berkshire – STOPJABBAINGON

NATIONAL TRUST DAY OUT

Posted on July 12, 2015August 3, 2015 by simonscholes in Blog

So, while the wife is away in Slovakia visiting her family, I’ve decided to take myself out a few times over the next 10 days on a few mini adventures to places I’ve never visited in the local area.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Jeff kindly took me up flying, you can read the blog here. Part of the route was flying over the Uffington, White Horse. I’ve driven around the area many times, but, I’ve never actually taken the time to stop and take a look at the area, it’s the highest peak in Oxfordshire, and on a clear day you can see 6 counties from one point as you look around. It’s such a beautiful area, as are all National Trust parks and houses.

I arrived and the car park was filling up already. A lot of people go along to spend the day having picnics and tiring out the kids as the run around in the big open spaces. If you’re a National Trust member the car park was free, sadly, Zuzana and I aren’t members, but, the car park costs just £4 for the whole day, so it’s not exactly going to break the bank for a whole family to go up their and spend the day enjoying themselves.

I took a wander up to the viewing area first, you can’t really see the horse from anywhere perfectly (except for the sky) but the area itself is just amazing.

I then walked up to the top of the hill and just above the horse to the highest point on the peak. At this point if you go around a full 360 degrees you can see six counties on a clear day.

I can have a less than rosey view of the UK at times, and have often thought about us moving abroad, however, when you see views like this, it’s makes you realise the UK is a beautiful places and the national trust helps us keep places like this as stunning as they are. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, and it’s great having this opportunity to appreciate what we truly have in this country.

So, where is your favourite National Trust place to visit near you? Maybe, I’ll have to come and see it soon, I know for sure I’m going to try and visit many more this year.

FLYING OVER NEWBURY

Posted on July 4, 2015August 3, 2015 by simonscholes in Blog

So, unless you watch my daily vlogs (stopjabbaingon) you will have no idea that once upon a time I had my PPL. Now this was nearly 7 years ago and I’ve literally not flown since passing as I simply couldn’t afford to.

It was always a dream of mine to be a commercial pilot but I let that dream pass me by many years ago, so when I could afford to learn I took the opportunity with both hands, I even did some of my hours over in Florida at Daytona Beach.

Since passing a lot has happened including meeting a new friend of mine Jeff. He also has a huge passion for flying and has his own sailplanes and a share in an aircraft.

So, we’ve spoken many times about going up together, but, even though it’s been fantastically sunny lately it’s also been quite windy too mean the plane was grounded.

Well, last Monday night I got the email from Jeff, if I was free the next morning we’d be heading up for a flight, but, yet again the wind was going to pick up so we only had a small window to go up.

I arrived at the airfield at 9am. After a brew, we got the plane out the hanger, did all the pre flight checks and got on board and away we went.

Jeff had control for the take off etc and then just chucked the flight into my hands. Gave me a course to fly and away we went. We flew over the White Horse, back down over Watership Down and then around Newbury (Donnington Castle, my home area) a fair bit before coming back down again.

DONNINGTON SQUARE — DONNING TON CASTLE, BERKSHIRE

I really can’t thank Jeff enough for the experience of going up flying again after all this time and I can’t wait to do it all, and next time I’ll buy us lunch wherever we land.

TRAINING 28TH MAY 2015

Posted on June 4, 2015June 4, 2015 by simonscholes in Blog

So today was a leg’s session for the morning. I’m trying to exhaust the muscles during my sessions at the moment so I work through hypertrophy. I’ve a couple of leg niggles so have to be careful still managed this session

Hammer strength leg raises, 12 x 10 (for 6) 8 (for 3) 4 (for 3) @ 20kg per leg

Leg Press, 1 x 8 @ 100,150,200,250,300,350,300,250,200,150,100kg super setted with leg raises @ 10kg per leg x 8

Deadlift 4 x 12 @ 60kg

Calf Raises (hammer strength seated machine) 6 x 15 @ 40kg

Training 27th May 2015 (Lunch Session)

Posted on May 31, 2015May 31, 2015 by simonscholes in Blog, Sport

So, my training partner and I have decided that as good as doing HIIT sessions is we need to do something different that’s less counter productive to what we’re trying to achieve body wise.

Many people talk about constant low effort walking etc etc. So we thought we’d give it a crack. We normally burn around 600 calories in a 30 minute session of HIIT so didn’t expect to come anywhere near this during our cardio walking session.

We set the treadmill on an incline of 15% (as high as it would go) and set the pace at 5kph and cracked on.

Bloody hell fire. 8 minutes in and we’re both sweating, 20 minutes in and we up the pace to 5.5 then 6kph for the final 5 minutes. Just a little over 500 calories in 30 minutes and we where both sweating just as much as we would doing HIIT. However, I think the walking was actually a little bit harder than the usual cross trainer session. I was frankly blowing out my arse, and was loving every minute of it. Here’s to more walking sessions in the future (3 a week) and let’s see what happens.

What cardio session do you do that works for you?

Local Photography

Posted on May 28, 2015 by simonscholes in Blog

After a crazy busy day with admin and editing videos for clients on Wednesday morning and afternoon, I decided to spend an hour or so at the end of the working day capturing some footage for my daily vlog and take a few photos too.

I wandered my way up to a local historical area at Donnington Castle in Newbury. It’s a stunning area with lots of park land around it and some fabulous views of the local area from it’s peak.

The striking twin-towered 14th-century gatehouse of this castle, later the focus of a Civil War siege and battle, survives amid impressive earthworks. The gatehouse, which is two storeys high and is roofed at battlement level, serves as evidence for the luxury and privacy enjoyed by Sir Richard Abberbury, whose private quarters would have been situated within this part of the castle.

The gate passage has a finely vaulted ceiling, while elegant stone string courses with carved gargoyles decorate the outside. At the rear of the gatehouse the fireplaces and doors indicate the floor levels. Patches of brickwork show where the gatehouse was damaged during the Civil War sieges.

*history courtesy of English Heritage

The pollen count was high and frankly almost killed me, but it was such a stunning evening I really didn’t want to leave for home.

My Training Monday 27th April

Posted on April 27, 2015April 28, 2015 by simonscholes in Uncategorized

So, I’ve had a few people in the past ask me what I do training wise and how to train themselves. I’d never suggest what I do as training will work for someone else, hell, it barely works for me sometimes unless I get my diet sorted out. Anyway, I’m going to start posting my training each day so you have a rough idea what I’m doing each day work out wise. So let’s get this thing started, Monday 27th April 2015 7am – Weights, Chest Session Incline Bench Dumbell Press, warm up 3 x 8 reps with 10kg bells. Main session, 35kg bells x 8, 32.5kg x 8, 30kg x 8, 27.5kg x 8, 25kg x 8, 22.5kg x 8, 20kg x 8, 17.5kg x 8, 15kg x 8, 12.5kg x 8, 10kg x 8, 7.5kg x 8 Flat Bench Dumbbell Press, warm up 3 x 8 reps with 10kg bells. Main session, 35kg bells x 8, 32.5kg x 8, 30kg x 8, 27.5kg x 8, 25kg x 8, 22.5kg x 8, 20kg x 8, 17.5kg x 8, 15kg x 8, 12.5kg x 8, 10kg x 8, 7.5kg x 8 Cable Flyes, 3 x 8 @15kg Tricep Press machine (chest exercise), 70kg x 8, 60kg x 8, 50kg x 8, 40kg x 8, 30kg x 8, 20kg x 8, 10kg x 20 30 minutes on the exercise bike easy calm cycle. 1pm lunch session, Hard cardio session. 30 mins x-trainer, 502 calories done in total. So there we go, that’s today’s sessions, keep your eyes peeled to be bored more by my training sessions. Let me know what you’re getting up to training wise guys. Cheers Si