Unleash the Monkey Army

The bugle sounds, the charge begins...we're off. The first couple of days of the burpee ladder are under our collective belt and with our Australian contingent getting us off to an early start, we're all present and correct. For most people the first day (or couple of days) are a bit anticlimactic. We're talking about burpees after all and the 100 day ladder is a big deal...so what's with the damp squib? Well, to quote Egg Chen in Big Trouble in Little China "That was nothing. But that's how it always begins. Very small." Big Trouble in Little China (20th Century Fox Films - tongue in cheek 80s classic) You see, for all that the duration and end point of the challenge puts people off, it builds incrementally. The first few weeks are barely worthy of commentary (the exact point it starts to become more of an effort varies with individual). That's kind of frustrating if you want to shout about it, I mean, it's a bit of a hollow brag to w...

The numbers are nudging up. My predilection for rounding up has seen me rattle along the tracks, past 11,000 for the year to date. That's more than 900 more than double regulation in the 100-day challenge which I completed in January.  There are days when I am stiffer and achier than others. On those days the burpees start wooden and clunky, you know, like watching Kristen Stewart "act". However, so far at least, even at its worst the first 50 seem to knock the rust off. My in-laws stayed with us for a week during the period since the last blog post and I can't decide whether it is a sign of everything else they have going on at the moment, or more that over the last 17 years of knowing me they have developed a high threshold for concern. Even after wandering into the utility room midway through my double-bill day (280, thanks to an accidental night off the day before), or even enduring the edifying sight of watching me sit still for 30 minutes afterwards with the...

I was asked recently about carbohydrate loading and my first reaction was "don't" but I reined that in and asked the sensible questions: what sport, what level of activity/duration, what standard of event/competition? The response was amateur rugby, so I reverted to my first answer! However, this answer seems a little trite and unhelpful. So I got to thinking (not unusual) and what started life as a short answer rapidly escalated into a lengthier one. I'll explain not only my reasoning but go some way to tightening up the definition of the term itself. That last act in itself may go some way to leading to your own conclusion as it the term is frequently abused which I feel leads to much of the misapplication. I have skipped some of the physiology in the interests of not extending the answer any more than I already have. I have tried to be faithful to the science but by skimping have probably done it a massive disservice. If more information/clarity would be useful fee...

It should not come as a surprise to me to find people forget the journey once they are safely ensconced at their destination. But it does come as a surprise. As a species we owe our survival to learning from experience and many of the psychotherapies for mental illness are about addressing the mental replay. So what about the disconnect here? We know that success is an awful teacher and this amnesia is one of the reasons why that should be the case. There will be things to learn from and improve on but these fall away early in the euphoria of victory. Indeed, thinking about the psychotherapy, a good deal of that is about dealing with maldaptive beliefs and reactions, so much of which is coloured by experience. I was watching Rocky recently and something that illustrated the point stood out that I had not noticed/appreciated before. It was the training montage ["everybody needs a montage"] that stood out. You know the bit, the sequence that has been copied and parodied a tho...

I was asked to comment on the suggestion that running can be the fool's gold of fitness. It was a fairly easy request in some respects as I have on several running related ventures gone on the record as saying "running is for stupid people". No I blame that on discomfort as a product of distance but in my training practice I certainly adhere to the less offensive approach of not commenting on intellect and just reducing the amount of running I ask of others. But why? This is one of those occasions when I can think about what I do and talk to others about it. Just the other day, somebody came up to me at my dayjob while we both doing something else and started a conversation which ran something like this: "You alright mate?" "Not bad ta, you?" "Not bad. Look, I need to start running again, what sort of distance should I aim for to begin with?" "What? Erm, sorry, what are you shooting for?" "To go running but I'm not sure w...