Ocean Crossing With Roz Savage

San Fransciso To Hawaii Images: Courtesy of Roz Savage

Settling In

“Since then I’ve adopted a much more relaxed attitude to training. Now I spend between 30 and 90 minutes a day in the gym, depending on my other commitments. It’s pretty much a ‘fitness for life’ philosophy; the kind of training that any person would do to keep their body relatively fit and lean.

“In a routine week I’ll do a cardio session each day. In those sessions I like to break it up by doing intervals – between 30 seconds and 5 minutes at higher intensity, before taking it back down for a recovery period. I use a heart-rate monitor to track my effort level, aiming to get into the 140-170bpm range for the higher intensity intervals. Each of those sessions normally lasts between 40

to 60 minutes.

“As well, I’ll also do six weight training sessions a week, focussing on different sections of the body each session: legs and abs one day, back and shoulders the next, and so on. I typically do 12 different exercises, one set of 15 reps each, at the maximum weight I can manage for this many reps.

“Of course, there’s rarely a ‘routine’ week. I try to do my workout first thing in the morning, before I log onto email and get overtaken by distractions. If I have an early start, I try to do at least something – a quick cardio workout, a few push-ups, a few crunches ... Just something to make my body feel challenged.”

Beating Boredom

“The main challenge in my training is boredom. I’ve run a couple of marathons and the biggest challenge is your mind. I find negative thoughts just bubble up – like when you’re ten minutes into a three-hour training run, and you’re already thinking, ‘Bored, bored, bored.’ The psychological aspect is just huge. You just have to believe that the determination to succeed can overcome physical shortcomings.

“If all else fails, podcasts, audiobooks and good music all help distract the mind. Recently I’ve also enjoyed using some iPhone apps to help motivate me – CrunchFu, PushupFu and SquatFu set me targets, count my reps, tell me if I’m falling off full range, and give me a grade at the end. If I’m struggling for motivation, having a robot tell me what to do somehow eliminates the option to wimp out early.”