Training Walk Beacon Hill

I spent a very enjoyable 3.5 hours with a friend doing a walk on some of the army land nearby. It was such a varied terrain, at points we could have been in Scandinavia with all the pines. We did very well in that we kept walking only to stop and decide which paths to take or to enjoy the many views we had, or to stop and take some photos; the general consensus of choosing the route was if we saw a hill then we'd climb it! Reason being for the exercise and to suss out where we were - even with the OS Green footpath map it was hard to work out exactly where we were. There is one spot that all walkers and cyclists converge on, from here we followed a track to see where I might be able to cycle in the future with the family. One thing I think I'm going to have to do is buy a second hand 3 wheel buggy so that I can train with my daughter, I don't think the Maclaren buggy will be up to the job over a lot of the terrain. I haven't had the time yet to work out how far we walked and therefore what speed we did but I plan to do so next chance I get.

Trying a new aero biking fitness class

In an effort to vary my training I'm trying out different classes at the sports centre. I may as well make full use of my membership. Today I gave Aerobiking a go and I really enjoyed it. The instructor gave us loads of good advice & even provided fruit at the end of the session. Definitely worth another try. With the class & walking into town pushing a buggy you can safely say I can feel where I have exercised today! Next week I'm trying out a lunchtime Salsa class while my daughter goes in the creche, I hope she enjoys this as she hasn't been for some time.

Fundraising progress...

Result. We have permission for a coffee morning to be held at Holy Trinity Church Hall in Church Crookham on Monday 4th April. There will be a table top sale, raffle, guess the weight of the cake, guess the name of the teddy, how many sweets in the jar and plent of tea, coffee and cakes.

Birdworld have offered three sets of tickets as prizes for the team to use.

The Gurkha Welfare Trust and Oxfam have both been very helpful in my efforts to organise a public tombola. All I need is a venue for Easter Saturday. I'm still working on this!

We have ordered 480 plant plugs to bring on and sell. We no longer have a green house ourselves so a request for help is about to go out to friends for some space in their greenhouses.

It looks like we will hopefully be able to organise a public collection at a local Tesco - watch this space...

First Team Walk Together

It was a beautiful day for our walk given how miserable the weather had been over previous weeks. I had decided to carry my rucksack containing a new 2L water bladder - which managed to leak all over the boot the car. The rest of the team will be glad to know, I now know how to wrap the tube around to stop this so no more wet gear I hope. I figure that we will all need to carry a rucksack for the event so I want to start as I mean to go on and get used to carrying the extra weight right from the start. I always thought I was a fast walker but the other three team members are all considerably taller than me and the laws of physics means with their longer legs they can all walk faster! Anyway with me feeling like the toddler (from the outset) walking behind it's parents we covered the distance in no time at all. It was a very enjoyable walk and we managed a good pub lunch before getting ourselves to the meeting. Unfortunately I don't have any photos from the day of us on the day as we did not stop along the walk or to get a team photo and we all had to rush away at the end. As I went to a similar meeting last year there were only a few extra points that I came away with (I can't speak for the rest of the team)

• Set up a separate bank account for money coming in
• Put as much effort into fundraising as the training for the walk - it is a two part challenge
• Don't stop at check point one as this gets congested

There's probably a lot more than this but it's all I can remember for now.

We're all progressing with our individual training and meeting up again for another team walk on the 4th April when we plan to do the next two stages together.

Booked into Preparation session on...

Saturday 21st February
We plan to do a walk along the first section of the route before we go to the training preparation session in the afternoon. This will be interesting as it is the first time the team has walked together. We have no idea yet about the pace we each walk at, how many breaks we will need and how long for. I guess these are only some of the many reasons why we need to train together! If you are interested in seeing the route we will take for the event than have a look here:
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/fundraise/trailwalker/index.html

On the 21st we will be walking up to the first check point at Harting Down from Queen Elizabeth Country Park. My guess is that most teams will be doing much the same. The more we can train on the course the better, especially for the sections we willl walk at night; the last thing we want to happen on the day is to go wrong and have to retrace our steps 100k is far enough! For our practice walk I think we shall try and follow the advice we have been given and take 10 minutes in each hour to rest and see how we go.

I went along to a preparation session in May 08 to get more of an idea of what is involved; as much as I have tried to impart information I think it is important for all team members to attend. The chance to talk to past participants is invaluable.

We will keep you posted on our progress after the training session.

Just received an information pack from Oxfam

This contains a fundraising guide, a treasure map (friends and family please note - I'll explain what these are in a minute), sponsor forms, and a Timeline leading up to the event.

Treasure Maps:

These are world maps with a grid of 100 numbered squres which are sold for £2 each. The winning square is announced and a £50 prize is given to the winner. What this needs to work is a person who works in a large company and is willing to act as a promoter on our teams' behalf, you need to secure permission from your employer to run this for us. There are various rules and regulations which are very clearly explained on the back of the map. Oxfam print the maps and will send us as many as we need, so all you family and friends who think you may be able to help us raise £150 in sponsorship please get in touch with one of us. Thanks.

It's official ...

Life's Voyagers are registered as a team! Though we've had a minor hiccup in that we only have 3 team members committed to the walk, our fourth walker unfortunately had to pull out. Nevertheless we remain positive and hopefully this situation will get resolved early in the New Year. Oxfam are meant to be sending me some posters to put up in my local gym etc to drum up some interest. At least now we can start training and fundraising in earnest. The Justgiving site has been set up and a link to it from here has now been added; at last we can start to publicise our blog and fundraising page http://www.justgiving.com/lifesvoyagers