This had been a mixed week!

Support:

 I continue to be surprised by the generosity and help from people with very busy lives. Many of whom have never met me, and don’t know me from Adam. (Hopefully one of them will know Kevin …… see last weeks update!). I am making steady progress on my approach for sponsorship and fundraising. I have my first contact for a feature in a National magazine and I am learning rapidly about the social skills of tweeting; Annie, my 14 year old daughter says “I am too old for a Twitter account!”; Dave (www.keymultimedia.co.uk), who makes this site look fantastic, and more importantly work, has given me a link for a beginners guide to Twitter. I will keep you informed of my progress!

There was a very interesting article in the Saturday Telegraph Magazine about Alice Walpole, HM Consul-General in southern Iraq. A single mother of 6, who seems to have sorted a great home / work routine, (although she obviously needs some Simply Stuck name labels, to free her up from sewing on name tapes). I loved her perspective on life “It’s not always about striving to get to the top. It’s just about getting to a place where the view is good”

Fitness:

Having thought I had escaped from the gym session quite lightly, I realised how sore my stomach muscles were when I picked up a tennis racket for the first time in 2010. Hitting any balls which required me reaching out to the side or overhead (backhands, smashes and most volleys) resulted in me doubling up in pain, It was a very slow session! By Friday’s Pilate’s I felt slightly better, although I didn’t manage to roll down very far in the ‘Roll Down & Shake’ manoeuvre, before my stomach muscles went into complete spasm!

I started Nordic walking last summer and can highly recommend it. Nordic walking  involves walking with poles. The poles ‘push’ you along, making you work harder than normal walking, but they provide support. You work the whole body more efficiently and effectively. It can be done anywhere and does not require any special clothing. On Saturday evening we walked a brisk 10k from Tidworh to Lugershall and back via Perham Down. Contact www.nordicwalking.co.uk  for instructors local to you. Most will offer an introductory session for £5.00. Although I seem to have spent most of this weekend in a car ferrying children to various sporting activities, John, Charlie dog & I did manage a 10k walk today in the late evening sunshine, which allowed us some quality time to catch up with each other.

I suffered much less than I had anticipated after the gym session last weekend. My arms were a little stiff (whose wouldn’t be after doing squats & lifting a school bench above your head in reps of 10 for an hour?) What really hurt were my stomach muscles, but on reflection, these core muscles were used in nearly every exercise we did on the circuit!

I have taken on board the suggestions made last week about getting race fit. I signed up to a weekly Pilate’s course to build my core strength; now my stomach muscles hurt even more! Saturday I donned many layers (it was a typical wet and grim January weekend) and tackled part of the Test Way from Romsey to Mottisfont. The first part of the walk was through marshlands, I was walking through boggy fields up to my ankles in water (it would have been deeper, but the bottom 6″ was still frozen and I was frequently skating rather than walking). I then trekked through equally wet woodland where I had to improvise bridges over fast flowing channels of water; and onto the pig farm. This herd of pigs (is that the correct term for a large field of pigs?) made lots of high pitched squealing, ran away, re-grouped, then ran towards me at pace - luckily there was an electric fence between me and them! From ankle deep in marsh water (the favoured option), I moved on to ankle deep in cow muck, and out onto better tracks. I had to turn back before Mottisfont; just as the rain really set in, to retrace my steps (what joy!) and collect a waiting child at school. It was a good 2.5hr walk with a ruck sack, at a fast pace. Not a bad start. I would however recommend this particular leg of the Test Way to be completed on a warm summers day!

I finished the weekends exercise  with 1.5 hours Nordic walking (poles, but no skis), on Saturday evening and a lovely 2.5 hours walk with Charlie dog in the sunshine on Sunday. About 20 miles over the 2 days.

This week also saw me starting to contact people about sponsorship opportunities. Everybody has been very supportive, and only one company has said outright no. The theme has generally been “how can we help you”, ” if we can’t help you, we might know somebody who can.” This is a slow but optimistic start, and brings me onto the theme of this news update –  ”Kevin!”

I have just finished reading the book “innocent our story & some of the things we’ve learned” which takes you on the journey of innocent smoothies, from initial idea to highly successful company over 10 years. I got lots of useful tips from this book, for running my own company Simply Stuck, and for life in general. The “six degrees of Kevin”  is that everyone on the planet  is only 6 people away from knowing Kevin. The theory here for me is that I should know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone … who needs this wacky opportunity to promote or test their brand or products.(even if though they don’t know it yet!). So please think about everyone you know, even vaguely, and if you think there is any possibility of any support (It does not matter how small) then please put them in touch with me!!

It is a  huge challenge to raise the sponsorship and then an equivalent amount for charity, and a few people have told me how tough it is out there (I run a business – I know!), and that it can’t be done. One of the other messages that runs throughout the innocent book is:

“no matter how many times you get told “no” or “you can’t do it” – never, ever give up!”

Arctic Exploring

A Christmas present from a dear friend was a subscription to Red Magazine for a year. The thought I think, was that I might make myself a little quiet time, escape from the realities of  daily life - organising the kids, running a house (I am not the tidiest and housework is low on my priority list!), running a business and walking the dog! One of the articles was about taking risks, making life changes and stop stagnating!

At the end of 2009, I decided that I would enter the Polar Race 2011 (do you think this was what the magazine meant when it said “throw caution to the wind and inject some oomph into your life”?). I have achieved lots over the last 4 and half decades, but never pushed myself to the limits either physically or mentally (apart from childbirth). Having focused on the family and Simply Stuck  for the last 10 years, I thought this would stretch me in every way possible. From the challenges of raising sponsorship, fundraising for charity, getting race fit, working with people I have never met before, and leaving behind my family for over a month.

Over the next 15 months there is a lot to learn and do. We had a training session last weekend. The event was called “Fitness Wake up Call!” It started with commando circuits in a cold school gym, run by a former Met Police PT Instructor! I now ache in places I didn’t know I could ache and I have been provided with a suggested schedule of activity which I need to fit into my already very busy daily life.

In-case you are interested this includes:

• Endurance training (once a week)  - long walks (the notes say don’t push yourself too hard – start of with 10 miles!!)
• Strength training (twice a week) – We ladies particularly need to strengthen our upper bodies, we all have to pull our own sledges (pulks in polar speak), which are at least equivalent to my own body weight.
• Aerobic training (two/ three times a week) – running, swimming, cycling, fast walking (my favourite option), to build up stamina.

I am very excited about learning completely new skills, working with new people, and finding new muscles ……. I love a challenge!