eighty-something days to go...

...and i've developed an irrational hatred of anyone who can train daily and not have a niggle somewhere... since increasing my hours on the bike again, I now have pain in both knees! So at the moment this challenge may be one of those races that I go into with very little preperation and just hope for the best!

i feel like i need an update..

...but i've not really done anything this week...

• 7 ish hours in the saddle since monday
• +2kg in toast and jam! 
• still no chocolate or cheese whatsoever (sadface!)
• 7 days in a row at work 
• an hour playing on the weights at work (nothing i could call training though!)
• a TERRIFYING first ride in the dark using my new lights :) pictures to follow shortly

I'm also a little bit worried that my knee is starting to niggle after about an hour of riding - which could be a problem if i'm planning on riding for 24! But i've whined at Dan (my PT) and I now have a nice knee/ lower back strengthening programme to work on over the next 3 weeks and then hopefully I can start putting in some long rides...

unprepared? me?! :D

I've got my Challenge £1000 ID card through from Breakthrough as well, so I can go and order some fundraising bits now too, which is fun... pink pins, balloons and posters! It' starting to feel like i'm actually doing something properly now :)

The rest of this weeks plans involves toast, cake and short rides... i'll start properly next week! I also need to find someone who loves me or will help me for chocolate/beer/cake and take some photo's of me riding so I can put them on sponsorship photos... but that would require organisation... and friends living nearby!


it's time for more toast i think... i miss cheese...


xx

Argh - failure!

Okay - So it looks like the Lent challenge is a non-starter! I can't live of fruit/veg/seeds without being STARVING all the time (esp whilst i'm working!!) So lent has been abandoned - I'm going to just give up meat/alcohol/dairy (inc. chocolate) and all sweets/crisps/junk as a personal challenge, but bread/rice/pasta is back on the menu... and as that doesn't sound quite as epic as a complete fast (I lack the willpower to starve myself!) i'm not going to go down the sponsorship route and instead will focus on Mountain Mayhem and the Lands End-John O'Groats challenge instead...

The first of which (mountain mayhem) suddenly seems quite close! 97days! I did just spend £300 on new bike lights though which I am VERY excited to go and try on wednesday! :D Even if it has cost me the best part of two weeks wages!

Despite this, I've done very little training! Although i'm off for a back-to-back 90 mins of Spinning on tuesday after an hour of training with Dan so that should kick start things a little bit!

xx

Cravings....

peanut butter... cheese & pickle sandwiches... pecan nuts.... CHOCOLATE... salt and vinegar sticks


that is all. 




I'm going to the gym to take my mind of salty carbohydrates 


arggghhhhhhhhh!




I also spent 20 minutes staring longingly at a jar of pickled onions before realising that an onion is, in fact, a vegetable and so pickled onions aren't on the banned list... i'm going mad already :/ 


xx

Beginning challenges 1 & 2...

Pre Lent Prep! 
Yesterday I ate... cheerios's, apples (x 3), apple & butterscotch cake, cheese & pickle sandwich (am), cheese on toast (pm), jelly snakes, 9 pancakes and caramel chocolate buttons... and at that point my memory fails... but i do remember going to bed feeling very sick!! 


And just for girly purposes (whereby there is always an ongoing weight loss goal)...at the start of my challenge I weighed 56kg exactly and my scales reckon I had a body fat % of 24.2%... we'll see where that ends up! 


Challenge 1, Day 1: LENT

• Craving? Macaroni Cheese

All I can say so far is that I feel like a sheep! I need to eat CONSTANTLY to try and stay full! Which has it's positives I suppose as I get to eat all the time... not so good for weight loss though! Today i've mostly been eating raisins, apples and salad... although I covered the salad in tomato juice, so it's almost like a salad cereal, although not as satisfying. Tomorrow's plan will involve melon and avocado (though not together). 


I know i've only just started... but I think I may actually manage this!  



Challenge 2, Day 1: Mountain Mayhem (MM)

• 42 minutes on the spin bike

Well, the plan had been to go up to Llandegla and go for a ride round the 18km red (or even the 11km blue if I was feeling lazy)... and whilst I made it up there - and avoided the temptation to buy a creme egg... I then just spent two hours in the skills area playing on the jumps :D 




not much more to report at the moment so i'm going to try and get an early-ish night as i'm in work at 6 tomorrow!

My Challenge £1000

This year I have decided to rise money for Breakthrough Breastcancer... and am taking on their Challenge 1000.  A challenge of raising £1000 throughout 2011. 


I am doing this for several reasons, the first and most relevant is that my mum was diagnosed, albeit with early stage, breast cancer this year after finding a lump. At this point, following treatment (mammograms, biopsies, mastectomy etc) she is off work and just waiting for the next set of results, and I wanted to do something to make a difference for someone elses mum who maybe didn't notice her lump quite so early. 


As I'm hoping to raise £1000, I am planning 3 "big" fund-raising adventures and several smaller ones:


1) LENT: Starting on wednesday! In recent years I have successfully given up alcohol (as a university fresher!), chocolate (second year at uni) and peanut butter (the biggest challenge of the lot!). This year I am going one step further and will be attempting to go for 40 days and 40 nights by eating ONLY raw fruit and veg. Which for me will mean giving up peanut butter, ice cream and starbucks! 


2) OS Mountain Mayhem on 18/19th June: A 24 hour solo mountain bike race. But I won't go into too much detail about this as my entry is still pending and I know places are limited so i'm not going to get my hopes up just yet! 


3) Lands End to John O' Groats in September (or June if I don't get the Mountain Mayhem entry!): A 10 day solo cycling trip from southwest england to northwest scotland... something I've always wanted to do, and that with the motivation of raising money for Breakthrough, should finally happen!


Smaller (but no less challenging!) Events will hopefully include Cardiff Half Marathon in October with Jess Deane (yes, Jess... you will be doing this with me!) and the Deva Diva's Triathlon, as well as others as and when I find them... but hopefully a long distance swim around somewhere warm! 




If you've read this far, well done!  Now for bit about breast cancer: 


Breakthrough Breast cancer is a UK charity fighting breast cancer through research, campaigning and education with a vision to "work for a future free from the fear of breast cancer". So this appeals to the scientific student side of me! 



Breakthrough is the largest and most influential UK breast cancer charity, investing nearly £53 million 

in groundbreaking research since 1999. While supporting the 

work of over 250 top scientists dedicated to breast cancer research.

And a bit about breast cancer itself:

• Nearly 48,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK.
• Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK.
• 1 in 8 women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in their lifetime.
• Around 1,000 women die of breast cancer every month in the UK.
• Around 300 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK.
• More women than ever in the UK are surviving breast cancer thanks to better awareness, better screening and better treatments.

Only 1 in 5 cases of cancer diagnosed tend to have some form of family history link - This is important as researchers believe more than half of breast cancers could be prevented if the causes were understood. So the Breakthrough Generations Study was launched– the world’s largest, most in-depth study of the genetic, environmental, behavioural and hormonal causes of breast cancer. Tracking more than 100,000 women for the next 40 years by collecting blood samples as well as questionnaire responses, the study is considered exceptional by world scientists and of critical international importance. There's a bit more about how lifestyle choices can affect your risk of getting cancer here: www.breakthrough.org.uk/riskreport

Thank-you for reading all my rambling, hopefully there'll be more updates as I go on, probably just whining about the lack of chocolate for the next six weeks! And if you feel I deserve some form of sponsorship (!) or believe in what I'm raising money then please go to my justgiving page at the following address and give as much or as little as you can:

http://www.justgiving.com/jene

Thank - you! Jene xx