Progress so far...

I've just sent a load of people an E-mail reminding them to sponsor me. That might be why you're here reading this now actually. If it is - don't forget to sponsor me before you find something else to do with your computer and you wander away from this page!

I've now been training for 21 days, not including the run that I'll do this evening.

Good news is that I'm gettin better at it. When I started, I was sh*t. I won't lie. I was doing 1.03 miles and not feeling particularly wonderful at the end of it.

But, over the weeks since then, I've been upping the distance and the pace and I'm starting to feel like this challenge might be just about do-able!

I've included some features on this blog for you to get an idea of how my training's going:

On the left hand side of the page you'll notice a list of links under the heading "training routes". If you click on any of these, they'll take you to a map of where I've been running.

Underneath the training routes, you'll see an orange box called "My Share". This is where I'm posting files containing things that I think you might want to look at. The file in there at the moment is a spreadsheet of my training stats. Download it whenever you visit here, and you'll see a summary of where and when I've been running, as well as graphs that plot my times for each run and show my progress and improvements!.........hopefully.

Lastly - there's a countdown timer to the big day........which seems to be counting a bit too quickly for my liking.

Like I said, all in all the training's going o.k. I'm now up to completing regular runs of 2.3 miles (training route 3), although last night I had a bit of a mare. I might be starting to push myself a little bit too hard. I didn't actually finish my run last night without having to stop. I'd done just under 2 miles and then my legs gave in. I don't know why, considering I knocked over a minute off my previous time when I completed the run on Saturday morning. I might just be setting off too fast and tiring too quickly. I'll have to learn to pace myself better. The trouble with where I live though, is that the minute I've jogged any kind of distance from my house, I've gone down hill, which inevitably means that to finish the run I've got to go back up hill again. There's a button on the right hand side of each of the training routes pages that says "elevation", which will show you the climbs and falls for each quarter of a mile.

Anyway, I'll be plodding on with route 3 for the rest of this week, hopefully improving my time and then I'll up the distance to 3ish miles.

I'm eating healthily. The great Donner Kebab embargo continues and I've now notched up a total of 3 weeks without one. Withdrawal symptoms vary from day to day, but I'm surpressing my cravings with large bowls of mixed vegetables, amongst other healthy substitutes. I've lost 12lbs in weight as well! It's not been as easy as the Atkins extravaganza of 2003, in which I lost over 3 stone..........but I don't feel like somebody's hitting me in the head with a spade or draining my energy with a hose.......which has got to be a good thing.

Sponsorship could be going better! I've worked out that in total there's 96 people (friends, colleagues, family) that I know who I'm asking for sponsorship. If each of those 96 people coughed up just £10, that'd be £960! For that reason, I've upped my fundraising target from £300 to £1000!

If you've not already sponsored me, then please do if you think you can help. The Cystic Fibrosis Trust really does deserve every contribution that can be made, so I want to make sure that I've done everything possible to squeeze some generous pennies out of you lot!

Wallace

Why?

My mate Ben came to visit the other weekend. I'd not seen him since way before I took off on the Wallace in America trip, so he arranged a weekend in Nottingham.

We dug out the itinerary from his last visit and decided that it seemed like a sensible enough format to stick to this time around as well!

Friday
5.45 pm - Ben Arrives
6.00 pm - off to the pub, drink Guinness x 3 and eat pizza x 1 each
7.30 pm - head home and buy bottle of vodka on the way back
8.00 pm - sit in the garage listening to music, smoking and drinking vodka
10.00 pm - head out into town and continue drinking
2.30 am - Wallace makes a desperate dash for a kebab house, only to be wrestled back out of the door by Ben and into a Taxi.

I could elaborate further and provide sketchy details about Saturday and Sunday as well, but the truth is that the run down from Friday pretty much says it all. The weekends come, I drink......quite a lot, and then I eat...........rubbish.

I'm not unique when it comes to this kind of weekend format, but if I'm honest, it's not easily sustainable. Firstly, it costs money, and secondly (and some might say most importantly) IT'S NOT GOOD FOR YOU!

Ben reinforced this point on Sunday morning, as we both sat nursing hangovers in a greasy spoon on Nottingham's Upper Parliament Street. True, Ben hadn't had a weekend any different to mine, save for the Kebab that I managed to get hold of on the Saturday night, but he did well to remind me that he doesn't do it every week, AND that he also gets himself out running as often as he can.

Running's something that I've tried before.......but it hurts and I give up after just 2 days. Apparently though, there's no better way to get yourself fit.

I thought this over after Ben had left, and come Monday, I had the semblance of a new and challenging adventure in front of me. Something to keep me occupied for another 10 weeks whilst I got over the come down effect of not being in America anymore, and that would hopefully help me get fit and healthy at the same time!

I've decided that I'm going to Join my mate Ben on the BUPA Great Manchester Run. It takes place in just 10 weeks time and I'm going to be doing it all in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

This latest blog will be an account of the journey towards the big day! It'll be measured in miles run, time taken, pounds (hopefully stones) lost, and most importantly - money raised for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust!

I'd be really grateful if you'd sponsor me for the run. The money will be going to a very good cause.

Hope you come back to read more.

Wallace