Well I have been very remiss in keeping my blog up to date. Don’t worry I have been training; the lack of blog posts has not correlated with any slacking! I’ve just been a bit busy 🙂

Since my last post I have been lucky enough to become father to my beautiful daughter Samantha who has, of course, changed my life enormously. The range of emotions you experience when you become a father is perhaps overwhelming at times; it has been a wonderful and life affirming experience.

But….this isn’t a parenting blog, this is about kettlebells, so what am I up to with kettlebell sport?

Since last year I have changed focus from competing in the kettlebell Biathlon to Long Cycle. I’ve also changed from training in the afternoon/early evening to training first thing in the morning to fit around fatherly duties and work.

Changing events and training time has taken quite a lot of getting used to, the latter perhaps more than the former so I’ll talk about this initially.

Since October 2013 my weekly routine has looked something like this (so not entirely dissimilar to before!):

Monday – Kettlebell sport training

Tuesday – Barbell/Strength training (plus a run if I have the energy)

Wednesday – Kettlebell sport training

Thursday – Running

Friday – Kettlebell sport training (MKC training session)

Saturday – Push/Pull workout and assistance work

Sunday – rest

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I get up at 6am to train before work. After a few months of doing this it feels OK and, after an initial dip, the quality of my sessions has become more consistent. However I would caution anyone considering switching to early morning training to expect a couple of months of feeling out what ritual your body needs to deliver a reasonable level of intensity at this time of the morning. The quality of my training and the level of intensity I could generate was highly variable initially and perhaps still not what it used to be compared to afternoon training.

For me the morning ritual is a double espresso, a spoonful of honey and about 30 mins of mobility work and light exercise before I feel loose and warm. Even with this I did experience a serious flair up of my long standing neck/shoulder problems in late October which took a good 6 to 8 weeks to settle down. (I did train through it which perhaps wasn’t the most sensible approach).

So, alongside this I have also switched my focus to Long Cycle. Why? Well, I really enjoyed training Long Cycle for a friendly 7min, 20kg Triathlon (Biathlon and Long Cycle) event with Yorkshire Kettlebell Club in the Summer last year and really felt like a change of pace from Biathlon. During the build up to this friendly I had increasingly felt like Long Cycle was more of challenge of raw work capacity than Biathlon (which in my book is a good thing), something which I feel has only been confirmed as my training in it has progressed. Nevertheless, switching to Long Cycle has been a frustrating process as my notoriously weak grip has limited my performance and I’ve struggled with strained muscles in my forearm through over zealous attempts to remedy this weak point, coupled with deep bruises on the contact points on my forearms from dubious clean technique with the 28’s and 32’s.

This last weekend saw my first attempt to compete at Long Cycle proper at the GSU English Open Championships (a separate post on this to follow), hosted at our home base Train. I weighed in at my usual weight category of 78 to 85kg (although this time I was at the 85kg end of the scale rather than the 78kg end!) and competed with 2 x 28kg kettlebells.

I came away very pleased with my result, completing 52 reps and the full 10 minute set. During training the longest set I had attempted was 7 minutes and 33 reps, so this was a big improvement. Going in I was pretty sure I had more than 7 minutes in me, but was not at all confident of the 10 minutes especially as I had been struggling with my grip on any set over 6 minutes. When I got to 8 minutes though, and my grip was still OK, it was just a case of gutting it out. I felt pretty destroyed at the end of the set, I definitely left it all on the platform. (video to follow)

Below are a couple of pictures; the first from the start of the set. Laurence Clemente (Coach of Nottingham Kettlebell Club) is to my right, my coach Steve Dawson is to my left and Eddie Sheehan (Coach at Kilkenny Kettlebell Club is further to the right on the 2×32’s). I was also on the platform with two other great lifters, Will Dollar (of Brighton Kettlebell club) and Tom Mayes (coach at Momentum Kettlebell Club), both on 2 x32’s:

This one is in the closing seconds of the 10 minute set, I’m looking slightly less composed than the start…. 🙂

A write up of the day’s events from coach Steve Dawson is here

In addition to the day to day competition training I have also become the co-secretary of the newly formed Organisation of Kettlebell Sport England (OKSE) which is headed up by Ste Gordon of Tu Nova gym. OKSE’s focus is to be the recognised English kettlebell organisation by the IUKL enabling athletes to represent England internationally at IUKL events, to get the sport recognised in England by Sport England, whilst growing public recognition and participation in the sport. More on this in a separate blog post. We plan on working with the established Girevoy Sport Union (GSU) organisation who are the largest kettlebell sport organisation in the UK and Ireland.