Am I nervous? Yes. Am I excited? Yes. I've been planning this Kilimanjaro/one challenge every month in my head for a while now and it's taken me months and months to commit to it. Once I signed up for the Three Peaks Challenge I decided that that would be my starting point. Now it's only two weeks until that first challenge and I'm starting to feel the pressure.
Although I know I am fitter than when I first started out because I can run for longer, lift heavier weights and walk up the stairs without getting out of breath (well some of them anyway!), in all honesty I don't feel as prepared as I would like to be. But then again, will I ever be? Who knows!
So in two weeks' time I will be setting out on the Three Peaks Challenge, climbing the highest mountains in the UK in 24 hours and I'm getting nervous. I'm not nervous that I won't be able to do it as I know that the team spirit and the thought of the children in Ghana will keep me going, I'm nervous that I'm going to find it really really tough and that that feeling will knock my confidence in being able to do the other challenges. I'm not the kind of person to give up but those that know me, know that I'm my own biggest critic and if I struggle with the first challenge I will seriously doubt my ability to complete the others.
What this means is that or the next two weeks I am going to be really focused on my training and put 110% into my physical training and also try and get the diet as strict as possible, at least until Three Peaks is over. Whilst I know that this first challenge is never going to be easy, I'm going to do all I can to train for it.
The scariest part of all of this is that once the first challenge is over, I know I will only have a few weeks to train for the next one and after the second, I'll have a few weeks to train for the third and before I know it I'll be half way up Kili!!
Sunday, 23 June 2013
Sunday, 16 June 2013
Training - Part One
From Monday through to Wednesday this week walking was proving very difficult. Standing up from a sitting position was agony all week (which was interesting as I have been working at a client's office for most of this week! Great impression Danielle)
The reason behind the pain? I've drawn up an excellent new workout routine.....and by excellent I clearly mean stupid! Plus, rather than easing myself into the new routine, I've gone all out exercise obsessed freak.
This all started last Saturday when, feeling slightly fed up at home (Sean was at work) I decided I would pass some time at the gym. A 5km cycle, 10km run and 2.5km row later I decided I could, and would, step up my workout routine every day.
Sunday was stair training. For those of you who know Manchester, you will know that the city centre is flat. For those of you know the Three Peaks Challenge (and those of you don't as it's all in the title), you will know that hill training is required. Clearly the challenge and my location aren't compatible tin terms of the training required so I had to think outside of the box. Luckily I live on the 16th floor of a 23 floor building so there's plenty of stairs to tackle. With the help of Sean, who stood on our floor shouting at me (and, when I got tired, chased me) I managed to run up and down 6 flights of stairs 8 times in 20 minutes. Although tiring, the stairs were fine.......until Monday morning when it felt as though someone had removed about 2 inches of muscle from my calves and sewn them back together again.
Insanely tight calf muscles aside, I decided to push through and continue on my new routine for the rest of the week. Each day of the week consists of two gym sessions - a weights session before work and a CV session after work. This was working out well until Saturday when I decided I would try the 5km cycle, 10km run and 2.5km row again. Needless to say after a week of double gym sessions and long hours at work I didn't have the energy to complete everything.
So, after a very successful week of training, the weekend failure has left me feeling slightly deflated. On the plus side, I'm another half a stone lighter! With the Three Peaks Challenge only 3 weeks away, I'm hoping to follow the new routine until at least then before I give up completely and create a new routine but I'll let you know how it goes.
P.S. Don't forget to sponsor me on my Charitygiving site and give me some more motivation to run up those stairs
The reason behind the pain? I've drawn up an excellent new workout routine.....and by excellent I clearly mean stupid! Plus, rather than easing myself into the new routine, I've gone all out exercise obsessed freak.
This all started last Saturday when, feeling slightly fed up at home (Sean was at work) I decided I would pass some time at the gym. A 5km cycle, 10km run and 2.5km row later I decided I could, and would, step up my workout routine every day.
Sunday was stair training. For those of you who know Manchester, you will know that the city centre is flat. For those of you know the Three Peaks Challenge (and those of you don't as it's all in the title), you will know that hill training is required. Clearly the challenge and my location aren't compatible tin terms of the training required so I had to think outside of the box. Luckily I live on the 16th floor of a 23 floor building so there's plenty of stairs to tackle. With the help of Sean, who stood on our floor shouting at me (and, when I got tired, chased me) I managed to run up and down 6 flights of stairs 8 times in 20 minutes. Although tiring, the stairs were fine.......until Monday morning when it felt as though someone had removed about 2 inches of muscle from my calves and sewn them back together again.
Insanely tight calf muscles aside, I decided to push through and continue on my new routine for the rest of the week. Each day of the week consists of two gym sessions - a weights session before work and a CV session after work. This was working out well until Saturday when I decided I would try the 5km cycle, 10km run and 2.5km row again. Needless to say after a week of double gym sessions and long hours at work I didn't have the energy to complete everything.
So, after a very successful week of training, the weekend failure has left me feeling slightly deflated. On the plus side, I'm another half a stone lighter! With the Three Peaks Challenge only 3 weeks away, I'm hoping to follow the new routine until at least then before I give up completely and create a new routine but I'll let you know how it goes.
P.S. Don't forget to sponsor me on my Charitygiving site and give me some more motivation to run up those stairs
Saturday, 1 June 2013
Payday
Yesterday was payday. That meant three things: 1. Drinks after work, 2. Sponsoring the amazing guys on their Arctic2Africa trip and 3. Signing up for some events over the next 15 months.
Feeling slightly worse for wear, I've spent this morning trawling the internet looking for inspiration. I've started off by picking a few running events as this is what I'm most comfortable with.
A good friend who I met in Ghana, Cat, had mentioned signing up to the Hadleigh Castle 10k run and what better way to start off my 15 months of challenges than with a friend! So that's July (Three Peaks Challenge), August (Hadleigh Castle 10k) and October (Great Birmingham Run) sorted.
Thinking ahead to January next year and the inevitable lack of money, I've decided to detox as one of the challenges I am setting myself. For the whole of January I will be giving up alcohol and caffeine - so while not as physical as the other challenges, still not an easy task as I'm sure most of you will agree.
I'm still looking for more challenges so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. For now, I guess I'd better get back into the gym and cut down on the food and drink!
Please don't forget that all of this work is to raise money for The Raising Hope Foundation and you can sponsor me at any point between now and next October when we climb Kilimanjaro by using this link.
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
The Challenges - A little help please guys
The end goal of all of this is to climb Kilimanjaro next year. Me and Sean will be booking our places on the trip at the end of this month but we're looking at going in October 2014. I realise that I have a lot of training and hard work to do between now and then and thought what better way to keep myself motivated than to have lots of smaller goals along the way. For some crazy reason I then decided that I should have one little goal each month until then.
The Raising Hope Foundation have arranged the Three Peaks Challenge to take place on the 6th/7th July so I have picked this as my starting point. In 24 hours we aim to conquer the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales. We will set off in a minibus on the morning of the saturday, arriving in Ben Nevis in good time to begin walking at 5pm. We then drive through the night to Scafell Pike, arriving at 5am. From there we drive to Snowdon, aiming to reach Snowdon by 2pm - Done. Easy.
Unfortunately, that's as far as my plans have got. I have to find 14 more challenges to take part in - one for each month between July this year and September next year. I'm looking at signing up for a few runs such as the Great South Run, the Manchester 10k but I'm also looking for something a bit different so if anyone has any ideas let me know. Also, if anyone feels inspired to join me on any event, please feel free!
Training - The Beginning
So I've been "training" for about 4 weeks now. I say "training" as what I really mean is familiarising myself with the gym, getting used to early mornings and trying to cut down on the sugar/alcohol/parma ham/cheese intake! May has been a tough month to try and cut down on these things what with all the bank holidays and the glorious summer weather we've been having!
My routine so far has consisted of jogging to the gym, working out and jogging home again by 7am. My gym workouts are alternated between weights and CV (primarily interval training). I didn't think I'd made much improvement until last weekend when me and the boy went for an evening jog in the rain - it was mainly uphill and a bit of a struggle but nothing too traumatic. When we got home my Nike+ fitness told us that we'd run 8.2km - not a bad effort.
Although my running in the gym has improved quite a lot over the last few weeks, I'm still finding it difficult to run outside - kind of a big issue considering all of my events will be outside and Kilimanjaro isn't going to be fitting with a giant treadmill up one side of it any time soon - so I think the next stage is to incorporate some outdoor training. I'm praying that the weather picks up soon because jogging to a warm gym 10 minutes down the road at 5.45am is one thing, running 5k in a blizzard at that time is something very different.
It hasn't been easy but 4 weeks later and I'm a stone lighter and very much looking forward to the first challenge.
P.s. If you're inspired to sponsor me, please visit http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/danielleandsean
My routine so far has consisted of jogging to the gym, working out and jogging home again by 7am. My gym workouts are alternated between weights and CV (primarily interval training). I didn't think I'd made much improvement until last weekend when me and the boy went for an evening jog in the rain - it was mainly uphill and a bit of a struggle but nothing too traumatic. When we got home my Nike+ fitness told us that we'd run 8.2km - not a bad effort.
Although my running in the gym has improved quite a lot over the last few weeks, I'm still finding it difficult to run outside - kind of a big issue considering all of my events will be outside and Kilimanjaro isn't going to be fitting with a giant treadmill up one side of it any time soon - so I think the next stage is to incorporate some outdoor training. I'm praying that the weather picks up soon because jogging to a warm gym 10 minutes down the road at 5.45am is one thing, running 5k in a blizzard at that time is something very different.
It hasn't been easy but 4 weeks later and I'm a stone lighter and very much looking forward to the first challenge.
P.s. If you're inspired to sponsor me, please visit http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/danielleandsean
Sunday, 21 April 2013
The Raising Hope Foundation - The reason behind the challenge
In 2007 I travelled to Ghana in West Africa on my own. I had a one month long teaching placement in a school on the outskirts of the capital city, Accra. I returned to England four months later. I fell in love with the country, the people, the music, the way of life - with everything that Ghana is.
I started University in October 2007 and met some amazing people who had just set up a charity working with orphaned and needy children in Ghana. I am proud to say that I was part of the Raising Hope Foundation's first official charity trip to Ghana in 2009 and I've been part of it ever since.
The Raising Hope Foundation team have become my family and the work we do is a huge part of my life - I wouldn't change that for anything.
Every year we go to Ghana to work with the children of Santrokofi and Sogakope and we are currently working on a orphanage in Santrokfi. Whilst at home in the UK we focus on fundraising and raising awareness of the charity, whilst in Ghana we run a summer school for the local children and spend time really getting to know the local people.
As a charity we have organised and taken part in a number of different fundraising activities from skydiving to sponsored runs/triathlons and quiz nights to cycling across Europe.
Following a very inspirational speech from the guys who cycled from London to Istanbul last year I promised myself that I would work towards something bigger than a 10k run - let's just say I got sidetracked! At the last annual dinner the same brilliant guys announced that this year they would be setting off on a new adventure - Arctic to Africa. It does what it says on the tin really! That was the point that I realised I really needed to stop procrastinating and do something.
So, one Saturday afternoon, after spending hours on the internet, I made my mind up - I want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Obviously I can't just pack my bag and go now (those of you who know me will know that I am not that fit at all!) so I've made this an 18 month (ish) challenge.
Over the next 18 months I will be taking part in various short/middle distance runs - starting in July when I will be taking part in the Three Peaks Challenge with the other Raising Hope guys, following that I will be aiming to do one sponsored run every month until October next year (exact date to be confirmed) when I will be tackling Mount Kilimanjaro.
So, if you want to track my progress, raise awareness for the charity, sponsor me or just watch a slightly chubby girl in her mid-twenties try to get fit, please stay tuned!
I started University in October 2007 and met some amazing people who had just set up a charity working with orphaned and needy children in Ghana. I am proud to say that I was part of the Raising Hope Foundation's first official charity trip to Ghana in 2009 and I've been part of it ever since.
The Raising Hope Foundation team have become my family and the work we do is a huge part of my life - I wouldn't change that for anything.
Every year we go to Ghana to work with the children of Santrokofi and Sogakope and we are currently working on a orphanage in Santrokfi. Whilst at home in the UK we focus on fundraising and raising awareness of the charity, whilst in Ghana we run a summer school for the local children and spend time really getting to know the local people.
As a charity we have organised and taken part in a number of different fundraising activities from skydiving to sponsored runs/triathlons and quiz nights to cycling across Europe.
Following a very inspirational speech from the guys who cycled from London to Istanbul last year I promised myself that I would work towards something bigger than a 10k run - let's just say I got sidetracked! At the last annual dinner the same brilliant guys announced that this year they would be setting off on a new adventure - Arctic to Africa. It does what it says on the tin really! That was the point that I realised I really needed to stop procrastinating and do something.
So, one Saturday afternoon, after spending hours on the internet, I made my mind up - I want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Obviously I can't just pack my bag and go now (those of you who know me will know that I am not that fit at all!) so I've made this an 18 month (ish) challenge.
Over the next 18 months I will be taking part in various short/middle distance runs - starting in July when I will be taking part in the Three Peaks Challenge with the other Raising Hope guys, following that I will be aiming to do one sponsored run every month until October next year (exact date to be confirmed) when I will be tackling Mount Kilimanjaro.
So, if you want to track my progress, raise awareness for the charity, sponsor me or just watch a slightly chubby girl in her mid-twenties try to get fit, please stay tuned!
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