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James Cater Racing

~ Realising the childhood dream…

James Cater Racing

Tag Archives: lockdown

Preparing to re-start and post-Covid fitness

08 Thursday Jul 2021

Posted by jamescaterracing in Fitness, Formula Vee, Uncategorized

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750 motor club, billy blanks, Birmingham Superprix, covid, CRPS Racing 4A Cure, formula vee, Heritage Parts Centre, iZone Driver Performance, lockdown, Primrose Hospice, race fitness, tae bo, training

The amazing thing is that this is where I had my first ever Formula Vee race back in 2015, and so will be a bit like a re-birth after my two year lay-off.

The Covid lockdown was tough for my fitness. Actually, that’s not entirely true – it’s been so damned long that I’ve put on weight, lost loads, then put on even more into the start of 2021.

More serious than that, was that my overall fitness was terrible. Working from home, rarely going out of the house, no gym, and with no real fitness routine, things had got pretty dire.

I started doing quick five to ten minute online workouts – mainly from Billy Blanks’ Tae Bo program. This was brilliant to get me moving again, and quick enough to fit in on a morning work break to get me away from staring at a PC all day. Highly recommended if you don’t think you can face full-on fitness malarkey (and if you can, he also has hour long, 5000 calorie killer workouts).

Tae Bo "I Like What You Do" (Part 2) - YouTube

There is a fitness program provided with the iZone Driver Performance Training, but that looked far too full-on, so I’ve saved them all to work through when I want something more hardcore. My main focus was to get back to the gym ASAP, which I finally got to do. Oh how I’ve missed that heavy bag for slamming in Thai-style elbows and shin kicks, rather than just filling my face with Thai Pla Sam Rod!

Other than working the bag, my two or three weekly sessions have been all about getting my aerobic fitness back up, and flexibility. I have a strong martial arts background so losing my flexibility for the first time since I was eight years old has really bugged me!

Lots of cross trainer, indoor cycling, rowing and pounding it out on the treadmill. I will switch my focus back to core strength by picking up my weights and going back to 100 squats per day and stuff.

iZone also helped with other things that are often overlooked, and I planned to change this year anyway: I barely used to drink liquids, but upped that to at least two litres per day. I switched to an ‘intermittent fasting’ diet (basically skipping breakfast and having two meals per day between 12pm and 9 in the evening – you just need to learn that feeling hungry doesn’t mean you have to eat). Kevin from iZone recommended healthier snacks that you might not expect – like greek yoghurt, peanut butter or cheese so that your body gets the fat it needs to think it’s full. And I always have a nut mix of almonds, Brazils and walnuts as they all give great nutrition.

This has all lead to me dropping a stone of weight I’d put on, but more importantly hasn’t been anything so extreme that I can’t easily sustain all the changes. It also means I’m not denying myself the odd takeaway or fried breakfast – hey, I still want to love food and this isn’t exactly Formula One!

All of this has also massively stabilised my blood sugars and generally seems to suit me. So that must be worth a few seconds a lap, right?

I have plans for a few other things to boost my performance when I get back on track – some of which I might tell you about in another blog, but possibly not all of it!

I hope you have all been keeping yourselves in shape – you never appreciate your fitness until you don’t have it any more. Go on – do a quick Tai Bo Body Blast and see how good it makes you feel!

Motorsports UK Esports Series and iRacing update

04 Sunday Oct 2020

Posted by jamescaterracing in eracing, Products, Racing, Uncategorized

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covid 19, f3, iRacing, iZone Driver Performance, lockdown, motorsport uk, Motorsports UK iRacing Esports Series, online racing, skip barber, win

In a very strange year, it’s now October, and the only racing I’ve done has been online.

This does mean I’ve sunk many hours into sim racing with iRacing, and improved a fair bit from where I was for my last blog.

I have now completed my first ever full season with iRacing, and also completed the minimum number of weekly races so that I get $10 credit back to spend on the game. If you complete 9 out of 13 weekly races in a season you get $4 credit, up to the maximum of $10 up to a certain licence class, with another $10 available for A and B class events.

I finally have the A licence now, but to be honest it only really allows you to do a couple of much longer endurance events, which I don’t want. I’d much rather have their 15-40 min race format, because I have a job and fiance who would not agree with me doing 24 hour online races!

More importantly, though, I actually did quite well in my overall leagues in the iRacing series I was racing in.

My main race series is still Skip Barber, but I also did pretty well in the RUF, Radical and GT. I stopped racing the basic MX5’s which were a major learning series for me, but still dip in occasionally and also do a few of the Advanced Mazda Cup races. I also concentrate more on the other open wheel series: Formula Sprint, Renault 2.0 and F3. And I’ve used my $10 credit to buy the Ferrari GT3, which seems like a good series to do.

So, as you can see, I finished right up the pointy end of several leagues, which I was chuffed with! This means I get promoted to tougher leagues, so we’ll see how this season goes.

I should note that this is NOT the best way to go iRacing. You should concentrate on just one or two cars and master them. This will mean your iRating goes up as you’ll do far better at your specialist series. If you jump into multiple cars, your iRating score sorts you into races accordingly, so if you’re fast in Skip Barber and then jump into the unraced Ferrari, the game assumes you’re just as good in both, so when you finish right at the back your iRating drops as well.

But I’m doing this for fun, and am happy with an iRating around 1500 as long as I get to drive different stuff.

Last week, I also had my first ever genuine win in the Motorsports UK iRacing Esports Series!

I do quick race reports on my Facebook pages, so you should have seen them already if you’re following them (and you should be!).

I like some layouts of Lime Rock Park, but hate the one with the West Bend Chicane, so you can imagine my ‘joy’ as I logged into the pre-race practice to try the Dallara F3 around there.

However, I soon found I was within a second or two of the usual fastest drivers, and knew I could improve with more laps. I qualified in 3rd place!

With a decent start I actually crossed the line at the end of the first lap in the lead, but lost a place soon after… although I was still right on their tail for the next few laps.

I dropped back a little, but then caught and passed them, and despite several cars giving chase and almost catching me, and some very close calls with some cars I was trying to lap, I won by 6.5 seconds!

Not bad at all!

That leaves me 5th in the championship, but don’t think I have much chance to gain more than a few places, but I’ll give it my best shot. It might be the last time this series is ever run, so I have to make the most of it before I jump back into a real car on a real track…

Which still might be on the cards for Formula Vee this year… Watch this space!

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