Mail's head of features CHRIS CORDNER is preparing for the Great North Run with the help of Springs health sanctuary in Hartlepool.
For once, though, he was not tackling mile after mile of running. He had a new gruelling challenge in mind.
Read on.

THE hottest day of the year had arrived and I was about to start exercising.
The temperatures were in the 80s and most people were trying to find the shade.
Not me. Talk about mad dogs and Englishmen. It was not quite the midday sun but it was close enough.
It was 11am on a sweltering Saturday and I was mopping beads of sweat from my brow before I had even got into any exercise.
But I was undaunted. I was determined not to ease up in my training, especially on a day when I was going to tackle exercise of a different sort.
I was going to tackle my garden. It's not just any old garden. It's a jungle in miniature form. Let me take you on a guided tour.
In one corner, there's weeds which are four foot high.
In the other corner, there's weeds which are four foot high.
In the third corner, there's weeds which are four foot high.
And in the last section, there's a huge patch of nettles. And a few weeds which are four foot high.
I am not the next Alan Titchmarsh. In fact, me and gardening are rarely mentioned in the same breath.
Once a year, I summon up the energy to tackle the green stuff and spend a day like a madman hacking away at weeds, grass and anything else that gets in my way.
So no running today, but I had a feeling that this was going to be even more of an energetic challenge.
I began. Sleeves rolled up. Electric trimmer in hand, scything my way through huge nettles.
I was sweating buckets within seconds and loving it. Forget running. This is the way forward, I thought to myself.
I bagged up the rubbish as I went along and felt as if this was really worthwhile.
Then disaster, I managed to scythe the trimmer through its own wires and knocked out all the electricity inside the house in the process.
If that's not bad enough, I had borrowed the trimmer from a neighbour and had to march back over there and say "I've killed it."
Still, at least I'd got a couple of hours of exercise in. Then I went into the house and hayfever set in.
I felt terrible for the rest of the day.
Think I'll stick to running from now on.