Well what a rubbish morning but a great afternoon. I'll not bore you with the morning debacle but sad to say I missed my catch-up with Marc Rocca which would have been great (because it always is and because he's smart/creative).
The late afternoon however .... so much better including my first stake in the ground regarding my ability to 'cross-country ski' (or rather simulate it on a cross-trainer). Three miles in 90 minutes doesn't sound great but it is what it is; settings were level 4, maintaining 115-145 spm (ski's per minute). That helps me understand how much I need to improve to hit two of my milestones in my prep for the North Pole.
One of the milestones will be the day before my 50th birthday (no no, no cards necessary for 30th July thank you just donations, which we'll come on to later) when my lovely cousin Mandy runs the Jane Tomlinson 10k Run-For-All in Leeds along with thousands of others, I hope to be simulating skiing for the same distance (10k) on the same day with something like 20lbs on my back to replicate pulling a sled.
Another milestone will be to build that up to simulating skiing for 13 miles for September on the day of the Great North Run, again with something on my back to replicate the effort of pulling a sled.
Now before I forget, donations. A few people have asked me if I have a website page yet for donations and the answer is no, not yet. I will be setting one up on the Virgin equivalent of Just Giving, primarily because I believe Virgin take less of a % from donations for their services. I will of course validate that but the MS Society and Samaritans have told me that so who am I to disagree.
Ah yes, the charities. Well I've now had e-mail, voice or face-to-face conversations with the MS Society, the Jane Tomlinson Appeal, the Samaritans and Candlelighters and have a meeting with the Yorkshire Childrens Hospital (second in size only to Great Ormond Street evidently) set up. That leaves Muscular Dystrophy and maybe one or two more to try to get a conversation with so, I'll be e-mailing them over the weekend.
I've also decided to go B-I-G on this in terms of aspirations with some VERY serious plans that will either temporarily break my spirit when they fail or catapult me through the roof if they succeed. Watch this space (although don't just sit there waiting as it may take a few months and you'll need to move to at least get a cup of tea I'd guess).
To support this 'getting super-serious about it'-approach I'm discussing with a professional services firm if they could provide free auditing of any and all monies being donated and/or sponsorship. They seem pretty excited about the whole thing.
I also hope to have an iPhone app developed to allow people with an iPhone (obviously) to keep up to date, and hope not to have to creep too much to get someone to develop it for free. Of course the priority is to ensure I personally underwrite the cost of doing the trek not spend money on stuff and, believe you me, the trek ain't cheap!! I'm paying the deposit next week of £7 500 so I'll be feasting on dried bread and puddle water for a month or two at least.
Sunday evening is my next 3-hour ski lesson so I'll let you know how that goes too. Might be onto the big slope at Xscape by 9pm.
Oh yeah and before I forget, a very small thank-you to my colleagues in bTp Business Change Assurance at Co-operative Financial Services for buying me a pack of nappy sacks and baby wipes to start my training as, evidently, the baby wipes are because that's what I'll be expected to use to 'wash' with and ..... well the nappy sacks speak for themselves I guess as you supposedly can't leave anything behind on your way to the Pole : (
Okay, got to go. Type to you later
The late afternoon however .... so much better including my first stake in the ground regarding my ability to 'cross-country ski' (or rather simulate it on a cross-trainer). Three miles in 90 minutes doesn't sound great but it is what it is; settings were level 4, maintaining 115-145 spm (ski's per minute). That helps me understand how much I need to improve to hit two of my milestones in my prep for the North Pole.
One of the milestones will be the day before my 50th birthday (no no, no cards necessary for 30th July thank you just donations, which we'll come on to later) when my lovely cousin Mandy runs the Jane Tomlinson 10k Run-For-All in Leeds along with thousands of others, I hope to be simulating skiing for the same distance (10k) on the same day with something like 20lbs on my back to replicate pulling a sled.
Another milestone will be to build that up to simulating skiing for 13 miles for September on the day of the Great North Run, again with something on my back to replicate the effort of pulling a sled.
Now before I forget, donations. A few people have asked me if I have a website page yet for donations and the answer is no, not yet. I will be setting one up on the Virgin equivalent of Just Giving, primarily because I believe Virgin take less of a % from donations for their services. I will of course validate that but the MS Society and Samaritans have told me that so who am I to disagree.
Ah yes, the charities. Well I've now had e-mail, voice or face-to-face conversations with the MS Society, the Jane Tomlinson Appeal, the Samaritans and Candlelighters and have a meeting with the Yorkshire Childrens Hospital (second in size only to Great Ormond Street evidently) set up. That leaves Muscular Dystrophy and maybe one or two more to try to get a conversation with so, I'll be e-mailing them over the weekend.
I've also decided to go B-I-G on this in terms of aspirations with some VERY serious plans that will either temporarily break my spirit when they fail or catapult me through the roof if they succeed. Watch this space (although don't just sit there waiting as it may take a few months and you'll need to move to at least get a cup of tea I'd guess).
To support this 'getting super-serious about it'-approach I'm discussing with a professional services firm if they could provide free auditing of any and all monies being donated and/or sponsorship. They seem pretty excited about the whole thing.
I also hope to have an iPhone app developed to allow people with an iPhone (obviously) to keep up to date, and hope not to have to creep too much to get someone to develop it for free. Of course the priority is to ensure I personally underwrite the cost of doing the trek not spend money on stuff and, believe you me, the trek ain't cheap!! I'm paying the deposit next week of £7 500 so I'll be feasting on dried bread and puddle water for a month or two at least.
Sunday evening is my next 3-hour ski lesson so I'll let you know how that goes too. Might be onto the big slope at Xscape by 9pm.
Oh yeah and before I forget, a very small thank-you to my colleagues in bTp Business Change Assurance at Co-operative Financial Services for buying me a pack of nappy sacks and baby wipes to start my training as, evidently, the baby wipes are because that's what I'll be expected to use to 'wash' with and ..... well the nappy sacks speak for themselves I guess as you supposedly can't leave anything behind on your way to the Pole : (
Okay, got to go. Type to you later
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