Will "Shewee" or won't She?

My 20,000 per day challenge
Last week I started my own challenge independently of what my other "Fitbit Friends" were going to do. I challenged myself to take at least 20,000 steps per day.
Well, I did achieve it and I won the challenge of the week by beating Clare C by around 4700 steps and quite a few more than Suzanne.
I'm not sure that I did actually achieve it though, since not all the steps were necessarily walking steps. Some, well actually quite a lot, were steps around the house shuffling along in order to make up the numbers - it did however keep Alfie and Freddie on their toes assuming that every time I shuffled into the kitchen that a tasty morsel would be forthcoming, sadly, they were often to be disappointed. I  reckon they probably did as many steps following me around the house as we did on a walk.
So not really a true representation of what we will be doing, albeit on a larger scale, although at least it got me moving more.
I did also spend a lot of time stomping up and down the office between the staff room and my desk to increase the step rate, although that was in 3 inch heels, again not indicative of the real thing!(Thankfully)
My 102,054 steps accounts for a total of 44.39 miles- significantly less than the total to be done in August, but a start none the less, hey Rome wasn't built in a day!
After a pretty lazy weekend, we are back in challenge mode, but after my triumph over Clare last week, I think I am going to concentrate on actually doing proper walking steps in proper walking boots - just need to drag myself out of bed a little earlier to fit it all in!

Equipment!
So, following on from last week's discussions about rucksacks and having still not got to the bottom of why tweezers are an essential part of someones kit, I got to thinking about what happens if we get "caught short" en route.
I'm guessing that we are likely to be consuming liquid along our merry way which, whilst some will simply be vapourised into the atmosphere, there will be the very likely situation of having to find somewhere "to go". Not being familiar with the route we are taking, I am guessing that public conveniences are not going to be two a penny, therefore what do we do?
Its OK for the boys, so to speak, but us girls, well, we are not really equipped for the impromptu outdoor bathroom break and my experience of being caught short out in  the open air - well lets just say  it has never ended particularly well or without incident!
Although I've never been the festival going type, I have been made aware of the aids that one can purchase to assist these functions. I therefore did what any other curious and ill-informed girl would do. I turned to my fellow WHW chums on facebook and posed the question.There ensued a seemingly endless facebook post regarding the virtues (or lack of ) of the device.
Sensibly Neil and Kenny kept well out of this conversation, although Claire Parker, our logo designer, joined in but I'm not sure she convinced me either way.
I am now left wondering should I invest and try it out at home or should I save my money and practise how to squat successfully - the jury's still out on that one!

Rucksacks and Tweezers

This last week has seen a flurry of emails about what we all need to take for our walk, blister plasters has featured many times in many posts as have tweezers!
Now being a girl, I can completely get that one would want to look her best at all times, but surely one could tweeze before leaving home for the trip could one not?
It seems that tweezers are featuring highly for one of the team who seems to mention them everytime the subject of what to take comes up. I am baffled, maybe that person is expecting to get splinters, as tweezers are clearly useful for that as well as keeping one's eyebrows at bay. Maybe there is some weird and wonderful use that I have not discovered for them, I therefore wait with baited breath to be enlightened Clare C???
There has also been much discussion about baggage particularly the rucksack. So much choice, but do we get them to carry all our gear or hope that we have a backup team who will be transporting our baggage between lodgings? If thats the case we need a day rucksack.
Having had no apparent reason to go out and invest in a new rucksack before now, I am amazed to find that one can now purchase a rucksack with an "airzone" apparently this is supposed to stop your back from getting all sweaty allowing the air circulate around - how cool (forgive the pun) is that.
But does it really work and how much extra does an airzone cost will definately have to look into that!
Anyway apart from water, snacks and blister plasters I am still none the wiser about what I should be carrying in my new rucksack when I do get around to working out which one I should buy. Definately won't need to take tweezers though, as someone else will obviously have a plentiful supply of those!

On the subject of training, after last week's break from challenges, it seems we are all fighting fit and up for the challenge, I am happy to say that I am hot on Clare C's heels this week, she is not going to get away from me that easily, am planning to try and get to 20,000 steps each day which is just under 9 miles per day. Day one, big tick. Day two, big tick. Mission accomplished thus far....

Can't believe it -I beat Clare C!

Feeling very smug this week as I finally won the weekly step total and beat Clare C!
We didn't have a challenge week last week, as Suzanne was poorly and Clare C was still thrashing the pants off the rest of us, so Claire B was not up for it.
Anyway after finishing work a little early on Friday and taking my boys for a reasonable walk before dinner, I just checked out what was going on with facebook and noted Clare C's "jog on" taunt to Claire B.

Jog on ClaireI wasn't playing until you asked me to sync!

With the fitbit app, you can monitor friends 7 day steps and Clare C just happened to post details of her latest win, however, she was only 4500 steps ahead of me - with Claire B retired for the week with her glass of wine, it was up to me to put things right, I was up for the challenge to beat Clare's weekly step total, the gauntlet was laid!
So from about 7pm until my last count at 11:46 pm I spent the evening shuffling around my lounge , my kitchen, my bedroom and bathroom just continually moving- the beagles just kept giving me strange looks, but they think I'm nuts anyway.
With encouraging posts from Claire B and the odd slurp of wine myself, I was winning at 8:22 then Clare C came back at me - she was off again winning again by 8:50.
Undeterred and with more facebook encouragement from Claire B I hit the floor again regaining the lead at 9:07pm only to lose it again at 9:32 and get it back again at 9:48, with Claire B's backing I couldnt lose!
But again Clare C sped into the lead at 10:31, this was getting silly now, Claire B had lost interest at this point, so I was on my own.
I think actually Clare C had given in and gone to bed, however, I was satisfied that I had the victory - albeit a very minor one, but a victory nonetheless!

My calf muscles knew about it Saturday morning, probably not the best way to train for this walk, but hey, I don't do normal!
On the good news front, we have a new "short term" team member who will be joining us for part of our trek (two days) Neil Bancroft has managed to wangle a couple of days off to come and give poor Kenny some male support. We are very happy about this, someone else to carry us or our things would be very useful - just kidding boys!
Sadly Neil does not want to join in the fitbit fun with us, neither does Kenny, I believe the phrase "It frightens me" was used when invited to join our fitbit challenge!
Lets all "jog on" then......

All about Claire B

Claire B is Beagle Welfare's Fund Raising Officer and has been a volunteer for Beagle Welfare for over 5 years firstly organising a fundraising walk in Nottingham which has become an annual event and is attended by many beagles and their owners every year.
Claire became an area officer for BW in 2010, helping to find and check out new owners for the beagles and helping out with foster care for numerous beagles over the years, one of which actaully ate her way through a fridge door and its contents, although never repeated this with her owner once she was adopted.
Claire has known and loved beagles all her life as her parents had one when she was born, with a son of her own now, who seems equally smitten with them.
The adorable Dora was Claire's first beagle all of her own and loved to chew on just about anything from reading glasses to the odd christmas tree she loved eating biro's particularly on Claire's new pale carpets and will refuse to go outside when its raining even at 7 years old preferring to wee on the kitchen floor rather than brave the elements! Dora likes a good duvet particularly when its on Claire's bed always insisting on crawling under the duvet and laying all her weight on Claire's legs!
Then came Alfie, a very popular name for beagles - I've lost count how many Alfie's have gone through BW in the short time that I've been involved. Anyway back to Claire's Alfie, a beautiful, if somewhat anxious lad who does have separation anxiety issues and once even put himself into a coma. As usual, a greedy boy enjoying poo and also notes of money, but very soppy and loyal and is amazing off lead - not that common with our breed of hound! Alfie is incredibly protective particularly taking a dislike to the window cleaner, postman, a guy who walked past him whilst waiting to pick up an indian takeaway, oh and an old lady dressed in red who he thought was the postman!
In true pack style, Dora and Alfie are a double act when it comes to naughtiness, once whilst on Sutton on Sea beach, Alfie spotted a child sitting eating his lunch so ran in grabbed the bag, shook a pastie out and into the air for Dora to catch and eat it, Dora is quite happy to scavenge alone once helping herself to a fisherman's lunch pack too,
And then there is the loveable cuddlebum that is Lola, only reently adopted by Claire, Quite a solemn little lady but full of selfless love, Claire and co are just loving having Lola in their lives.

Training for the WHW is CRAZY, being mighty competitive, she considers Clare and her endless miles as a real challenge but I'm sure Claire B will triumph over Clare C at some point before we go live!, The other good news is that her Alfie has lost 1lb in the five weeks since training began.

This is not Claire's first personal challenge for BW as last year she managed to raise lots of money doing the National Three Peaks Challenge climbing the three highest mountains in England Scotland and Wales in just over 24 hours - now that is one MAD BEAGLE LADY!

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running late...

It seems time has caught up with me after a busy week at work doing my day job then having the monthly accounts to do for BW, I am running behind in posting my latest update.
The fitbit wars have fizzled out, Clare C had another emphatic victory over Claire B, Suzanne  - who could be excused with a sick note early on last week and myself, who frankly would never be able to keep up with the rest of the pack with the majority of my day spent at a desk.
I did suggest a weekend challenge, but got no takers which is somewhat disappointing to say the least, therefore, I will plod on with my own challenges trying to improve on my step rate each week. Maybe we peaked too soon, oh dear that does not bode well!

The Best Shopping Weekend of the Year - (according to Claire B)
So another Crufts weekend has been and gone and Beagle Welfare had their usual stand with lots of information about our rehoming centre and the work we do along with some of our merchandise for sale. I did not make it this year, but our team consisting of Clare C, Claire B, Lesley, Emily, Joan, Karen and Nigel did a cracking job for us giving out advice and selling merchandise, not forgetting the all important shopping and catching up with friends from the beagle world.
I enjoyed Crufts when I went last year to help out on the BW stand, but  even with all those thousands of dogs (particularly the beagles) I still think mine are clearly the best!

Sadly the news of the death by poisoning of poor Jagger a beautiful Irish Setter has left a dark cloud over the show, I can only imagine what Jagger's poor owners are going through after such a malicious and nasty act!

Everyone has been pretty quiet this week so far I suspect Claire C and Claire B have probably lost their voices from all that chatting at Crufts, at least their tongues and wallets got some exercise if their feet and legs didn't!
need to come up with an incentive to kick start the competition again............

Another Week.... more walking

As another weekend draws to a close and the office beckons once more, a new FitbitWorkweek Hustle challenge is on. This week, Suzanne has joined in the fun!
Sadly, my days mainly consist of sitting at a desk in front of a computer playing with numbers and spreadsheets, not sure how I will be able to ever catch Clare C who seems to never sit still.

About my beagles
I can almost hear my poor beagles groaning about being dragged out from under the duvet for a 5:30 am walk before work, if they could speak they would definitely be protesting! However, a quick clash of the foodbowls seems to get them moving at any time of the day or night.
Walking with Alfie and Freddie is always eventful and usually involves the two of them dragging me around the streets of Kingsteignton whilst they eat or at least attempt to eat every discarded  piece of rubbish whether it is edible or not. Whilst Alfie is quite selective, he will take a wrapper and contents and extract every morsel and then spit out the wrapper, Freddie will just demolish the entire contents and its covering regardless of the construction.Now and again I get lucky and manage to extract some if the contents from his mouth, but mainly , it just gets swallowed whole! Typical beagle.
You'd think they would prefer a good root around in the woods, but even when we go to the country park, they spend all their time trying to eat the duck food or trying to catch ducks.
Living in Devon you are never far from a beach and I have to admit I do like a walk along the sand, it also seems to have less eating hazzards along the way, as the seagulls tend to get the spoils first.
 Anyone with a beagle will be pretty familiar with these comments, they are a breed unlike any other worming their cheeky way into your heart and usually your bed if you let them.

The can be extremely stubborn sometimes they will just stop and plant their paws on the ground if you don't walk where they want to walk. Alfie will sometimes just stop and look at me as if to say, I don't want to go that way and of course I am usually stupid enough to give in.
I was introduced to beagles many years ago via an aunt who had a beagle cross, more beagle than anything else, I just fell in love with him and his naughty ways. When the opportunity arose, adopted my first beagle Alfie, from the lovely Sue Hall. I'm sure he had the most character out of the entire litter, I remember cuddling him for the first time whilst he was trying to eat my hair, even at 6 weeks old he was always trying to eat something.
Freddie came along at 18 months when it was decided that just one beagle was not enough!
As all beagle owners will tell you, beagles are obsessed with food, sometimes displaying guarding behaviours - if they won't give it up, you have to resort to all sorts of tricks to try and remove food from them, even then they will just not give it up! Alfie is no different, not even a year old when sitting in a pub, he got away and ventured into the pub kitchen and came running through the pub with a leg of pork in his mouth, suffice to say the landlord was not seeing the funny side of it. We left the pub quite quickly after that and did eventually retrieve the pork, but strangely the landlord did not want it back.
They are super speedy when they are on a mission, Alfie reminds me of the game hungry hippo's as his lightening quick muzzle will grab whatever gets within a inch of it, much to the horror of many of my friends and family, luckily I have understanding family and friends. Particularly Michelle, whose daughter Shannon got covered in lasagne when Alfie decided it smelled too good and launched himself at her plate which of course went everywhere!
Sometimes I have to laugh as my two work together to get what they want. Big fans of tomatoes, one summer saw them take it in turns to climb on top of one another to steal the ripening tomatoes straight from the vine, taking great care to discard the green ones.
Freddie is pretty lazy and will usually wait for Alfie to do all the hard work before grabbing the prize at the end and devouring it all himself. This has happened with a lump of gammon stolen from a closed fridge, packs of butter swiped from the worktop after some of Alfie's lucrative counter surfing along with a whole host of other tasty morsels never intended for beagle stomachs.
You learn pretty quickly as a beagle owner to not leave anything within reach or not locked away inside a cupboard.

Beagle Welfare
I first became aware of beagle welfare through Sue Hall and absolutely loved the bi-annual magazine which still makes me laugh and cry in equal measures. After reading this for numerous years, I spotted an advertisement for a new treasurer for BW, so, after much umming and ahhing - well about 10 minuntes, I decided to apply and got the job.
Its amazingly busy with so many beagles being given up for adoption as owners either get bored of looking after them or just don't do their research.
Its so sad and exasperating to hear and see some of the posts on social media where people still think they can get a puppy and leave it at home for 8 hours a day and wonder why they return to a destroyed house or why they have such a hyperactive dog on their hands. Its just common sense really, dogs are like children, they need stimulation,time and attention and most of all consistent training and boundaries, the reward for this will be well behaved dogs whole you give unquestioning love and companionship.

Why am I doing this challenge?
Not really giving it much thought before agreeing to this 96 miles trek over the beautiful Scottish countryside, I am hoping to get a little trimmer, but above all, its about raising funds and awareness for the breed. Working with everyone at BW is great. There are some amazingly inspiring people who give so much of their time an energy to the charity, its lovely to be part of such a great team!
I am thinking that an average of 20 miles per day at a speed of 3 miles per hour, that's not going to take long about 7 hours of walking per day with lunch en route, how hard can it be - I might be eating my words when it comes down to it..... Then there are the dreaded midges, maybe those net hat things are a good idea afterall Clare B!lol!
Would love to find a cruelty free version of the Avon skin so soft that everyone keeps recommending.

And so to this week's challenge, everyone is now trying to beat Clare C, my thinking is, don't even try, I'm just going to attempt to do more that I did last week. I don't get too hung up over numbers, I work with them all day at work and most evenings for BW so the last thing I want to do is worry about them whilst walking......