billycraig

I need to build up gradually, was pretty nice training now its light early

Done!! Amazing ride, would of done anything for a KTM when I was pushing back to the start. Looking forward to seeing some footage.

Thanks everyone for the support, didn't go as planned. Most gutting experience I've ever had, mechanical problems rather than bio-mechanical ones stopped me, despite my knee almost hanging off now I felt good during the trial and felt like the 125 was holding its own out there. Split the rear tyre early on and did 2 fronts just after underbank. Ran out of tubes/time/patience/body-heat. Sorry I didn't make it round, only a year to go until next year and I'm starting training tomorrow at 6:30am.

Can never sleep before the Scott, get far to wound up/nervous. Never tried the painkillers beforehand yet.

Keep the front light, keep the speed up and look well ahead..or get a smaller bike so you feel like your going faster

Left it a little later than normal as I wasn't sure I'd actually be riding. I normally ride for the Wishes for Kids foundation but this year I've met a few people who've inspired me with their bravery so I decided I wanted to do a little bit for Help for Heroes. No pressure on anyone to donate as I know times are hard but if you have a few pence then everything helps. Cheers http://www.justgiving.com/Billy-Craig

You must have some special RAF bits and bobs lurking about

Where did my post go? Am I going mad or did it get removed?

Bit of a shock having that much power after my 125. Really shocked me though as I've never liked the 250, found it really crisp and lots of power, big improvement.

Was very impressive to ride as well.

Nasty injury and hard to fix. Make sure you don't push it too much as cortisone masks pain really well and can lead to people overdoing it while blissfully unaware its still screwed. Take it steady! See if you can talk Steve into coming back up, he was wavering earlier today.

Steve just said you still had a bad shoulder, what was it in the end? Mines in the post so I'll see you up there.

Does anyone one have a contact or copy of the results that they could email? I've tried finding a fax but haven't found anyone who still has one. My dad and my friends are still quite keen to know how they did. Ta

I'm going to need it, will see how I feel when I get there and hopefully my brace will hold through a trial. Next stop the Scott Yeah, on the basis that you'd want to shift fat you'd limit carbohydrate intake so the body would use all its glycogen stores (muscle, liver etc) and turn to fat which is why its always funny seeing someone grab a sports drink pre workout if its weightloss they're after. You'd then do some pretty intense exercise which the body prefers to do using glycogen (sugar) so its hard work. Once I get to the result I wanted I'm usually pretty happy again, although the moment I go on stage I'm usually in a foul mood but I think I'd be pretty wound up at 2am whatever my diet so its hard to call. Not really just the kind of stuff I described before. I learned a lot of commonsense early on in my career. Pre qualification I'd be down the gym for 4 hours a day 365 days a year doing split routines i.e back/chest etc with 2 hours for weights/2 hours for cardio. I was desperate to get fit and loose weight after an accident but after training like a mad man for 395 (yes I recorded them all) days I lost around 4 lbs so I knew for definite that their was more to it. I learned that regularity was more important than the actual amount. So, yes you could loose weight on 1200 calories a day or even 400 like a certain diet plan suggests but; 1) What effect will it have on your health as your not getting enough to survive (RMR) 2) You need a hell of a lot of will power to maintain it as its a miserable existence cutting back. So I used myself for another experiment for a year and did the same amount everyday. I lost weight and my metabolic rate went through the roof as it learned it was getting 4000 a day so it could use 4000 a day. The only issues I had were health wasn't great as to get that amount I needed to eat some junk to hit the figure. 4000 calories worth of lean protein wouldn't be possible!! And that I needed to eat every hour (ish). So I studied more and learned about nutrients that the body requires and I use that clinically now. But it worked for what it was supposed to do and proved that cutting down isn't always necessary. Metabolism is amazing and is their to see us through times of starvation, sadly it never imagined vending machines would come along packed with twinkies in the most convenient places. Now, if someone could develop and engine with a metabolism we'd be on to a winner. The less fuel you give it the more efficient it becomes, when power drops boost it with coffee/sugar and away you go I'd best go see if I can still ride (if I ever could)

Not really that good, what they lack in health/fitness they make up for with talent. I lack the talent so try and make up for it with strength and good training. Its a little shocking seeing good riders eat terrible food, but eating well and the training beforehand usually means no aches and pains during the 6 days. I made it further in last years scott before the pain kicked in so I must be on the right track....not sure what will happen this year though. You'll probably hear me scream on the start line

Wouldn't like to guess, generally the lower you go the more prone you become to injury/illness (obviously the same goes for the higher you go as well). I don't specifically aim for any level (unless I'm off on holiday or have a demo booked ) and just sit around that mark with my diet/exercise as it is. To strip more for a show I'd alter my diet and training to suit and be prepared for the drawbacks (less energy, irritable etc). At the moment I'm trying to carry more body-fat as I'm recovering from injury and don't want to be too lean while I'm attempting to get strong. RMR is the baseline you need for breathing etc. If you want to watch TV, scratch your a***, pick your nose then its still activity (granted its not much). I lost about 4 stone back in 2002 and did it eating 4000ish calories a day. I knew I wanted to be very active after being immobile for so long so I became a personal trainer so that I'd be on my feet all day. I did my workouts and always at large in the morning (its not called break-fast for nothing) and got smaller throughout the day. I ate at the same time each day and pretty soon I was down to 11 stone. Cutting calories means your body is missing out, it won't just delve straight into fat stores as it doesn't know when it'll get fed again so it tends to lock these down and slow the metabolism. The only secret of health/weight normalisation is to let it know its getting fed regularly and build up a little trust. Do it that way and your less likely to crack and eat junk due to being starved. Theirs no need for any drastic measures

Too much stress causes excess cortisol to be produced, too much physical stress (overtraining, poor posture, trauma, etc), emotional stress (hating your job, relationship, bank manager etc), nutritional stress (eating/drinking crap, missing meals, dehydration etc), Circadian stress (poor sleep patterns etc). So, excess stress (cortisol) will give you a fat belly, low testosterone will give you fat arms, and carbohydrates with their powerful impact upon the insulin will give you love handles.

I don't really vary that much from a normal day. I have a huge breakfast which is mainly protein which a little fruit after to fuel my muscles. On the way down to the paddock I start making my way through my first 2 litres of evian with a little sea salt. At the dinner break when everyone is having the mars bar, burger on white bread and lucozade I typically have a piece of steak or lamb and maybe an apple or banana. I'd then take another piece of fruit with me for an hour or so from the end. At rest you need 25 calories per kg so a 70 kg person would need 1750 just to lay in bed. If you want to start moving around a little then this needs to increase as your resting metabolic rate (RMR) only covers the amount of energy required to keep essential functions ticking over (heart, brain etc). This needs multiplying by an activity factor. 1.2 Sedentary Little or no exercise and desk job 1.375 Lightly Active Light exercise or sports 1-3 days a week 1.55 Moderately Active Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week 1.725 Very Active Hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week4 1.9 Extremely Active Hard daily exercise or sports and physical job Their are many formulas for working this out and many machines for testing it such as the one I occasionally use. When I did my first ever nutrition course at loughborough university many many years ago the lecturer stressed that how you get to the figure is not important (i.e how you worked it out) as every formula gives slightly different answers. The trick is ensuring your body gets exactly the same everyday so it learns that its going to get fed at a particular time with a set amount of energy (food). When it knows this is coming it can start using what you give it rather than storing it (so your metabolic rate rises). Sadly out of 30 of us in my group I was the only one who understood it, its quite a simple concept but everyone was sold on the idea of restriction. Obviously if you massively overeat it will store, but, in my experience people don't overeat they just eat erratically. I had a 25 stone client through the local radio station who survived on rice cakes etc which equated to around 600 calories a day. Do the math and see how much she's starving herself by? For men the american council on exercise (ACE) give 2-4% as essential fat, 6-13 as athlete, 14-17 as fitness, 18-26 as acceptable, 27-37 as overweight and 38+ as obese (or pork pie). Again their are a multitude of formulas to work this out and remember non are accurate so just use it as a comparison to your last reading. Remember accuracy depends upon the test conditions so it must be the same time of day, having gone through the same diet/hydration levels, tested by the same person or machine etc otherwise its even less use. I occasionally do a skinfold measurement but I always take it with a pinch of salt as I can use various methods to get results anywhere between 6% and 12% for myself (handy for cheering a client up but not that ethical I guess). Also bare in mind the sites a reading may be taken at, if you only do specific sites you may miss the distribution area for that clients adipose tissue. Where it ends up is largely due to hormones within the body. So abdominal fat is linked to excess cortisol which is trials riders worry. Hope that helps.

Not got time to reply about body-fat levels as I'm off out so I'll try and explain it for you tomorrow. On top of the water I recommended in the other post I always weigh my athletes before a competition and if their weight changes by the end I have them drink the same amount that they've lost. For reference during last years Scott and this years Scottish and a marathon I did a few years back my weight stayed stable. If it was that easy (i.e go and run for hours and loose weight) the nation wouldn't have a problem. Most of what I see clinically in most people is either water loss or them being in a high stressed catabolic state.

Rode an 09 200 and loved it mate. I'd definetly try and get a go on one before choosing. Rode a 250 and 290 earlier in the year and found them so much better than the Rev 3. 200 really surprised me and initially I thought I'd been given a 250..

It takes a lot of effort to put on size which is why its so laughable when women get scared of lifting weights. To get size you'd need 4-6ish reps with long rest periods (4-5 mins maybe) and multiple sets. Its not uncommon when I'm trying to get size on a client to have 12 sets of 4 reps with massive rest periods, To cut up diet is 95% of it, without it any training is futile. You'd limit carbs and burn all the glycogen in your muscles with weights and then use intense cardio to burn fat (no glycogen left so the body will use fat stores). If I have a model who needs to prep for a photo shoot they can normally lean up and stay healthy in 4 weeks if they know what they're doing.

Started riding with Leigh in the youths at the YMSA and like everyone has said Leigh was a truly nice guy from a great family who always had time for everyone. Condolences to his family, R.I.P Leigh you'll be missed

I do sometimes use that, although lower weight confuses people, even if you do 20 reps it still needs to be enough weight that you could only do 21 reps maximum. The aamount of times I've seen people select a weight that they could easily do 50 reps with. Remember it has to overload the muscle. Even during a normal program lifting weights for 60-90 seconds is a good cardio workout. 10 reps at a 3-0-3 tempo would be 60 seconds and if you breathe properly during the exercise your getting a good aerobic workout while lifting a weight. The better you breath, the more effectively you burn fuel so you can progress to more weight etc

Just weights because I use that as cardio, if they could do cardio after it'd be only around 5 minutes to completely fatigue them. If the weights right then you'll be just about 'cooked' at the end of the program. I usually take credit card or direct debits because they end up that neurally fatigued they can't sign their own name well enough. I aim to get them that way to futher the whole neuro-muscular system. Think about all the stupid mistakes you've made when your brain starts sending messages more slowly. I'd always do the important bit first, so if your an athlete working an your starts that would be far more important than your weights. I'd suggest that by doing your cardio first your ending up with a poor performance on your weight. Why not, do a brief warm up, do your weights at the correct level i.e you use the correct weight for the reps you require so you can manage only one more rep. Take the proper rest period etc and then do your cardio at the end. This way you'll be fatigued (if you've honestly worked hard enough) so the cardio will be replicating the end of a trial when you get tired so you don't have to go so far.... If you can still do 40 mins of cardio try getting someone to check your program in case your being soft on yourself. The amount of clients I see who tell me they're working properly yet can manage an hours cardio. Once I change the program it tends to be a 10 minute walk to chill out.