The One Where I Conquer Week 4 Of Pre-Training Like a Warrior Beast

Well, I am happy to report that Week 4 the second time around is going much better than last week’s slodgy effort. On Sunday I walked with Helen and managed 9minutes 38 seconds a kilometre and this morning I managed my best time ever of 9 minutes and 1 second a kilometre. Both walks were at beautiful South Beach, South Fremantle. Caroline (she of the clever title photo for the New Walker and SpicyJam blog fame) took some great photos today because she just can't help herself.

Here is me powering away (loosely defined) at South Beach.

On Thursday, I plan to walk with Tom and Friday will, of course, be my regular Cottesloe Beach walk. I've worked out that if I am walking/running with someone who is not quite as fit (and oh, that is SUCH a relative term!) I can still keep up my pace by running ahead a bit and then running back. And it keeps the conversational suspense alive, I find, if I jog off mid-sentence and complete it when I return.

And I am back doing pilates again as of this evening. I had been doing it last year but then the fabulous Brazilian physio I had left and it was hard to get into the later time ... and then I got busy ... and I got out of the habit, etc, etc (Hmmm, refer to earlier post about not sticking to things). Since I am hypermobile (I was held together with large industrial grade elastic bands when pregnant with my three children), pilates is a huge help in stabilising the muscles around my lazy, world-weary ligaments. And with this sort of physical challenge ahead, I think pilates is going to be crucial in keeping me as injury-free as possible. Oh, it was so nice to be back. I had forgotten how much I loved it.  

In terms of fundraising, there are several short-term goals before New York. By mid-January I needed to have raised $1000.00. So far, donations have reached almost $3000.00 - which is wonderful and better than I could have hoped for! Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has donated so far. The next goal is $5000.00 by May. I know many people are familiar with the work of WorldVision but the SEE project really is something special, focused as it is, as their slogan goes, on giving people a hand-up, rather than a hand-out.

In terms of training, the next step is to get myself a coach. The goal of the pre-training is to be able to run continuously for 30 minutes - but that isn't going to get me very far in New York. Once I've finished the pre-training in about mid-February, I'll still have about 38 weeks until the big day. Most of the books have 16 or 18 week programmes and I don't have a clue how to adapt those. I think a professional is needed here. I have a couple of names but if anyone reading this has a suggestion for someone I could contact in the Perth area, I would love to hear about it. Please feel free to leave a comment here or post on The New Walker page on Facebook. Thanks!