What a week I had when I went training in the local park; 50 miles over 7 days with a 15kg tyre and a Saturday morning PT session with Paul. The picture above is how the weather looked on the Friday and, thankfully, it's just got colder as we progressed through the week to today (Sunday 4th December).
Of course that didn't stop it from hailing and raining on Friday 25th November while I was out pulling for another 8 miles. That day also saw me bask in the glory of a sports massage on my legs, or rather it saw me squirm with pain as Becki (or 'crazy Becki' as the brave and the (now) dead dare call her) seemed to have such fun dragging what felt like a cross between razor blades and a bradawl up and down my muscles, laughing with glee at every gasp and yelp.
The weekend activites also saw the SECOND technical hitch of the week and another hurried trip to B&Q but this time, success!! I now have a hooked bolt through my tyre and weather and abrasion-resistant rope so no more of this hopefully .............
I was back to work last week but after my fun week training, on the Monday evening I decided enough pussy-footing around, I needed a cardio PT as well as a strength/endurance PT and so, with Paul not working on Mondays at Iveridge Health Club, I decided on 'crazy Becki' instead.
Bless her she's not really that bad but she does ride mountain bikes VERY fast down VERY steep hills and argues with trees a lot on the way down. She also 'boulders' and 'North Shores' in her spare time but if you ever want a role model for abs (on a pretty woman, not a flicker of 'butch' about her I hasten to add) then Becki is the one.
That had to be the hardest 26 minutes exercise I'd done for a while but I'm now committed to the next ten 30-minute sessions as it's going to prove invaluable. Hmm so there's that, Paul on a Saturday morning, my Wednesday morning self-managed sessions (by far the hardest of course) and I have to fit in more tyre drags. Looks like I might need to swap Monday evenings for Wednesday mornings as Lucia and I need to head to the gym too.
I also met up with my friend Al(ison) on Wednesday and she's offered to help me organise and chase potential PR and fundraising opportunities. This is her on holiday, not waiting for me outside Zinc in Manchester. She will be an AMAZING asset to help and ... if anyone in Manchester is looking for a lively, creative, energetic internal PR-type person/sales co-ordinator then this is your woman !!
Today's tyre drag was hard work but also had a great sense of achievement. Time was limited and the weather was foul (although nowhere near cold enough). In 2 hours I managed 4 miles with two tyres (a big one and a little one, totalling 21kg) and the ground wasn't secure .......
That drag mark was actually 18 inches long and was just one of several as I tried to go up a hill three times in a row as part of every 2-mile circuit. I did of course manage all three climbs both times I attempted it, but it was a wee insight into what climbing ice might be like (but without the icy consequences).
Today also had a first; a car pulled over and the couple inside stopped to ask what I was doing and wanted to know more. Trust me not to have packed some of my new 'business cards' courtesy of Rushfirth Creative.
Earlier this week (jumping around a bit aren't I) a colleague at work asked how I occupy my mind as I drag the tyres if I don't listen to music or an audio book on my iPod? Well apart from the odd hello to either people inquisitive to know more or people who I see on a regular basis, it's mainly thoughts about the challenge itslef, the cost, the usual things in life and Twitter take up lots of time. Here are a few thoughts from today I thought I;'d share with you: -
a) I'm up to 50 companies who want to be #ontheflag; wonder how I'll get the other 70? That reminded me of Twitter and a smile crossed my face as I recalled a photo someone posted last week ...
b) After that I thought about how I need to plan what I'm going to do for my stand at the Yorkshire Mafia Conference 2012 in March; the layout, the aim and the 'special offers' to attract fundraising, which then made me think ....
c) Must not forget I need to work for YEARS to recover the cost of this trek; £26 000 for the trek, £1 600 for the insurance, £2 000 for training, another £1 000 for the proposed Norwegian training week in March, £500 I've currently spent on training equipment & sundry spend on 'stuff' like leaflets. Hmm total = £31 000
d) I briefly reminded myself of a discovery during the week too (which p*ss*d me off); a guy doing the trek the week before me has the same £100 000 fundraising aspiration. I'm approaching £12 000 and, looking at his JustGiving page, he's on ............................ £95 000 !! Oh crap. Mind you most of his donations appear to be £1 000 or £1 500 from individuals and couples and I just don't move in those circles. I still want to show a particular person how WRONG they were when they said I wouldn't get near the £100 000 though.
e) Then I began to think through the implications of my proposed 2014 adventure ... and got a headache, so I decided to focus on one adventure at a time, which brought me back to the news that ....
f) We have 2 additional Trekkers as of this week; Sara and Selena. That makes 8 trekkers now.
And so that's it for tonight (or rather this morning as the clock tells me it's 00:07hrs now). So much for an early night again and looks like snow is falling. After today's biting wind it just might start to get a little bit cold. Hurrah !!!! Err why is everyone staring at me???
Better finish off with a cute picture to make everyone go "Awww" and stop wanting to hang me out to freeze.
No comments:
Post a Comment