Gritty Tees and the WEXFORD 10K

For those of you who have expressed an interest and were disappointed not to have won one in our earlier competition, finally you can buy a Run Fat Bitch Run teeshirt, at http://grittytees.spreadshirt.co.uk (and yes, that includes you Antipodeans - just click on the US icon).  I will most certainly be investing in a hoodie and wearing it on all my runs! 

After another really inspiring chat on Dublin Radio this morning, and having been looking for an excuse to get back to Ireland after far too many years away, I’ve taken the plunge and am joining friends of mine, Pierce and Marilee Maher, who have both recently taken up running, in the Wexford 10km on 22nd April!  I just signed up for it this morning and it instantly gave me a much needed injection of motivation, having slacked off a bit since our team RFBR 5k race at the end of January.  I immediately went on a gentle 7k run in the woods and was thinking about Ireland all the way round.  I am so excited!  I am going to try and persuade O to join me, but I fear he may be required to look after the twins.  Surely the grandparents can help?!  Well, the thing is, we are off for a twin-free weekend on Friday and I’m pretty sure it will take my mum and dad at least 6 months to recover…

Anyway, I WANT TO INVITE ALL YOU IRISH BITCHES TO JOIN US IN THE WEXFORD 10k!  I will be sporting my RFBR tee (so will you Pierce and Marilee, you know you want to), so you can hunt me down on race day.  I am planning to fly into Dublin (not sporting any RFBR attire) - I can’t believe I have never been to Dublin, or Wexford for that matter.  The best bit is going to be the food – Pierce will be cooking for me in Wexford, and he is a Masterchef extraordinaire – seriously, he was one of the finalists.  So, follow my 10k training plan in Run Fat Bitch Run and join us on 22nd April in Wexford.  Looking forward to seeing you there…

The Grit Doctor says:

IRELAND, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!! 

Fit and Firm

Over the last couple of days I have had a rather heated twitter exchange with @FitandFirmPT, their beef is with Run Fat Bitch Run suggesting that running is the only way.  They claim (quite rightly) that strength/resistance training plus cardio is better for weight loss.  To quote their most recent tweets, “to say that running is the only answer, no exceptions is ridiculous; not to mention a completely unfounded scientifically incorrect statement.”

Alright, FnF keep yer knickers on.  I agree, the ‘ideal’ weight loss progamme would involve some strength/resistance training just as it would involve a diet that amounts to more than the Grit Doctor’s two golden rules: DRINK MORE WATER AND EAT LESS CRAP.  In fact, I highly recommend any and all forms of training and sports to everyone who is fit and healthy with time and money to spare.  If I could, I would play singles tennis four times a week for my perfect exercise routine but the world I live in is far from ideal.  I have 45mins-1hr tops 4 times a week to get out of the house and exercise (many mums are in the same boat) and I want to maximise the bang I get for my buck.  Caitlin Moran’s brilliantly funny column in the Times magazine on Saturday is on the same page.  She too is a working mum, who just wants to fit into her size 12 clothes - I bet she doesn’t give a shit about her bingo wings (sorry Caitlin if you don’t in fact have them or do, and care very much).  She doesn’t have the time to consider that if she had done 7minutes of strength training with weights at the gym beforehand she would have burnt off more calories on her four mile jog!  She wants as many endorphins as she can get in the shortest possible time and she knows that running is the answer.  For many of us ordinary women who don’t have the time or money to devote to muscle sculpture, let alone afford gym membership, strength and resistance training is something we cannot afford to waste time faffing over. 

I am trying to empower people in getting them to realise that they don’t need to learn anything new, or spend any money on fancy equipment or lessons or be anywhere else first, except outside their front door.  Everything they need to get fit and lose weight they already have - they just need to reconnect with it all again.  Running is free and you can begin your workout from the moment you leave your front door and end it the moment you return.  I am trying to help people to get out of their exercise rut by saying ‘listen here bitches, this doesn’t have to be complicated, and you don’t need to spend any money, because there is no magic pill.  This is going to be brutally gritty’.  Because I think running is really brutal.  And that is why I like it.  I feel it in a way that fiddling around with a dumbell in front of a mirror is never going to match, nor will it give me the endorphin rush I crave, nor any sense of achievement in braving the outdoors. 

Teaching people from the off that they need an exercise programme involving some cardio, some weights, and some resistance training, I believe, is setting them up to fail.  Let’s start with the basics.  I am trying to help people get off the sofa, the finessing comes later on, much later on.  Otherwise, people remain trapped in the mentality that they need someone else, or something else first before they can achieve any results for their body and so remain glued to the sofa, weighed down by an ever-expanding arsenal of excuses.

Tags: @FitandFirmPT, Caitlin Moran, motivation, resistance training, running, strength training

Radio Oz

I had a radio interview the other day in Melbourne at 10.30pm, which I think is being aired on Monday.  I have no idea how it went because I was completely brain dead and nodding off to sleep by the time I got the call (although it was at a marginally more sociable hour than a week or so ago when I was interviewed by a Perth radio station at 6.30am)!  However, such is my love of Australia, and so thrilled was I to be asked at all, that I would have agreed to any time of day or night. I have such wonderful memories of Australia, particularly of Perth and Melbourne.  Perth is where O’s family herald from so it has a very special place in my heart.   We spent hours on Cottesloe beach throwing one of those balls that bounces off the surface of the water at each other.  I was extremely touched to hear from a lady recently who had read my book and whose circuit was basically Cottesloe beach.  How I envy her!

O and I spent a magical fortnight in Melbourne on our way to Perth.  One of O’s best friends had given us a week in their family beach house in Lorne as a wedding present and we literally thought we had died and gone to heaven when we pitched up in the dead of night there.  Everything about it was just stunning.  My run along the beach there in the rain was one of the most awesome I can remember – foggy, moody, and with an uneasy sense that I was in peril – that just spurred me on to go faster.  My sister’s boyfriend is from Melbourne and we finally got to meet him when he came to London this Christmas.  He is such a great guy.   O said, and I quote, ‘best bloke I’ve met in years.’  I couldn’t have put it better myself, his easy charm meant he was fantastic company and we all adore him.  The best bit for the GD is that apparently he can play tennis so we finally have a family four!  This could be the beginning of a very exciting new rivalry (or the death of all our relationships such are the absurdly competitive streaks of both O and myself and, dare I say it, my little sis).  I am not too worried though, as my sister has told me they have already played in Melbourne so he knows what she is like!  O is pretty good, (I fell in love with him after watching his backhand repeatedly pass me at the net).  Seriously, our first date was a tennis match and he thrashed me and that was it.  I was in love.  Anyway, I can’t wait for us all to play together, ideally in Melbourne.  The twins can be ball boys..

Footloose and twin-free

I have just started the twins for two days a week with a local childminder called Lucie and I must confess it is the best thing I have ever done.  I get so excited as we near her house at the prospect of my twin-free day that I have to restrain myself from running with the buggy and arriving too early.  Another perk is that I just wheel the buggy through her front door, say goodbye and leave, so I am spared the ordeal of unpacking and settling them in.  Apparently, the twins dynamic is completely different when they are with her.  It would appear that they totally swap roles, the more ‘challenging’ twin for me is for Lucie and I quote, “the easiest baby I have EVER worked with”, and the one I find easier, I get the impression is more of a handful for her.  Interesting? yes, and more than just a little bit annoying…

The best bit of course is that I have two days in which to cram in something of a life outside of the twins which is going to be so much fun.  And lots of clear hours in which to write.  I have already imposed a strict NO HOUSEWORK rule, save for during the final half hour before I collect the boys when I run about the house trying to clean and tidy up and put a wash on in the manner of a woman possessed.  The reason for this domestic slackery is if I started any of these chores after I dropped the twins off,  I would still be doing them by the time it came to collect them – such are the levels of carnage left in the twins’ wake.  So instead, I drop them off, run home via the woods and sit down at my computer with a coffee and write.  Well at least that’s the plan – its all a bit theoretical at the moment being only week 2 but this new arrangement may have banished Sunday night blues forever for me.  I CANNOT WAIT for Monday morning which is not a line I thought I would ever write but I think I can safely say for me, Monday is going to be the new Friday (minus the binge drinking).

The Gritdoctor’s Guide to making you less of a fat b!tch: Week 6

Snow. It seems to be everywhere. Depending on which part of the country you live in, it might be a thin layer of ice or deep enough to bury your trainers in. We’re not saying you should use this as an excuse not to go running – if people can make it into work, I’m hoping you can follow their well-trodden route – but please do take care. Slipping on black ice and breaking an ankle is not part of the RFBR routine.

This week is all about keeping up the pace and powering through any pain you might feel. Ruth prefers to run in silence, but a lot of people find listening to an iPod can be a brilliant source of inspiration. If you’ve got any favourite running tunes, please do let us know your favourites in the comments below.

Have a great weekend!

Tags: run fat bitch run, running, ruth field, The Grit Doctor

February Grit-fest

Okay, so January is over and with it maybe some of that New Year enthusiasm to change is also starting to wane.  I am certainly feeling a bit lack lustre since finishing team RFBRs race on the 22nd Jan.  I realised yesterday that I must enter another race in the Spring because its the only thing that will keep me training through this brutal weather.  In fact, I’d like to invite anyone and everyone to join me on another team RFBR adventure!  I will find an appropriate race next week and let you know – I’m thinking a 10k this time..

In the meantime, a couple of incredible displays of inner grit and courage to inspire us at the start of the weekend to yes, get out and run despite the hideous cold and aching calves - and to remind us all of what is possible if we want it badly enough.  Getting inspired is the key to success in all areas of life, and you never have to look very far to find it.  Plus, inspiration is hugely contagious, so spread a bit of inspiration this weekend and watch how it comes back to you in spades.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFn47a_Ny0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFKpZnok10s

The Gritdoctor’s Guide to making you less of a fat b!tch: Week 5

What’s been happening in your world?

There have been some amazing and inspiring comments over on the RFBR Facebook page this week, and it sounds like you’re all really starting to get to grips with the programme. Whether you’re striding the streets, running full pelt or still moving at a gentler jog at this stage, please keep up the good work. You’re doing so well.

Week Five is all about sticking with the programme. No expensive outfits, high tech music systems or fancy water bottles to distract you. Not that you can’t have them, by all means do. Just don’t let them distract you from the task at hand. (Running, that is, you didn’t forget right?).

So here’s the video for Week 5 in the programme. Do you five runs, take your rest days, and have a wonderful weekend.

Tags: Jogging, run fat bitch run, running, The Grit Doctor

EIRE

I am having a bit of an Ireland moment.  I love that the Irish seem to have taken Run Fat Bitch Run in exactly the spirit it was intended and I love hearing from all the Irish women and men, who have now taken to the streets, including Tom Dunne who interviewed me a few weeks back.  My mother is half Irish and my goodness me does she know about GRIT.  If my ‘grit’ came from anywhere, my Irish grandmother must be the source (ooh, having said that, my South African Grandmother is pretty formidable too, more about her in another post perhaps)!  My Irish Grandparents had 10 children including twins, coming in (or out might be more apt) at numbers 2 and 3 (my mum was number 5).   Grandma had absolutely no time for whingeing even though she had it pretty hard.  I never heard her complain about anything, she had a wicked sense of humour and was almost always giggling about something or other.  Bearing in mind those were the days of no washing machines etc etc. the mind boggles as to the amount of grit she had to wade through on a daily basis.  I often wish she were still alive so I could whinge with her about how gritty bringing up twins is, although given that she went on to have 7 further children, she obviously found it a lot easier than me.   I bet she would have had some fantastic no-nonsense-type advice to impart. 

My first boyfriend was also from Mayo and lived next door to my grandparents and we had one of those brilliantly magical summer romances, filled with discoveries: predominantly getting blind drunk and me learning to play pool (to an exceptionally high standard I might add).  So my memories of Ireland are wonderful childhood ones, filled with mischief – climbing out of my bedroom window in the dead of night and running wild.  We went to confessions and Mass – a lot, but the one thing NO-ONE did where my family came from was exercise.  It was from memory considered extremely wierd even to go out walking, the looks my mother used to get when she went off on one of her epic ‘rambles’ - Grandma was always so embarrassed about who might see her ‘crazy’ daughter out ‘walking’!  No doubt things have changed a great deal since then and I would love nothing more than to come back and see that incredible countryside again, this time I hope, peppered with the odd runner..

COMPETITION – THE RESULTS!

And the correct answer was:

*drum roll*

It was c) Eat Less Crap. Drink More Water. RUN.

Thank you all so much for entering – so many correct answers! We’re thrilled to see the Grit Doctor revolution has taken hold!

The winners of a delightful RFBR t-shirt each are, in no particular order:

Sally Topley

Kimberley Gee

Sophie Buckman

LandMotherEarth

Congratulations ladies! Please email gritdoctor@hotmail.co.uk your postal details and we’ll get the t-shirts winging their way to you.

Well done to everyone else who entered and got the answer correct, keep at it Team RFBR!

COMPETITION CLOSED!

The competition to win your very own RFBR t-shirt has now closed…thank you for all your entries! Stay tuned to find out the winners very soon…