Base Training

Today I've spent 2 hours at awesome BOOM! Cycle in Shoreditch, being drilled by ex-pro cyclist Mark and semi-pro cyclist Martin. The first hour Martin took us through an hour of base training (read more here). Now on the paper it sounds easy, base training, but in reality - not so much! You'd think it's easy holding back and staying in the aerobic zone but, as Martin so well pointed out, it takes almost as much discipline to hold oneself back as it does to push oneself hard.  It's hard to do on your own, or to find places where you can find classes that focuses on base training. Today we dedicated the first hour to aerobic endurance, spending an hour firmly working with 70-80% of maximum heart rate. The second hour Mark took us through four climbs and four 'burns' where we pushed the anaerobic threshold and we all left the studio whipped into (slightly) better shape.

My ow performance? Well, considering how much I've asked of my body the last 6 days, I'm very pleased. The base training hour felt great and most of the second hour too. I might not have had as much 'juice' in my legs as I'd wanted to but I feel very satisfied with my efforts.

Now I'm recovering in the sofa, watching rubbish telly and eating all the food. Maybe not all the food, but a lot. Today's recommendation from yours truly is the Dark Chocolate dessert from Alpro - simply delicious!

Fat Burner Masterclass

Today I was invited to a Fat Burner Masterclass by the lovely people at BOOM! Cycle in Shoreditch. BOOM! runs plenty of specialty classes, from Performance and Fat Burning Masterclasses to Three Hour Sessions and Hip Hop Cycle, but this one was slightly special as it was being filmed by the BBC as a part of a series they're doing about health, fitness, the weightloss industry, the importance of being skinny and so on. The class was run by Mark Clarke, a previous elite cyclist who's gone via a career in the City back to personal training and creating two certified fitness industry training courses.