Kevin McLernon, winner of ITV's The Biggest Loser has kindly sent us an update detailing his recent challenges & exciting times ahead...

"The Life of a Loser - What Kevin Did Next.

Hey thanks for taking the time to read my second Concept2 blog, I'm genuinely grateful you are here.

In the last month or so since my first blog I have continued to work hard on my indoor rowing. I have been targeting my 2000m time. This is the distance that I will compete at in the future when I get good enough. Notice I said when, because I am putting myself out there and I'm going to give it a really good go, I have decided that I will make it to competition level in the next 9 months. There you go I've said it; I will be in a position to compete in the next 9 months, at a low level yes, but competing none the less. I'm often asked advice on losing weight. One of my great beliefs, (you will know this if you have read any of my other blogs) is committing to it and putting yourself out there and shutting the door behind you. So I have just taken my own advice and done just that right here right now! Bring it on!

So my current PB for 2000m is 7:36, which is about two minutes slower than the current world record, but faster than any of the world records set in the over 80 groups! Plus about 3 minutes faster than the time I started out doing in The Biggest Loser in week 1. The British record for my age group was set by someone you may have heard of, Mathew Pinsent, 5:42.3 in 2002, the word is he's pretty good at this indoor rowing stuff, who knew?

I discussed in my last blog about my year of challenges, well my 14 months of challenges. It wouldn't be right not to include a rowing challenge in there somewhere. I have decided to do a rowing marathon; none stop 26 miles on the Concept2 indoor rower. This will take place in my home town, if you have a machine and want to bring it along and join in, watch this space! I will be recruiting people to take part, to raise more money for charity.

The challenges continued on the 9th of June with a very famous local run, The Blaydon Race. I must admit I didn't do a great deal of running training for the run, although my fitness levels have improved greatly using the rower and with other exercise I have been doing too. As race day approached I was more than a little bit nervous, I actually thought about bottling it and not doing it. The reason behind this lily-livered behaviour was because I kept hearing and reading the run was a serious road race, not to be taken lightly, you must keep up, if you are struggling you will be swept up by the road sweeper never to be seen again, you get the picture; this is no fun run. Then I decided, sod it, what if I am last, what if I do get told to hit the pavement, what if they have packed up the finish line by the time I get there, GREAT! It will give me something to blog about next time for Concept2! Now, as it happens one of my Twitter followers revealed she was doing the same race. I knew she wasn't a "proper" runner by her tweets and twitter bio. Her name is Becci and she has been a great supporter of mine from the first episode of The Biggest Loser being broadcast. So using the power of social media I hooked up with Becci and we agreed to do the run together. Becci is working hard to lose weight, doing it alone at home and using running to get her where she wants to be. I admire her and anyone else who sticks to a weight loss and exercise program (without the glare of being on national TV), outstanding people. The run is 200m short of 10K, I wanted to beat my last 10k time of 79 minutes, I would have been happy with anything below that, and so would Becci. Race day weather was horrendous, it was pouring down with rain, bouncing off the ground. The route goes from the bottom of Newcastle's infamous Bigg Market along to Blaydon on Tyne. We managed a pretty respectable time of 70:58, and finished before at least 50 or 60 other people. We where happy as you can see by the photo above, no medal to show off this time, we did get a shopping trolley token key ring, a bottle of beer and a ham sandwich which went down particularly well. Looking back 9 months I couldn't have even walked that distance, it's not perfect but it is progress. I have said previously this would be my last running event, I find running training beyond tedious, however I think I might have the bug for the event day itself, I love it! So I have decided to include the Great North Run in my challenges, the world's biggest and greatest half marathon, from Newcastle to the end of my parents street in South Shields, there is bound to be a ham sandwich waiting for me there. I will train for it but I know I can get my fitness to a level that will allow me to finish in under two hours by using my Concept2 rower and Ski-erg with some running training maybe a month out from the big day on 16th September. I'm sure I will be fine... won't I?

Over recent weeks I have been asked to do a number of speaking engagements, talks and seminars. I'm exceptionally excited by this, being able to get out and meet people and talk and spread my message of 'if I can do what I have done, then you can do what you know you must do'. I'm a great believer in mindset, and I know my mindset was 80% of my success in The Biggest Loser. Get your mindset right, the rest is just mechanics. I really want to expand on that more in future blogs, but I touched on it above when I discussed putting myself out there. You should try that with a particular challenge you have in your life, whatever it is, just put it out there; on social media, in a blog, in the local media, or do what I did and do it half naked in front of 3 million people on TV!

I have been fortunate enough to hook up with Katie Bulmer-Cooke who recently won UK Personal Trainer of the year to arrange seminars throughout the UK. At these seminars I will talk about my story, discuss my mindset, and the simple but effective ways people can use these at home to achieve success in weight loss, or perhaps somewhere else in their own lives. Katie will also be doing two workouts with those who wish to, and discussing exercise and nutrition. If you live in the North East, West Midlands or near Southampton and want to come along it would be great to see you, visit www.katiebulmer.com/tour mention this blog for a £5.00 discount when booking before June 25th! There will be other dates I will be doing and different seminars I am attending and taking part in. Join my list at www.kevinmclernon.com to keep up to date, or if you want to discuss me coming and working with your group or event please email kevin@kevinmclernon.com"