Week Eleven/Twelve

Weeks until Mad Monk: 3 & a half!

This Week's Weight Loss: Don't ask!
This Week's Training Activities: Does eating Easter eggs count?

I'd like to start this blog with excuses - my computer broke, i've broken all my fingers therefore I can't type & I've twisted my ankle so I haven't been able to do any exercise. Sadly, none of them are true and i'm going to be honest with you...I've been lazy. Too lazy to update you lovely generous people, too lazy to go for a run but more than able to jump in my car & drive thru a certain fast food restaurant which begins with a big, yellow 'M'. I feel very ashamed and as you can see, it's taken me a while to pluck up the courage to be honest with you. In all honesty, i think i got a little overexcited about having a few days off so I have binge eaten & relaxed like you wouldn't believe! But now i'm motivated, i'm totally ready for this, i can do it... or maybe I can't! Argh! I have officially begun to panic! Last week I found something that I didn't want to see, the route & obstacles for Mad Monk 2011. The route looks huge enough apart from the fact that I will have to do it 2, yes, 2 times on the day! Myself and my colleague both nearly burst into tears as soon as we saw it. 

So I've been doing some motivation work for the last few days trying to get my mind focused and ready for the last few weeks until I'm standing at the start line in anticipation.

Your donations have been amazing and I can't believe i'm at £300. There's still a few friends and family members that haven't sponsored me so I've moved my target up to an unbelievable £500. If I get to that target I'll do the flippin' course a 3rd time, it'll be worth it. So if you're one of those people who haven't sponsored me yet. Do it! Do it now! Even if you can only afford a £1, that'll do me fine. 

I'd really like to say another huge thank you to my Uncle Tony's business partner, David for the £50 donation. It came at the most amazing time, a few moments after i'd seen the course for the first time and it completely reminded me why i'm doing this which brings me on to this...

 

Readers, I'd like to introduce you to the people who I'm doing Mad Monk in memory of, my Nan & Grandad. I love this photo as they're both smiling. My nan was always such a happy person and used to make me laugh. My grandad could be a right grumpy bugger when he wanted to be, just like me & my dad! (Love you really dad!) It makes me smile remembering them and I really hope that where ever they are now, they are proud i'm doing this. Here's a couple more photos of me & my nan that really helped to motivate me again...

 

  

I have also found my motivation tune which I think is amazing. Whether or not you're a Foo Fighters fan, it's worth having a listen. I most definitely will be listening to this to get me pumped up and ready for my training now. 

Not bad eh?
 

So today I did my first bout of training for quite a few days. As i'm getting a little bored of the running I decided to try out the British Military Fitness app on my iPhone. I chose to do a low intensity 30 minute cardio & muscular minute workout. Low intensity! If that was low intensity, i'm Kate Middleton. I got told off by my boyfriend (before you ask, his name isn't William) for pushing myself too hard. I can safely say my thighs have never felt that pain before. I think I might actually hate British Military Fitness, its evil! I've been told never to do it again & to stick with running or the wii fit! I'm most definitely happy to do that! I'm going to do as i'm told and hopefully I might go swimming this week too. 

Anyway, hope you all had a lovely Easter and enjoy the long weekend coming up! I'm off my soak my very sore thighs. No excuses next week! :)

Week Ten

Weeks until Mad Monk: 5

This Week's Weight Loss: 0 (Gained 1lb!)
Total Weight Loss: 10.5lbs
This Week's Training Activities: Walking & Jogging

Apologies for yet another late blog entry. With the sun currently shining, I've been making the most of the weather so it's been a pretty busy weekend.

I'll keep this update short & sweet as there's not really much to report on this week. I managed to do my 3 runs this week & although it was hard work I have managed to improve my time and distance each time. Its made me realise how focused I have to be to do my run. My first run of the week turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. It was a really warm day so I had to shove my iPod down my bra as I didn't have any pockets in my shorts. Halfway through my run, my iPod fell out, my hairband decided to slip off and I got pins & needles. Argh! Concentration went right out the window and I really struggled to keep up the pace. Needless to say that was a run I wasn't too proud of but I'm glad it happened sooner rather than later. I would hate it if those things actually happened to me on the day. 

After last week's brilliant effort trying to eat healthy, I failed pretty badly this week. I have no idea what was happening but all I seemed to crave was junk food. I completely fell off the rails. It made me wonder if trying to stop myself from eating all those things last week made me crave more this week. It just goes to show you should always have a little bit of what you fancy. 

So it's been a week of learning this week. I can't believe i'm at Week 10 now with 5 weeks to go. Its complete madness! I don't feel prepared at all. I feel as if I need to do more apart from running 5k 3 times a week to get my stamina up. If I had a bit of money I'd consider a personal trainer but with home improvements coming first, money is a bit tight at the moment. A friend has recommended the British Military Fitness app for my iPhone so I'll try that out but if anyone else can think of any other training I should be doing, i'd really appreciate it. I have to be honest, i'm starting to get a bit bored of just running, i'd love to mix it up a bit!

Don't forget to keep on sponsoring me, it's getting closer & I have been training for 10 weeks, it's not like i'm going to be backing out now! www.justgiving.com/madbecki or if you would prefer me to put your name down on my sponsor form, let me know!

Thank you. 

Week Nine

Weeks until Mad Monk: 6

This Week's Weight Loss: 2lbs
Total Weight Loss: 11.5lbs
This Week's Training Activities: Walking, Jogging, Dancing, Screaming at Mcfly

Hi all, another late blog entry after a very crazy mad week. I have a slight confession, I haven't done any running this week. I have felt absolutely awful but life & lack of sleep have got in the way!  But, Sunday morning, I pushed myself to do a 25 minute run for the first time in over a week & it made me realise that maybe that week off from running did me good. I am covering miles at a quicker pace & i'm flippin chuffed with myself. 

So, Monday I felt completely run down & Tuesday I felt exactly the same. I didn't see the point of pushing my body to do a huge run when I felt as if I was coming down with something. So I had a play on the wii instead, I must've spent about 40 minutes dancing which burnt the exact same amount of calories. Wednesday was a pretty crazy day, myself & my amazing friend were confirmed on the guestlist for the Mcfly Afterparty. So we spent about 5 hours on our feet dancing first at the concert then at the afterparty. Absolutely mad! Here's a couple of piccies:

 
 

 The Gig!

 

The Afterparty!

I think its safe to say on Wednesday night I burnt a hell of a lot of calories & had lots of fun too! As you can imagine, it was very hard getting up on Thursday morning & I ended up living on energy drinks & coffee for the next couple of days. As you can see, I was still trying to catch up on sleep on Saturday (think the cat loved it though)...

Although exercise was low on my agenda this week, I had a great week food wise & tried not to snack. If I felt hungry, I kept myself busy instead, mainly by sleeping! I was really pleased when the scales showed that I had lost another 2 pounds. I am so close to my weight target now, its pretty unbelievable. I've had so many lovely comments about the photo in my last blog entry too. 

I also tried on my summer clothes yesterday. The rule with my shorts was if I could take them off without unfastening anything, they had to go. Problem is that rule applied to all of my size 16 shorts from last year. Oops! Looks like i'll be going shopping before my holidays. 

So, Week Nine. The plan! I will most definitely be fitting in the three runs this week. I've already completed one yesterday morning which I really enjoyed. The weather was beautiful, it was peaceful & I really got into a good pace. Its mad to think I'm nearly running 3 miles now, I just need to somehow do another 3 by Mad Monk. I still need to go swimming! I'm just finding it hard to find the time to go. Maybe next week once things at work have calmed down I might try to go! I will hopefully be doing some more dancing on the Wii too. I definitely recommend 'Lets Dance' if you haven't got it.

Again, a reminder that if you haven't sponsored me yet, please do. For all those who sponsor me I am currently looking into sending you a little thank you gift after I've completed Mad Monk. Speaking of thank you's, I just want to say to all who are currently supporting & backing me in all this how lucky I feel to have you all. I can't believe the amount of people who will be attending on the day to cheer me on. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

xxx

Week Eight

This Week's Weight Loss: 1lbs
Total Weight Loss: 9.5lbs
This Week's Training Activities: Walking, Jogging, Gardening


Hi all,

Apologies for the very late blog entry, the past few days have most definitely flown by! I can't believe we're on Week 8 has been & gone! Part of me feels that I've come a long way from Week 1, another part of me is screaming that I'm most definitely still not ready for Mad Monk. Thank God I still have 7 weeks to go!  Last weekend, I did my longest run without stopping (20 minutes). I was quite nervous about it but once I'd found my pace I really enjoyed it & was really proud of myself. Then for some reason I hit a brick wall, training went back down to running for short periods of time & I really struggled on Monday. I don't think it helped that I'd been gardening & my legs felt as if they were lead but it really put me in a low mood for a few days. I honestly thought that somehow I'd gone backwards. How could I have done 20 minutes of running without stopping & then 2 days later struggle doing 10 minutes of running?  I even put off my run on Wednesday because I felt so down about it. But after speaking to the boyfriend, he made me realise that unless I stayed positive I would never achieve anything! Ofcourse it never passed my mind that I wasn't going to Mad Monk, I want to do this for my family plus I've raised an amazing amount of money for the Stroke Association. The very next day I got back out running & even though I really struggled with it again, some little cheeky kids even decided to have a race with me. The little buggers! I came last apparently, I had been running for about 20 minutes by then, mind. But I'm still going & on Saturday morning, I made myself very proud by running 4 kilometres (2 & a half miles) without stopping. It took me 35 minutes but i'm nearly at the 5k milestone. I was chuffed & it really meant a lot that I've inspired other people to start running as well. I had a lovely message from my friend, Debbie to say she's started the couch to 5k programme now. Two other friends have also told me they are also going to start. If you're sitting there right now thinking you'd like to give it a go, do it! Even if you don't think you're a runner! At school, we had an annual 1 mile fun run around the school. I used to think it was a complete waste of time for people like me who couldn't run. Now I'm running 2 & a half miles without stopping, its mad! If you need a reason to run, sign up to a charity event. Race for Life is coming up soon as well as plenty of other events. Don't think about it, just do it!  If you'd told me 3 years ago, i'd be doing this, I would've thought you were mad! Actually, scrap that! If you'd told me 9 weeks ago I'd be running 2 & a half miles I would've laughed at you. So it just shows anyone can do it, even if you're are overweight. This picture just makes me realise how far i've come in the last few years.

So the week continues with more running! I know every week I keep promising to go swimming & I will eventually. Its finding the time to go! Today I'm going to be honest & say I will not be going for a run tonight. My weekend has included too much eating/drinking & not enough sleeping so I'm feeling pretty shattered & I don't want to push it by going for a 25 minute run & exhausting myself. So I will be resting (maybe a bit of Dancing on the Wii if I feel upto it) so i'm prepared for a run on Tuesday & all the dancing & screaming I will be doing on Wednesday evening at the Mcfly concert (Me? Excited? Nooo!!! Okay, maybe just a little bit!) 


I promise that this Friday there will be a Week 9 update & Mcfly photos if you're extremely lucky (because screaming over 4 beautiful men counts as training for a 10k assault course!) See you soon! x

PS: If you haven't sponsored me already, do it!!!!  Surely the picture shows how far i've come & how much I want to do this in memory of my grandparents! Thank you :)