Saucony Kinvara II

Yes, I will admit to being a bit of a Saucony nut. However that's simply because every shoe Saucony make tend to be fantastic.

You would... or I would at least..

The next generation of Kinvara lightweight racing shoe arrived on the shelves around august time, so I've had time to try them out over a fairly long period. For many years; I have run in heavy, well supported training shoes. Let me tell you, the first time I ran with these I felt like I was barely wearing shoes at all. Weighing in at 215g they are certainly one of the lightest shoes on the market today. You may think that in saving so much weight that comfort might be compromised, that is not the case. These feel just as springy and cushioned as my previous, much heavier, shoes. The Kinvara's hold quite a hefty price tag (£80/$120), so I wouldn't recommend them as an entry level shoe. Although, for the experienced racer they would be ideal.

They will certainly serve me well for the imminent winter training.

Women's.

Note: As is a general trend in Saucony shoes, they fit quite narrow. This is perfect for my skinny feet, but you might want to keep that in mind if you have wider feet.

6 months later... google+!

Yeah.. so it's been a while.

Finally got round to google+.
I really like the layout, and the graphics give a much more polished feel than facebook. The whole 'circles' idea takes a bit of getting used to... However it is a really good concept. Sending pictures of yourself whilst "inebriated" to your boss is never going to end well!

As far as becoming more popular than facebook? I couldn't say. Even with google+'s superior features/layout, facebook is so well established it will take some doing. It's possible though.

If anyone out there wants to try it our for themselves use my invite link to get into the beta:

https://plus.google.com/i/6pZ79RZv1f8:C6KMBdLvEHw

In other news Mo Farah got gold and silver in the world championships.. #gomo!

No skiing :'(

Today is a sad day, I've just realised that i will not be able to get away to a ski resort this season.... mainly due to deadlines and just not being able to take time away. I love skiing so much i am generally depressed, it will be at least 9/10 months until I next go.

So my question to my loyal skiing (or dare i say it, boarding) followers, do you notice a significant skill loss after skipping a season? I have managed at least a days worth of skiing every season for quite a few years now. I'm hoping I my level of skill won't deteriorate too much.

All that I can do now is watch videos on youtube of what I'm missing:

Bike finished... Finally!

It's actually been done for a few weeks now, but i forgot to update the progress i made on the build in this blog. Whilst riding i've definitely noticed people staring at the machine beneath me, give a definite "Awww yeahhh" feeling.

So here's the finished thing:

Been on a few rides (nothing properly hard core until i'm confident it's not going to fall apart!)
Feels really good riding, air suspension has been adjusted and is really smooth. However the stem is a bit long for me, so i'll change that. I also need a new saddle, the one in the picture is a manky old one i found just to do the job in the meantime.

No other hitches really, brakes do rub a bit:

But I think that'll fix itself after i bed them in a bit more.

What do you guys think of the bike? :D

German Volume Training

German Volume Training (also known as GVT or the 'ten sets of ten' method) is pretty much lifting crap loads of weights crap loads of times to gain crap loads of muscle.

<really ripped guy here>

It goes something along these lines:

One Exercise. You perform one exercise per body part. That’s it.
100 Reps. For each exercise, 10 sets of 10 reps. Or as close to 10 as you can get.
And a break of around 30-60secs between sets.

This is brutal, but has been known to give people muscle gains of 7kg (around 15lbs for you Americans) in as little as a month. Tried it on Sunday with a couple of exercises, don't think i've ever contorted my face so much with effort before.. but it was fun, will be trying it again this weekend coming - with different exercises. Will let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, anyone had experience with GVT or similar? I'm not a body builder but i hear it's really good for endurance strength (which i do need) so that's why i'm going for it.


Now for a picture of what happens when fast food meets GVT:

Crushed Ice... AWESOME

I have never heard of this until very recently... but i'm completely blown away.





Looks so sketchy!

Weight sledge training

Spent training today using one of these contraptions:

It is an unbelievable workout, much like running 400m! we were only doing reps of 30m as well :O

Completely shattered... all for the greater good of course though!

Has anyone had experience of this training method? got any tip for training sessions? I'd like to hear from you :)