In the seemingly unending quest for new ways to torture and punish my body, I have decided to try out HIIT. It stands for High Intensity Interval Training, and apparently the second “I” is silent, and it’s a highly effective strategy for cardio fitness which requires less time than steady state cardio such as running or cycling.

The general theory is that you work as hard as you possibly can for an interval, then switch to low intensity or rest for an interval, then back to high intensity.

On Sunday I tried a variation on this called the Tabata Method which is working as hard and fast as possible for 20 seconds, followed by a 10 second rest, then repeat for four minutes. My chosen exercise was going to be skipping but my calf isn’t quite up to it so instead I worked the heavy punching bag, throwing as many punches as possible in 20 seconds.

I should point out that there’s a five minute warm up and a two minute cool down either side of the longest four minutes of my life.

The word I continually used to describe this work out was: brutal. Honestly, I thought my arms were going to drop off and at the end of four minutes I was exhausted, and covered in sweat.

Today it’s back to the weights, which have been slightly improved by my personal trainer. I think the current plan is to do two days of weights, followed by a day of HIIT or steady state cardio, then back to the weights. That way I get four weight and three cardio sessions a week.

Here’s a little video to give you an idea of what a Tabata heavy bag session looks like. I may, at a later date, film myself doing much the same thing.

Cycling is an insidious and evil activity. In the past week I’ve gone from “I hate cycling” to “I don’t really like cycling” to “I guess cycling’s alright”. After last weekend’s effort I complained about sore sit bones, and my lovely wife offered to buy me some proper cycling shorts as an early Christmas present, I’ve been wearing running shorts which unsurprisingly don’t work very well.

Today my new shorts turned up today and they are size M for medium and they fit well, possibly a little on the baggy side. I decided to take them for a spin around the airport, a 33km loop, and I have to say they make a huge difference. Today’s ride went quite well, altho slightly slower than Sunday’s effort but overall I’m pleased with it all.

I’ve been doing a bit of weight training lately, which I can already feel the results of but I’m a little cautious of over training right now, so today had to be a cardio day otherwise my arms may have fallen off.

Tomorrow I’m going to hit the weights again, currently aiming for some sort of activity every day until Christmas. Hopefully my calf will be healed by then and I’ll be able to run again.

For those of you who haven’t kept up with me on Twitter or Facebook, I completed the Lake Hood half marathon two weekends ago, achieving my goal of finishing in under two hours, with a time of 1:57:37. Unfortunately, I also tore my calf muscle during the run and have been laid up since.

I spent over a week on crutches, which are a surprisingly good workout, and didn’t really manage to get in my exercise. This week I’ve been walking more freely and managed to get in a couple of ab workouts and did a weight session last night.

My physio gave me permission to attempt cycling yesterday with a couple of caveats. First, take it easy on the calf which means avoid standing up on pedals and second, no hills. Last night I plotted myself a flat 20km bike ride and today I rode it. I have a great iPhone app called RunKeeper that I use to keep track of my bike rides, it uses the GPS to track your activity, and no I don’t listen to music or anything while I ride, my phone stays in my back pocket the whole time.

The ride itself was pretty good, taking just under an hour and burning about 560 calories. I try to be as safety conscious as possible when riding, not running red lights, and keeping a watchful eye on parked cars and other drivers but as usual there was some pretty appalling driving on display.

Also spotted something really odd on Fendalton Road as I went down there the first time. There was a guy in a full karate gi standing as still as a statue on the median strip, now there’s something you don’t see every day!

Calf feels the same after the ride so I think I’ll be doing a bit more cycling, I’m not a huge fan of cycling but it’s a hell of a lot better than doing nothing and can be done while I rehab my calf. Now the question is, do I focus on distance, time or calories burned?

So a week before a half marathon I always run a test of about 17-18km to see how my body will handle the full distance. Honestly, those last 4km are entirely mental and usually by then I’ve got myself into such a good mental zone that I don’t even notice them.

Due to giving myself an extra rest day during the week, this year’s test run come only six days before the half marathon but was once again a success. On these test runs, time is not a factor at all but it can be a good indication of where I’m at in terms of any goals for race day. This year’s goal is the same as last year’s: Break two hours.

The problem spots on my body, opposite knee and ankle, haven’t really acted up which really pleases me, so it’s full steam ahead to Lake Hood on Saturday. I’ve got one last training run this week which will be a lazy 7.5km, last year I tried to cane it on that run and paid for it in the second half, this year I’ll just run at my usual pace.

Next stop: Lake Hood half marathon!

After last weekend’s over indulgence in food and alcohol, I had a particularly hard couple of runs, with my knee and ankle both causing my a bit of pain and my legs feeling like lead as I plodded around my run but now I’m pleased to say I feel I’ve got through it.

I was meant to run yesterday but instead decided to give myself an extra rest day which seems to have really paid off. Today’s run felt really good, despite the heat I managed a good time and feel fine afterwards.

Only two more training runs until the half marathon next weekend, one big one on Sunday and a short one on Wednesday. Wish me luck!

For the past six weeks or so I’ve been reasonably strict with what I’ve been eating and my training. This weekend was a bit of a slip up and I must say I’ve really paid the price for it. My mother-in-law’s partner Mike came to stay with us over the weekend, he’s a really nice guy and always takes us out somewhere nice while he’s with us.

Unfortunately, this means watching what I eat goes a bit out the window, and I’m OK with that, provided it’s a short term thing and I don’t slip back into old habits. So over the weekend I ended up eating too much and sharing a few beers with Mike, something I haven’t done in quite sometime. With the weather being somewhat uncooperative for my Friday run, I missed out on that completely, but got out on Sunday.

Boy did it ever hurt! After just 2km I was seriously contemplating chucking it in at the 7km mark, but I persevered and got thru the full 13.5km. Sure I was slower than usual and my legs just felt like lead the whole was around, but I made it.

I’m also official entered in the Lake Hood half marathon on the 20th of November, less than two weeks away. I’m comfortable with where I am fitness wise, even with yesterday’s struggle. I’m cutting back a little this weeks, aiming for two 10km runs on Tuesday and Thursday, probably early morning ones too, then a long one of 16-18km on Saturday. If I can manage that a week before, then 21km next Saturday should be no problem.

In my continuing efforts to make my exercise regime fit my life more, I decided to get up early this morning and get in a run. That way I’d get my workout in for the day and could blob out or do whatever I felt like after work, rather than coming home, and racing around to try to fit in a workout.

Now exercising on an empty stomach is a bad idea, so I made sure there was some food on the bench waiting for a bleary eyed me to stuff in my mouth before heading out. Banana on toast, yum yum.

People who know me will tell you that I’m not a morning person and they’re right. But strangely, with the right motivation I emerged from bed just after 5:30 am.

Once I got on the road I ran into an issue I hadn’t really considered: it’s still dark at 6 am here. My first couple of kms were a little slow as I was making sure I didn’t trip on anything or run into something. Once dawn actually hit, the path became more visible and I got back to my usual pace.

After the run, I gulped down some water to rehydrate, dashed off to the shower and got dressed for work. With a surprising amount of time left, I made myself breakfast (a poached egg on toast) then was off for a day at work.

Aside from some soreness in my toes (I still clench my toes inside my shoes) I felt really good at work, slightly more energy than normal perhaps. I’m not sure if this will be making a regular appearance in my fitness regime, but at least I know it’s there as an option if I want to use it. Especially during the longer sunlight hours of summer.

So after some consultation with my personal trainer, aka my brother, I’ve tweaked my workout regime slightly and I’m already pleased with the results.

I’ve swapped out the squats for squat jumps, apparently body weight squats are just too easy. Probably right too, never really felt much while doing them but got a really good burn in my quads while doing the squat jumps.

Today I managed to get through five complete circuits of the weight loss regime, followed by three circuits of my ab and back workout. That means today I’ve done:

• 50 press ups
• 50 squat jumps
• 50 dumbbell presses
• 86 crunches
• 36 crunch twists
• 36 front planks
• 36 bent over dumbbell rows
• 36 back extensions
• 300 star jumps

Afterwards my body felt fine although quite a few of my muscles were complaining and I was drenched in sweat. I’m usually a heavy sweater but this was unlike anything I’ve struck before including my half marathons.

Overall, I’m pleased with my effort and intend to keep this up. I’ve already gone in two holes on my belt and I’m finding my shorts can barely stay up any more. At this rate, I’ll be looking like Sitch in no time.

In my younger days I used to get cramp often and sometimes quite badly, and I suspect mostly because I didn’t understand what caused it. Often after refereeing a couple of games of rugby, I’d get cramp that evening just from sitting on the couch.

As I got older and wiser I learned cramp is largely caused by dehydration and properly hydrating before, during and after exercise is extremely important. There are other causes of cramp, including lack of essential salts like Sodium and Potassium, but for me controlling my hydration means controlling the cramp.

That was until last night. After a really good 10.5km run in which I felt really good, the kms just flew by and none of my joints complained at all, I was relaxing on the couch sipping from my water bottle. I’d already drunk one 750mL bottle of water and had almost finished my second when I remembered there was some washing to put on (gotta get in the GTL every day). I headed upstairs, or at least tried to because on the second step my right calf cramped hard and in the most painful way I’ve felt in years.

I tried to sit stoically and wait for it to pass, but my muffled cries of pain brought Jess over to investigate. No matter what I did, the muscle just wouldn’t release, I tried the old favourite of pointing my toes up as hard as I could, only to have the cramp shift from one place to another, then back again as I stopped stretching.

After a couple of minutes the muscle relaxed and I was able to move again. I headed straight for the kitchen where I downed a glass of salty water (yuck!) in an attempt to replace lost Sodium. I then remembered Jess had an old container of powered Powerade in the cupboard that she didn’t like, lemon and lime flavoured, or as she called it “urine flavour”.

The rest of my night was spent on the couch sipping Powerade (a drink I normally avoid) and stretching my calf every two minutes. It was rather sore when I went to bed, although Jess gave it a massage which helped tremendously and this morning I never would have known there was something wrong.

I think it might be time to switch back to my old post run drink Nuun, plenty of electrolytes and just 12 calories. Maybe that will knock the cramp on the head.