Training Increases and Body Composition Improvements

Firstly sorry it has been a little while since my last post, it has been exceptionally busy here at Tanita with new product developments and increases in product demand, which is great news. Since my last post I have significantly increased my training volume and also been away on a weeks training holiday to Lanzarote. The weeks training in the sun gave me a real solid base to build on and has assisted in keeping me motivated and feeling strong during this fitness re-building phase.

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I have been recording all my training using a Garmin 610 and uploading the data to my Garmin Connect training pages and Endomondo which the Tanita Team use to share training sessions with each other for group feedback and motivation. Below is a screen shot from Endomondo to show how many training session have been completed in June.

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on the right hand side of the image you will see my latest run from the weekend, unfortunately after around 6-7 miles I had some pain in the left Tibialis Anterior, so I had to slow, and have been icing and compressing to try and help it recover.

Injury is one of the reasons why the training above has been varied between, running, cycling and gym sessions, this will help to decrease the stress associated with running on the lower limbs. Today is Monday and thankfully I have very little pain in my left leg so I hope this is now ok and can begin the next phase of training. I believe that increased mileage and running shoes have contributed to this small injury, changing and updating your running shoes after about 500miles is a good idea. Running shoes will start to lose their cushioning and support after long miles and it is important if you are to stay free from injury to replace them. Fortunately I have some new Brooks GTS on their way along with some new racing shoes Brooks Pure Cadence as I now start to add some speed session and races into my calendar.

The next Phase of training is a combination of Speed development alongside increasing the long runs on the weekend to help prepare the body. Updates coming soon.

Another Benefit of the increased training volume and improvements in base fitness and strength has been the changes in my body composition, as I have previously stated I measure my Body Composition every Monday using a Tanita BC-1000 paired with my Garmin 610. I have had a decrease in body weight from 75KG to 69.5KG which of course has helped with improvements as my muscles now have less weight to move forward at speed, losing 5.5kg of excess weight has of course improved my Body Fat levels as shown below. You can see from the chart below that I had a little to much turkey and cake at Christmas which increased the readings but since January it has been a constant improvement.

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I will ensure I post another blog asap as the speed training is bought into the plan and we edge ever closer to the first challenge of my 30’s. Dont forget you can keep track of my training and Body Composition developments via my Twitter account using @SimonBradeley.

Any questions or comments please get in touch we love to here from you!

SB