On Wednesday, which was the first anniversary of my uncle’s death, I launched my sponsorship campaign. I hope to raise £5,000 for the British Heart Foundation in his memory by climbing Kilimanjaro in September.
On the 26th January 2009, my uncle, Barry Meek went to work just like he always has. Everything about this day was normal. That is until early afternoon lessons at Huntcliff Comprehensive School where Barry was a talented maths teacher. Barry suffered a fatal heart attack at 52 years old and passed away on the 27th January.
This was a very hard time for my family, especially my auntie and cousin. At times like this it feels like there isn’t anything you can do to help them, but I wanted to do something that could help prevent others going through similar. In memory of my uncle, I want to raise awareness of heart health and help the British Heart Foundation achieve their vision, which is, “a world in which people do not die prematurely of heart disease.”
Although this week has been very sad for my family, it’s lovely to see the support already for the climb. My sponsorship is currently at £545 and it is a brilliant start – thank you to all those who have donated.
If you want to know a little more about what is in store for me, have a read of this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activityandadventure/7050801/Mount-Kilimanjaro-Climb-and-punishment.html
And then please, please sponsor me, it’s not going to be a pleasant experience:
http://www.justgiving.com/my-kili-climb
Don’t forget, February is National Heart Month so please support the great work of the British Heart Foundation.
Karen x
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Less wine, more training
So my moto for the week was ‘less wine, more training’ and I have to say I did pretty well. Oh ok I failed a little on Wednesday, but you know I am a party girl at heart. I did however stick to my 5 planned training sessions and now two weeks into the training regime I am feeling a difference.
As I am taking this training thing seriously, on Tuesday I took advice from Chris at Trojan Training. Over the summer months I trained for Tough Guy and I am very keen to be back to that fitness, minus the Crimbo weight gain of course! Chris took down all my vital statistics and measured my % body fat. Now you know a girl never tells you the outcome of such tests but I am pleased to report I am all healthy and fit to train. I am sure I will report how the figures have come down in future blogs.
Chris has designed a training schedule that is pretty varied . . . . I do get bored very easily. It includes some Personal Training sessions with him, group classes such as circuits and a plan for down the gym. I can’t start out with the full training regime as I am still recovering from a whiplash injury and so the majority of my training at this stage is leg work. But once the physiotherapist has sorted my neck and back I will most certainly be in the full swing of it.
So let’s see how I do over the next week . . . . .
As I am taking this training thing seriously, on Tuesday I took advice from Chris at Trojan Training. Over the summer months I trained for Tough Guy and I am very keen to be back to that fitness, minus the Crimbo weight gain of course! Chris took down all my vital statistics and measured my % body fat. Now you know a girl never tells you the outcome of such tests but I am pleased to report I am all healthy and fit to train. I am sure I will report how the figures have come down in future blogs.
Chris has designed a training schedule that is pretty varied . . . . I do get bored very easily. It includes some Personal Training sessions with him, group classes such as circuits and a plan for down the gym. I can’t start out with the full training regime as I am still recovering from a whiplash injury and so the majority of my training at this stage is leg work. But once the physiotherapist has sorted my neck and back I will most certainly be in the full swing of it.
So let’s see how I do over the next week . . . . .
Sunday, 10 January 2010
9 months minus 1 week
Officially this was week 1 of training for my big climb. Whoops, it did not go too well! I was all set for 5 training sessions. But 2 were cancelled in favour of wine and good company and then I missed two because I picked up the germs and went home sick. As small an effort as it is, I managed to finally get 2 gym sessions in – even on a lazy Sunday, that’s my token dedication.
As I was putting myself thru the pain of the Stairmaster (boy do I need to find some love for that machine), I was wondering just how many metres I will have to climb. I honestly thought I had a reasonable level of fitness till I started using the Stairmaster. I would rather run over 6 miles than walk on that thing for 20 minutes and even after that I have not climbed very far. So I double checked the vital statistics of that mountain and they are as follows:
It’s higher than I guessed: 5895m (19,335ft)
Lovely starting temperature on the plains: 30◦C
Colder than cold at the top: MINUS 25-30◦C
Hmmm seeing as I am moaning it’s rather chilly in London right now . . . . and lets be honest London is probably one of the warmest cities on this January weekend, me thinks the blonde well and truly needs to toughen up!!
As I was putting myself thru the pain of the Stairmaster (boy do I need to find some love for that machine), I was wondering just how many metres I will have to climb. I honestly thought I had a reasonable level of fitness till I started using the Stairmaster. I would rather run over 6 miles than walk on that thing for 20 minutes and even after that I have not climbed very far. So I double checked the vital statistics of that mountain and they are as follows:
It’s higher than I guessed: 5895m (19,335ft)
Lovely starting temperature on the plains: 30◦C
Colder than cold at the top: MINUS 25-30◦C
Hmmm seeing as I am moaning it’s rather chilly in London right now . . . . and lets be honest London is probably one of the warmest cities on this January weekend, me thinks the blonde well and truly needs to toughen up!!
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