Well I’m me, that’s Robert McCombe if you want my real name. At time of writing I live in Scotland in the UK and I’m 37. I have two kids and a lovely wife. I’ve spent the last 10 months on a fitness journey and this blog covers my log of my next steps.
Why have I created this blog?
Well that’s pretty simple, in December 2023 I joined a gym (Ultimate Fitness in Chapelhall, North Lanarkshire) and it simple changed my life. How? Well initially I joined for the same reason I imagine the majority join gyms… to loose weight and get thinner. It’s what I call a Mom and Pop gym i.e. privately owned by a family you know the owner and their family just by going to the gym.
Ultimate Fitness
Ultimate Fitness is a classic gym with a free use gym and coach based sessions. The sessions either fall under the Small Group Personal Trainer (SGPT) program or Group Coach program. I signed up for the SGPT first as I hadn’t done free weights for a long time and I needed structure to my nutrition and exercise regime. The SGPT gave me confidence with just going to the gym, you booked in, went to the session and were told what to do. You were even told a calorie deficit and protein target and they contacted you each week on WhatsApp to make sure you were doing what you said you would.
It was perfect for me, I’d had my second daughter in June 2022 and structure had just left my life. The ability to book into classes forced me into the same early morning regime I had before June 2022. Up at 5am, schedule my day, change for the gym and head off to gym at 5:45am for a session at 6am. Eventually I got fit enough by February to start adding in some conditioning/cardio sessions (the 6:30am class).
Weight Loss Galore
Over the course of January to end of April I went from 111.3kg to 99.5kg. Then Ultimate Fitness did something they do once or twice a year. The Shred Games. Basically a competition to see who has the most improvement over the course of 4 weeks. It was brilliant you were encouraged to go to as many classes as possible, the interaction on the Ultimate Fitness Facebook group was incredible. I ended up using it to meet all the coaches and made stupid videos every time I got a new one on my stamp card.
I lost 7kg in one month! I didn’t win, but that didn’t matter I was the strongest, thinnest and felt the best I had in years.
The Change in Outlook – Reece Muslek Personal Training
Up until then exercise had always been about loosing weight to me but the Shred Games changed my outlook. I was interacting with people in the gym and seeing that they weren’t coming to get better looking, they were coming because they loved the high they got from working out.
It was no longer about looks, it was about performance.
In June I signed up with Reece Muslek Personal Training, one of the head coaches at Ultimate Fitness. My outlook shifted from loosing weight to Performance I wanted to achieve things.
The Goals
Reece got me to decide what my goals were long term and focus on them. These goals were;
- Develop a long lasting sustainable nutritional plan that can last me until I’m in my 80’s
- Teach me about nutrition
- Develop my understanding of exercise and form so I don’t injury myself
- Be able to complete…
- Full Ironman
Sub 4 Hour MarathonI changed this to a Sub 3 Hour Marathon now ha!
And so comes this blog
Over the course of the last 4 months since joining with Reece…
- Lost a further 8kg
- Put on a ton of muscle
- Ran my Fastest ever 5k (23:40)
- Ran my Fastest ever 10k (48:38)
- Ran my first Half Marathon (1:53:20)
The Hybrid Athlete
Reece calls me “The Hybrid Athlete”, I like this. It’s something I want to be. An Athlete. I’ve never been fit, I’ve never more than casually exercised. I want to be the best that I can be. I was never the fastest in School or had the most endurance. Maybe now is my time? I’m 37 better late than ever.
But why this blog!
So I’ve really started to focus on running. I’ve got Hyrox Glasgow and Manchester Marathon coming up! No matter where I looked on the internet all the popular Youtube Channels and running blogs all seemed to concentrate on people who I would say are naturally gifted or got into running after already having an existing fitness base in something else. The closest I found was @marklewis who is incredibly funny but unfortunately has already got over the fat to fit stage by about 8 years so everything is retrospective rather than at the time, still he is very funny and I recommend watching his videos.
What about the people who didn’t exercise at all, their entire lives, if you take someone like that and push them to the extreme in a structured way how fast can they run, how much can they endure. I wanted to hear their stories, what they did to get to sub 3 hours in a marathon. The pain the struggle. I wanted the entire story. There was nothing in detail (no I don’t want 5 tips to improve my park run!), so this blog has formed so I can take my notes and struggles in running, swimming, weights, cycling and weights. So anyone can see what to do and what not to do.
The question is how far can I actually go? What can I actually do?
