AS I write out of the windows the new cohort of 10 in 10 runners get acquainted with their surroundings at Brathay ahead of the UK's ultimate endurance running event, which will see them running 10 consecutive marathons in 10 days in May.

To be considered ‘active’ the Chief Medical Officer states you need to do 150 minutes of activity every week that gets your pulse racing and heart pumping. These guys probably do 150 hours a week, never mind 150 minutes.

I’ve been on a journey to getting active for about three years now. I realised inactivity was causing me some back problems and being active was key to improvement, but changing habits can be hard.

I started on my journey by doing something that didn’t add any additional time to my already hectic schedule, so started cycling to work as it took less time than driving.

I logged my activity on the Workplace Challenge website and cajoled some others at work to do it with me, which really helped. I was apprehensive about getting back on a bike at first - I’d not cycled for a long time and the busy roads were really daunting. I joined a couple of guided rides from British Cycling and soon got the confidence to move off the pavement and on to the road.

I was really enjoying it, until it started being a hassle having my bike in the front room. Once the bike was moved into the shed, it rarely came out again and the habit was lost.

I refused to get back in the car, though and opted for walking. This was good, especially in the summer, but it took so long - walking to work had made a 15-minute bike ride into a 45-minute walk.

To my relief Public Health England released the Active 10 app. It was designed to capture the number of times you were active in 10-minute chunks. This meant I could do 10 minutes of brisk walking to the shop and it would count towards my 150 minutes a week. Hurrah - no more walking to work for me.

In summer last year I upped my walking to running and started doing the NHS Couch to 5K app, but I struggled to get through it. Instead of giving up, I sought help and went to my nearest beginner running group. To my amazement I discovered I can run and loved my weekly sessions.

I just needed to sort out my pacing. I won’t lie, it was hard! I didn’t believe I’d ever be able to run 5k but I did!

So I had a new found love for running and when I graduated from my couch to 5k class I thought I’d be at parkrun every week and would be running regularly, but then came the usual round of excuses, and before I knew it, running felt really hard again.

New Year, new me. I have just completed RED January, which involved running every day in January for Mind.

I didn’t go that far in distance, but did manage it every day and logged all my runs on Strava as I found the community on this app really encouraging.

Now on to the next challenge. What will it be? Perhaps the #NHS1000miles challenge, but do a variety of activities.

Being active can be hard, the fear of judgement or fear of hurting yourself stops many, but the benefits it brings are wide and varied.

I challenge you to help someone to get active. Give them encouragement and support and help them see what a difference being active makes to their life.