New Year = New Challenges

In a few short hours, it will be 2009... The year of the trek! Oh and the new diet starts in a few hours too!!! Time to finish off those extra Granola bars I got for Xmas!

No longer will I be able to say "oh its next year" or hit the alarm clock and have an extra hour in bed! It's quickly approaching!

I put together my training program a few weeks ago now and have kept to it sort of (Fitness Training and Life Saving got effected by Xmas & NY).

I also went out in the sales on the 27th and got myself a nice snug Down 4 Season Sleeping bag with my Christmas money, I have never spent so much on a sleeping bag before, normally I would buy one, use it for a few months then toss it. But not with this new one... I am just glad it was 50% off as I wasn't going to pay nearly £300 for a sleeping bag!! As my brother pointed out, that's a good few nights in a hotel!

Like most peoples New Year, its a time when all the getting fit is in fashion, all the fitness DVD's come out, exercise equipment is in all the shops and in a weeks time, they are in the cupboard or garage... I have had way too many thoughts about picking up Wii Fit for training purposes.... Loosing a few extra pounds would also be nice!

Yesterday I went back to Haldon forest for a 3 mile walk and my nice new shiny boots are now covered in mud!! December was always the easiest month for training with just nice short walks, but January kicks off with some 2 hour walks creeping into the plan. Also the easterly winds for the past week has been a bit blustery while walking along the Coastal path.
See Below of some photos of those training sessions!

Christmas Collection Update

Through December I have been running a small little fundraising effort down at the cafe, with people trying to guess the Penguin's name (Which was called Pablo) and what time the Bear woke (That will be revealed on New Years Day!).

In total over £175 was raised, So I would like to thank everyone for having a go and the extra donations. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year

Mid December Update

Well its now just about 4 months to the trek and I kicked off the walking training about 4 weeks ago, just starting with a few trips to the gym to spend 35 mins on the running/walking machine and 5 minutes on the steps. Plus a 1 hour "real walk". Plus Sunday mornings doing lifesaving training and Wednesday Evenings doing fitness training... This week I slightly changed my program to do 1 2 hour walk from Teignmouth to the other side of Dawlish and a 2 mile walk in Haldon Forest.
I've sorted out my training plan and will be increasing the amount of time walking each week. For the next 6 weeks or its nice short walks.

The Christmas campaign with the name the penguin and what time will the bear wake have gone very well, however this week its been a bit slow...oh and I sold a tumble dryer and popped that into the Christmas campaign!