A chap called Jon, who also runs a blog called My Big Fat Geek Running, emailed me just before the launch of the BMF iPhone app, My Fitness Instructor. His blog is a cross between losing weight and promoting the iPhone app, which launched on Friday 26th March. Jon kindly offered me a chance to review it.

My Fitness Instructor is a premium application that allows you to fit your own little BMF instructor right in your pocket. Instead of paying the price of a gym membership every month, you can splash out £5.99 and choose when and where you do your own workouts.

Step 1. Set the duration of the workout (maximum of 2 hours – yeah right!)

Step 2. Set the intensity (low, medium or high)

Step 3. Choose the focus of your workout (cardio, muscular or both)

…and that’s it! The little Australian instructor (Jim Preece) will start giving you instructions on what to do through your headphones. And I have to say that the exercises are very well described. You’ll be taken through a warm up, making sure that the body goes through the full range of movement, and then guided through the exercises. If you don’t quite understand the instructions you can view little exercise demonstrations as you progress. These little videos are very important as the app claims to have 5,000,000 combinations of workouts at its arsenal, so you never know what exercise you’ll end up doing.

My Fitness Instructor also has a built-in fitness test setting. Remember the bleep tests you did at school? Running between two markers 20 metres apart before the bleep sounds until you can no longer keep up? Well this is included, which I think is a fantastic little feature. Doing one of these each week as you are training for a race will give you a great idea of your stamina. Plus, it is incredibly satisfying to be able to see your improvements each week. The results of the bleep tests can be stored in the app.

Not a bad little tool for the price of a couple of beers (which you’ll work off after one session with this thing).

The downsides:

• You can’t preview the exercises.
  If you’re a beginner like me, you’ll know none of the exercises that the instructor is explaining to you (apart from the obvious ones like press ups). As the exercises become more complicated, you’ll have to stop to watch a video. This can be annoying as you normally won’t want to break your stride. Being able to learn the exercises by previewing a video before hand would have been nice (which you can’t do).
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• You can’t invert the videos.
  This sounds like a small point and one hell of a nag (which it is really). But the videos will only show in one direction, which means that you have to wear your iPod/iPhone on your right arm. I’ve always worn my mp3 player on the left arm so it felt uncomfortable. I know, boo hoo for me.
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• You can’t be self-conscious.
  Let’s face it. You’re running around a park, jumping up and down like a madman possessed. When you’re with lots of other people it’s easier to feel less self-conscious. But on your own at night, swinging your arms around in huge circles as fast as you can, or doing imaginary breast-stokes through the air, you might feel a little silly. But Jon begs to differ…

After some warm up stuff, we got stuck in. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel that self-conscious jogging and leaping around in the park on my own.
Jon, Big Fat Geek Running

My girlfriend has just signed up to the BMF classes so we’ll have a competition. Whoever has the best looking abs after a month will be the winner. The real thing versus the virtual… thing. You can buy My Fitness Instructor from the app store here.

Sir Win A Lot

The man himself has kindly offered to give away a copy of the My Fitness Instructor app to three lucky Sir Jog A Lot readers. To win your copy either click this link to tweet about the competition or leave me a comment below!

Again, I will, in no way, look upon entries more favourably if they also leave a £2 donation to my London Marathon charity, the Lymphoma Association. ;-)

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED

*Winners will be contacted either by email or Twitter and announced on 13th April. Your email address will in no way be distributed to third parties. Entry to UK residents only.

I knew full well that I was going to start training for the London Marathon in January. So, preparing to beg a little, I asked for a GPS running watch for Christmas. I knew instantly which make I wanted. Garmin seems to have the market cornered on this type of technology. Sure there are plenty of sat nav systems out there for your car. But trying to get one small enough to fit on your wrist is a challenge.

Having seen a fellow runner’s Garmin, I knew what I wanted my watch to do. I wanted a breakdown of my runs after I’d been on them. So, the distance I’d travelled, the route I took, the time I ran it in and, if possible, my split times.

I initially looked at the Garmin Forerunner 305. The price was a little lower than the latest model and it did everything I wanted it to. But when Santa went to get it for me, he must have been worried about my street cred. The watch is apparently quite large; not dissimilar to having a calculator strapped to your wrist.

So there it was, my new Garmin Forerunner 405. In the box was the watch, a heart rate monitor, a USB ‘ANT Stick’ and a charging clip. The watch still looked quite bulky to me and there’s an extended portion to the south of the face that makes the watch quite lengthy before the flexible strap allows it to curl around your wrist. But it is by no means restrictive and, when you learn that that this is designed so that the antenna is constantly pointing up at the sky to get better satellite reception, you quickly forgive the shape.

The fun stuff happens on your first run. Once you’ve acquired your satellites, hit the start button and you’re off. You can then view your progress in one of three ways:

1. With your time, pace and distance all on one screen.
2. With your current heart rate.
3. Or with your progress against a virtual partner.

And that’s the beauty of this watch. Say you want to run the marathon in under 4 hours (a little over 9 minutes a mile). Simply set your virtual partner to run at 9 minute miles and go. The watch will tell you if you are behind or ahead of your little running partner so you can judge whether to speed up or if you can ease off a bit. Who needs a man with a balloon on his back?!

Once you’re back (and you’ve installed the ‘ANT Stick’) just set your watch down next to your computer and watch it instantly transfer your run to your computer without you even pressing a button. It then displays your run using Google Maps, shows you how far it was, how many calories you’ve burned, your elevation gain and your mile split times. Check out this 15-miler I ran with the watch on. I didn’t use the heart rate monitor as I find that I can’t get the size quite right and it restricts my breathing.

I love the mapping function. I went out for a long run one morning and stupidly had a fry up before I left. You can actually see on the map the moment I couldn’t run any more and was stranded 4 miles from home! Click here for the ‘fry-up run‘. I also turned the watch on for 10 minutes during a 5-a-side football game. I could win some abstract art competition with that (hit ‘satellite’ above the map to see an aerial view)!

The downsides? Well I’m lucky that my birthday falls right next to Christmas. The watch was a joint birthday and Christmas present because of the price. A snip at RRP £259.99.

Long sleeve tops are another problem. Most menu functions are activated using a touch-sensitive bezel and a sweaty top brushing over the controls can change a few settings annoyingly easily. Also, if you’re a city runner, tall buildings can affect the accuracy of the watch. You can see in this run where I miraculously walked on water around the docks at Canary Wharf. To be fair, this is an area with three of the tallest buildings in the country so some disruption is to be expected.

All foibles aside, I couldn’t live without this watch now. It’s been fairly crucial in my marathon training and I’m getting some pretty decent times in my marathon training because I’m pushing myself a little bit further. 4 hours 45 minutes to beat this year. Lets see if this watch can help me do it.

Nothing will prepare you for the first time you lose a toenail because you forgot to trim them before a long run. Or for the number of blisters your feet can accumulate in an hour. I actually can not get rid of one of my blisters, which I now affectionately refer to as the ‘grape’. Apologies to those who are eating while reading this.

There are three ways to combat blisters.

1. Run so hard and so often that your feet callous up to the texture of sand paper.
2. Buy a big pack of sterilised needles and get popping.
3. Wear the correct socks for you.

If you’ve seen that scene from Run Fat Boy Run then my guess is you’ll want to avoid option 2. So professional socks it is! Luckily our friends at Fitness Footwear sent me a new pair of sports socks to try out.

The first thing to get into your head when buying running socks is that a really good pair will come in proper sizes so make sure you know your current shoe size before buying. The next is material. Check the label. If the socks are made from cotton then stay well away. Cotton, once wet, takes forever to dry out.

My usual socks, the WrightSock Running Crew are made from a material that wicks away moisture well. They also have a double-layer system that prevents blisters. Blisters are caused when there is friction between the two layers of your skin (the epidermis and dermis) and moisture builds between these two layers. My socks have an extra thin layer that slides around so that your skin doesn’t. The downside? They cost a bloody fortune.

So, for the last few months I’ve tried out the cheaper model that Fitness Footwear provided, the North Face Lightweight Running Sock. They don’t have a double-layer but they are made from Spandex and are designed to keep my feet dry as much as possible. They’re also a very good fit, which minimises the risk of any material bunching up and making your run uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, since using the socks I’ve accumulated more blisters than before. So either my feet are too sweaty or it’s time for a new pair of shoes.

Herein lies the dilemma. When training for a marathon, most will accomplish 5 runs a week. So it’s either put your washing on every day or spend over £50 to stock up on enough professional running socks to last you the week!

Another lovely PR got in touch and has provided me with a pair of Nike LunarGlides to test out. Now I’m a big fan of Nike’s work. Their website that allows you to custom design your own trainers is awesome (that’s right, you can be just like Michael Jordon). I also own a pair of Nike 90 football boots which I have scored many a (own) goal in. But I’m afraid, this time, Nike get a C+ from me. Could do better.

Like a pair of football boots, the LunarGlides only seem to come in dark colours*. Now you may disagree, but I don’t associate dark trainers with a jog-loving athlete. I associate dark trainers with the kind of person that likes to play music loudly from a mobile phone at the back of a bus.

P.S. Apologies if you thought this review was going to judge comfort, width and durability.

All superficiality aside though, for a shoe that costs £80 I’m surprised at how cheap the LunarGlides feel. The fabric around the toes feels like felt and the underside of the tongue and heel resembles beach towel. The reason for this is weight loss. The trainers are very light for how bulky they look. The designer of this shoe has also focused very hard on the soles, which incorporate something called ‘Dynamic Support’.

The advantage of having a ‘Dynamic Support‘ sole (patent pending) is that these trainers are designed to suit just about anybody. It is designed to respond to each step as the ‘LunarLite foam core that sits within a firmer foam carriage and features a rear-foot wedge, provides stability when needed’.

Fancy! Well what this translates to is that if you’re a neutral runner, these shoes will be perfect. But unfortunately you can’t have the best of both worlds and being an overpronator I was left with quite a few blisters. My advice is if you have an unusual running gait then try a more specialised shoe.

The LunarGlide+, like most good sports trainers, has a removable sole. But in this case it is to allow access to the gap underneath for the Nike+ sensor, allowing you to sync up your run with your ipod and play your ‘power song’ at the right moment (an extra £19).

I feel I’ve been a little harsh about these trainers as on the feet of the right person they are an ideal running shoe (a friend of mine owns a pair and swears by them). I have actually found a use for them though. On a dark 5-a-side football pitch, the bright stripe of the sole is a great target for your team mates to pass to!

* The LunarGlide+ have a specific design for women as they run differently to men. An added bonus is that the women’s version comes in white!

There are 9 different events to choose from on the day. Obviously the main event is a full marathon, but also available to participate in is a quarter marathon, 10km walk, ‘mini’ races for children and a handcyles half marathon. However, the most popular distance (with over 3000 more entrants than the full marathon) is the half marathon.

The starting point is a 20 minute train journey away from the finish line, in La Tour-de-Peilz, a cool 13.1 miles away. Handily, your running number is your train fare, but the train runs almost side-by-side with the running route, painfully showing you just how far you have to run to reach the finish line back in Lausanne.

1:30 pacer

The standard of runners is very high in Switzerland. The fastest time in 2009 was a 1:05:58. Brilliantly, this means that there are pacers everywhere. These athletes, with coloured balloons strapped to their backs, position themselves at the correct starting points and run at the right pace, so that if you follow them you will match the time written on their balloon. I followed the purple 2:00 balloon (having not trained nearly enough and feeling very out of my depth). I didn’t see a balloon with a pace slower than 2:10 on the day, which goes to show the calibre of the runners there.

The actual race was fantastic. The road back to Lausanne follows the coast line of Lake Geneva. With the lake on your left the entire journey, you pass through some incredible countryside. However, this does mean that the level of support is very sparse. While you do pass through a couple of small towns, there aren’t many people around to cheer you on until the last half mile. This race is the first that I have run with headphones. Obviously, at one point an ambulance used the route, which I of course did not hear and was pushed to the side of the road by an angry Swiss man. Luckily, my French wasn’t good enough to understand the profanities being hurled my way.

Drink stations were frequent and the road was wide enough to allow a good spread of runners. It was quite congested at the start and around the pace setters, but after the half-way mark the congestion had thinned out. The course did seem to be a constant uphill climb, albeit not very steep.

I crossed the finish line (outside the Olympic Museum in Lausanne) after passing the 2 hour pace setter, in a time of 1:58:13 (a personal best for me). Considering I had only really trained by doing one long run each weekend for the previous month, I was very pleased. The cool weather and clean air must have played a part!

The Lausanne Half Marathon is a very well organised event. It costs around £30 to enter and for the number of people participating the facilities are impressive (ample toilets, free pasta party, an expo, good quality medal and a courier system to transport your belongings to the finish line).

You can enter here for next year but if you do I have three pieces of advice for you:

1. Learn how to convert kilometres to miles. Being a European country, all distance markers are in kilometres and I was forced to do some tough maths in my head to work out if I was going at the right pace to finish in a good time.
2. At the finish, make sure you park your car at the bottom of the hill. Lausanne is full of incredibly steep hills and walking up them at the end of a 13-mile run is not recommended.
3. Hang around a little at the end. If the podium frees up enough you can get some great pictures!

My two running buddies, Gemma and Matt

Until the Sir Jog A Lot blog takes off and we can afford to employ writers with different running styles, I’m afraid that we’re only going to be able to review trainers designed for over-pronators (runners who land on the outside of the foot). The PUMA Complete Velosis range are exactly that.

The Complete Velosis (PUMA’s flagship running shoe of 2009) technically fall into the neutral runner category (runners that land flat-footed) but the extra soft rubber padding on the outside of the heel and across the sole to the little toe would suit an over-pronating style well. I’ve never worn a shoe quite like it. The padding around the ankles is half an inch thick, leaving hardly any room for wiggle or the dreaded (and embarrassing) ankle roll. It takes some getting used to, but the sensation is that your foot is locked securely in position.

The trainers are pretty striking when you open the box. I’m fairly picky when choosing trainers. Being superficial (and proud of it), I tend to pick trainers off the shelf based solely on how they look and I’m seldom blown away by most designs. But I have to say I absolutely love the design. The trainers look like a high-tech gadget rather than a running shoe; made up of loads of tiny parts that look as though they’ve been assembled with a soldering iron! The Puma stripe was so reflective that I practically blinded a family member after they caught a glimpse of the sun.

After a few road tests, however, a few flaws began to shine through. I took the trainers on holiday to Spain, where I ran on a mixture of concrete and dirt tracks. The cushioning works well on concrete, giving a good bounce. But when running off road I was made to work a bit harder; the soft cushioning around the heel seemed to be slightly too much. It’s a big shoe and you might feel weighed down in them.

Also, Puma boasts that the trainers have a wide platform to boost stability. But this leaves a lot of room around the toes and if you have thin feet (like me) then your feet can spin on the heel, leaving your toes slipping from right to left. After about 10k or so, I found that my big toe was hanging over the edge of the sole and trying to push out of the material on the side. This left me with blisters.

There’s no doubt thought that these trainers will last you a long time, which might justify the £90 price tag. If you can, try and find an outlet that will allow you to test the PUMA Complete Velosis out on a treadmill before you buy them. Make sure that you’re comfortable with the gripping sensation around the ankle and rock your feet on your heel to check that there’s not too much width around your toes.

Sir Win A Lot

You can be in with a chance of winning a pair of PUMA Complete Velosis.

You can enter in one of two ways. Either…

1. Post a message on Twitter by clicking this link or…
2. Answer the following question:

What type of animal is a PUMA?

A. Bat

B. Rat

C. Cat

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED

*Winners will be contacted either by email or Twitter and announced on 25th September. Your email address will in no way be distributed to third parties.

It’s the same story for anyone with a gym membership. You have the tools around you to get fitter but if you workout on your own are you really going to push yourself that little bit further? You know you’d achieve much better results if you had a personal trainer, but after a little research you find that your bank balance will be the only thing getting a workout!

This weekend I attended a class that poses a possible solution to the problem. Each Saturday (or most Saturdays) when I begin my early morning run in Greenwich Park, I’ll pass a bunch of people wearing coloured bibs, usually led by a burly bloke in camouflaged trousers shouting and screaming. These are the British Military Fitness classes.

The British Military Fitness (BMF) classes are the UK’s leading outdoor fitness provider. They are led by a qualified instructor (all of whom have a military background) and each class consists of a one-hour session of exercises that will push you to your absolute limits.

When I turned up at 9am to start the class on Saturday morning I had a chat with one of the instructors about my basic level of fitness. I explained that I’d run the marathon back in April and that I was a regular gym goer. This turned out to be an error as he threw me straight into the intermediate class. The classes are broken up into the groups; beginner (blue bibs), intermediate (red bibs) and advanced (green bibs).

Donning my red bib, we immediately started off with a 10-minute warm up and jogged off into Greenwich park. This was focused on getting the heart rate up and consisted of plenty of running exercises (short sharp bursts of speed with rapid changes in direction) and a lot of movement (designed to get the muscles adequately stretched). Because the group was so large (roughly 40 people) we were split up into two. I later found out that the instructors had decided the groups based on what they had seen from you in the warm-ups and tiered them slightly. Apparently I was lower-tier material, which was probably about right.

Our group was led off further around the park, stopping at different points to perform a batch of exercises before moving on. These exercises are largely based on building your core muscle groups. All the instructors have to work with is the park and your body. There are no weights or special tools so the exercises use your own body-weight against you. There were plenty of press-ups, sit-ups and squat exercises during the course of the hour.

One of the best elements of the class is the camaraderie between those attending. Most people (especially the new starters like myself) were initially quite quiet and timid. This really didn’t last long as you’re thrown into exercises with partners. Everyone there was fantastic. I had 5 or 6 different partners throughout the course of the hour and each one of the them was vigorous and encouraging. Considering they were strangers this was incredibly refreshing, especially in a city where the only words you’ll utter to someone you don’t know are “2 pints of lager please”.

They do try to pair you off with someone of similar size and weight. During one exercise we were required to push against one another in an effort to force your opponent over an imaginary line between you. The chap I was paired off with gave me a little wink, said “I’m a rugby player”, dug his heels in and launched me backwards! I reckon I’ll ‘av him after a few more classes.

Overall these classes are an excellent way of staying in shape. Coupled with a running schedule, the BMF would be an ideal way of training for an upcoming race and, based on how I’m feeling today (three days after the class), I’d imagine you’d shed some serious pounds. For the price of a gym membership you can attend these classes as many times a week as you’d like. I’d honestly recommend these classes to anyone. Everyone is incredibly friendly (a few members took me out for a coffee afterwards) and I was in no way made to feel intimidated. Your first class is free and there’s no obligation to sign up if it’s not for you.

The only negative feedback I can report from the day is the lack of water breaks. It was pretty warm on the weekend and we only stopped twice for a quick gulp of water. Considering the intensity of the workout, I didn’t feel that this was enough. Also, I’m not sure I’d have enjoyed the session if the weather hadn’t been so good. Winter is only around the corner…

Sir Win A Lot

Like what you’ve heard? Well the team at British Military Fitness are kindly giving away one month’s free membership to the BMF classes to 5 lucky SJAL readers! The courses are based all over the UK and, if you’re a winner*, you can select any BMF venue you’d like to attend.

You can enter in one of two ways. Either…

1. Post a message on Twitter by clicking this link or…
2. Answer the following question:

Which BMF class was I put in during my introductory session?

A. Beginner

B. Intermediate

C. Advanced

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED

*Winners will be contacted either by email or Twitter and announced on 1st September. Your email address will in no way be distributed to third parties.

On the rare occasion that you actually spot a shirt that hugs the biceps and doesn’t flap around in the air conditioning from your local gym then go over, shake that person’s hand and ask them if they’d like a running partner. The likelihood is that this person has finished the JPMorgan CC in under 24 minutes.

Every year business moguls in their thousands turn up to one of their city’s finest parks to run the JPMorgan Corporate Challenge, an event now over 30 years old and so popular that it boasts nearly a quarter of a million entrants each year across the globe. Part of its popularity is probably down to the length of the race; a manageable 3.5 miles. This gives even the hardest working city trader time to put down his or her Blackberry a couple of times a week to train.

If you’re lucky enough to get a place then the first question you’ll be asked is whether or not you think you can run 3.5 miles in under 21 minutes. If you think you can then you’ll be given a red sticker and, on arrival, you’ll be ushered to the front of the line to be given a relatively clear run to the finish. If you don’t then be prepared for an elbow-jousting scrap for one square-foot of asphalt at every other step.

The London event is hosted at the beautiful Battersea Park and is a utter schmooze-fest. If you’re a client of one of the corporate giants attending then you’ll be in for plastic glasses and private portaloos. If not, feel free to be intimidated by the size of another company’s hospitality tent and get in the queue for the sub-£5 million-a-year toilets.

It’s a very crowded race once you’ve managed to get over the start line so don’t be expecting to be beating any PBs. You’ll be lucky to get under a minute over your usual time (the London race actually ground to a halt during one bottle-necked corner). The atmosphere makes up for this though. Each year all companies compete in a t-shirt competition and this makes for an interesting read as you progress (this year’s London event was won by Tudor Capital). There’s also an award for the fastest ‘most senior executive’ and, as you can imagine, an incredible amount of money is raised for causes across the globe ($600,000 to charities and even more for not-for-profit organisations).

At the end you’ll get the fabled JPMCC t-shirt and if you’re quick enough, you’ll get one in your size! Wear it with pride.

At around £90 a pair of ASICS Gel DS 14′s are near the top end of the ASICS Gel range. To a layman the technical specs of these trainers won’t mean much; they are fitted with a space trustic, gilled mesh, solyte, durasponge and an impact guidance system. Maybe if ASICS hadn’t spent all that money registering patents the trainers might have come cheaper?

The DS 14′s are built for the mild over-pronator and (if you get the size right) fit like an absolute glove. If you have claustrophobic feet then go for half a size bigger than usual or choose another model. They are incredibly light when on and even to hold and I like the design. The version for women shows a little less black and a little more pink. These shoes boast a gender specific space trustic (changing the shape of the space around the arch of the foot) which accommodates the over-pronation more likely to be found with the female running style. Apparently it’s due to the larger hips…

As an over-pronator you’d expect to find plenty of (durasponge) cushioning with these trainers, but the DS 14′s also have a harder material on the outside edge of the foot, which normally tends to wear faster with an over-pronating style. This apparently grips better in the wet too.

Overall, the trainers perform very well, look great and are very comfortable. But for £90 I might have expected to see a little more extravagance with the design (possibly a flamboyantly designed heel or some titanium flugelbinders). Never mind…

Sir Win A Lot

Fancy winning a pair of these bad boys*? Thanks to the people at Fitness Footwear, Sir Jog A Lot is offering the chance to win a pair of ASICS Gel DS 14′s, worth £90, to one lucky reader and all you have to do is answer this question:

Which trainers did SJAL buy to train in and eventually run the London Marathon 2009?

A. ASICS Gel Foundation 8

B. ASICS Gel Speedstar 3

C. ASICS Gel 1140

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.
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