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The Dorset Echo's Ruth Meech is running in the Race For Life

WHY do people set themselves the task of getting fit in January?

Think about it - it's the worst possible time of year. The weather is miserable, the days are dark and when it comes to a toss-up between a trip to the gym or an evening on the sofa with carbohydrates and trash TV, there's only going to be one realistic winner.

No, January is not a good time to think seriously about fitness.

February is different, though. The hours are lighter, the days longer and we have started to wean ourselves off festive excess.

More importantly, bikinis are starting to appear in the shops and thoughts naturally turn to summer holidays - until, good God, no! Not with this belly, these dimpled thighs and bingo wings. Bring me an all-concealing kaftan, now!

I have long wanted to be fit. Not muscled like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2, but trim, less apt to wobble in the wrong place at the slightest movement.

I also want to run this year's Race for Life at Kingston Maurward on Sunday, June 8.

Last time I took part, two years ago, I completed the course by running and walking and felt quite proud of my achievements. Until, that is, my hips seized up at a school fun day the same afternoon and I had to leave the field of play early, walking like a robot.

This time is going to be different. This time I shall cruise the course in becoming Lycra, crossing the finishing line to receive my participant's medal barely out of breath, bathed in an athletic glow.

See, even at 40 we can still dream.

However, I have a major hurdle to leap on this road to fitness - a natural inclination towards sloth. My chances of taking any form of voluntary exercise are less than remote without a sergeant major to bellow me onwards.

So my guide on this quest will be Weymouth-based Rob Stone, a fully qualified fitness instructor and personal trainer who operates under the name Outrageously Active with Boris.

A former soldier, 38-year-old Rob works with people of all ages and fitness levels, from couch potatoes to professional athletes. He also has a number of elderly and disabled clients on his books, which I found rather reassuring.

But as we shall see, there is a lot more to running and getting fit than putting on a pair of trainers, plugging in your MP3 player and hitting the pavements.

Diet, nutrition and - most alarmingly - postural imbalances all need to be assessed and rectified before one can safely undertake that first run. And that's before you develop an addiction to leisure-wear porn, the wide range of attire and accessories ranging from sports bras and waterproof jackets to heart rate monitors, fitness balls and dumbells.

So with four months until Race for Life, I put myself in Rob's hands and prepared to "run until you're sick", as one colleague so delicately put it.

Rob Stone can be contacted on 07760 225598.

8:56am Tuesday 19th February 2008

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