Challenges30

What I’m going to do next

Posted on July 18, 2012 by mragregory

Even before the year was coming to a close I was already thinking about what I could do next. I’ve enjoyed the year so much and know that pushing myself needs to be a big part of my life. This best part of the year has been the structure it has provided to my endeavours. So running with this idea I’ve created what I think is the perfect way forward: www.challengeandy.wordpress.com

The idea behind this site is to be:
· A record of challenges I’ve completed
· A way of planning for new challenges
· A way of inspiring others
· A way of raising money for an organisation that I’ve been involved with over the past 4 years and want to be involved with in the future

Rather than spend two weeks working for Project Hope to complete my ‘volunteer my teaching skills for 2 weeks outside of term time’ challenge I have instead spent time preparing the ground work to make this a regular feature of my life. I want to use my new website and challenges as a way of raising money to take teaching colleagues of mine to visit Project Hope in Palestine on an annual study tour. This will be life changing for the staff involved and gives my challenges a wider social purpose. I will always want to push myself and always want to help those in difficult circumstances. This new endeavour allows me to do this in a way that is sustainable and builds upon what I have learned over the past year. So please check out the new website, like the new Facebook page and pass on my challenges to as many people as you can.

Best wishes,

Andy

1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Facebook, Palestine, Project Hope. Bookmark the permalink.

Which events I still want to do…

Posted on July 17, 2012 by mragregory

So, at the end of the year what are the challenges I’d still like to do…

·Coast to coast- yet again this has managed to remain uncompleted. I tried to walk it years ago and got injured, giving up half way after 4 days and 100 miles. This time around I was too vague about when I was going to do it and if it would be on foot or by bicycle. Part of the problem with walking the route is that it takes at least 8 days and factoring in getting from the start and finish points means that in reality at least 10 days is needed. This reduces the times when it is actually possible from a practical point of view as realistically I would only be able to do it in the Easter or summer holidays. Completing the trip as a cycle would involve less time but more planning in terms of equipment. I had wanted to walk the route as I had failed once before but I’m glad that I decided not to spend a week in the hills when there was snow on the ground this Easter.

· Mountain marathon- Still feeling sore from the Sandstone trail I opted not to go for the Lakeland trails marathon. I knew that with the triathlon two weeks later there was no way I could successfully manage to finish them both. I opted to prioritise the triathlon as the swim would be my ultimate challenge of the year.

· Martial arts- I got my adult black belt when I was 11 but haven’t done any martial arts since I was 13. I tried through challenges 30 to learn some Krav Maga but was thwarted 3 times in my attempts to attend an induction session at my local club.

· Cyclo cross race- though I managed to go over Pendle Hill with my bike in the snow I’d still like to compete in an official cyclo-cross race. My downfall with managing this particular challenge this time around was that I left it too late in the year to get myself signed up for a race. I hadn’t realised quite how seasonal cyclocross is.

· Run a Mmile in less than 5 minutes- I’m not sure why this one didn’t come off. I think mainly because other challenges arose that caught my attention.

· 10 peaks- unfortunately with this one once the date for 2012 was announced it was outside of the challenges 30 year. Something I would still like to do in the future though.

· 12 novels- This is perhaps the challenge I’m most disappointed about not completing fully. An avid reader as a child I’ve struggled to read more than one novel every two months during the past year. I had chosen some challenging reads but I’m still to finish: War and Peace, The Histories by Herodotus, Catch 22, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Canterbury Tales, Brave New World, The Old Man and the Sea… I’ve got plenty of summer holiday reading now though

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Cyclo-cross, Martial arts, Mountain marathon. Bookmark the permalink.

What I would do if I did it again

Posted on July 17, 2012 by mragregory

If I was going to do the year again knowing what I’ve learnt from this experience there are a number of things I would do differently. For a start I wouldn’t decide to embark on a year of challenges just before the challenges are due to start! If I’d had a year of planning prior to starting Challenges 30 it would have been much easier to decide upon the events I was going to do and stick to them. It would also have been easier in terms of securing places in events. I have often found this year that some events are far more popular than I ever could have imagined and others the exact opposite.

From a financial point of view though I have been raising money as I’ve been going along this wasn’t my primary goal. My aim has always been to test myself and to see what I could achieve. Raising money has been difficult though mainly because of the world we now live in. The fact I was raising money on behalf of a school and that I didn’t have a charity number meant that a lot of the methods that people now use such as ‘just giving’ weren’t open to me. Writing a cheque and then posting it to the school is much more effort than being able to text a donation or click on a link. So for future challenges and causes I think I’ll pay much more attention to how money can be raised even if this isn’t my main aim.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Challenges 30 Complete!!!

Posted on July 17, 2012 by mragregory

As it is now officially my 30th birthday that ends the Challenges 30 year! I’ve had a fantastic time and pushed myself in lots of different ways. Please consider a donation if you’ve been impressed by my efforts.

1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Olympic Distance Triathlon – Challenge Completed

Posted on July 15, 2012 by mragregory

This is the one I’d been dreading all year…

In the end I enjoyed every minute of it! Knowing that I’ve always been a terrible swimmer I decided I would do something about it through my challenges 30 year. The two things I wanted to do to rectify my poor swimming were learning to Scuba Dive and completing an olympic distance triathlon. I managed the scuba diving right at the start of the year and I’ve now completed a triathlon just before the end.

This morning was another early start with my swim wave of the event beginning at 7am. For once I decided that going down to the location the night before would be a good idea but it sill meant a 5am get up for my long suffering other half. The advantage with getting to the area the night before was that I was able to go and wander around the park where the triathlon was due to be held. I could see where I would be swimming and got to walk round the cycle route. This event was held in Sutton Park in Birmingham and the format was 4 laps of the swim course, 8 laps of the cycle course and finally 4 laps of the run course.

Dreading the swim despite plenty of training over the past year I wasn’t pleased to hear this morning that the course was 4 laps of the route and not the 2 that the information sent out prior to the event had stated. The day before I had got my head around the fact that I would be swimming around the two buoys I could see twice. Nervous though I was I donned my wetsuit and lined up with everyone else for the 7am 15oom swim. Though I know I should have practised swimming in my wetsuit before the event and swimming in open water I just didn’t have the chance. I was definitely more buoyant but a wetsuit doesn’t lend itself to swimming breast stroke. I had however practised getting in and out of the wetsuit the night before in my hotel room. The first time I put it on it took me forever to get it off! My main fear with the swim was the fear of the unknown as I knew I could cover the distance and that I would be ok. I was happy that I managed to stick to my own pace and didn’t try to keep up with everyone else. Being 4 laps of a course did however mean that I was often in the way of other people which I couldn’t really help. On a 1 lap course this clearly wouldn’t have been an issue. I didn’t get out of the water last on the swim and I didn’t give up so I was over the moon to have completed the distance

Once out of the water I was relaxed as I knew I wouldn’t have any issue with the cycle (the distance is roughly my one-way commute to work which I’ve done a fair few times over the past year!) but my legs weren’t quite functioning as I was expecting them to. Thankfully by the time I was out of transition with my bike they had returned to normal and I could get on with it. I thought the course was quite good but speed bumps, tight turns and the fact that the roads weren’t closed did make it interesting at times. I had no idea how I would do on the run after the cycle so I took it quite easy to make sure I still had something left at the end.

Once off the bike my legs weren’t as jelly like as I expected but I’d read that short strides are the best approach until legs are used to the change in discipline so that’s what I did. I wanted to run the whole of the last section without walking so I took my time and enjoyed the last part of the event. Crossing the line was a fantastic feeling and I’m glad that I achieved what I set out to do:

Swim 1500M in open water (fittingly 30 times further than I managed in one go during my 1st swimming session back in October)
Enjoy my first triathlon

3 Comments

Posted in Physical Challenges and tagged Birmingham, Sutton Park, Triathlon. Bookmark the permalink.

Eco-Schools

Posted on July 2, 2012 by mragregory

Eco school in Maida Vale (Photo credit: Artivist)

The progress my school has made in this area over the past year has been astounding. With a group of enthusiastic young people and equally enthusiastic staff we have:

Established an Eco Council
Gained the Bronze and Silver Eco Schools Awards
Completed Two ‘Switch-off’ fortnight’s with the help of our eco ninjas
Raised awareness across the school about environmental issues
Worked with our local community to complete a litter pick in the area surrounding the school
Participated in the ‘Big Pedal’
Reduced the amount of energy that the school uses
Run an eco art competition
Worked alongside the environmental regeneration charity Groundwork
Created our own ‘Moodle’ page for eco activities

This is remarkable progress within a single year. I only hope that we maintain the momentum next year and build upon all of this good work. Hopefully by July 2013 there will be a Green Eco Schools Flag flying outside the school

Leave a comment

Posted in Eco School, Environmental and tagged Eco-School, Education, Environmental education. Bookmark the permalink.

23-30 reading in usual places – challenge complete!

Posted on July 1, 2012 by mragregory

Continuing with yesterday’s theme of charging about the place taking photographs I’ve now managed to complete the reading in unusual places challenge. Unlike yesterday today has been more pleasant and less town centre based! Here are the photographs for number 23 to 30:

#23 Clitheroe Castle