What’s Joe Bonington Been Up To?

04 Apr What’s Joe Bonington Been Up To?

People have been asking me what I do to keep myself on track, So I thought I’d do a bit of a breakdown of what I’m up to at the moment, motivation, learning and training wise. So here we go
“What’s Joe Been Up To?…..”
Right now I’m listening to Ben Greenfield – for those that don’t know Ben is a Personal Trainer and highly competitive Obstacle course racer was voted one of top influential fitness professionals in the US. He has a great podcast that covers everything from nutrition and diet, training, recovery, life hacks, even building better relationships and mindset. I love his information, he can geek out a bit which personally I love, but in general his information is very hands on, useful and instantly applicable. He’s very outspoken and competes at a very high level in races like Ironman Hawaii with only 10 hours training a week.
If you are interested in endurance events or just living a healthier more fulfilled life, he’s definitely worth subscribing too.
I’m reading 3 books at the moment too (this might be my ADD/ADHD coming into play…. but I always seem to have multiple books on the go)
Training for the new Alpinism By Steve House and Scott Johnston for the umpteenth time. I love this text. Really well put together and the core principles are transferable across most adventure based sports, not just alpinism and mountaineering. This truly is Strength and Conditioning porn for me…. a very well thumbed book.
On my kindle I’ve got Tim Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.  If you haven’t heard of Tim Ferriss, you have been living under a rock. First published in 2007, this his first book has become a classic for the “life by design” movement. I love Tim Ferriss and everything he does. His whole human self experiments are right up my street. If I was to be stuck in a tent with someone I reckon it would be Tim. If you want to change the way you look at your life and your perceptions of what is achievable, read the 4 hour work week.
Still on reading, you should always turn off the TV and any other screens and read some fiction before bed to relax the mind. For some light reading I’m currently reading Wars of the Roses Trinity by Conn Iggulden. I do love a historical novel. This one is set in England at the start of the war of the roses in the 1400s. If I need to unwind, I will always reach for something like this or some Sci Fi or Fantasy … the more battles, the better!
Music wise I’m listening to The Nextmen podcasts. This eclectic DJ/Producer duo have played everywhere;  from Richard Bransons parties, MTV, Glastonbury, Space Ibiza, to Notting Hill Carnival.  Blending dancehall, soul, drum and bass, house, hip hop and funk into a mash up of turntable good groove, mayhem and murder! If you want to listen to DJing how it should be, about working the crowd and working the rhythms rather than playing one genre all night; Check em out….. their podcast regularly spikes to number 1 in iTunes.
Now my training.  Working my base baby!!!( see my article Endurance Training: Training for Endurance Sports Adventures and Life PtI). I’m in a sub max aerobic base phase of 12 weeks, backed up with the major lifts of squat and deadlift every week, supplemented some gymnastics/callisthenics work. Milo (the dog) is loving this phase of my training as he is benefiting from shedloads of slow runs for him to join me on.
It’s funny, I never copped so many injuries until I started managing a business as opposed to spending most of my time out on the gym floor. So now I am doing some rehab work for issues related to a jammed up thoracic spine and an RSI issue caused by this bloody mouse!!! Mike Brace from our partners North Curl Curl Sports Physio has got me doing isometric contractions for an inflamed medial epicondyle, as well as some medial rotation/shoulder mobility exercises and serratus push ups. He’s also added some Thoracic extensions to deal on going issues with my Thoracic, which is transferring into my ability to train and being compounded by working on the computer.
What am I eating? Bit controversial here. I’m messing around with some intermittent fasting and ketosis at the moment, you can learn more about this on this great podcast with Dave Asprey (founder of Bulletproof coffee) and scientist Dom D’agostino, PhD. Or this podcast with Tim Ferriss and Dr Peter Attia. I do like a bit of an experiment!
I’m starting the day with a butter coffee (otherwise known as bulletproof coffee), using grass fed organic Ghee or butter and MCT oil or Coconut oil.  I eat my first meal around 2pm and eat between 2 and 9pm. I’m still eating roughly the same calories, just in a smaller window. My food choices are high in quality fats Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Medium Chain Triglycerides, lots of low starch veggies (mainly cruciferous, leafy or bitter greens) and a medium amount of protein. Basically fasting for 17 hours per day. On Saturday and through Sunday I’m eating what ever I want and replenishing my bodies glycogen stores.
This is an experiment to see how it works, how it feels, how my performance around endurance is affected and at the other end of the scale what happens to my max power. Watch this space, I’ll write a piece about my findings over the coming weeks.

What else am I doing? Meditating for 15 minutes every morning using Andy Puddycombes brilliant Headspace app (check out his ted talk almost 7000000 views). I’m also using the Intelligent Change Productivity Planner to help my work and the Pomodoro Technique to help my execution. The planner and the Pomodoro have increased how much I get done ten fold, I’m amazed. Those who know me know that I’m a bit of a workaholic… thats because I love what I do, but with these two things in place my work isnt just busy work its alot more productive and I’m finally getting to spend a bit more time doing the things I really love.

….. and when I’m not doing all of the above I’m chilling with my girls and the lovely and very patient Jude.

Let me know if you’ve enjoyed this insight or want to know more about any of the things I’ve mentioned. either email me at joe@joesbasecamp.com or leave me a comment.