| How long have you been X Training? |
| I've been gym training for 7 years and X Training for 5+ years. Prior to joining Shell, my daily job involved a lot of walking and clambering over machines in refineries, factories, offshore platforms and the like so I was reasonably fit or at least I thought so. In my new job at Shell I was almost entirely deskbound in an advisory/consultancy role so I was conscious of needing to be less sedentary. Fortunately, here on site we have a fully equipped gym with a part-time professional instructor who runs regular class sessions 3 days a week. The gym is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and there are no restrictions as to when you can go to do your own thing within the working day. For the first 18 months or so I participated in the class sessions (mixture of speed, stamina, strength, flexibility) because they were great fun if a little tame. The gym was often used by a handful of guys who seemed to be doing their own thing but at a much higher intensity and every day so I joined them and have been X training with them ever since. We have about 30 X training circuits based largely around the regional competition format (Gauntlet, Hampshire, Calso, etc) but adapted to our equipment and available time. We also have lots of circuits of our own invention which helps keep the sessions fresh.
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| "Competing in events gives me the motivation to train " |
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| Why do you do it? |
| No single reason, rather a combination of many which keep me going back for pain every day, some are reasons others are outcomes. In no particular order then; it's fun: we have a great laugh, egging each other on and routinely taking the mickey, it's measurable: I am fascinated by the counters and dials on most equipment and trying to improve on technique to lower a given time, it's a total switch off: whilst training, my mind is completely consumed by survival and I return to my desk absolutely refreshed, it's like having 2 mornings each day, it aids sleep: I sleep like a log and noticeably if I miss a couple of days or more I start waking in the night, it's competitive: mostly against your own times from previous month or previous attempt but occasionally in a real competition, it provides "me time": a special time reserved for purely spoiling yourself, some read a paper, some walk the dog, some do a gym workout and all reduce life's stresses, weight maintenance: definitely an outcome which comes as a bonus, I lost 14kg 5 years ago and it has stayed off,
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| "Working on strength is one of my priorities this year " |
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What do you enjoy about it?
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| That's largely covered by why I do it. I also like feeling fit, I like eking out a little more from myself, I like testing myself, I like pushing the limits of what I can achieve. Most of all I like taking part in sports. In my youth football and badminton were particular passions played to a reasonable standard until 3 knee operations in my mid twenties put paid to those dreams. For the first time since then, X training has reignited that spark of passion seemingly without detrimental effects on my knees, not yet anyway.
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| What would you most like to improve about your performances? |
| My training weakness has always been motivation to do weights and that's reflected in my performances. That's where I lose an enormous amount of time, both in our own circuits at Shell and as you've witnessed in the Gorton Grueller (and the Dragon's Gauntlets before that). At the Grueller it took 10 minutes to complete the Bench Press, while some of the competitors were completing in a single effort in under 60 seconds. Each New Year I resolve to concentrate on weights for the forthcoming year and by the end of the first week I'm mostly on stamina or speed work. However, the Grueller was a kick up the backside and I have stuck to a regime of a greater proportion of weights work which is very slowly showing signs of improvement. Let's hope the holiday period doesn't return me to bad habits. |
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| George at this year's Gym Ironman 2008 |
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What are your feelings just before a race?
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Quite honestly, just fear of not being able to complete the weights stations. Other feelings of excitement, anticipation, buzz, atmosphere, butterflies, tight chest, heart pounding all exist but are comprehensively dwarfed by the fear of the weights stations. Heart pounding is for real, when I was driving in to the Grueller I was already changed and my heart rate was around 42-44 bpm but upon arrival at the registration desk it was just above 100 bpm !!!
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| The elbow to bar sit up ensures fair and full range of movement for the sit ups in competitions. |
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| Would you recommend X Training to anybody who goes to a gym? |
Without any hesitation. Leonardo da Vinci wrote "Those who are enamoured of practice without science, are like a pilot who goes into a ship without rudder or compass and never has any certainty of where he is going". He meant more specifically, that you should train with a purpose and train specifically for that purpose, so if you are a sprinter train to improve sprinting, if a shot-putter then for shot-putting. X training provides that fundamental purpose for going to the gym. So often you see people in the gym and they're clearly not enjoying being there and you can't help feeling they would if doing so with a purpose. On the same theme, I take part annually in an external competition such as the Dragon's Gauntlet or this year's Gorton Grueller, it's great to have something to aim for, some focus and an end date otherwise it's all too easy to miss a session or to try a little less during a session.
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| "So often you see people in the gym and they're clearly not enjoying being there and you can't help feeling they would if doing so with a purpose" George Zolkiewski |
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You are a vet and really enjoy the competitive element of X Training - how would you describe the feeling of completing the race?
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| Mostly it's a tremendous sense of achievement and almost equally relief. Achievement because it's actually a rather tough assignment, it's one thing to do it in training in the gym amongst friends, quite another when racing against someone in the full glare of strangers. Relief because when competing at your highest level it actually hurts and at times fairly badly, so at the end it's a physical as well as a mental relief, you've made it, you've reached the end, you're still alive and it's stopped hurting. There's also a great deal of satisfaction in completing a well constructed race. If you know your limits for each piece of equipment or element of the competition it is useful to design a race strategy to optimise your performance. By executing that strategy the satisfaction comes from knowing that you've matched or hopefully exceeded the pre race expectations. In my case during the Grueller this was true for all the non weight elements and the total race time.
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