BLOG: Getting fit with 1610 Preston Sports Centre for the Three Peaks Challenge

STEVE SOWDEN, of the Yeovil Press, is planning on doing the Three Peaks Challenge in aid of the Piers Simon Appeal & School in a Bag initiative in August 2015. But he needs to get fit and he has called in the help of the 1610 Preston Sports Centre. Follow his progress here with his blog.

PHOTO - ABOVE: Me (centre) with Dan and Brandon from 1610 Preston Sports Centre in Yeovil on my induction session on January 16, 2015.

FEBRUARY 19, 2015: I’m not one for using the C-word, but I did mumble it at training instructor Pain Man Dan as he took me through another programmed session at the 1610 Preston Sports Centre.

And when I say the C-word – I don’t mean words like crisps, chips or cake!

Once again the floor exercises with the giant beach ball – more commonly known as a gym exercise ball – were a real struggle.

The gym ball crunches were really crunching and I know they will do me good – but I doubt whether it will lead to me developing a six-pack! But give me a swift walking 5k on a treadmill rather those 20 gym ball crunches!

PHOTO – RIGHT: No pain, no gain! Me after doing those blinkin’ floor exercises on Thursday, February 19, 2015.

Thankfully there was no cramp on the end-of-the-session bike ride as experienced in my previous session Pain Man Dan.

Also, a note about the 1610 Preston Sports Centre – it really is a friendly, relaxed gym where nobody needs to feel out-of-place.

PS: Good to see Pete Clements, of Hardington and West Coker CC, at the gym working out; while I apologise to Rick McQueen for nearly making him fall off the treadmill machine in shock at seeing me walk through the gym doors!

FEBRUARY 13, 2015: It was my second programmed session with training instructor Dan Hill at the 1610 Preston Sports Centre in Yeovil and it was the first time that I swore at him!

He really took me through the pain barrier and it hurt. In fact it made me feel quite ill – but I managed to do the majority of the tasks he set me.

Admittedly, I might not have done them completely accurately and I could probably have done them faster and with a bit more vigour; but there was no disputing my effort.

That was probably the toughest bit of exercise I’d done since my school days!

Just look at the photos and the sweat marks on my shirt! Yuk!

I’ve now nicknamed my trainer as Pain Man Dan – and what made it worse was that in some weird way he seemed to enjoy seeing me in agony.

After work on the treadmill there was work to be done on the weights and floor exercises. Those floor exercises on a giant rubber ball were really difficult – give me 5k on a treadmill any day.

But what killed me in the end was on the bike machine when I suddenly developed a bout of cramp in my left leg and I had to concede defeat.

Pain Man Dan had won the day. I’m sure he will win again, but I will have my day come the end!

It has now been roughly a month since my campaign started and now that I feel determined to go-ahead with the Three Peaks Challenge – I have decided to go “live” with my blog.

The gym is out of use between 11am and 1pm and then from 2pm to 3pm during school term time.

Opening times are Monday 9am to 10pm; Tuesday 9am to 10pm; Wednesday 9am to 10pm; Thursday 9am to 10pm; Friday 9am to 8pm; Saturday 9am to 4pm; Sunday 9am to 4pm.

For further details email preston@1610.org.uk or click the 160 advert on the right-hand side of this website.

FEBRUARY 6, 2015: Another trip to the gym and another 10k completed.

PHOTO - ABOVE: I was delighted and proud to see Yeovil Press sponsor the Lloyd Lounge at the 2014 Home Farm Fest at Chilthorne Domer in aid of the Piers Simon Appeal and School in a Bag project.

PHOTO - ABOVE: Me and Piers Simon's dad, Henry Simon, at the 2014 Home Farm Fest.

FEBRUARY 5, 2015: ORGANISERS of the 2015 Home Farm Fest at Chilthorne Domer are looking for any singers or bands who would like to perform at this year’s event in aid of the Piers Simon Appeal and the School in a Bag project.

This year’s festival – to be held on June 5-7, 2015 – will be the tenth and promises to be the best yet.

Luke Simon, of the PSA, said: “As it is a charity festival – all the performers very kindly donate their time for free which gives it that ‘true love of music’ vibe mixed with good times and a big dollop of satisfaction from having helped us raise money.”

Anyone wanting more details – please send an email to events@schoolinabag.org with a bit about your music.

The PSA was formed following the death of former PrestonSchool and YeovilCollege student Piers Simon, 33, in the Asian Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004. The charity has since gone on to raise thousands of pounds for projects in areas around the world hit by natural disasters.

The School in a Bag spin-off from the PSA has become a major success and provides bags filled with school kit for poor, orphaned and vulnerable children across the globe.

News items about the Piers Simon Appeal and the School in a Bag initiative on the Yeovil Press website are sponsored by Yeovil Guitars and specialist removal firm Chudley International. For more information about Yeovil Guitars and Chudley International – please click on their logo-adverts on the right-hand side of this website.

JANUARY 30, 2015: Another trip to the gym and another 10k completed.

JANUARY 25, 2015: I did some outside training as I had to walk from my home in Yeovil to the Quicksilver Mail pub at the top of Hendford Hill as I’d left my car the previous night having enjoyed a couple of beers while attending the annual dinner and presentation night of Westland Sports Cricket Club.

Ok – I know, beer is not in the normal diet for athletes in training.

But I’m not going to turn into an athlete overnight, nor would I want to.

I’ve cut out chocolate and crisps and chips and pies and everything else which is really nice such as cream cakes. But I’m drawing a line at cutting out beer!

But for anyone trying to get fit – have a walk up that hill from Bunford Hollow up to West Coker Road. That is a lot steeper on foot than it looks while driving up it in the car!

JANUARY 23, 2015: Another planned session at the gym where instructor Dan Hill took me through a fitness routine on the treadmill, bike, some weights and the rowing machine.

I did feel a bit self-conscious going on the weight-machines at first, considering I don’t look as if I should be in a gym; but that feeling soon went with other gym-users more interested in what they were doing than what I was doing.

Did another 10k.

JANUARY 22, 2015: My second visit to the gym where I did another 10k.

My instructor Dan Hill has said that I will – eventually – be attending up to three times a week.

Is that a bit too keen?

Probably is, in my thinking at the moment; but I know that nearer the time of the Three Peaks Challenge I will have to be increasing my training regime.

The gym is out of use between 11am and 1pm and then from 2pm to 3pm during school term time.

Opening times are Monday 9am to 10pm; Tuesday 9am to 10pm; Wednesday 9am to 10pm; Thursday 9am to 10pm; Friday 9am to 8pm; Saturday 9am to 4pm; Sunday 9am to 4pm.

For further details email preston@1610.org.uk or click the 160 advert on the right-hand side of this website.

JANUARY 16, 2015: I went along as arranged and was met by instructor Dan Hill who took some details and then showed me the various exercise machines within the gym.

He said that initially it would be a case of trying to get my weight down and then slowly gradually building up the fitness.

Admittedly, it did worry me when he started talking about me getting involved in spinning classes and yoga/pilates, as well as running! Running? The only thing I can run is a bath!

But after the initial introduction to the gym Dan left me to my own devices and I chalked up 10k on the treadmill (walking) and the exercise bike.

I went away feeling pretty chuffed!

PHOTO - RIGHT: Myself with my gym instructor Dan Hill at the 1610 Preston Sports Centre.

The gym is out of use between 11am and 1pm and then from 2pm to 3pm during school term time.

Opening times are Monday 9am to 10pm; Tuesday 9am to 10pm; Wednesday 9am to 10pm; Thursday 9am to 10pm; Friday 9am to 8pm; Saturday 9am to 4pm; Sunday 9am to 4pm.

For further details email preston@1610.org.uk or click the 160 advert on the right-hand side of this website.

JANUARY 13, 2015: Back in Yeovil and I made contact with the 1610 Preston Sports Centre to set a date and time for my induction session.

The date was arranged for Friday, January 16, 2015, at 6pm. Here we go – no turning back now.

Following an £800,000 investment in 2012 the facilities include a 25-station fitness studio with state-of-the-art equipment, exercise studio offering a range of group exercise classes and a newly-refurbished four badminton court sports hall.

The gym is out of use between 11am and 1pm and then from 2pm to 3pm during school term time.

Opening times are Monday 9am to 10pm; Tuesday 9am to 10pm; Wednesday 9am to 10pm; Thursday 9am to 10pm; Friday 9am to 8pm; Saturday 9am to 4pm; Sunday 9am to 4pm.

For further details email preston@1610.org.uk or click the 160 advert on the right-hand side of this website.

JANUARY 9-12, 2015: I was at the Center Parcs complex at Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire for a weekend break and family get-together.

I knew that my fitness campaign was about to start and so I was keen to do a bit of cycling while at Sherwood.

I’d been to Sherwood a few times before – when I was a smoker and I remember that I found the cycling pretty tough.

But now – having gone three years as a non-smoker – I was cycling around like Sir Chris Hoy. Well, not quite, but I knew that what I was doing now I would not have been able to have done while still on the fags.

In the three years since giving up smoking, I had suddenly experienced some sort of health benefit.

BOXING DAY 2014: Boxing Day 2014 marked a decade since the world momentarily stood still as the horrific and devastating effects of the Asian tsunami began to unfold.

But for many the memories of that catastrophic time will still be fresh and as vivid as if they had only happened last week.

My memories are nothing in comparison to those who were actually caught up in the natural disaster or for those who had loved ones who perished.

But for me it will always be one of those occasions when you remember “what you were doing and where you were” when you heard the news.

Initially I have to admit I did not take much notice when the first early reports began to filter through of another earthquake on the other side of world.

When the tsunami hit the holiday island of Ko Phi Phi in Thailand on Boxing Day 2004 it was around 10am local time, while here in England it was 3am and I was probably snoring loud and proud and sleeping off the excesses of Christmas Day.

It was probably only when I returned home on Boxing Day evening after watching Yeovil Town beat Cheltenham Town 4-1 at Huish Park in the Coca-Cola League Two that I began to hear anything about it on the news.

But it was not until a couple of days later when people – myself included - began to really sit up and take notice of what was happening thousands of miles away in Asia.

I was travelling by car to watch Yeovil Town play at Cambridge United and during the morning of December 28 the death toll from the tsunami was rising by 10,000 or 20,000 every half an hour on the radio news reports.

PHOTO - RIGHT: Piers Simon.

With my work as a journalist working on the Yeovil Express, I can remember asking my travelling companion, photographer Nigel Andrews, if he knew of anyone who had gone out to Asia for the Christmas holiday period.

He said he did not and we drove on and we listened as the number of dead grew larger and larger on the news bulletins and I seem to recall that we were discussing that this was “no ordinary disaster.”

Yeovil Town won their game 5-3 at Cambridge and on the return journey we continued to hear of the ever-worsening news from Asia with regular bulletins on the car radio.

We decided to stop off at a motorway service station for something to eat and it was then that that moment you remember of “what you were doing and where you were” when you heard the news happened.

While in a café waiting for our meals to arrive I picked up a newspaper and opened it up and there staring back at me was a large photo of my old Preston School classmate and school cricket team colleague Piers Simon – he had been on holiday in Thailand with his brother Luke and some friends and was missing as a result of the tsunami.

I gasped in shock and even now, while writing this, I get that spine-chilling feeling of OMG as I think back to that moment.

In one swoop and a turn of a page of a newspaper the horrific events which had happened thousands of miles away on the other side of the world had suddenly come very much back to home and had landed slap bang in my lap.

I let out some four-letter expletives and other diners looked around at me – but I was just so stunned.

As we made the return journey home to Yeovil I let my editor know that we had a “local link” to the tsunami and the next morning I arranged to go and see Piers’ parents, Henry and Celia, at Home Farm in Chilthorne Domer.

Meeting Henry and Celia during that week was something else I will always remember. They seemed so calm and matter-of-fact on the surface and yet, underneath, I am sure they must have been kicking and screaming and panicking and fearful for Piers; clinging to every hope with desperation that he may have survived.

I had gone into it treating it like any other tragic story I had covered – but this was no ordinary story; this was no ordinary week; there was nothing ordinary about this whatsoever.

That week’s Yeovil Express came out with news of Piers missing in Thailand and I remember having a constant stream of phone calls from people – including many old school friends who I not spoken to for years – getting in touch enquiring as to whether there was any news and for me to pass on my regards to the Simon family.

It was a few days later on New Year’s Eve that I was still having phone calls from people and I was telling them that the search was over and Piers’ body had been found. I was telling them the news that nobody wanted to hear.

In my 25 years as a journalist the memories of that Christmas week of 2004 will live with me forever – the most difficult story I have covered and one which left me in truly humble awe at how the Simon family coped with such tragedy.

When it was announced that the family were going to set up the Piers Simon Appeal, I knew immediately it was something I wanted to support; something I felt I needed to support.

In my role as a local newspaper journalist I was only too happy to promote fundraising events and the now legendary Home Farm Fest. I can remember after the first festival I asked Henry as to whether he could see it in years to come becoming a Glastonbury-style event. “No,” he said. “We’ll just keep it to one day and a few bands.”

Famous last words Henry with Home Farm Fest having developed into a three-day event with four stages and 60-odd bands and musicians!

 News items about the Piers Simon Appeal and the School in a Bag initiative on the Yeovil Press website are sponsored by Yeovil Guitars and specialist removal firm Chudley International. For more information about Yeovil Guitars and Chudley International – please click on their logo-adverts on the right-hand side of this website.

DECEMBER 2014: I knew there was no point in going on a diet or trying to get fit in December and the Christmas period – arguably the most unhealthy of all months with the festivities in full swing and far too much eating and drinking!

I spoke to the team at 1610 Preston Sports Centre and said that I would look to start the campaign on January 12, 2015 – to coincide with the day when I gave up smoking in 2012.

I wasn’t putting off the inevitable – just being realistic.

Giving up weight and getting fit during the season of being merry – you’re having a laugh!

NOVEMBER 2014: Having done a bit of homework and looking at the challenge ahead of me of scaling the Three Peaks of Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Mount Snowdon in Wales in the summer of 2015 – I quickly realised that I needed to lose weight and look to get fit.

Would I be able to do this on my own? Probably not – I knew that I would need help and support.

With my having gone to Preston School in Yeovil with Piers Simon from 1982-87, I thought it would be apt to approach the 1610 Preston Sports Centre.

I spoke with Preston’s Matt Harras and told him about the challenge I had decided to undertake and he was more than keen to get involved and help to get me prepared for August 2015.

OCTOBER 2014: In January 2012 I decided it was time that I gave up smoking and it started off as more of a personal thing.

But when the Ilminster Lions Club heard of my challenge they gave me a financial incentive – they would sponsor me a £1 a day for up to a year of me staying off the fags with the money in aid of charity. That was matched by a further £100 from Ilton-based removal firm Chudley International.

I managed to successfully complete the challenge and raised £466 which I was only too pleased to donate to the Piers Simon Appeal’s School in a Bag initiative. Thankfully 2012 was a Leap Year so I managed to gain £366 and not £365 out of the Lions Club of Ilminster!

The Piers Simon Appeal was set up in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 which claimed the lives of 100,000s of lives including that of former PrestonSchool and YeovilCollege student Piers Simon, an old school chum of mine.

In October 2014 I was coming up to my third year of being smoke-free – great stuff. But the only draw back was that I had managed to put on rather a bit of weight since then and I had told people that instead of being on “20 fags a day” – I’m now on “20 Mars Bars a day!”

It was then that Piers’ brother, Luke Simon, merely mentioned a possible weight-busting goal – why not take part in the School in the Bag’s Three Peaks Challenge 2015.

Foolishly I accepted and what better way to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Asian tsunami and Piers’ death by raising money for such a fantastic and worthwhile charity.

I am so certain that Piers would be so proud of what his family have done since his death with the PSA and the School in a Bag charity.

But I am even more certain that Piers is laughing at the thought of me tackling the Three Peaks Challenge!

Mission Lose Weight had started.

News items about the Piers Simon Appeal and the School in a Bag initiative on the Yeovil Press website are sponsored by Yeovil Guitars and specialist removal firm Chudley International. For more information about Yeovil Guitars and Chudley International – please click on their logo-adverts on the right-hand side of this website.

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