How to Run
Remember all those Ethiopian track stars that honed their skills without fancy modern training kit? Like walking this is one of those skills that we all naturally have. We all used to run around like maniacs as kids, in the park, or on the football pitch. But as adults all we seem to remember are those ‘cross-country’ days where we forced to run around a track endlessly in the rain. The thought of running filled me with dread as a younger man, I lived on a beautiful park and one day I thought I’d give it a go. I did what we were taught to do in school, just go at it. About a hundred yards later I had to pull over hold onto a tree and wheeze like a coal miner. I was an extremely heavy smoker at the time which didn’t help. I gave up. Then I found Hal Higdon’s excellent book How to Train. In it he detailed a running plan originally designed by the ex-military coach Chuck Cornett for the over 50s. It’s called the 30/30 plan and it teaches you how to run properly, unlike school.

The Plan – Everyday for 30 days do the following:
Go away from the house for 15 minutes, then turn around and come back to it for a further 15, total time: 30 minutes.
Walk for the first five minutes – this is your warm up.
Walk for the last five minutes – this is your cool down.
For the middle 20 minutes jog or walk as long as you do so easily and do not push yourself. To begin with in your 20 minutes, try jogging 30 seconds, walk thirty seconds and slowly build up your time.

Always listen to what your body tells you. If you want to go faster do it, if you want to go slower, or walk, do that too. I guarantee you that after a week or so you’ll be wanting to go out every day, because if you don’t you’ll miss it.

After your 30 days you’ll be running a mile or three every time you go out and it won’t have been painful in the slightest. After that if you begin to run a little further you’ll find out that lovely little secret of runners everywhere, after 20 minutes the endorphins kick in. You won’t even want to stop.

Hal has updated this plan on his website where you can also find all his other running plans, from 5k to Marathons. In the next few days I’ll add another post on how to increase your aerobic capacity so that you can run faster and longer and with less recovery time between runs.

Well Sam, it’s a good question and one I’m asked regularly, so, by section, here are the people, companies and books I used to do the things you read about in Tank. Book links are at the bottom.

Section 1: Life skills Every Man Should Have

Frank in a Tank

Chapter: How to Drive a Tank
Tank School
Contact: Alastair Scott
Tel: 07971 635189 / 01873 880301
Email: alastairgscott AT tiscali.co.uk (replace AT with @)
Web: http://www.tankschool.co.uk/

Chapter: Handbrake Turns and Other Naughty Driving Skills
Company: Dynamic Drivers
Contact: Richard Knott
Tel: 01934 830303
Email: richardknott1 AT aol.com
Web: http://www.dynamic-drivers.co.uk/

Chapter: Pick Locks, Safes and Chastity Belts
For a peerless and easy to understand lock-picking primer see Locksport Internationals pdf here: http://cdn.makezine.com/make/lsiguide.pdf. And check out Lockpicking101 for everything else, especially their Newbie FAQ. If you’re desperate for bump keys simply google “bump key” with the specific lock you’re after.

Chapter: How to Hotwire Cars and Motorbikes
I used a Bedouin’s pre-stripped Nissan Patrol during a job on the Saudi/Jordan border to illustrate the basics of a car hotwire. You can view it on Nat Geo Adventure here or press play on the Youtube embed below:

Chapter: How to Defeat Security Systems
See this post elsewhere on the blog.

Chapter: How to Get a Gun in any City in the World in the Next Few Hours
A chapter with its tongue firmly wedged in cheek. If you’re after info on the Kambol range in Cambodia check out their armaments and prices here and read about Dan White’s experience here.

Chapter: How to Disappear Without a Trace
For legal and relatively straight forward ways to do this meet Grandpa and the Six Flags or here.

Chapter: How to Hide a Dead Body
Read the chapter, sense of humour required.

Chapter: Make Things Go Boom
I’ll be posting a series of videos on this chapter in time for the paperback launch on November 4th 2010.

Chapter: Drill It ‘Til You Can Kill It
Company: Edelweiss Tactical
Web and contact: http://www.edelweisstactical.com
They have firearms, rapid assault tactics and driving courses available. All are excellent. Watch this space for more details in the coming months.
Videos: Nat Geo or watch below on Youtube embed below:

Chapter: How to Fight – The Everyday Application of Extreme Force
Check out Mick Coup’s videos on this post or go to the Core Combatives website. I highly recommend Mick for zero-BS practical approach to real-world fighting.

Chapter: How to Survive the Wild…Because You Never Know When You Might Need To
Train in remote areas of the UK and abroad with the excellent trainers at Woodsmoke.

Chapter: How to Gamble – It’s All in the Game
There are literally hundreds of websites out there explaining how to play the different forms of casino gambling, two of my fave poker sites are: http://www.cardschat.com and http://www.pokerplayer.co.uk/. Books: Breaking Vegas; Play Blackjack Like the Pros, Professional Blackjack; Holden on Hold ‘em, Big Deal; the always brilliant How to Cheat at Everything and of course these two classic Bond scenes that have defined what gambling and casinos are about for generations: First one shows Baccarat, the second Craps. Enjoy.

Chapter: Learn Any Language – In a Week, In a Month, In a Year
A superb resource for beginners is: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com. Books: Learn Any Language; The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning a Language Fast and any thing by Michel Thomas.

Chapter: Learn to Jam in a Day
Get started now, tune your guitar with www.howtotuneaguitar.org, learn your first blues shuffle with Mojo’s excellent www.threechordguitar.com take a course with www.accessrock.com or study offline with The Complete guitarist.

Section 2 will be posted soon…

Let me know what you think. If you have any English to German translation needs don’t hesitate to contact on Dominik Zander on sanjose1(AT)gmx.net or Donal Elsted the innovative creator of the experiential language learning centre Lerner Leben.  You can also check out their website in both German and English.

There may even be a French translation on its way.

Frank beats himself up for the illustrator

For those of you who enjoyed the chapter How to Fight – The Everyday Application of Extreme Force you’ll know I trained with Mick Coup the originator of Core Combatives (C2 for short). Mick’s uploaded some videos to YouTube that cover the fundamental strikes outlined in the book and I’ve added links to them below.

For those of you who haven’t read the book C2 is a no-nonsense, zero-BS combat system that gives you the fundamental skills and tactics to succeed in a real-world fight.

Mick’s a great guy to train with, both knowledgeable and demanding, and his C2 package is designed to be relied on when the shit really hits the fan. You can also find out more here: www.corecombatives.com.

HIGHLINE STRIKE VIDEOS:

The Basic Highline Strike – Why?

Basic Highline Strike – Lateral Transition Introduction

Now click the following links if you want to watch the rest, enjoy!

Highline Strike Breakdown 1 | Highline Strike Breakdown 2

Elbow Strike Breakdown 1 | Elbow Strike Breakdown 2

LOWLINE STRIKE VIDEOS:

Knee Strike Fundamentals

I’m volunteering for a project called 100 Stories for Haiti.

We’re putting together an e-book of short fiction to sell to raise money for the Red Cross and their relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake. If you’ve got a few hours spare to help it would be massively appreciated.

We need: short story submissions, editors and sub-editors

If you want to send a short story, please follow these guidelines:
- No more than 1,000 words
- Stories themed around hope and no stories containing graphic violence, death or destruction
- Send all stories in the body text of an email to 100storiesforhaiti AT gmail.com. Stories sent as attachments will not be opened.
- Stories must be received by Monday 25 January 2010

I’m happy to answer any questions but you’re probably best going straight to the originator of the project Greg McQueen at 100storiesforhaiti AT gmail.com

Press release available from me on request

Thanks muchly.

Sarah

Max from Jersey asks…

“I am a French man based in Jersey and I read your book. I really enjoyed it. I was wondering if you were considering to translate to French at some point? I think it would be a great success in France. Thanks in advance for your answer. Best wishes, Max.”

Thanks for your question Max. I know there are several translation talks going on at the moment and if a French version is commissioned I’ll let you know here. For German readers we should start one or two translations of the sample chapters on the book page in the coming weeks.

Thanks again, and to all my readers, feel free to ask questions at any time. I will always try and respond to you, although please bear in my mind that sometimes my workload or location often means I can’t.

Keep smiling, F.

To start let’s have a quick update from this year’s Explore at the Royal Geographical Society. Did you know there are more than 90 organisations on the RGS’s books looking for volunteers or staff to join their expeditions?

To give you a prime example, the gates have just closed for gap-year students with a lust for adventure and a passion for environmental science on The British Schools Exploring Society’s Extreme Arctic expedition to Svalbard this spring.

To find out more and search the database of organisations looking for people just like you, go here.

In the next two articles I’ll be profiling some of the opportunities available and giving you ideas for two years of space exploration, driving skills and tactical firearms on British soil.

Being Bedouin - A Talk

The evenings are drawing in, but it’s time once again to girdle your loins and brave the weather for an evening at the National Geographic on Regent Street.

This months speaker, Mark Abouzeid, is flying in directly from expedition in Jordan to join us on the 24th. His talk “Being Bedouin” will be about the disappearing desert culture of Wadi Rum, accompanied by video and images.

“How do you capture the entire character of a culture that has no written record, has lived for centuries in relative isolation and exists in complete harmony with one of the world’s most extreme environments?”

I’ve worked closely with Mark over the last couple of years, from the North Pole to the desert, and I can guarantee that he is a totally engaging speaker and this is an opportunity not to miss.

He is one of the founders of the Bedouin Heritage Project and I’ll be featuring some more videos from them over the coming weeks.

As ever the talks are free and last an hour and you will retire to a local hostelry after.

WHERE: 1st Floor, The National Geographic Store, 83-97 Regents Street, London W1B 4EW (see map)

WHEN: 6.30pm, Tuesday, 24th November, 2009.

Full details on the talk below, more details on the weekend here, or go to: www.rgs.org/Explore.

George McGavin Lecture: Full Details Explore 2009 Friday night lecture Exploring biological discoveries from the ends of the earth. A talk by George McGavin · Friday 13 November 2009 at 18.30 · Royal Geographical Society with IBG, London SW7 2AR Cost: £10. Free to Explore delegates and speakers. A handful of scientists and some of the world’s top wildlife filmmakers have visited remote locations in the dense jungles of Borneo, Guyana and Papua New Guinea to document the wealth of wildlife that lives there and highlight the threats to its survival. Working in these difficult environments can test people and equipment to breaking point but the rewards are more than worth it. Nothing else comes close to exploration and biological discovery for drama, excitement and danger. George McGavin shares his exciting discoveries with film clips from his three BBC expeditions, with a talk to open  the Explore 2009 weekend. George McGavin is an Honorary Research Associate of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and Visiting Professor of Entomology at the University of Derby. His research has taken him from the tropical forests of papua New Guinea to the caves of Thailand and from the jungles of Belize to the savannas of Tanzania. George has written numerous books on insects and other animals , and was the chief scientific consultant for the BBC landmark series, Life in the Undergrowth, presented by David Attenborough. He co-presented Expedition Borneo a five part BBC series shown in 2007 and Lost Land of the Jaguar, a three part series screened in 2008. The most recent BBC expedition series,Lost Land of the Volcano, filmed in Papua New Guinea, will be shown on BBC1 in September 2009.

Watch the Video: What is Explore?

Ever wanted to plan your own expedition? Raise funds? Learn how to communicate and navigate, deal with logistics and politics when you’re on the road, or find out what to do with all that information and experience when you’re back?

Then you need to get yourself along to EXPLORE – the expedition & fieldwork planning weekend. Held each year for the last four decades it’s where the potential explorers of the future meet to plan their expeditions, network, and learn from those who’ve already been. 

It’s the kind of thing I wish I’d known about years ago.

The weekend includes lectures and workshops with expert speakers in all fields designed to help you realise your dreams and give you the opportunity to mingle with other like minded people. So don’t sit there wondering ‘What if?’, make it happen.

You could be designing and leading your own expedition before you know it, whether it’s a mountaineering and trekking expedition, tropical forest expedition, polar & arctic environment, desert and savanna environment, above and below the oceans, river canoeing and kayaking, vehicle based expedition, or a bicycle expedition.

To find out more click one of the following links or watch the ‘What is Explore?’ video presented by Paul Deegan.

Programme | Speakers | Opening Lecture (with George McGavin) | Book Online