Hey guys, Well the last time I posted was back on the 15th August where i’d mentioned that I had started my RAF Recruit training but had suffered the misfortune of breaking a bone in my foot! :/ Well a lot has happened since then!

After spending 11 weeks on rehab and physiotherapy I finally healed and restored my fitness back to RAF standards! After that horrifically long time I finally managed to get back onto my training course and picked up where I left off!

It was a massively busy 30 days! During this time I learned many valuable skills to add to the many I had already gained before my injury, including things like battlefield first aid, chemical, biological, radiological and Nuclear protection and skill at arms (Rifles!). I was also sent on exercise with the RAF regiment for 4 days and was battered from head to toe in the field! Fun times! However, a week ago I finally reached the culmination of all the hard work and graduated from recruit training into the Royal Air Force!

Here are a few pictures.

Me, my Uncle Mick and my Nan.

General salute to the reviewing officier.

Parade square. Mum, Me, Nan and Mick.

My wonderful girlfriend and I after the graduation parade.

So guys, for those that dont remember, I started the journey headed to this point in August 2010 and after dropping over 4st (54lbs approx) and getting my fitness back I have now been chosen by the oldest and most prestigious air force in the world! :)

Could not be happier! Here’s hoping a long and illustrious career awaits me! 

Rich  

Hey Guys! 

Its been a while! … 13th of May to be exact! Cant believe that its been that long since my last post, especially as when I started this blog I would post on a near daily basis!

Anyway, as I am sat here doing nothing I thought i’d break the silence with a little update!

So where to start! … As you can tell from my last post I was trying my best to get into shape for my RAF enlistment. I would first have to pass yet another fitness test in order to attest into the Royal Air Force and serve my country. 

Well I am pleased to report that went well. On the 4th July (a fairly important day for most of the folks who will read this here post! … Ironically the day I gave up my independence lol) I passed my training and swore my allegiance to the Queen, officially becoming an Aircraftman in the RAF. 

AC Knight. It has a nice ring to it. 

Since then I have been away from my family and friends on base going through my basic training. They had planned 63 Days of hardcore military conditioning of the mind and the body, unfortunately I only made it to day 34 before encountering my first problem!

A poxy stress fracture of the 4th Metatarsal on my right foot! :(

So as I sit here, its fair to say that for the meantime I am out of decent mechanical order! lol 

In the scheme of things its not the end of the world. I am currently at home spending time with my family and wonderful girlfriend who I had missed loads while I was away and then on the 23rd i’ll be back on base receiving some of the best treatment in the world to fix me up. The only downside is that I will be out of action and making no progress in my training until I am fixed and fit enough to proceed. Its also important for it not to take too long as I would have to redo all of the 34 days i’ve clocked up so far! 

Nervous times right here, but hoping for a speedy recovery! 

Its been a good week, a week of focus that I haven’t had for a long time! 

Set a series of goals a couple of weeks back, to maximise my time between now and RAF enlistment! You can see them here!

Summary goes like this!

Weight:

Starting Weight: 13st 11lbs

End of Week 1/8: 13st 6.5lbs

LOSS 4.5LBS (4.5/11 achieved!) 

Runs:

Monday: 3 Miles in 23:44 @ 7:53 pace

Wednesday: 3 miles in 24:51 @ 8:16 pace

Saturday: 3 miles in 22:44 @ 7:32 pace

Taekwondo:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday!

100 Push Up Challenge:

Monday: 12, 17, 13, 13, 17 (72)

Thursday: 14, 19, 14, 14, 19 (80)

Saturday: 16, 21, 15, 15, 21 (88)

240 Total

Been a good week! :)

Its been such a busy end of the week that I havent been able to post!!  

Day 5 - TKD! Again! 4th session this week! :) Had an epic Session then chilled out hard! 

Day 6 - Yesterday was a good one. I ate well, avoided shit choices when I was out, drank no alcohol even though everyone else was! 

I also managed to squeeze in half a day at work, my 100 push up challenge and a run!

100 Challenge Reps:

16, 21, 15, 15, 21 - Total 88 (240 for the week!)

3 mile run:

22:44 @ 7:34 pace.

Good day! Weeks exercise and results summary to follow! 

Rich

So day 4! Where the hell is this week going?! It seems to be flying past at an alarming rate! 

Anyways, so nutritionally another pretty sound day! Loving the grilled chicken and rice combo that’s been saving the day so far! I haven’t been organised enough lately to get shopping and cook myself, so I have been opting for healthy choices from establishments that will happily cook on my behalf and take my money instead! Something to work on, but with all the training and work its hard to fit it in!!

Exercise for the day consisted of the following:

Week 3 Day 2 - 100 Push Up Challenge! 

Reps: 14, 19, 14, 14, 19 - 80 in total (152 push ups so far) 

Taekwondo Session 3 @ Hatfield!

This is where the title of this post comes to the fore as I was taught a valuable lesson during class when a phrase I have heard many times came back to haunt me in 2vs1 sparring today. We are often told that when fighting 2 aggressors that it is not a good idea to go through the middle, this is because you can find yourself in both opponents range at the same time. Well me being me, I thought id be clever and try a double flying technique right through the middle as my first attack, I have used it before to good effect but today failed epically! The technique involves a flying side kick to the right while punching across to the left with my right hand, which in itself went well except that I flew right into a turning kick that hit me straight in the face! My jaw will know about it for a few days, its rather sore and eating tonight was a struggle! :/ lol But anyway, enough about my foolishness, the class was well worth the 1.5 hour drive for! 

Opened up with a warm up and then moved into some kicking drills on the paddles. Once they were done some slow and painful strength building kicking drills were next! After that we moved onto semi free sparring and then the fun came with feee sparring. I was kept up for the most rounds today as my fitness is a lot better than most and I really enjoyed the workout. I love it when I leave TKD a sweaty mess! Although technique is very important, classes that focus on that dont tend to be as much of a workout! 

So all in all I can safely say that today was another success and I am enjoying my training immensely. I really want to push hard and get those Black tags before I leave for the RAF! 

Hope everyone is well! :)

Rich

Today has been the best day of the week so far!! 

After a decent sleep last night I still woke up with a very sore neck. Im not sure what has caused it, but I know that I used to have trouble with the same area when I was running lots last year and didn’t spend enough time stretching after I finished my runs! I think its possible that Monday’s run contributed to it. 

Anyway, today I persevered, purchasing some deep heat and applying copious amounts throughout the day, that mixed with a little stretching and manipulation seems to have help loosen the area up! After work was finished I raced to my second TKD session of the week. Today’s class was great, I led the warm up, went through some basic flexibility and mobility then moved into a fun sparring drill designed to get you a little sweaty and nice and ready for class! 

After that we worked on some technique, then followed onto some sparring drills before progressing into semi free sparring. Once that was done I (2nd kup) was paired with 2 guys from my Tuesday class, Stan (1st Kup) and Marek (3rd Kup) where we worked on some 2vs1 free sparring and took it in turns to be attacked by 2 people. I gave a good account of myself but took a couple of decent knocks! We finished the class up with grading patterns, which I could barely perform because I was so tired! It was an excellent workout!!

Once class was finished I headed home, about half hour later I was donning my running gear and hitting the road for my scheduled 3 miles! I thought about leaving it until tomorrow, but then I realised I plan to hit TKD up Thursday and Friday too, so i’d be in the same boat all week anyway so I might as well get it done according to schedule! 

I wore a heavy nike hoody to protect me from the light rain and went out. I knew it wasn’t going to be an electric time, but this run was more about putting the 3 miles on my legs and not quitting despite being pretty fucked than setting a time, however I got around in a respectable 24:51. Only 01:10s slower than my run on Monday.

So feeling pretty good! I ate well today, perhaps a little too much spaghetti for dinner after my run especially as it was a pretty late meal, but all in all a lot of good has been achieved today. The only thing I havent managed to do was my 100 push up challenge reps, but as I am so screwed I intend on doing them first thing in the morning! Can really beat myself too much about that! :)

Hope everyone else is feeling good and achieving their aims! 

Rich

Today has been pretty focused, nutritionally sound and relatively active! 

Managed to stick to my eating strategy, that being light breakfast and lunch, followed by a decent clean dinner. Work was ok today and went well, punctuated by a doctors visit, but hit up my Taekwondo class after for a decent workout.

The session today covered a lot of aspects. We spent a good deal of time on plyometric exercises, lots of flying techniques on the paddles as well as controlled kicking. Once that was done we worked on 2 step sparring. This is really starting to come together now and my blocking is starting to sharpen up! 

Finally we moved onto some pattern work, going over the intricacies of Dan-gun tul and breaking down the basic movements. 

Left the class a sweaty mess! :)

Looking forward to a very busy day tomorrow! Lots on!! :)

Rich 

Starting stats for the goals I set last week.

Weight: 13st 11lbs - 0/11lbs lost

Run 1: 3 miles in 23:41 @ 7:53 pace - 2:41 to drop.

100 Push Up Challenge:

Initial Test - 27 Push Ups. 

Starting Week 3 Day 1 - Level 2.

Today’s Requirement: 12, 17, 13, 13, 17. Completed!

Set a target to aid training - Southend Half Marathon 10th June 2012. 

Rich

So last week I posted up a few goals I wanted to achieve. I gave myself a reasonable timeframe of about 9 weeks to get them done and a week later they are still realistic goals. 

However, I didn’t exactly make much progress towards these goals last week. 

I started of fine! Monday was a good day and I ran my first scheduled run of the week; 3 miles in 23:11 (7:43pace). Tuesday followed well, my regular TKD class was excellent and I had a good session as I would expect. However, barring my second TKD class of the week, the week was pretty much a flop, especially from a nutritional standpoint over the bank holiday weekend. 

I have worked it out, Friday I had Chinese food for lunch, Indian for dinner. Saturday I had a lazy day but had American style grill food for dinner, which contained an absolutely absurd amount of meat! (ribs, steak, gammon, chicken, sausages!). Sunday I ate shitty McDonalds followed by Popcorn in the Cinema watching Avengers … Which by the way is EPIC! Later that evening I finished off the weekend in style with a Greek meze. 

Thats 4 different cuisines in 3 days! Jeeze!

However, I intend for that to be a temporary issue I am naming False Start! Things are moving on nicely starting today.

Post for that to follow.

Rich

… That shit was today folks.

I entered. 

Im from London.

Motherfuckers best let me run my own town!

Cause I run this town! :)

Ya Gets?

LOL :)

#pleaseletmegetaplace