Lisa - Fat Girl Fit

Round Up of 2017

It’s that time of year again when I can look back and see what I got up to and take some time to reflect on what I have accomplished. I, like many others, set goals at the beginning of the year and life always chucks some hurdles in that change the direction you are heading. It is easy to get disheartened when this happens and I have been guilty of this after suffering an injury in September BUT when I look back I can also say I am proud of what I have achieved too.

At the beginning of this year I set out some goals in a blog post and whilst writing this took some time to reflect on them. These are what I listed as goals:

Not be so scared of the weights section of the gym and with the help of a good friend of mine I spend more time in that area of the gym than any other and actually really enjoy it so long may that continue.
Reach my goal weight OR be comfortable with my body shape. I really wanted this but that did not happen and in fact after an injury and putting weight on I managed to lose that and some more but there is still a lot to go. I am not letting this get to me and I am more determined than ever. I am also trying to not take too much notice of that number on the scale and instead have started taking measurements – with the sort of training I am doing there are changes that won’t show on a set of scales alone but that does not mean progress is not being made.
Take part in all the Nuclear events and earn my Mudallion medal. I completed all the events run by Nuclear this year and my Mudallion was worn with pride.
Complete the Vatternrundan 186 mile cycle ride in Sweden. This was my main event this year and I cannot recommend it enough – beautiful country, beautiful scenery, beautiful people and beautiful bike ride with amazing friends – seeing the sunset and sunrise during this event was stunning. I will do this one again in the future for sure.
Get through a week at the La Santa training camp in Lanzarote and not die on a mountain somewhere. I am writing this post so clearly managed to not die, I also got up all the climbs and even took part, as a relay, in my first triathlon.
Enjoy myself – always do.
Smile – my event photos this year have beaming smiles in each and much fun was had.

As I travelled with my husband for his events I have taken my bike and got my training in by cycling the bike course of his triathlons meaning I have experienced this in various countries.

I have surrounded myself with positive people and that is such a mental boost – I believe in them, they believe in me, positivity is contagious and inspiring.

And although I finish 2017 with a knee injury I am working on strengthening that and so my goals changed slightly and means some of those for next year will do the same. My priorities will be to recover from that injury properly and build up the confidence I have lost as a consequence – I have started on this already and want to say a huge thank you to some who have been massively helpful in this respect even if they do not realise it and they are my friend Emma, Tracey from Nuclear especially with the Wild Forest ladies classes, Scotty from The PT Barn who is just awesome and I will look forward to visiting his new location for some sessions that I am sure will help me even more, my cycle club Romford CC, all the fab people from Havering Tri and last but by no means least my husband.

I have many events planned for 2018 already so watch this space….

Category: Events, OCR

Judgement Day Team Challenge

On Saturday I headed to Pippingford Park with Team Scrambled Legs to take on the Judgement Day Team Challenge.

I had seen photos from this event last year and it looked a lot of fun so quickly added it to me calendar for 2017.

The idea is to register with a team, pick a theme and all turn up in fancy dress, grab a tyre, grab a sandbag, get a map and off you go. You have to navigate your way to every obstacle and once complete the marshal will sign off your map – once all obstacles are signed off you can head back and you are done.

It is a team challenge and meant to be fun – it is the last event of the season for most and with no chip timing there is no pressure to go crazy for quick times or podium positions.

We were dressed as old grannies. There were five of us (all Mudd Queens) so 3 had a blow up zimmer frame whilst 1 had the tyre and the other the 20kg sandbag and we alternated as we completed each obstacle.

I had never done a Judgement Day event and I must say this won me over as it was just so much fun – I need to look at my 2018 calendar of events now to see what I can fit in where for JD. As we navigated the course we saw many a Mudd Queen and loads of friends and familiar faces from the OCR World including lots of PT Barn regulars, Team Elements and OCR Wrongens.

Some of the costumes were amazing! The Wrongens were pulling their captain Vince for the whole thing, Elements were Toy Story and as you heard the shout ‘Andy’s Coming’ you all had to fall to the floor and there was even a swat team accompanying Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

Challenges along the route included off road driving, a dark tunnel crawl, getting your tyre and sandbag across some monkey bars over some icy water by whatever means necessary, water traverse, tug of war, rope climb, log carry, wall climb, rings, karaoke hut and some more I have forgotten I am sure. It was also very hilly and with a tyre and sandbag meant it was not a quick course though that was not the aim – the aim was fun and that was what we had!

It reminded me of why I fell in love with OCR in the first place – it is the friendly faces, the supportive extended arm just as you need a hand, the lack of egos if you are an elite or someone who can’t do many obstacles love it nonetheless, the friendly comments and words of encouragement and the teamwork!

Thank you JD – and I can see why you won your awards at the weekend at Mudstacle!

Category: Cycling

Winter Cycling Kit

This week I cycled twice and it is nippy out there lately! I am well and truly relying on my winter cycling kit.

I have seen many posts about people looking for advice on what kit should be worn/changed for winter cycling and I think it largely differs from person to person purely based on personal preference. Here are some of the tips I thought I would share:

Firstly I swapped my bib shorts for winter bib tights. I prefer bib shorts/tights to shorts but again personal preference here. These have panels that are made with pixel technology giving maximum visibility in the dark and the inside of the tights is lined with a brushed fleece material.
I then added arm warmers to be worn with my cycling jersey and a base layer.
Next to come was the winter jacket! I am snug as a bug in a rug in this! No need for a jersey underneath so just wear a base layer.
Lets talk gloves – it doesn’t take long to swap winter fingerless gloves for full fingered gloves and both my husband and I have tried many but our favourites are from Endura (FS260 Pro Nemo Glove), they are made from a stretchy waterproof neoprene material with a cosy lining and also have a reflective trim and deep cuff, which is great as it means no exposed skin in the cold weather.
The headband I usually wear is also by Endura (Thermo headband), it provides insulation, is water repellent and fits nice and snug under your helmet.
I did borrow my husbands Rapha hat yesterday and wow it gets a massive thumbs up from me! It is a deep winter hat that is extremely breathable in very cold conditions, covers the ears and neck and sits under the helmet, the front panel and peak are made from windproof and water-resistant fabric, lined with merino wool, and I will be buying one of these for myself asap – not cheap but in the sale at the moment and if you are planning on riding through the winter it will be worth every penny!
I have some socks from Castelli that I don’t wear in the summer as they are too warm but perfect in winter and made from merino wool.
Shoe covers are essential in winter weather (nothing worse than cold, wet feet).
The final thing I add is a buff. I have many from previous events and this is so versatile – whether it is worn on the head or neck – I put mine around my neck as an added layer.

The pieces I mention from my Romford CC club kit are all made by Bioracer. Really good quality kit, comfortable, durable and absolutely worth the money – you may recognise the name from national teams such as Team Belgium. As well as being custom kit there are panels that are made with pixel technology giving maximum visibility in the dark and the inside of the tights is lined with a brushed fleece material. They are all also windproof and water resistant (by water resistant the water literally beads and rolls straight off)! Below I have taken a pic with the flash on my phone to show some of the pixel technology – not quite the same as on the roads but still gives the idea.

During winter it is darker in the mornings and earlier in the evenings so lights are essential – be safe, be seen. There are many options of lights to use though I can recommend both Lezyne and Cateye.

I ride Continental Four Seasons tyres so use the same all year round so don’t change in winter months though if you run summer tyres you should probably look to change those to something a bit more suitable for the cold and wet winter months.

Happy winter riding!

Category: Fitness

Honest post – having a crisis of confidence

I debated writing this but it’s not always sunshine and roses and that’s ok so figured why not?

I suffered an injury to my knee end of September and have not been right since. It was no major incident when it actually happened, in fact quite underwhelming and almost a bit of a boring story. Long and short is that following an MRI it was found to be an injury through previous trauma (though I don’t recall anything happening).

Anyway it put me out of action for a few weeks and anyone who regularly trains to go to nothing feels completely alien! I adapted though and found things I could do without having to put any weight on my knee like weights and arms and ab workouts – where there’s a will there’s a way.

When I felt able to I started to take part in events again but was super sensible and skipped any obstacles that may cause pain or aggravate my knee.

I’ve been on the bike a couple of times and apart from a few twinges nothing to report there though not tried hills and that may be a different story altogether. I have attended a few spin classes though told the instructor about the injury and again was sensible.

I’ve also tried to run again – I’m not the best runner at all but this is like going back to scratch. My knee is not loving it and it in turn makes a very grumpy Lisa!

I should note I’ve never really been injured before so this whole waiting to rest and recover is not something that I am good at – I’m way too impatient! Since the injury I’ve been careful but that in turn seems to have developed this very strange lack of self confidence. I did not anticipate an injury to result in such a crisis of confidence. Is that normal? Having never been through this before I don’t know?

Some obstacles I’ve done numerous times before I’m now scared of doing, I seem to be unable to will myself to move on monkey bars and when I do I am not all that successful.

I was scared to get back on my bike in case something happened again even though I know it was not the bike that caused it and doctors said my knee could have gone at any time. I’m wondering when to try some hills in case that makes it worse?

I recently visited Ultimate Ninja with friends Emma and Dave and left feeling totally deflated, not because it’s not awesome, because it is, but because I was just a bit useless. I will admit I had a little cry then (you can laugh, they were tears filled with self pity – hardly first world problems in the scheme of things I know). My friend Emma had the idea of visiting a park with money bars etc and I did them and we had fun and that put a smile back on my face!

I’m lucky to be surrounded by lots of people willing to help, offer advice and support and who are patient! And as I said before where there’s a will there’s a way.

So here is my plan:

Start a couch to 10k running plan to slowly build up strength in my knee and get some running fitness back.
My husband (benefit of him being an awesome cycling coach) will write me a plan for the turbo trainer to follow and again build up the strength and endurance.
Continue working out with the best PT (and friend) Emma who is like gold dust and helping me get back to where I was and better and also my muddy partner in crime!
Continue attending the ladies only OCR class at Nuclear Wild Forest Gym for hints, tips, experience and practice on some obstacles with the awesome Tracey.
Attend the PT Barn family weekend and conquer some fears – Coach Scotty is amazing and his tips (including breaking down the obstacles) are invaluable!

In the meantime if anyone does find my self-confidence can you send it back?

Category: OCR

My Muddy Weekend

This weekend I spent the majority of my time covered in mud and it was amazing!

Saturday saw me attend Nuclear Fallout 12k – the final event in the season for Nuclear, always my favourite and it didn’t disappoint. It was also the first of the Nuclear Challenge Cup, a competitive wave seeing the best racers compete for qualifying slots in the results. As we arrived we were able to see Conor Hancock and Tristan Steed finish and claim first and second place respectively. That was pretty amazing as these guys are just awesome to watch.

Absolutely chuffed for my friend Andy who I’ve been nagging to try Nuclear for ages and he finally did and came second in his age so qualified for the World Champs next year – which Nuclear are hosting!

I was completing Fallout with my muddy buddies Emma and Laura and we take part to have fun. I was a little nervous given my recent knee injury, Laura suffers with a bad back and Emma hurt her hip getting over a wall about half way round so we really were like the walking wounded.

It was muddy and it was cold but it was awesome and I would recommend to anyone. There were some new obstacles and differences with previous ones too – this is something I love about Nuclear, they are always changing it up and loved the climbing wall to get on the death slide!

Category: Events, Running

Starting a new parkrun – we need your help!

We are fortunate to have a number of inspiring people around us, people who have helped us in our fitness journeys and continue to support and encourage us.

There are a number of amazing programmes and events that help to get people of all ages and abilities involved in some form of physical activity and we are keen to support these wherever we can.

One such initiative that has turned into a global success is parkrun.

parkrun are free weekly timed 5km events in local parks. They start at 9am on Saturday mornings each week in parks up and down the uk as well as overseas, and are a great way of getting local communities active. With clearly marked routes, helpful volunteers, back markers (no one finishes last) and a family friendly atmosphere parkrun really is a great way to start the weekend.

We both enjoy participating in local parkrun events and so Helen from 1 Vision 2 Girls decided to look into what would be involved in holding one in the park most local to us – Hornchurch Country Park.

When she asked me to work on this as a project with her of course I said yes. We are both passionate about helping people get involved in physical activity and enjoying exercise and the outdoors, how better to do this than to arrange a free weekly local event as encouragement.

We have identified a great 1 lap 5km route through Hornchurch Country Park (subject to final approval) and can’t wait to be able to launch our parkrun event.

Therefore we are now quite a way along our journey to getting this organised and we now need to gain the funding for the start up costs.

Start up costs amount to £3,000 and are a one off cost as the ongoing management and organisation is all done by volunteers, so once it’s set up and running (literally) it is completely self supporting.

We have been approved as a potential community project for Aviva and this is where we need your help. We need people to vote for our project to enable us to receive the funding we need to turn this dream into a reality and help people from around our local area to enjoy the many benefits of a local parkrun.

Please vote for us via this link and help us bring parkrun to Hornchurch Country Park!

https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/project/view/17-2622

Once you have registered you have 10 votes and we would really appreciate if you could share with all your friends, family and colleagues to help us gain some much needed support for this project!

Thanks in advance, fingers crossed we can make this a great local success.

Lisa and Helen x

Category: OCR

Wild Forest Obstacle Activity Centre

You will have seen many many posts from me about OCR and many more about Nuclear Races. During their Rush and Fallout events, and also taster sessions the routes often go through the Wild Forest Obstacle Activity Centre. And yet outside of the events I had never been.

On Saturday I was signed up for my induction and was going with my friend Emma. For some reason, despite loving going to Nuclear, I woke up that morning feeling incredibly nervous. I have an injury and knew there were some things I would have to miss or take it easy on but as it was an induction didn’t think this would be too much of an issue. Then I started thinking what if everyone else was amazing and I am not. Total crisis of confidence.

Then I found out a friend Chris from Nuclear was taking the session and it made me feel better knowing that I would have a friendly face there. Plus my friend Emma doesn’t drive so I had to go. I don’t know what I was worrying about as I got there, felt right at home and Chris was amazing.

The intention of the induction is to go round the course with an instructor who provides advice on all the obstacles and explains the centre. Once you have your induction you are then able to visit the centre to train in future.

The centre has loads to offer including a 2.7km run with obstacles, a 346m jump course with 32 different jumps that is great practice for when you are taking part at Nuclear as it makes great use of the natural terrain that includes lots of ditches and jumps.

There are also running trails that are clearly marked set within the forest and a large section for core and weight work and hanging/balance style obstacles.

Following our induction Emma and I spent more time at the centre going back over every obstacle and following the trail sections. We were lucky to bump into Tracey who also works at Nuclear as she was training as well as some members of Nuclear Phoenix (Nuclear Races Pro OCR team). Everyone is so friendly and so willing to give advice, lend a hand and help out. There is no feeling of worrying you are not good enough and as I have learned before from sessions with Coach Scotty at The PT Barn the advice given is invaluable and with simple techniques you are able to make an obstacle more achievable.

I am thinking about what I want to achieve in 2018 already and I know that it will involve more time at both the PT Barn and Wild Forest working on technique and building confidence.

If you are training for an obstacle race why not head down to Nuclear and check their facilities out.

Word of warning – if you do the log carry then try not to drop the log on your foot as you finish like I did! Busy filming for my blog and carrying a log do not go hand in hand!

Category: Events, OCR

Survival Race

I was recently tagged on Facebook by a group I am in called Mudd Queens and was the winner of a competition. I had won two tickets to a new obstacle run called Survival at Betteshanger Park in Kent. It was a 6km run with over 40 obstacles.

When I won this I was not injured and I knew that taking part in an OCR would be silly with my knee injury but I had spoken with my friend who was having the second ticket and said I could walk round and miss any obstacles that would effect my knee in any way. Not exactly the way you go into an obstacle run but I am a terrible patient, do not practice what I preach and I was bored from being stuck in the house for over a week and then hobbling around for the second week. I had gone from training six days a week to doing nothing and I needed to get out.

So on Saturday morning we set off and arrived at the park ready to start. As I mentioned it is the first time this event has taken place and so we had no idea what to expect with no previous reviews or pics to go by.

Registration was a bit of an issue with a huge queue that didn’t move very quickly. When signing up you had to select a wave time but because of the delay they were calling numbers and allowing people to start at different times so although there was a delay in starting for most there was no issue in moving to a later wave time.

To start you climbed over a large bale of hay and took part in a group warm up. The last exercise was a piggy back race but then you were on the course and off. The first obstacle was quite soon into the course so there was some congestion, which is sometimes necessary for safety as was the case in this instance, climbing up and over a scaffolding a-frame. There was yellow grip on the poles. Unfortunately for me my nemesis is anything that requires going up and over and so in my awkward position to get down without freaking out I managed to scrape my arm on every piece of yellow grip – oops!

The run made good use of the park, which was lovely and were it not so far away I would absolutely return – for those of you with this on your door step I am jealous, it looks lovely. I prefer runs that take in natural terrain by far more than urban courses. We ran through a storm drain and through forest and there was a swim across a lake. The event was in conjunction with the park and MY/PT and they have a military fitness course within the park which was included in the route.

Other obstacles included trenches, pits, rope regain, tyre pits, tranazium, slide and steep hill ascents and descents.

Events like these require volunteer marshals and most people forget the importance of this role. I understand that some marshals had not turned up to the event, which is out of the control of the event organisers though I think some of the hill ascents and descents really should have had marshals as opposed to a box jump that could have been tackled unaided.

I had a lot of fun and laughs with my friend on this and although I had to skip some obstacles due to my knee we completed and managed to jog more than walk, which felt like a slight achievement for this hop-a-long at the moment. As the pic shows I’m having a blast – not just an escaped mental patient as it also looks!

It is also the first obstacle run where I have had to climb up and into a skip filled with ……………………………………………….lettuce leaves. That was slightly odd and my god did it stink! You know if you have lettuce in your fridge and it goes off and you open the fridge door and know instantly that something has died in there well imagine a skip filled with it – new perfume anyone?

Definitely good for newbies too with nothing too daunting on the course!

Category: Events, OCR

Spartan Beast (from the other side too)

I’ve been blogging and adding posts on my social media in the run up to Spartan Beast at the weekend. I completed my trifecta last year and this would have been my fifth Spartan event. Sadly due to injury I could not take part in the event at the weekend but as I had two friends taking part I decided to go along and play the role of cheer leader for the day.

Aside from it being bittersweet I had a great day and it was interesting to see the event from the other side as opposed to being a participant in one of the races – it took me back to when my husband used to do obstacle runs and I was there for him.

Neither of my two friends, Emma and Laura, had taken part in a Spartan event before and it was me that had convinced them both to sign up so it was slightly ironic that I was the one not to be taking part though I was very pleased they would be completing it together.

We’d hit some traffic as we neared the event location and unfortunately missed the start wave they were in but it was not an issue to move into the later wave.

After the usual intro from Spartan Phil the wave was off and the girls waved as they passed me and their nerves seemed to have changed to excitement to the run ahead.

It was then I realised I had a long wait in store!

I actually bumped into a fellow Mudd Queen who I follow on Instagram and so after some quick introductions we had a wander around the event village together.

A lot of people were late due to the traffic and so the event was short some of the marshals so I volunteered to help and found myself on the Juniors course for the bucket carry.

I love that Spartan put on a kids course so they can get involved and the ages of those that take part are so varied from very small kids to teenagers and they get to take part in something similar to what some of them see their parents doing. It’s also great to see the kids out here being active rather than just stuck in front of a tv or playing computer games.

I was also in a position that I was next to the final few obstacles for the adult course and got to see the elite wave coming back in which was amazing. I run for fun. I’m not particularly fast and I’m not particularly great at the obstacles but I give everything a good go and find OCR so inclusive that there’s always a helping hand and I love it for that. I love that these events are suitable for new obstacle runners, those that complete and elites alike. Seeing those that race at a competitive level is brilliant and I managed to see those who ended up in the podium finish – very impressive.

After my marshal duty was complete I headed over to the rig which was the first obstacle back in the event village and waited for my friends to return and when they did they both had huge smiles on their faces (as well as a lot of mud).

This meant I got to see them on the rig, spear throw, balance beam, traverse wall, 8 foot walls and fire jump before completing the Spartan Beast and getting their well earned medal (and beer).

And they had loved it and were happy to announce that they were now both Spartan’s! We also saw a friend Andy who had recently been to the European champs in Andorra and had completed again in under three hours.

The highlight for Laura was completing an obstacle and ringing a bell – she entered the event village exclaiming that she’d rung a bell with the biggest smile on her face shortly before absolutely nailing the spear throw. For Emma the highlight was completing the bender obstacle – for someone so small she’s so strong.

Before they had started this event I had briefed them on the obstacles they would encounter and had said the bucket carry for me was probably the worst. It’s a simple obstacle where you get a large bucket that you have to fill with stones and then carry over a distance (that feels like forever) though there are no handles and you cannot carry on your shoulder or head and it’s awkward and your hands will burn! Both Emma and Laura agreed and said that adding in a ditch in the middle of it seemed particularly mean.

They also both found the barbed wire crawl fun and I like me they were lucky to come out without any tears to their clothes!

More positives were the marshals – often marshals can make or break an event and so positive marshals are a great asset to an event and Spartan had them in full force. The bananas at the water stops were a good idea being just enough for a boost without being heavy or overly sweet. Neither found the obstacles intimidating and said it meant most people just got on with it without lots of hesitation.

They did find there was a lot of queueing and were slightly concerned at one point that there was a swarm of wasps chasing them but then realised it was the sound from a drone ha ha. They found the floor to run on good as it was springy although Emma did liken it to something you see in a horror film where you fall through and end in a dungeon – don’t worry though there was no dungeon in the making of these Spartan’s just a lot of burpees!

When you fail at an obstacle at a Spartan event you get a 30 burpee penalty and by the end of an event it’s safe to say most people believe that burpees suck! It was funny because whenever I saw them doing burpees in the event village and asked how many they had left Laura always had 3 – the strangest thing!