For My Friend Steve

It has been a few days since I posted and it has been an emotional few days. Last week I received the very sad news that my friend and ex-colleague Steve passed away after his inspirational 5 year battle against cancer.

Steve always treated his cancer with the respectful contempt that it deserved, he carried on living his life to the absolute maximum, determined that it would never get the better of him. There were a great number of people who never knew the battles that he fought on a daily basis; and that was Steve all over - life was always for the living, not for anthing else.

I am proud to have called Steve a friend and I will always be grateful for the advice, friendship and experience he gave me; I will always be grateful for the difference that he made to my life and the up-front and brutally honest counsel he gave me. I will always miss him.

Sleep safe and peacefully my friend xxx

Ouch!

Now, I know I only posted yesterday but I just had to post after going through my programme again today and wow, wow, wow it hurt!

I felt great after about an hour but my legs were a little stiff before I started today so, being honest, I wasn't overly hopeful BUT I managed it.

That is now 3 days in a row and I have a enforced day off tomorrow as I just don't have the time to attend the gym, but I will be getting in plenty of walking so it all to the good!

Pain & Dedication

It has been a week or so since I updated the blog and I thought that it was time that got my a**e into gear and told you where I am at!

I have now had a specific programme designed for me to train and boy is it a challenge! Thank you to Gina for putting me through my paces and for pointing me in the right direction. The programme is built around what Gina endearingly calls "horrible intervals" - and they are pretty horrible and they certainly push me to the limit but I feel great afterwards!

I start with a warm-up and then one set of "horrible intervals" then toning based around squats and lunges with hand weights to tone and build the upper body with a little bit of rotational variation to work the core; then another set of "horrible intervals" followed by upper body combined with core on the stability ball; the final stage is another set of "horrible intervals" and the cool-down.

I have to admit that after my first time through the programme I had trouble getting up and down a flight of stairs without my legs burning but as I discused with Gina if I can really enjoy the experience next year as well as complete it then it will be fantastic.

As a bonus, I have lost another 2lb, so that makes it half a stone in just a matter of weeks!

Fundraising is going steady but I have had a few ideas on how to ramp it up a bit, so hopefully that is going to gain momentum over the next few weeks or so. Also my Mum has a plan of attack for the people that she knows - God Bless Mums!

Training hard and 5lb lost!

A serious amount of training has been going on this week. At least an hour and a half everyday this week and some days even two and a half hours.

At the moment the training is focusing on building my stamina for walking and climbing and I have been doing some serious interval training on the cross-trainer and treadmill, along with core stability and strengthening work.

Some days the training is easier than others, but I need to get through the trekking for 7 days tiredness barrier.

The benefit of training so far is that I have lost 5lb as a result and my general energy levels are higher - which is a nightmare for my sleep pattern as I don't feel tired in the evening and by the time I feel tired enough to sleep - it is more or less time to get up!

Next step is to find some routes that I can actually go out walking - but my favourite walking places are a bit far at the moment for the cost of petrol!

Don't forget to sponsor me when you get the chance.

Thanks for reading x