Barbara's diary.

Day 1 ( Tuesday, February 8

Janet had a domestic crisis and I had overbooked appointments.

Training cancelled. Just as well, as I dropped my pedometer down the toilet and it needed overhauling with WD40 and new batteries. Great start!

Day 2 ( Friday, February 11

Janet and I met at reception in the institute and headed down to the changing rooms in the basement. After deliberating about taking the lift (to the floor below), we decided to challenge the stairs.

After a flustered conflab on what equipment we would need to take ( ie: pedometer, security pass, camera, hankies, keys, training plan, smelling salts, we headed out to Leazes Park togged up in our training gear.

I handed Janet a training timetable and exercise programme which we were to follow. I was concerned that some weeks we had to run as much as 26 miles at a time. Janet ( being the professor ( pointed out that this was the total number of miles per week that we would be covering! Duh!

At the park I realised I had forgotten my glasses, so was unable to read the instructions for the warm-up routine, but fortunately Janet had her lenses in. Due to the inclement weather, we quickly realised we would have to adapt the routine and began leaning against the outbuilding and stretching our calf muscles ( improvising beautifully.

This was followed by standing on one leg, knee bent clutching the foot and a series of lunges, all very practised. However, one exercise which called for us to extend and hold a support, cross one foot over the other leg and dip the hip down to the floor had us collapsed in a heap after clashing heads.

Now for the run ( one mile today.

We headed off towards the bandstand and realised it was all uphill. A route round the back of the terrace led us back downhill and into a play park, then we headed for the lake, while every five minutes (yes, five!) we checked the pedometer.

By this time, Janet was expressing the need for her inhaler and we had been overtaken by three sets of childminding grandparents with pushchairs. However, us girls were determined to push on.

After half way we decided to walk for a lap to make sure we were not too stiff for the next session. On the last lap round the lake (0.2 miles) we managed to run.

Back to the institute for a shower before Janet and I returned to work. The first session took us 30 minutes ( a difficult target to beat.

At that rate the run would take us six-and-a-half hours. However, early days.

Day 3 ( Monday, February 14

Janet phoned to say she couldn't come to training as she had the builders in, but she would run from home. I was determined to keep up my pledge and made my way swiftly to the changing rooms at lunchtime, got stripped off and bolted down, only to find I had forgotten my jogging bottoms. Training cancelled.

Day 4 ( Thursday, February 17

Janet rang and asked if I wanted to run from her home in Gosforth. When I arrived Janet was already changed and sporting a new flash pedometer which talked to her.

It was a glorious day with warm winter sun and as we set off down the drive Janet's pedometer chanted "half a mile". Good start ( on that basis we could be back indoors very shortly.

This time we stopped less frequently for gas and air and after doing a figure of eight round Melton Park, we jogged back to Janet's ( time 25 minutes. We then preceded to take each other's pulses.

Janet had a scientific method of recording by getting me to count out loud while she mentally counted the beats as follows. One iggly piggly, two iggly piggly, three iggly piggly a

She calculated it and said it couldn't be right. I then realised I had a pulse counter on my pedometer.

We then had a chat about our fundraising campaign and what we wanted to achieve and how we might develop Janet's ideas for children with limb development/control problems . We came up with the name Limbering up for Cerebral Palsy for our just-giving site.

Fast forward to July

As you can see, after an awesome start, Janet and I lapsed somewhat due to several setbacks that were completely understandable, defensible and nothing to do with lack of motivation, sloth or being out of condition.

No, it was in Janet's case a trip to New Zealand, the land of her fathers, and in my case some health issues.

Now these health issues were nothing serious, they were more around those issues facing us "girls" of a certain age ( shall we say the over-40s?

It appears that once you hit 40 (and much beyond) bits start falling off, filling out and feeling bad. Add that to a busy job and hectic lifestyle and your body starts to completely seize up ( or mine did.

Whatever. I found after Easter that my joints were completely stiff and sore and I made a sharp visit to the doc's suspecting at least osteoporosis. However, having considered my symptoms which were many ( stiff neck, bleeding gums, bleeding eyes, aching joints, aching head, complete exhaustion by noon ( he said I needed to take glucosamine and ibuprofen thrice daily.

Apparently, as you get older the fluid around your joints is created less efficiently and if you are tense or stressed, this becomes more difficult to produce, with the knock-on effect of aches and pains.

So now here we are in July, only eight weeks and counting, and we are miles behind schedule. However, we are now preparing ourselves to be in peak condition by September 18.

So watch this space for our next trip out! We have lots of ideas of how to get fit and less fat.