Outside Edge: Brave Karl on road to recovery

Karl Hinett has completed the first of 52 marathons he intends to run every weekend this year.

The soldier, whose plight was witnessed worldwide when he suffered 37 per cent burns while trapped inside a Warrior tank in a petrol bomb attack in Iraq, pledged to complete the feat in order "to give something back" to those who treated him at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital and is raising funds towards a £3m "Home For The Brave", a non-medical centre for injured soldiers.

The 23-year-old from Tipton in the West Midlands, who underwent five years of surgery, ran the Zurich marathon on New Year's Day.

Today James Golding from Rugby begins another attempt to cycle 3,500 miles across the USA inside 28 days to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support despite being run over by a truck going at 70mph in New Orleans last year. In 2008 he was diagnosed with a tumour and told he had a five per cent chance of living but was given the all-clear in 2009. Let's hope drivers do the same.

300-500

The calorie count. If you're contemplating a diet after the season's excesses here's the answer: eat like a jockey. At www.lovetheraces.com, five leading riders have supplied recipes for meals of 300-500 calories after AP McCoy revealed he lived off less than 1,000 a day. Or just don't eat like a horse.

A healthy diet of fish and noodles

Other ways of losing weight in the new year: try to emulate the record set by Jin Lingling in China. The 19-year-old became the first person to twirl 100 hula hoops simultaneously – that's the toy, not the crisps.

Or you can try to beat the record set by compatriot Jin Songhao, who spent two hours in a box full of ice in Shanghai wearing only his swimming trunks. The shivering will help shed the pounds.

The record seems to be hot property for the over-fifties, since the 54-year-old lasted two minutes longer than Chen Kecai, 52; both were trying to beat 115 minutes set by Dutchman Wim Hof, 51, in Hong Kong earlier in the week.

Or you can try the latest sports craze, "noodling" for flathead catfish: you stick your arm in a hole and try to grab its gills. But the 60lb fish do tend to bite chunks out of you. Easy weight loss, but don't get hooked.

Good week

Jessica Ennis, the heptathlon world champion, announced her engagement to Andy Hill – but the wedding will have to wait until after the 2012 Olympics...

Ted Walsh, a Formula One catamaran racer, will pilot the Bluebird – the craft in which Donald Campbell died while attempting to break the land speed record in 1969 – when it takes to the water again on Lake Coniston in Cumbria...

Australians, who can claim a free (consolation) beer from Victoria Bitter after all – the brewers had initially said they would "shout the nation" if Australia won the Ashes.

Bad week

Scunthorpe United, who had to send out a special sticker to supporters after their calendar was printed with the letter "S" missing from the club's name on the front cover... Marvin Morgan, the Aldershot Town striker, was placed on the transfer list after posting a message on Twitter after he was booed off against Hereford: "Where's that going to get you! I hope you all die"... Tiger Woods, whose picture will not appear on the front cover of his own video game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters after a fall in sales of up to 60 per cent.

Mind the gap between the train and NFL

Ted Williams, the homeless man with "the God-given gift of voice" who has become an internet sensation after a local paper showed him holding up a sign begging for help in Ohio, has reportedly been offered a mortgage and a job by the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers.

The former radio announcer fell on hard times and sank into alcohol and drug abuse, but has suddenly become one of the most famous people in the world.

Football has few such tales of largesse but Moneybags City recruit Edin Dzeko has revealed he bought a £40,000 car for the taxi driver who used to take him to training at a youth club in Sarajevo.

Compare and contrast with Keith Fitzhugh, a safety from Georgia who had trials with the NFL's Baltimore Ravens and New York Jets (twice) but was rejected. Last month the Jets came calling again but he had just taken a job driving trains, and turned them down because he wanted to bring in a regular income for his parents. Was he on the wrong track?