here's to a successful, happy and healthy 2009 ...

December 31st 2008 ... the end of what has been quite a year ... my own treatment has gone well, and I'm doing fine (happily), as far as my consultant is concerned, but sadly, that wasn't to be the case for my big sis, Brenda, and, as many of you know, we lost her in July to this terrible disease, cancer.

But maybe something good has come out of all of this ... my own experience and, in particular, Brenda's loss, were the inspiration for me to develop the 365challenge to raise as much money as I could for Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to help them in their battle to defeat cancer. It has been so rewarding to see the response the 365challenge has engendered across so many people ... the support for my own efforts to date has been wonderful, with over £6000 in the fund-raising pot so far ... and still 8 months of my personal challenge to go!

But it has been the way others have taken up the baton also, and the interest from CRUK themselves that has been really exciting. Anouska, Debbie, Sabrina, Audrey, Mark, Carl, Frederika, Jonathan and Rory (along with several others still in the planning stages) have started or are just about to start their own 365challenges to raise funds for CRUK (or associated charities). And in December, all of the Area Volunteer Managers (AVMs) for CRUK were provided with an information pack on the 365challenge so that they can promote it to anyone interested in fund-raising for CRUK into 2009!

With this backing, and more in the pipeline in 2009 hopefully, this new year of 2009 could be truly a momentous one for the 365challenge. And Brenda's memory will be well and truly honoured ...

Thank you to everyone who has supported me and/or sponsored me so far, and if you feel that you want to, but haven't yet, you can by going to clicking through to my Just Giving page ... maybe you could become one of my 1%ers ... or even take on a 365challenge for yourself ...

Whatever you choose to do is fine with me ... your on-going support is very much appreciated. I'd love to hear any thoughts, comments or suggestions from you for how I can take this further into 2009 and beyond!

But for now, may I wish each and every one of you a healthy, happy and successful 2009. May the road rise up to meet you ... Colin xxx

drifting through the Christmas/New Year "non-week" ...

How did it get to Tuesday? December 30th? Already?? I've taken this week between Christmas and New Year off, with LOTS of good intentions ... reading I wanted to do, updating my website, knocking off a good chunk of miles for my challenge, etc, ... but the time just seems to have passed by, with me drifting through somehow, occasionally drifting into town or losing some time on the Wii - though I have been working my way through the WiiFit programme, which is surprisingly good!

I have managed a couple of trips to the gym for my challenge, but my knee is still not right, so I've had to go easy on it. It's disappointing, because I had really wanted to get the cycling to the point where I'd have just 1000 Km left by January 1st. I'm sitting at 1040 Km to go, which isn't too bad, I guess, but if my knee had felt better, I'd have ground out those extra 40 Km over these past couple of days ... but there you go! I'll get there, I know, but it's always a little disappointing when you miss a goal, especially when it's not from slacking, but because your body is not playing ball.

And now, even with 6 more days off, I really don't know what I'll get up to with my time ... the joy of household chores is calling just now, but after that ... I actually just want to hide in a warm corner somewhere and drift on through this "non-week"!

Christmas makes training HARDER!

It's a week since I last did any meaningful training for my 365challenge (don't think I can count time spent on our new WiiFit, somehow!), and getting back to it after a very pleasant, but I'd have to say not especially over-indulgent Christmas has been quite hard today.

Add to that the fact that my knee was still niggling me on the bike in the gym today, so I ended up cutting my planned 20 Km back to just 5, as a knackered knee does not a successful 365challenge make! I did manage 5 Km on the rowing machine though, split into 2 x 2.5 Kms, so that's something, I suppose, but the numb fingers do start to sneak in at around 2 - 2.5 Km, so I'm going to have to watch this. I may have to look at how I might cover the distance some other way ... though swimming the rest of the 250-odd Km left on the Thames doesn't really appeal either!

Any ideas anyone?

Fred's 365challenge ... for chairs!

Frederika Poole saw my poster for the 365challenge in the gym, and wanted to join in too.

Fred's step-father, Archie, died from cancer in 2007, and she's been thinking about how she could honour his memory, so when she saw the 365challenge, she knew it was just what she was looking for. However, Fred has decided that, rather than taking the 365challenge directly for CRUK, she wants to support her mother's charity, Archie's Chairs, set up in Archie's name. This charity is actually linked to the Christie Hospital, one of the North West's top Cancer Hospitals, which is, sadly, where Archie died, but clearly worthy of support.

Fred's mum spent many long nights there with Archie, trying to sleep on a wooden chair, so when he died, she was inspired to see what she could do to make life a little bit easier for families at this very difficult time. She came up with the idea of providing Lazy-Boy style chairs to the wards at the Christie Hospital, for families wanting to stay with loved ones through their treatment and terminal care. I can understand why she might want to do this, and fully support this idea. The chairs cost £1750 each, so Fred has set this as her fund-raising target, so that she can buy one chair from her challenge ... I reckon she can do this, and who knows, maybe a bit more too!

She has set herself quite a challenge: 2 standard triathlons a month for a year! That's 2 x 10 Km running; 2 x 40 Km cycling; and 2 x 1.5 Km swimming a month! Go for it Fred!

Check out her website to see how she is getting on ... Fred's 365challenge.

mega-spun ...

The morning after ... so I completed my channel swim on Friday, as already blogged, then yesterday, Saturday, I went along for the Christmas Mega-Spin at Total Fitness - it's an hour and a half long spinning class, designed to off-set all that Christmas decadence before it happens (well, my heart rate monitor reckons I burned about 1100 calories in the session, so that's a start, but I may need a couple more of these classes before the festive season comes to a close!).

Anyway, the event was sort of in aid of Cancer Research (CRUK), though they forgot to have the collection box in the room ... people were asked to donate on the way out of the gym at reception, so hopefully some at least did. I donated two CRUK t-shirts as prizes for the best fancy dressed man and woman to keep the charity in the spotlight too. There were a couple who made a half-decent effort, including a fairy and a guy wearing some reindeer headgear - and Dave the instructor, who also put together some great Christmas songs to spin to (though I could have coped without Mr Blobby's Christmas song, I suspect), wore a full Santa outfit, which was falling apart by the end of the session due to his exertions!

It was a great session overall though, and I got a really good workout from it ... apart from a niggling twinge in my right knee towards the end, which has lingered. I may hold off from the gym for a day or two more now to rest that, as I don't need an injury just as I'm gearing up for some serious biking and rowing into the New Year.

Anouska was along, as promised, and I got a chance to chat to her afterwards. Her challenge is getting back on track now, and after the mega-spin, she headed off for the treadmill to catch up on her running! How fit is that! She's also looking forward to taking delivery, very soon, of her new bike, in preparation for her actual Land's End to John O'Groats cycle in the summer, AND she's got a place in the Edinburgh marathon at the end of May, (maybe find some local support up there from Audrey too) so she's actually going to manage 13 marathons for her challenge across the year! Very real respect to you and your great efforts, Anouska!

comment ca va ...?

Bon soir, mes amis, comment ca va? I'm sitting here, on the northern French coast, enjoying a lovely glass of red and some beautiful camembert, savouring having finally made it and finished my swim across the channel ... felt great to "reach land", but now have to get back somehow ...!

Wow! It felt just soooo good as I entered my last 25 metres ... I KNOW I was in a pool in Chester, but, hey, I've got a vivid imagination, and I could really feel the elation of knowing that I was closing in on the French coast (I may need to see someone about these delusions ...).

I've really enjoyed my swim, and (whisper this), because of that, I'll probably swim back over the coming months - I guess I need to get out the goose fat again in a bit!! But before I do, there's the little matter of the Mega-Spin tomorrow morning ... 1.5 hours of spinning class to "celebrate" this latest achievement in the 365challenge! (If anyone reading this doesn't know what I'm on about ... visit my 365challenge website and see what I'm up to in support of Cancer Research UK ...)

All in all , a great day today, feeling very good tonight, very positive and only looking forward ...

Salut, everyone, and Bon Chance!

anouska's feeling the pressure ...

Anouska emailed me today ... she's been unwell and hasn't been able to get on with her 365challenge ... so now she's feeling the pressure ... come on, girl, you'll be knocking those miles off again soon ... there's plenty of time! Break it down and it doesn't look so bad. Come on ... here's a shout out to help you get back on your way! Look, you've completed 2 marathons already! You'll be back on track in no time ...

She mentioned that she was going along to the Mega-spin on Saturday morning - her first time back at the gym in weeks - and said she see me there ... which kind of reminded me that I hadn't signed up for it! So I went in this afternoon (Tuesday) for my swim, and asked to sign up for Saturday's spin - AND THERE WERE JUST 2 PLACES LEFT!! So, I'm in there now, but that was close ... me going on about it and promoting to the other local 365ers and then nearly not making it myself! And a quick scan of the names on the list looks like it's just Anouska and me from the 365'ers, unless Carl and Adam (gym staff) make it along too.

So ... 2 miles of swimming to go to reach France, which I expect to do now by Friday (well ahead of schedule) and then Saturday morning about 45 KM on the bike ... and if I'm in France, does that mean that I'm going in completely the wrong direction for my Lands End to John O'Groats ride???

Hey Anouska ... wait up ... I've got some catching up to do now myself!