilst everything else had to be in local time.  Throughout the race we moved in and out of 4 time zones and had to ensure that the RAAM lighting-up regulations were adhered to and work out when facilities and supply stores would open.  One of the crew couldn’t work out why these crazy Americans were cutting their lawns at 5am and no one else in the crew realised until later that it actually wasn’t 5am but 5 pm! 

When a team member was either finishing or starting a shift it was hard to decide if you should be eating breakfast, dinner or tea.  I take a daily supplement but ran out on about day 5 as it was hard (actually, impossible) to determine when a day starts and finishes. 

There was very little room for privacy.  The RV, which I add was huge by UK standards, was big enough for 4 adults and 2 children.  However, we had it as home for 13 adults in two shifts.  As you can probably imagine there wasn’t any spare room.  Don’t forget we also had all of our kit (suit-cases, nutrition, electrical charging stations for race coms and PCs etc. etc.) stored in the RV as well as the essential race kit.

The on-board facilities were challenged and that was despite the rule that only riders could use the shower and toilet.  The crew were not allowed to shower or use the loo because of water availability in the tanks.  Even the riders were only allowed to use the toilet for solids with urine to be directed into used water bottles.  In fact all of the vehicles were cleared every 6 hours at a crew change and most of the rubbish was filled or partially filled water bottles (a tip here was to not drink the bottles that looked as if they were filled with apple juice!).

To help the situation one of the riders decided that sleep was the most important thing and didn’t shower (more water for the other riders to shower in) for the entire race.  He also wore the same top, the results of which you can imagine.  He cycled in high 90oF heat in dusty conditions and then went straight to bed.  Unfortunately, he sweats heavily whilst asleep and more unfortunately I was sleeping in the same bed that he vacated (we were on opposite shifts).  So, at the end of my shift I got in to a very wet bed for the first three days and after that it was not only wet but became more and more smelly.  I can say this was a particularly unpleasant experience and one which we couldn’t get him to appreciate.

We had a few minor set-backs but thankfully no show-stoppers.  Incidents included:
* Damaging the RV by scraping the side of it down some concrete bollards in a fuel station
* A broken rear wheel spoke
* The electrics in one of the cars which powered the comms equipment, navigation PC and rear facing flashing lights failed and I had to do running repairs.
* The engine warning light came on in one of the vehicles on day 4 (we just ignored it and continued to drive and it lasted the remainder of the race).
* A few other minor hiccups.

All in all I think luck was on our side and some of the other teams had much bigger problems than we did.  For example, we were really lucky with the weather and managed to avoid the tornados, giant hailstones and flooding.  Some of the other teams were caught up in some bad weather and had to stop and wait, delaying their race.

At times I wondered why I was doing it but as usual upon reflection it was a great challenge and something that I will always remember.  The crew took lots of pictures which I haven’t seen yet but look forward to viewing and whilst I am in plaster after my operation I hope to spend some time writing a full account of the adventure.  We all learnt a huge amount about how to do (and more importantly how not to do) RAAM which it seems a shame to ‘waste’.  If it was possible to raise the funding and a crew worthy of a further RAAM challenge, I would like to give it a shot as a solo.  This would be a massively more difficult challenge as a rider but hopefully less difficult logistically (so more enjoyable) for the crew.  However, I have a lot of things I need to get done before I seriously contemplate this but I am starting to think about what next year holds in store for me with regards to a sporting challenge?

London Marathon

I’ve been watching the London Marathon on TV today, as it’s not in my schedule this year, as I’m focussing on cycling for the Race Across America in June, plus as I have an injury, I’m not able to run at the moment.  But watching the runners on TV always inspires me.  Watching the stories unfold, of personal challenge and achievement, I find myself urging on complete strangers.  I find myself quite emotional seeing them achieve their dreams of completing the run, it’s a great day, with a fabulous atmosphere with crowds cheering all the way round.
Many people decide to run a marathon for the first time, after seeing the London Marathon on TV, and I would encourage you to have a go, it’s a day you’ll never forget.
If you’ve been inspired by the London Marathon and you’d love to run a marathon, tell me your burning questions and I’ll do my best to answer them for you, and don’t forget, if you have not yet claimed your free marathon training schedule, just let me know and I’ll send it to you.

Always wear sunscreen

I’ve had a small patch on my forehead for a while now which has been a little sore from time-to-time. There was nothing visible really, and I thought nothing of it, as I put it down to friction where I’m continuously wiping sweat away whilst out training. However, the patch has now got a little worse, and Leigh prompted me to mention it to the doctor as I was going to see him about my foot anyway.

It was a good thing I did show the doctor as he recognised the patch as sun damage, and diagnosed ‘actinic keratosis’. The definition of actinic keratosis is a scaly or crusty bump that forms on the skin surface. They can also be called ‘solar keratosis’ or ‘sun spots’ or even ‘precancerous spots’.

The doc prescribed some cream which is to dry up the patch so that the skin heals. Hopefully we caught it early enough so that we can get rid of it, as this is a precancerous condition and left untreated, especially with ongoing exposure to sun, these patches can develop into skin cancer.

The message of the story folks is to ‘always wear sunscreen’! You may put sun lotion on when you’re sunbathing, but this shows that it’s also important to protect your skin when out and about. Even if the weather is not particularly sunny, the sun’s rays can penetrate cloud, and can bounce off snow, sand and other reflective surfaces.

Sun damage to the skin accumulates over time. It is lifetime sun exposure, not recent sun-tanning that adds to your risk. Up to 80% of sun damage is thought to occur before the age of 18. If you have fair skin, blonde or red hair, and pale eyes you are at the greatest risk, but even those with darker complexions are not immune.

It’s worth a trip to the doc if you notice any patches developing as the earlier caught the better.  The patch may itch or produce a prickling or tender sensation, especially after being in the sun.

I’ve been guilty of not using sun protection even when out in the sun, because lets face it, it is a faff to put on, it gets on your clothes, and it rubs off anyway. Well, we’ve recently found a great sun lotion that solves these problems nicely. It’s called Ultrasun and you only need to apply it once and it stays put all day so there’s no excuse any more. There’s a range of different choices and I use the sports formula. It’s not greasy and rubs in well, is resistant to water, sweat, and friction and has a high protection factor so you can apply and forget it. The sports formula does allow tanning but Leigh uses the sun-block version as she’s really prone to burn.


I used the sports formula when I did the Austria Ironman when I was out in blazing sun for hours. Our team top was sleeveless, and even with sun lotion on, several of the others ended up with badly burned shoulders. I did tan but didn’t burn and was grateful that the Ultrasun had protected me.

Check it out: ultrasun

RAAM is looming

All in all, what with new-puppy-sleep-deprivation and the foot injury preventing me from running, all this is not helping my training!  The lack of sleep and lack of time is leading to a lack of enthusiasm for training at the moment.  Plus the foot injury means I can’t run.  This is definitely not good, because RAAM (Race Across America cycling event) is now looming (it’s in June 2008) and I need to get out there training hard to prepare for the event which will involve 7 to 8 days of cycling in a 4-man team relay.  For more info on this, see the RAAM page (click on the link at the top of the blog).  The good news is that whilst I can’t run at the moment, I can cycle and that of course is my focus to prepare for the big event.  So it’s time to buckle down and start getting the miles in.  It is now four months to go to the event and I’m behind schedule with my training so I need to get out there!

Planning for the RAAM event is proving to be a much bigger job than I think any of us realised.  There is a massive amount of logistical planning, a continual stream of e-mails and a programme of regular meetings.  We have got our team in place now (4 cyclists plus 10 support crew) and are organising transport, race strategies, nutrition, logistics, funding, clothing and equipment, and so on.  If you would like to sponsor me, please click on the link thank-you )  
Sponsor Me
 

Introducing our Gorgeous New Puppy!

Let me introduce you to our new puppy. 

 

 He is a weimaraner, he’s gorgeous and is now 11 weeks old, silver in colour, with beguiling blue eyes.  Leigh says he’s super-cute.  We’ve named him Sterling which refers to his silver colour but also means genuine, authentic, real, true, pure, excellent, first-rate, exceptional, matchless, incomparable, worthy, admirable and valuable – Leigh chose the name and thinks it’s cool.

He is a joy but is also a handful!  He is definitely a time-vampire requiring frequent attention.  I need my sleep and am extra-tired at the moment because Sterling is also keeping us awake at night!   If you have had a puppy – or kids – you’ll know what time-vampires they can be.  Anyway, this of course is only a phase, and we’ll come through it, but in the meantime, we are sleep-deprived!  He is lovely though, and we’re looking forward to being able to run with him later when he’s old enough.  Sterling doesn’t know it yet but he is going to be my partner in Cani-Cross events.  Cani-Cross is cross country running with your dog and there is a series of races organised in the UK and they are based around this dog/owner team and there are specific classes, rules and regulations.  I can’t wait to get in to this new sport.