Team CCPS - Tough Mudders in Training

Totally Tough

2013-05-30T14:57:00.001+01:00

Tough Mudder is on the horizon and I have the information you need... the layout of the course and exactly what we'll be putting ourselves through. You? You get to rest at home and laugh at the idea (and later the pictures) of us putting ourselves through hell (+mud) for our favourite charity, Chanctonbury Community PlayScheme.

But of course you can help. Share our page on Facebook, link us on Twitter and please donate to our Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/teams/CCPS

On to the course! To remind you, there are 21 obstacles across just under 12 miles.

Tough Mudder London South 2013 course map

Obstacles

1. Kiss of Mud

After nearly a mile run comes crawling/ sliding under barbed wire in a delicious water/mud mix.

2. Glory Blades
Let's leap over a 10' wall. Easy.

3. Walk the Plank

Jumping off a really, really high platform into water. I hope there's water. With my fear of heights, I just can't wait to leap into nothing and get freezing cold and wet. Looks like there's a bit of a swim afterwards, too.

4. Log Jammin'
Also known as the Log Bog Jog, it is constructed of - surprisingly - logs, balanced across each other so you have to go over and under them. I've seen a lot of photos where there is barbed wire on the top of the lowest ones, forcing you to get down in the mud to get under them.

5. Dirty Ballerina
After 2.5miles of the course, suddenly the ground opens up in big, dirty holes. Guess what? Climbing in and out of them is not an option, we have to leap from edge to edge, trying not to fall into the muddy water in between. And, as the day goes on, the walls with crumble and slide into the water, making the gaps wider and the jumps more difficult.

6. Human Gecko

I'm really glad that Sarah, Kariss and I have become obsessed with Boulder Brighton and have spent the last few weeks climbing in every spare moment. Because this obstacle looks fun! Not sure why the water is green though? #infection

7. Arctic Enema

You know the score. It's freezing. We have to be fully submerged. It looks like this!

8. Kiss of Mud #2

As with the first obstacle but this time we'll have travelled 3.5miles so I think we will be gagging for a lie down. Happily, our spectators will probably be able to take some photos of us squirming through the mud. Can't wait.

9. Boa Constrictor

This doesn't look so bad in photos but the videos show that the clearance between the top of the tunnel and the top of the water is tiny. Hello claustrophobia and fear of drowning.

10. Funky Monkey

See those guys swinging free across the monkey bars as if it's easy and natural? See that woman clinging on for dear life just right of the centre? Want to bet which one I'll be?

11. Mud Mile

I was hoping that the Matterly Bowl people wouldn't want Tough Mudder carving big lumps out of the ground to create this obstacle. Sadly they have and, as someone who has been running up and down beaches for fun, this is going to hurt. A lot.

12. Hold Your Wood

Unsurprisingly, this is a section accross which we have to carry a lump of wood. No saying what the terrain is going to be like though, as they've said this can be uphill or through water or the ubiquitous mud.

13. Fire Walker

Run through fire. Or jump over fire. Or, and this is exciting, jump across fire and into water. Exciting, why? Because you get the joy of potentially being burnt with the effort of jumping and of course the chance to get totally soaked. Again.

14. Island Hopping

So excited for this one! I'll be reliving Total Wipeout - hope I get across!

15. Trench Warfare

Another one for the fans of claustrophobia. I was quite worried about this one as the wooden boards across the top of the trenches mean the tunnels probably won't collapse on us. Probably.

16. Electric Eel

They obviously think we will need a lie-down by this point in the course (over 7 miles) because this is the second obstacle in a row where we'll be laying on our stomach.

But this time we will be getting electrocuted. As you do.

17. Hero Carry

I couldn't find out what this obstacle is but the chances are it involves carrying more logs (or Kenny!). I'm voting we all join together for this ----->

I won't cope by myself!

18. Hero Walls

Big walls. Really, really big walls. Hoping to stand on someones shoulders, to be honest!

19. Cage Crawl

Another obstacle without a lot to go on but I found this picture. So I guess it's swimming or crawling in a trench with so little head-room that most people seem to do this on their backs. They really like combing the fears of drowning and claustrophobia!

But we get to dry out with around 2 miles of uninterrupted running. Yay!

20. Everest

Sadly, not the climb that we nick-named Everest at Boulder Brighton, instead a greased half-pipe. No flipping clue how we can get over this. Especially as we will be totally knackered, having run, crawled, swum and slithered 11.5miles by this point. Human chain, perhaps?

21. Electroshock Therapy

To finish we get to charge across a very short stretch. A little bit more running, maybe I can muster up the energy to do that... if it didn't involve being electrocuted!

And that's all!

Time for a drink and a well deserved rest (and the masses of food I'm going to pack in the car!)

Come on TeamCCPS, we can do this!

Don't forget to sponsor us: https://www.justgiving.com/teams/CCPS

Disability Worthing - A PA's guide

2013-05-13T21:31:00.002+01:00

As well as working as SEN Pastoral Support I do a little personal assistant work for children or young adults with disabilities. Every so often I want to know about new places I can go and whether they will be accessible to me and my client.

To make it easier for you to see if the venue will suit you too, I will include when I last visited and who I took there!

Aquarena swimming pool Where? Here

I'm pretty sure it has closed down now [Edit. Yes it has]. Part of me is glad, because the last time I went it was filthy and it was difficult to supervise my brother getting changed. He is 23 and has Down's Syndrome and is reasonably independent - the problem came when I had to loiter in the corridor between the male and female changing areas. This is where the gym doors are so I felt a little foolish! I also wasn't pleased when I found out the reason he was taking so long: the lockers are a type I haven't come across for years, they take less money but don't return it when you open the locker again. My brother had turned the key too soon and lost his 10p. I ended up going into the male change room to rescue him, and also running upstairs having thrown some clothes back on to get some change.
Brilliant.
On the positive, the staff there knew my brother by name and were very friendly and polite. As the new staff have been transferred to Splashpoint I'm sure they will carry on their good customer service. Which I'm glad is the only thing that will carry on....
Last visited: April 2013

Berick's Cafe, Findon Website Where? Here

Another place I visited with my brother. He wanted to go out for breakfast and so we ended up at Berick's Cafe. I was impressed by the friendliness of the two staff working - neither were fazed by our arrival and they were patient when my brother placed his order. They didn't do the classic check-what-the-person-with-speech-impediment-is-saying-by-looking-at-their-neighbour, which always irritates me, and the food was lovely. They also have brownie points for selling us orange juice without bits in (you really don't want to know what happens when you give him juice with bits in).
Last visited: April 2013

Mewsbrook Park, Littlehampton Website Where? Here

Mewsbrook Park is a lovely place to have a gentle walk. There are wide paths around the small lake so accessibility is no problem, especially as the park has good parking at both north and south entrances. I tend to park on the south side in Hendon Avenue as it is essentially a cul-de-sac. I go here mostly with a teenage girl with mobility issues as it takes us a little over half an hour to get round the lake (quite slowly, admittedly) so it's a nice, non-stressful place to stroll. There is a play park at the north end too.
It's never too busy but is frequented by dog-walkers so beware if your child/client is scared of dogs. Or swans for that matter. There are a couple of viewing platforms with information about the birds which is a nice touch.
Last visited: Summer 2012

Worthing Library Website Where? Here

You've got to love your local library! Free and warm with a nearly endless supply of books suitable for everyone. I've curled up in the kids section with teenage clients before, reading them stories because of the horrible weather outside. I've never had anyone upset that the person I'm with is usually about ten years older than the other children in the kids area. However, the children's/disabled toilet is tiny, and quite difficult to help someone go to the loo in such a cramped space!
Last visited: May 2013

Steyning Swimming Pool Website Where? Here

I went here with my brother the week after our fairly disastrous trip to the Aquarena so my expectations were close to rock bottom. But Steyning pool turns out to be quite lovely. The facilities are clean and new, with changing rooms on the pool side so there are no problems with waiting outside the gents for my brother to change. we went at a specified lane-swimming time and the pool was quiet and calm with a minimum of family swimmers even though the next session included fun floats. The life-guards didn't panic at my brother's doggy paddle, trusting that I knew what I was doing with him! This has been a problem at Felpham swimming pool with a different client (P) who prefers to swim with a woggle or swim noodle. I had to prove that he could swim without one which caused him a lot of distress, just so he could swim lengths. I'm a lifeguard myself so I know they can't take people's word for it that their friends, relatives or clients can actually swim but I couldn't put P through that everytime a new lifeguard was there and, as they seemed to change shifts every week, I ended up acting as a buoy so he wouldn't swim too far.
Anyway, I found Steyning relaxing as well as clean and they had the added bonus of not putting the unhealthy drinks and snacks machines near the exit so my little brother couldn't spend his money on junk food!
Last visited: April 2013

Swanbourne Lake, Arundel Website Where? Here

I used to love coming here as a child as there are plenty of hills to climb and woodlands to explore. Other than that you can have a pleasant, if bumpy, walk around the lake in about an hour or rent a rowing boat. Not recommended for wheelchair access, especially as the parking is limited and involves a little walk up the road without pavements. I also think that the toilets have turnstiles although this may have changed. There are always plenty of ducks, swans and other water fowl to see and feed and, in the summer, the ice-cream shack sells beautiful ice-creams! The cafe isn't bad but there are narrow doorways and a few steps to negotiate. Good place to picnic or have a walk around here, feed the ducks, row in a boat and then head down the road to The Black Rabbit pub for a drink on the river-side.
Last visited: Summer 2012

Ferring Country Centre Website Where? Here

One of my favourite places, not least because my brother goes here. Recently they had a Royal visit to open their small animal pavilion so that at least is worth a visit! The small animal farm is a great place to go, I go every summer, although the ground is a little bumpy but there's not a lot of walking so it shouldn't be a problem. They have a wide range of animal including pygmy goats - my favourite! - and plants, fresh veg and other produce for sale. They also have a superb riding for the disabled unit with gentle horses and kind staff and volunteers and even a hoist. There is also a cafe on site. Parking is limited, but flexible - every summer we take around 70 special needs children here in shifts through CCPS and they are wonderful to us! Cannot recommend enough.
Last visited: Feb 2013

Hope these ideas and reviews help - I will add more when I have time.
On the training front, we had another 5:30 training session this morning and it was hell! I found running up and down Highdown Hill really difficult but Martin reckons it's psychological. The pain in my feet definitely wasn't! At any rate, we have just under 4 weeks to go so I better get over whatever it is.
I'll let you know!

Wow!

2013-05-07T21:44:00.001+01:00

Judging by our hits yesterday, you all appreciate the new post - thank you all for your support! Don't forget that I always appreciate comments or messages so keep in touch.

Early morning run update - yet another early start! Anyone near Worthing or Goring beach at 5.30 this morning would have seen up trotting, panting and sweating along as best we could; if not enthusiastically, at least determinedly! We hit 4 miles (which is a good distance for one of our high intensity morning workouts) with, you guessed it, more bloody "smilies" to top it off. It was a fair amount of torture but all of us managed to drag ourselves to the Chanctonbury Community Playscheme AGM this evening; well, all except Kariss who went to netball training, but she's just nuts!

We have another group training session this Thursday, this time on obstacles, I'll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, follow us on Facebook or Twitter. See you there!

Sheepishly shuffling back to Blogger

2013-05-06T21:00:00.001+01:00

No relevance to the rest of the post - a wall in
Germany that makes music in the rain. I
want to visit here please!

Hi. Clearly, my first sentence has to be an apology for quite how long it has been since my last blog post. Hopefully, some of you have been following my Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or JustGiving pages, all of which have been updated with much more frequency than this poor, abandoned little blog. But for anyone who hasn't had a update since (ouch) Feb 28th, I am sorry.

I am not sorry about how much work I have been doing because training is going well, both group training and individual. So in this post I will give a fairly brief overview of how things are going and what we've been up to.

Group Training
Remember my colleague who agreed to be our PT to prepare us for Tough Mudder? Mr
Martin Fuller, advocate of the millions of press-ups, sit-ups and the dreaded Bleep Test (lovely picture of Martin there, by the way). Well, he finally said that we had done enough individual training and he would like us to work as a group for the lead up to TM. This, due to an unfortunate concatenation of events, ended up being schedule for 5.30 am on a Monday. Yup, 3 hours before I need to be at work, we have to do the most draining workout I have ever completed, in whatever weather happens to happen. Guaranteed to make me a happy woman! We have been doing this for three weeks now (fourth session tomorrow morning) and so far they have gone like this:

Week One: Run up a hill. Keep running up the hill. Encouragement from Martin, apparently we are near the top. That was a lie, girls, just one more stretch. Jump over a gate (and back again, and once more for luck). Stop moving so have to do ten press-ups and ten crouching star jumps. Finally get to the peak then do shuttle runs (sprint downhill, jog uphill). Run over the hill, down the hill then back up the hill by running up a flight of steps (at this point my brain was swearing at whoever decided to build those steps but I had no breath left to voice this opinion). Repeat this last section from the bottom of the steps in a time limit (one minute less to do it in). Run back to the car-park, sprinting the last 100m (ish). Throw gloves at Martin when he lies about how many turns in the path there really are. Sprint a bit more. Collapse in a sweaty, aching heap, feeling like death. Sarah and I did this session and she did considerable better than I did: I felt t=like my legs were going to fall off for most of Tuesday!

Week Two: Beach runs. Mostly consisting of running across the stones which doesn't sound too hard until you try it. The stones shift and slide under your feet making you run slowly and with a strange, almost flat-footed, gait. Also "smilies" - run down from the top of the stones, around the bottom of the groin avoiding the waves if you can, and back to the top. Look, I drew you a picture:

Like my picture? This is a Smiley - run down the stones, across the sand, around the groin (avoiding the water if you want!), and back up to the top.

Martin also bangs on about recovery time and, in order to improve our ability to recover after obstacles, insists on making us do walk/jog/run drills. This is also not a fun thing to do across stones. In fact, apart from sitting on stones and admiring the sunrise, the stones are definitely not the most fun part of any beach, period. In addition, the sun did not properly rise until we had finished so we didn't even get to enjoy that. Participants: myself, Sarah, Kariss, Hannah, Kenny. Didn't hurt half as much as after week one, although I did notice some of the others walking a bit funny, ha!

Week Three: Mostly as week one except with even more uphill running (didn't think that was possible but Martin is good at this kind of thing, which includes finding deviously difficult routes up hills). We happy few: Kariss, Sarah and me.

Other Stuff with friends
Another colleague has introduced us to climbing at Boulder Brighton - the kind of rock-climbing that doesn't require ropes or harnesses. We think it is fantastic fun and are telling ourselves that it is as good as an upper body workout, even though Kariss keeps coming home with grazed knees! She's more reckless (and better at it) than I am.

Boulder Brighton - follow one colour to the top, that's one climb! Green (far wall) is the easiest climb. Yellow/Black (corner climb, mid-picture), is quite easy. White, orange, pale purple: all too hard for me!

My sister plays for a local netball team, The Emeralds of Lancing, and she coaxed Kariss and I along to a couple of their training sessions. whilst not as physically draining as some of our work-outs, they keep you on your feet and moving for a good hour of running, jumping and, in my case, desperately trying to catch the ball!

Individual Training
As I work in a school I am sometimes asked if I would like to go on residential. This year I was asked to join the Year 9 residential to Wales where we hiked up two mountains

Sugar Loaf looks really big from a distance! But, at Twmpa or Lord Hereford's Knob. we went up the

596m, it doesn't quite measure up. left side (out of sight here) and walked

across to the peak in the middle.

(at least we called them mountains because they are nearly as big as a hill could possibly get!), rock climbed and abseiled on a cliff, gorge walked and canoed. Oh and played rounders, long ball, slack-lined and did what felt like ten tons of washing up. Although it was brilliant fun sometimes the kids needed quite a bit of help, encouragement and cajoling, especially to get up the last little bits of the hills, so I was absolutely knackered by the time I got home on Friday! We were fantastically lucky with the weather: last year they couldn't do some of the activities because it rained the whole week, this time the sun was out and I even got a little sunburnt....

To prove that I climbed it, here is the view from Twmpa,
near the peak.

The other exercise I have done is varied but Martin (yes the same Martin, he made me run up some of the hills!), let me try out his Slendertone which felt like it was working. Enough, at least, for me to invest in one myself; also, if a super-fit PT thinks they work, who am I to disagree? Oh, and I had a lovely run yesterday, got very lost in the woods and met some cows.
They were super cute but really not that pleased to see me. I think they must have been fairly young as the calves were very shaky on their feet when they got up!

Thanks for reading this post, it won't be nearly as long till the next one, especially as there are only 34 days to go.

Send us your encouragement here: teamCCPS@gmail.com or sponsor us here: https://www.justgiving.com/teams/CCPS

Not long now!

2013-02-28T19:34:00.001+00:00

101 days left until Jun 9, 2013 -- Tough Mudder

Tough Mudder training - fitness check up

2013-02-17T15:32:00.001+00:00

Remember this guy?

This is the fearsome Martin, fitness instructor, P.E. champ, all round good egg, previously of the 26th Regiment Royal Artillery, and was first introduced to you back in December when he put us through our paces in a combined Bleep Test and exercise / torture session. Since then he has been tracking our fitness (remember Kenny complaining about our fitness plan?) and has reappeared like a scary energiser bunny to whisk us back to the gym to check our progress.

*For 'gym' read 'school hall'; we're doing this on a budget, people!

Of course, having spent two months learning how to do press-ups, working on our sit-ups and counting every step we take, we're clearly in tip-top peak physical condition, right?

Shoddy and Kariss get lunging.

After all, we work in a school and everyone knows that running around after small children is hard work. It's certainly my excuse for eating so many biscuits. So immediately after

work I struggled into my sports gear (thank you, whoever invented the sports bra, thank you!), rushed to the gym, ran back to Kenny's classroom to herd him - protesting - back to the hall and joined Kariss and Shoddy in a warm up.

Cold ...... warming up ........ bit warmer .......... raring to go!

So there we were, warmed-up and mildly enthusiastic to see how much we'd improved since last Bleep Test only... we hadn't.

Kenny had to drop out pretty quickly because he was having trouble breathing (get yourself a new inhaler, Kenny!!), shortly followed by Kariss and then me, leaving Shoddy going for a short while longer before she too gave up the ghost and stopped.

Not only had we not improved but Kenny and I had got worse scores than last time! I have to say I'm disappointed in myself. If I can't run that far then how am I going to last at Tough Mudder? 12 miles, when I can't last ten minutes?! Not to mention how exhausted I'm going to be after the obstacles and the added extras - the fire, mud, electricity, ice and water? Disappointed doesn't really cut it; terrified is closer.

Anyway, after the Bleep Test we moved onto our mat exercises - press ups and sit ups, thankfully no bonus plank this time! Martin may have been a bit disparaged by our progress as well because he didn't even make us do jump-ups. I think all of us found this part of the test much easier than we did back in December. I hit 30 press ups and Kenny doubled his PB (send him some congratulations here).

Shoddy, Kariss and Kenny looked knackered by the end.

After that poor showing, I am definitely going to have to jump back into training but as it is half term this coming week (at last!), I'm going to take the opportunity to exercise every day. I've got off to a good start by covering over 5km yesterday whilst leafleting for my brother and simultaneously running away from Zombies, which also coincides with one of the weekly tasks on my new training regime (again, thanks Martin). Martin also sold us some press-up bars which are.... well they are just evil. Never has anything made me feel more despondent and less fit. In one day I went from being able to do 30 press-ups to, one the bars, none. That's right, I couldn't do a single one.

And, if you're very nice, I'll post the video of me failing to do so and collapsing on my face!

Comment below if you want to see me embarrass myself....

112 days to go.

Zombies, Run - the review

2013-02-10T13:11:00.004+00:00

If you remember way back in January, I set out to try a couple of apps to see if they would help improve my fitness, motivation and inability to put down the cake. Finally I have time to let you know how that went. First, Zombies, Run:

I downloaded the Zombies, Run 5K edition for the bargain price of 69p (now £1.49, sorry!);

quite a big step for me as I have never bothered to pay for an app before as I find that there are a great many good free ones so I am not affected by not having whichever paid apps are trending this week. However, something about Zombies, Run spoke to me and, throwing caution to the wind, spent my 69p on it.

Having played it for a few weeks, 5K really does seem to be a training app in the best

sense of the word. The idea is that it sets you up with different workouts that get a little harder and a little longer until you can complete 5 kilometres, all with an exciting zombie-based storyline delivered direct to your headphones. All you have to do is put on your trainers, leave the house and follow the instructions!

As you progress through the game, new workouts are added to the screen. Copywrite Six to Start and Naomi Alderman,
original artwork by Estee Chan.

As with the full Zombies, Run app (more on this to follow), the first screen is a lovely series of pictures as an introduction and tutorial. However, where the full app has a mini-game, 'codex' where information on people, places and objects can be looked up, and a text-format mission list, the 5K version has a simple one-screen cork-board where your completed missions are posted.

The first week is easy. I cannot stress this enough. Anyone could do it, even my 90 year old grandma. Well, maybe not as she recently had a hip replacement and would forget where she was going within a few minutes but you get my point. In the first week you do three repetitions of the same workout: 10 minute walk, 1 minute walk followed by 15 second slow run (ten times), followed by a ten minute free form run. 'Free form' here doesn't mean 'running around waggling your arms above your head, screaming that the zombies are coming' but 'jog if you can, walk if you can't'. Shame. Still, even without the theatrics, it's not the most active 36 minutes I've ever spent!

As you progress through the weeks, the workouts get harder. But this is at a gentle pace, spread out over 8 weeks with several repetitions of each workout so you can be confident that you know how do do each one.

One thing to beware of, however, is the setting of your phone and whether your GPS is working! Check out the picture -->
Can you spot the problem?
At 8:16pm the storyline started, the radio operator told me what I had to do and the story began. At 8:27pm I checked to see whether my 10 mins was up and it happily told me that I had completed 3 minutes....
For the rest of the session I made sure to stop my phone from sleeping and, since I've made sure to use GPS every other time, I've not had this problem since. I only had to do an extra 10 minutes because of this glitch!
The only other problem I have is that the storyline voiceovers cut in over the top of whatever you are listening to instead of pausing the track. This isn't a problem when Sam and Dr Myers are talking over Rita Ora or Rhianna but I have a habit of listening to The Infinite Monkey Cage whilst running and it's a bit irritating when you can half hear Brian Cox explaining something or Tim Minchin making a joke and know that you are missing out!

Anyway, I found that I liked the concept of Zombies, Run so much that I wanted to see what other features the full version had.

Estee Chan's introductory artwork.

As before, the first screen is a tutorial. I am quite in love with these illustrations since I noticed - while compiling and cutting them together for you - that the pictures lead into each other. Love it!

Estee Chan (as part of the SixToStart group) designed this.

So what's new? Well the storyline is different. You are no longer a new arrival training up to be of use but a 'Runner' in your own right. And, as you run, the text-to-speak man (think Siri) tells you that you have picked up various items including insulin, first-aid kits, an axe and underwear. How I can carry all that when I have just fallen out of a helicopter crash I do not know! These items you use to upgrade various building in your base which then expand and change and also give you new missions. For example, on my first run I collected enough items to upgrade my hospital to Level 2. This has unlocked story missions 2, 3 and 10.

So the verdict? I can't type any longer, I need to go and get more supplies for Abel Township. Are you coming? See you on the other side.

P.S. Don't ask about MyFitnessPal. The calorie counter is too much for me at the moment: it fainted when it registered how much cake I have been eating.... maybe I'll try again in the future.

119 days to go!

Eeek!

2013-02-07T20:59:00.003+00:00

Tomorrow is our fitness test, wish us all luck! Hoping I don't pass out during the Bleep Test...

CCPS - Chanctonbury Community Playscheme for special needs children

2013-02-04T22:02:00.003+00:00

1977: thirty-five years ago, near Chanctonbury Ring in West Sussex. In a quiet corner of a quiet town, a very special group of people realised that there was - and still is - a desperate need for fun, safe respite care for people with special needs. As this group was primarily made up of mothers who had children with mental and physical disabilities, they knew exactly what their children and others like them needed. These people went on to start the summer holiday play scheme known as CCPS.

The children and volunteers
play parachute games in
the drama room.

Since that day, many other people have joined the organisation, mostly as volunteers and often devoting many, many years to working with children with special needs. The charity has grown from strength to strength and now runs for four weeks every summer holiday for approximately 70 children every day.

These children, who range in age from 5 to 19 years old, have a diverse range of complex needs. These include well-known conditions like Autism, Cerebral Palsy, ADHD or Downs Syndrome as well individuals with Profound Multiple Learning Difficulties or
undiagnosed disorders.

Kariss's superhuman ability to fit
into 'age 2' clothing!

Every year we rely on a core of people who organise and support the play scheme as well as a group of team leaders and a huge amount of volunteers from local schools. Many team leaders started out with CCPS at 15 as volunteers and came to love helping these special children; many have even ended up as teachers and teaching assistants. We are also extremely thankful to the dedication of a fleet of bus drivers who transport most of our children and some of the volunteers to and from play scheme every day.

Each special needs child has a volunteer 'buddy' for the day and can choose a range of in house activities such as trampolining, arts and crafts, sports and games, sensory play, swimming, playing in the ball pool, soft play area or light room, competitions and themed activities. We also provide trips out into the community such as horse-riding, bowling, go-karting and more unusual activities like power-boats rides, a trip to the funfair and archery. We aim for every child to have at least one trip out during their time with us and for some of these children it is an important time for them to be out in their community with their peers, something they may rarely have experienced.

Daisy learns archery

As you probably know, it is getting more and more difficult to obtain adequate funding for individuals with special needs. Chanctonbury Community PlayScheme is a vital and vibrant part of these children's lives: they look forward to it throughout the year and make friends for life. Those supporting the children do too! My brother and his wife both volunteered for CCPS: they met there and now have two beautiful children (yes I am biased!). So I feel an obligation to help this charity continue its good work, hopefully far into the future past when I can volunteer my summer holidays, and a group of team leaders and I want to raise money for our play scheme. With this money we would be able to update play equipment, buy or rent new supplies for in house activities (we've gotten very excited about sensory environments!) and maybe even buy a minibus to ease our difficulties with transportation.

But we did not want to ask you to donate your money for a usual fundraising event; we wanted to capture your attention and enthusiasm with something that would push our dedication and our bodies to the limits. We signed up for Tough Mudder, a twelve mile army-style assault course incorporating fire, ice, water, heights, tunnels, electricity and an awful lot of mud! We hope that we can inspire you to sponsor us, even if it is just in order to give us horrifying tests (like our swim in the sea). We have already raised £471 and we still have 125 days to go.

Hoping to hear from you or see you on Facebook or Twitter or you can dive straight in at our JustGiving site!

EDIT: I apologise for the poor quality/ boring nature of the pictures I have used here. As this is not promotional material for CCPS itself but rather a fundraising blog I want to obtain parental permission before using photographs that feature the children. This means a lack of cute photos of them all having fun (and we have a lot of beautiful photos!) but I do have an awful lot of photographs of the teamleaders looking bad which I am free to share with you. Message me below if you want to see embarassing shots of the TeamCCPS ToughMudder members and our friends!

Kenny's gone crazy!

2013-01-21T18:27:00.003+00:00

So... Kenny Park wants to lay in the snow!

Do you remember way back when we started this gig I said that we'd do stupid things to raise our profile and to get people to donate? Well, we're still game for anything you can throw at us (maybe literally but let's wait until it get's warmer, yeah?) but you haven't been coming up with many ideas lately. After the success of our sea swim in December - check out the video - we need something to do in January. Because the fitness regime and continuous press-ups aren't nearly enough.

Like this only laying down.
And in swimwear.
And not at all fun. Uh oh.

So, as the latest part of our (torture) training, Kenny reckons we need some more practice at being very very cold. He has suggested that we get into swimming costumes and lie in the snow. I personally think he has gone totally crazy but I'm willing to support him in both this test and the possible trip to the hospital afterwards; for hypothermia or for craziness, whichever comes first.

The only problem is... we need an incentive. Kenny says he'll do it for £30 but the more you give, the more people will join the freezing fun. And by 'fun' I clearly mean 'screaming, shivering, cursing and hopping around in near-hypothermic pain'.

Luckily for me and our fundraising attempts we've had a bit of a thaw down here in sunny Worthing: temperatures reached a tropical 3 degrees today so we'll have to wait for the next snowfall before we can go snowdrift-swimming.

You better jump on this bandwagon quickly (or suggest different activities here) because we're fast running out of January and snow is predicted later this week.

Keep an eye on the total here: http://www.justgiving.com/Kenny-Park

Only 139 days left

Ice and Zombies

2013-01-20T16:32:00.003+00:00

I have a confession. As the snow has come, my ability to get off the sofa has gone. As I speak, I am snuggled in the living room in multiple pairs of pyjamas, leg-warmers, dressing-gown and blankets: yes, even though it is 4pm on a sunday.

My only possible excuse is that I was going to go for a run but, you know, it's slippery out there, what with all that snow and ice. Nobody mention yesterday's thaw, please. So since Friday (snow-day, day-off, yippee!) I haven't completed my Martin-training - not that I can do 40 press-ups on the trot anyway - and I haven't got anyway near 12,000 steps. Quite possibly hovering near 1,200. A day. Pitiful! I did, however, play Heavy Rain till 3am last night - a dark, film-noir-esque detective story with a lot of fighting in it.

So how to get out of this rut? I'm going to try a couple of apps over the next week to see if they motivate me to move. The first, MyFitnessPal, I've used before and found to be quite successful at reminding me what I'm eating (and what I shouldn't be eating!) and helping me to keep within a calorie limit.

The second, Zombies, Run, promises to be a story-led running app, which will motivate me to get out there and keep moving. A previous app (Zombie Run, it's a bit confusing), pitted you against a GPS map full of zombies you had to avoid to win. I found it very entertaining but the fact that I had to run while continuously checking the map on my phone disrupted my pace although the zombies wanting to eat my brains meant I had to take different routes to get home which was fun. The other problem with this app was the fact that it was better suited to running from one point to the other rather than round the block or neighbourhood which is what I (and I assume, many of you) do. Anyway, I hope that Zombies, Run will combat these niggling issues by having instructions given through the headphones and no strict necessity to check your phone every couple of minutes.

They're after you. No they really are.

So that's the plan! Watching what I eat with MyFitnessPal and if you see me running down the road like a crazy it's because some Zombies are chasing me!

I'll let you know how I get on, let me know if you have any good fitness apps or training tips here or by email and don't forget that there are many ways to follow us: Facebook, Twitter and, of course, JustGiving!

Only 140 days left! Thats only 20 weeks!!

Kenny explains it all

2013-01-08T12:55:00.001+00:00

"Plank" position
image source unknown

Back in December our friend Martin devised a new fitness plan for us following on from the bleep test. (My phone autocorrected this to "sleep test" which I think we would have all been a lot happier with). Sarah, Elli and I (because we work with Martin) have been given targets in press ups, sit ups, walking and plank position. Every day we need to do 15 press ups, 20 sit ups, at least 8000 steps and one minute of the yoga plank position. Easy, right?

This progresses to 12000 steps, 20 press ups, 25 sit ups and 2 minutes plank in the second week, and by the third week we (super-humans that we are) will be doing 25 press ups, 30 sit ups, 12,000 steps and three minutes of the plank!

My amazing hot chocolate

Elli managed to lose her pedometer on the first day and has hidden Sarah's pack so I'm clearly winning!

[edit: I haven't hidden it, it's been waiting patiently in my living room, I'm just too forgetful to take it into work!]

No press ups or plank so far but I've had a maximum day of 16.5k steps and my average day at work is 14k steps so I'm doing well. Having said that I ate four weightwatchers lemon slices for lunch and made the most amazing white hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows last night (I was a bit stressed, alright!) so Elli is threatening to make me do MyFitness calorie counting for a day!

Anyway, massive thanks to Martin for our fitness programme, looking forward to the next bleep test. Okay, "looking forward" is almost definitely too strong a phrase, but it will definitely be interesting.

On another subject, why on earth are the supermarkets stocking easter eggs on 1st January?!

Best Christmas present ever!

2013-01-01T21:08:00.002+00:00

Finally they have done it!

In my opinion the best product this year also wins the prize for best Christmas present. Not that I tend to give out prizes for anything as I am not an accredited film-board or Father Christmas's personal auditor but for this I'm prepared to make an example.

To properly explain we have to go back a few years. In November 2001 Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was released in cinemas. In December 2001 my 11 year old brother Richard first put on his Christmas list (amongst an endless list of Scooby Doo DVDs), "a Harry Potter wand". Over the course of the next few years we bought him toy wands and battling wands but none of these were what he wanted: none of these could do real magic.

As Richard got older his Christmas list changed little: this is because Richard has Down Syndrome so his love of Harry Potter was going nowhere! He did however add "magic powder" to his lists in the hope that it would make his wand work like Harry Potter's. But still there was no way that Richard, now 22, could cast lumos, expelliarmus or stupefy like the wizard he wishes he was.

Until now.

At first I dismissed Wonderbook: Book of Spells as just another spin off from J.K. Rowlings ever hungry merchandise department, a shallow attempt to shoehorn the story into another medium. However, that was before I actually saw it in action. It, and I can't say this emphatically enough, is marvellous.

Richard can now watch the book come to life on his tv screen while casting magic spells from the move controller which transforms on-screen to his choice of wand. The camera can tell when he turns the pages and, on-screen, the pages change too, showing new mini stories, history of spells and practise pages all of which are accessed by pulling the content from the page by wand. Everything is based on simple actions and learning by repetition so Richard can follow the instructions fairly easily or practise until he gets it: the content is really accessible but with a good level of difficulty to maintain interest. It also has a lot of new content, both history and stories that add a realistically Hogwarts feel to the game.

When I finally peeled myself away from his side, Richard had completed chapter one and the spell test associated with it. Four more chapters await him, each of which last 12 double pages of the Wonderbook. I hope that it lives up to my initial excitement: it may only be an animated storybook but if it makes Richard feel like a wizard then it truly is magic to me.

Finally! The infamous sea swim...

2012-12-16T15:21:00.002+00:00

As promised - only 15 days after the fact - here is a video of our brave attempt to swim in the sea. Well sit in the sea. And, in my case, crawling desperately!

Candy, Christmas Trees and Training Torture Part TWO

2012-12-09T13:43:00.000+00:00

Part Two

After the christmas trees comes candy!

So, having trained hard and celebrated with a lot of cake and a moderate amount of wine, this week was fast becoming a success on all fronts. What could top the hard work and birthday excitement, after all? Nothing. But christmas trees and the most amount of sweets I have ever seen in anyone's house certainly added to the brilliance that was this week.

What shall I tell you first? Let's leave the edibles till last, shall we? I will give you a teaser picture to whet your appetite, though.

Yesterday (saturday) I finally got myself in gear to get my christmas tree up and decorated. For most people this means heaving down the boxes and huffing off the dust, followed by half an hour of struggling to unbend recalcitrant branches and connect slightly wonky tubes. Then you discover the whole thing is leaning drunkenly backwards so you are forced to dive among the branches again to attempt to beat it into an upright stance. Anyway, my family have always liked to buy real pine christmas trees. This despite the fact that we all come up in horrible itchy rashes and sometimes even start wheezing when forced to touch them for any length of time (i.e. over 10 seconds). But nothing really comes close to that rich pine scented christmas smell that your house takes on for the next month and choosing exactly the right tree is a joy in itself.

Roundstone Farm

So yesterday we excitedly sorted into teams (my mum and eldest sister Renate, verses Kariss and me), jumped into two cars and split the destinations between us for optimum christmas tree scoping. The first place we (Kariss and I) tried was Roundstone Farm, partly because I love the atmosphere and friendliness of the staff.

Unfortunately, although they had plenty of non-drop Scottish Nordmans my mum and sister insist that the Norway Spruces are the best for shape and smell, despite the fact that they drop buckets of pine needles all over your floor and, unluckily, Roundstone only had one sad specimen left.

W&F Garden Centre

Onwards to Ferring and Worthing Garden Centre where despite the beautiful old traction engine outside and some slightly scary animated polar bears in their christmas department, the selection of trees was uninspiring and expensive. However they did have some lovely (albeit massive) wicker reindeer and the entire selection is professionally displayed in their outdoor covered areas.
They also have a collection of potted christmas trees if you don't want your tree to die for the holiday; you will have to fork out quite a lot for a potted tree however, and they are very small, even the so-called 'large' ones.

Potted christmas trees at Worthing and Ferring Garden Centre

Next we travelled to Lansdowne Nurseries and found a lovely, family run business with a field full of chickens and every member of the family either helping you choose your tree, pay for your tree or even, in the case of the young teenage girl, re-wrapping your tree in netting. I was tired just lifting our tree in and out of the car - she must have been exhausted! Anyway, we thought we had found a winner and after rendezvousing with my sister and mum and following a disappointing tour around Hobbycraft's new store next to Haskins (anyone else think it is overpriced and doesn't have enough of any one craft?), we all returned to choose our trees.

Lansdowne Nursery

A lot of faffing around later and we had four trees - one large Spruce for my parents house, two medium Spruces, one each for my sister's home and my dad's business and one smallish Scottish non-drop for Kariss and me. You see, we decided that they looked just as good, were less messy and less likely to bring me out in a rash after carrying or decorating it and the pine needles are not so deathly sharp. We have also planned to save space and money by buying a smallish (5ft!) tree and mounting it on our coffee table -will let you know if it works out!
And, as if to prove my point about family run businesses, the gentleman on the till gave us a dozen eggs for free, so fresh that they were still warm and very much in need of a good scrub.

After all that heavy lifting (any excuse for some Tough Mudder training), we were in need of some tea and a treat so we popped in on my brother and sister-in-law's house. Recently, my brother set up an online business selling imported American candy, iCandyStore; he seemed to be selling a steady amount and there are always a large amount of boxes in their house. However, when I visited this week the entire kitchen has been taken over by a wall of candy, the shed is full of cans and christmas hampers and boxes are stacked precariously everywhere.

The photos really do not do it justice: there is just SO MUCH CANDY! Boxes of Reeces Cups, Fizz Wizz and Pop Tarts jostle with brands I've never heard of like Flips, Mike&Ike, Tootsie Rolls and 3 Musketeers bars. We had to take advantage of this and quickly got stuck into a healthy afternoon snack of cinnamon Pop Tarts, jelly snakes and Reeces Crispy Crunchy bar (see Kariss' satisfied face, left, for a review of the latter), washed down with a cup of tea.

The only problem with there being so much candy and chocolate (apart from getting hugely, happily fat) is: who is going to help them with the christmas orders?

Run away, run away, fast! Wait, grab me a packet of popping candy on your way out, will you?

Candy, Christmas Trees and Training Torture Pt1

2012-12-08T20:35:00.001+00:00

A lot has happened this week. It was my birthday on wednesday, we put up our christmas tree and, as always, jumped at the opportunity for a little Tough Mudder training. I also managed to run over my mobile but that's another story.

My work colleague and ex-army bloke Martin very kindly agreed to put us through our paces in some army-style circuit training scheduled for just after New Year. Having seen us, however, he decided that checking we could actually run would be no bad thing. Sadly for me the best night for everyone else was wednesday so, having spent the day eating flapjacks, cake and chocolate, I rolled up to the school hall to start our fitness test. Actually, I can't really complain that we were put to the test on my birthday as the other trainees were preparing for a Christmas Fayre in aid of CCPS and the Luke Cory Trust- they did a fantastic job, especially the glamorous Hannah.

Anyway, the first thing Martin had us attempt was the "Bleep Test". For those of you who didn't have to do this in your teens it consists of running 20 metre stretches to the exciting sound of a CD going "blaaart" every few seconds. Every time the track bleeps you have to run and cross the marker line, ready to ran back to your start position on the next tone. The time between the melodic blaarts gradually decreases as time passes.

So, having had the task explained to us in very simple terms by our surprisingly scary colleague, we started the test. Soon all you could hear (apart from Martin barking orders and, occasionally, encouragement) was the sound of us wheezing, panting and gasping and the slapping of our trainers echoing across the hall. Personally, the vast amounts of cake I had eaten that day immediately started to bounce up and down and make me feel sick! Surprisingly, none of us fell over or passed out and Martin says we did better than he expected. I'm pretty sure we all felt worse than expected!

Having looked up our scores (we all made level 9) just now, we really did do ok!

For some reason the scoring is level/repetitions so scoring level 9/at least 2 repetitions in the Female 21-30 category gives you a rating of good. Those who took part were aged between 21and 30, male and female.

After this (and quite a lot of panting and staring at each others pink faces and, oddly, bright red arms) Martin made us do one minute of sit-ups, hold the plank yoga position - Sarah managed a personal best and team best of 1min17secs! - followed by as many press-ups as we could complete and rounded off by one minute of jump-ups.
Immediately after this we all lay down for quite a while, especially as one of the benches we had used for the jump-ups had broken under our vigorous jumping and excessive weight!

Luckily, Martin let us stop there and we all ran away to the pub to drown our exercise-sorrows (and celebrate my birthday!). Fortunately it was after school hours so not many of our colleagues nor the pupils were there to watch us fail; I need more practice before I am happy to perform in public! We are very grateful to Martin for the time and work he has put in for us but my stomach muscles were definately rebelling the next day!

Wondering about the candy and the christmas trees? Mouthwatering pictures coming very shortly in Pt2.

Also, apologies for lack of video for last saturdays sea-swim, another tough mudder trainee needs to upload it for me as it's too big!

Swim in the Sea - Shock to the System!

2012-12-01T11:01:00.002+00:00

I think you can guess that here at TeamCCPS we have been more concerned with preparing for Christmas than preparing for Tough Mudder. However, as I'm sure you recall, the lovely Liam was the first person to sponsor us 50 whole pounds and so won the chance to choose the time and date on which we would swim in the sea.

This seemed like a brilliant plan in October but this morning the world had other plans and sent us a light sprinkling of frost - several of the team had trouble standing upright on the icy paths and I had to de-ice my car outside AND in before I could get to Worthing pier.

Note "Sunrise 07:43" and current temp "10:00 1 degree"

Seeing a crowd of supporters was a welcome surprise - peeling myself out of bed at 6:30 on a weekend was incredibly difficult so I appreciate their efforts when they haven't signed up for this! - and, by the time I arrived, everyone else was ready to go. A few pictures of us posing on the sand (hopping from foot to foot) and we were off! We ran down the beach like a herd of limping buffalo, slowing considerably within a few feet of the beige, uninviting waters of the sea. As soon as I set foot in the water my feet started to burn, within moments they were mercifully numb but by that point I had encountered the rocks!

Slimy, cold and obviously very solid, they threatened to trip us up: the others soldiered on deeper into the water but I was forced to crab walk on my hands and feet to avoid breaking my toes. Soon everyone was shouting that we had to sit in the water if we couldn't make it out far enough to fully submerge; bravely we all went down. Actually, I was still squatting anyway to relieve the pressure on my feet so it didn't take much effort to fall further into the water; thankfully I was wet enough to be allowed to start the long stagger back to shore and my clothes.

It has been a long time since I have been more glad to see something than the hot water bottle which I had nestled into my rucksack of clothes: sitting with my feet propped up on the warm bottle and wrapped in a towel I actually didn't feel very cold. A very entertaining five minutes of hopping, wriggling and throwing wet clothes about later and we were all dressed and ready for treats: the spectators had brought coffee and hot chocolate to stave off the worst of the cold.
That debacle was three hours ago now and I am now huddled on the sofa with my duvet, heating on full blast and wearing toe-socks to individually warm my poor feet. Mr Hoddy (father of the trainee-Tough Mudders Sarah and James) very kindly bought Kariss and me breakfast - what a wonderful man!

If you would like to reward our bravery don't forget to check out our JustGiving site
or text CCPS77 £5 to 70070

Oh and just in case you thought I was exaggerating about the cold, here I am getting ready this morning!

In conclusion - OUCH MY FEET, always take a hot water bottle and "Why oh why are we doing this?". Videos and pictures of the torture will be uploaded soon.

Only 190 days to go.

Science Sunday - The Week As I See It

2012-11-18T14:46:00.000+00:00

Clearly I am new to this blogging malarkey. And also clearly, not being the world's most avid exercise enthusiast, some weeks I am going to struggle to provide relevant anecdotes on the ongoing Tough Mudder training struggle. Not unless you want more posts like:

"Did some skipping. Knackered now. Ate cake.

-Note: for 'some' read 'a very little' and insert 'quite a lot' between 'ate' and 'cake'."

Fancy that? Thought not. So today, having had a terrible weekend exercise-wise - my father's birthday (lots of lovely food, wine and a massive restaurant bill) coincided with an unfortunate time of the month (lying on the sofa groaning and generally being a mardy cow) to produce what is possibly an all-time low in movement let alone actual exercise - I decided to write about a few things that have interested me, science-wise, this week.

Autism Spectrum Disorders and Music

Last year I worked with a primarily autistic class of 11 year olds and, in the summer terms we took most of the year group on residential holiday. Whilst there we discovered that one of our students who had never to our knowledge played with an iPad before, or showed much musical ability either, could, using the piano app, work out how to play simple tunes such as Happy Birthday or the Balamory theme tune. Now maybe he spends his free time playing the piano with his mum or maybe he is a musical genius. But recent research supports the hypothesis that individuals with autism have a greater ability to discriminate pitch and remember melodies (Stanutz S, Wapnick J, Burack J. 2012 Pitch discrimination and melodic memory in children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism)

Hannu Rajaniemi

Hannu Rajaniemi - what can I say? I would like to spend a day inside his mind, that's for sure! He wrote the mind-blowing SF book The Quantum Thief which mixes tech that is advanced to the edge between our understanding and Rajaniemi's ability to describe it but also clearly comes out of the tools we currently use to communicate. Imagine an inbuilt Google/Facebook/Wikipedia that gives you as much information as you want on anything or anyone that you interact with, using multiple levels of functionality and accessing public and private profiles dependant on societal status... well you're nearly at the limit of my descriptive powers. Luckily Rajaniemi is a much better storyteller than me. His sequel The Fractal Prince continues this flight through space just past the fingertips of the law and will open your imagination. I won't promise it will be an easy read but it will certainly be a fun one.

And Finally

Isn't this amazing? A very clever chap named Russell Gawthorpe created these science action figures. Sad as I am that Gregor Mendel (father of genetics, pea enthusiast and all-round clever clogs) didn't make the cut at least science superstar Nikola Tesla is in there!

See the original link at DeviantART.

Have a lovely week yourself and I will try and organise myself (and the lazy team!) to upload some more Tough Mudder content. Only 203 days to go!

Spam and Custard - My favourite training tools

2012-11-13T17:51:00.003+00:00

Some days I find it hard just to motivate myself to get off the sofa. Yesterday was one of those days but I managed to goad myself into doing some exercises with a little help from Kariss (she took the laptop away), a mug of custard and a twix. I know that doesn't sound like a good basis for increasing my fitness but last night I managed to do 55 press-ups! Given that my previous personal best was two sets of 10 followed by a long time lying on the floor groaning while being unable to do anything useful with my arms, I was very pleased with the result.

But how did I manage it?

With a little help from Twitter and a surprisingly useful piece of spam.

Being new to Twitter I did not know, and had not thought about, the possibility of spam messages. Almost immediately after I posted the link to our pitiful video of pull-up failure I received a message with a link to a video on how to do the perfect pull-up.

'Aha!" I thought, "an interested follower who wants to motivate me is doing what I asked - sending me tips."

Twitter. It's a funny old thing

Alas, it was not to be and, after messaging her back and finding out it was an unsolicited tweet with no friend to be found at the other end, I felt like a fool.
But - and this is a pretty big but (like mine) - I did watch the video and it did give me some good tips. I won't link to the video because I don't think spamming is an honest way to communicate but I will tell you two of the ways they suggested helping to maximise your exercise training.

1. Do as many of the exercise as you can (be it pull-ups, squats or calf-raises, this will work for them all)
2. Have a 60 second break
3. Repeat

It's as simple as that. Repeat until you can only do, say, 10 of your chosen exercise (I got bored of the video at this point but this method worked for me).

1. Do 1 press-up (pull-ups, squats etc etc)
2. Have a 10 sec break
3. Do 2 press-ups
4. Have a 10s break
5. Build up until you cannot repeat a set.

Do these on alternate days and you will soon be much better at your chosen exercise. Reward yourself with a nice mug of custard and a twix. Call it carb-loading or glucose-storing if you wish to make it seem more athletically valid.

Yes, this would be me and my mug of custard

So, in conclusion, some of my best training tools are unsolicited tweets and a mug of custard. Simple, free and they make me happy.

Elli

208 days to go

Monkeying Around

2012-11-11T11:34:00.000+00:00

Signing up for Tough Mudder has started a journey for me. Not only the start of training and trying to build myself up to the point where I can complete the event without ending up as a large puddle of sweat slowly seeping into the mud but also a journey of learning how to use Blogger, Twitter, YouTube and now iMovie!

Hell I spent a long time on the following video. I do not think the program is intuitive or easy to pick up: I was gaffing around with this for a couple of hours. The final result is ok though - let me know what you think.

The Background
A few of us decided to get together for a run and a go at the monkey bars at the local park (one of us - Sam - turned up late and ended up loitering in a play-park for a wee while...!), and of course we filmed it for your amusement.

Yes, we're aware that we're really, really bad at monkey bars.

Watch the video on YouTube

Only 210 days left to increase that upper body strength, girls!

Shoddy workout....

2012-11-10T18:06:00.001+00:00

This Friday, after a long week at work I embarked on a new class at the gym. ‘Body Pump’ is basically high intensity workout with a weights bar, you do sets of squats, lunges, chest presses and lots of other things that I can’t remember the name of. It aims to work all your muscle groups, and is rounded of nicely (!!) with floor work, crunches, planks and side planks, push ups and collapsing on the floor in tears (almost). All in all its a really good work out, and as my upper body strength is almost non-existent a good way to kick me off. Either way, I ended up staggering out of the class and on showering afterwards realised that I didnt have the strength to lift my arms. Apparently this is the sign of a good work out – I have a lot more pain to come. Writing this a day later, my thighs feel like they have been compressed, and standing up is an issue. Training has well and truely started... I have also signed myself up for another class next week.

Sarah 'Shoddy' Hoddy

Married 'Mudders' - more mad members

2012-11-09T21:27:00.003+00:00

Next up for our list of recruits willing to not only beat the mammoth challenge (12 miles, 20 obstacles, many heart stopping moments - remember?), but also to embarrass themselves online for your edification and support are our married members - Chris and Vikki.

Chris and Vikki have been involved with Chanctonbury Community Playscheme for a really, really, really long time. They have family links with CCPS going way back to it's origins and Chris was (I think) a co-ordinator when I started and I have been volunteering with CCPS for 11 years; this makes him two things: 1. dedicated and 2. ancient!

So how will they fair at Tough Mudder 2013? Here are their vital statistics - you decide!

Days remaining: 213

Here come the boys...

2012-11-08T22:31:00.002+00:00

Men. Some might say the hairier gender are prone to over-confidence and rushing in to situations without thinking. I don't know anyone like that, do you?

17:44

Leon H

Cheers mate just convinced Paul to join in didn't take much just waved a chocolate bar in front of him

18:04
Paul H
I am just going to rock up and get on with it with no training like the great south run, but let remember the people who said they would do the great south run and who didn't turn up for it Chris (let's hope you go through with it this time) and my mum said I am normal.
18:06
Chris
We love u Paul
18:07
Leon H
So absolutely no training Paul not even with all those marines you work with?
18:07
Elli
You're gonna hurt after!!
18:07
Shoddy
Good luck with that Paul!!
18:08

Paul H

That's just everyday work mate not training

The bigger the ego, the harder they fall. See you in the mud, Paul!

The English sea. So picturesque. So romantic. So very cold!

2012-11-07T21:37:00.000+00:00

"Good luck suckers"

Friends. You gotta love them!

If you check out the links on the top right of this page you will find our JustGiving site and a few ways you can help us train, as one of our friends has discovered. The lovely Liam (photo, right) used to work with us at CCPS and is very jealous that he can't join us in our Tough Mudder adventure.

Unfortunately, the way he chose to deal with his jealousy was to take us up on our £50 incentive: Liam now has the power to say exactly when we will take a swim in the icy southern sea.

But when has he chosen? Midday on a nice sunny sunday? Fat chance, it's:

1st December at 7:15am!

The video will of course be up here shortly after and we will be sending good wishes Liam's way I'm sure!

Want to get involved? Want us to try pull-ups, crawl-outs or Turkish get-ups? Or just think we deserve a Boxing day swim? Follow us here and get involved here.

Don't forget to send your orders to teamccps@gmail.com

Only 214 days to go.

Ready Recruits

2012-11-06T22:03:00.000+00:00

They've put down their pints, banished the crisps from the shopping list and promised to try and find a pair of trainers. Meet more of Team CCPS, the team willing to do ANYTHING for their cause.

____________________________________________________________________________

How do you think they'll cope with the toughest event ever?

Only 215 days to go. Follow their agonising progress here.