Heather goes running...

In just a weeks time I will be running the York 10k for charity. It's my first road race, and my first fundraising challenge too. I'm at 90% of my target so it's looking like I'll hit the goal to raise enough money to put an air conditioning unit into the animal hospital I'm running for. TOLFA (the Tree of Life for Animals) is a charity close to my heart. It's founder Rachel is a good friend of mine who decided to give up her life as a veterinary nurse in this country and buy a patch of wasteland in India.

Since that time some years ago now, she has built a hospital, with kennels, wards, treatment areas and an operating theatre. The team of vets and volunteers work hard, neutering strays and vaccinating against rabies which is prevalent out there.  And more recently they have started work on education projects with local villagers to help them better look after their cattle so they in turn can better help them work the land. It's a great project with no major sponsors. They also run a volunteer program for anyone with animal handling experience, from vet students, nurses to animal lovers who can offer nurturing care.

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My training has been up and down. I suffer with an old back and knee injury so training runs have come in fits and starts inbetween bouts of forced recovery. I've managed to fit runs in early morning or after Grace has gone to bed, so I'm hoping with luck and the wind behind me, the effort I have put in will be enough. FINGERS CROSSED!

Photos from the charity can be seen here

A photobook (slum dogs of India) published can be viewed here

Uh-oh!

Appropriate it seems that on the day Grace masters the linguistics of 'uh-oh!', I find myself peering down a 13 week long tunnel to what will be my first road race... Without dwelling on the nitty gritty of this milestone, if you set me off with the start gun now, I'd be stopping in a little under two miles. Rounded down, I make that a good 4 miles short.

Uh-oh indeed.

Now for those who know me well, running is something one does only to catch the ice-cream van as it pulls away with my chocolate oyster still tucked nicely in his refrigerated tuck-box. I am not a runner. Nor am I particularly interested in exercise or fitness in general. I like my food and lots of it. Generally I dish up healthy family eats as we have a marathon runner and a toddler at the table. And as much as I love to eat healthy food, I like my portions big, and I like a free rein to nibble away at something 'naughty' like chocolate, ice-cream, chips and dips, or whatever the fancy might be.

Step forward the new Heather.

(Yeah right!)

Instead I send her substitute to the podium. Fitness mad, burning calories like crazy and training training training to get a personal best when taking part in Jane Tomlinson's Run for All in York, 13 weeks from now on August 4th.

(The personal best won't be hard, it's my first).

I also want to shift this baby-weight (*read combination of baby-weight and over-indulgence weight*) once and for all. I can't blame it on the baby forever, she's weighing in at 1 stone 8 pounds herself, roughly what this Mummy needs to lose. Holy crapola!

So what's the plan Stan? Well, Stan says I need to kick my butt into gear, set a weekly goal and jolly well stick to it come hell or high water. So here it is. I'm going to start running again TOMORROW. Watch this space for proof. I'm aiming to run 3 days a week minimum and although this will be short distances to begin with (starting at 1.5 miles again), I will be working this back up in the right direction slowly. I'm also sticking with Jillian Michael's 30 day shred DVD which is giving me 20 mins intense work out every night before bed. I'd also like to commit to one swim this week and one yoga session just to mix it up a bit.

I have my weigh in tonight. I've been pretty much on it this week, stuck to plan, eaten moderately, and only tucked into the biscuits once and even that didn't really tip me over the syn count too badly. I'll check in with an update soon, wish me luck!


Let the fitness training commence!