This Friday marks 3 weeks until I depart Aberdeen to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and the nerves are starting to kick in. Did my prep go to plan? – No, I am extremely disappointed in myself for my lack of commitment to training and application of my time management skills - I only have myself to blame. Two years ago I balanced university work, a full time job, running a business, a 100-mile round trip every day to work and fitting in two training sessions a day for the UKUP British Finals and my marathon prep for charity over a 3-month period. The time period for my Kilimanjaro prep was the same length. I was balancing my business, working 2 days a week for Hudsons and also attending university full time, on paper I had less commitments and should have more time to spend on training. However, the reality is that my master’s degree took over my life. I knew it was my only shot at university and there was also a self-funded financial commitment to the course, as with anything I do in life I always give it 100%. I found that University is more time consuming than working full time, it is also mentally exhausting. After attending classes, reading journals and books and writing assignments the last thing I wanted to do was cardio. The Kilimanjaro prep only further emphasis my loath and hatred for cardio – I lost all enthusiasm in the gym because I hated the fact that I couldn’t train the way I like to. The weather this summer in Aberdeen has not been great, which resulted in me carrying out cardio in the gym - there is nothing like 30 to 45 minutes on a cross trainer to mentally drain you with boredom and make you even more reluctant to train. If Graham wasn’t hitting the gym with me, then I would duck out of training. The past few weeks has been different, I have been walking a lot more, breaking in my new hiking boots, and doing HIIT training in the gym using light weights and kettlebells. I am starting to notice differences in my physique, but I still hate how I look. My goal was always to down size my frame and lose some mass, but I hate how cardio has made everything on my body wobbly. Hopefully an increase in HIIT training over the next 3 weeks will help tighten everything up and I will feel much better about how I look. Besides my aesthetic hang ups, there are a couple of other things that have been playing on my mind about my climb. First of all KIL-I-MAN-JARO, the first three syllables are of great concern. Secondly, it doesn’t matter how much prep you put in, or your fitness level AMS (acute mountain sickness) cannot be controlled, and until you start climbing you will not know if you will experience it. Funnily enough the medication you can take to mitigate the effects of AMS is DI-Amox – a coincidence?
Going back to my lack of training, I have only started doing long walks in the past month with my hiking boots the furthest distance is around 5 miles (shocking). The longest I have been on my feet is a 12-hour wedding shift at Hudson’s (and even then those are few and far between). I know fine that being on my feet for a long period of time is not an issue, but add temperature, altitude, terrain and lack of sleep and food, it could spell disaster for me. Kilimanjaro is no doubt going to be just as mentally challenging as it is physically.
Thanks to some great advice from readers of the blog, I have managed to create a packing list and have slowly been ticking off the items as I purchase them. Hands up there are still several items to get, but its more down to being indecisive on brands and trying to make sure I am colour co-ordinated and don’t look like a walking advert for the United Colours of Benetton or alternatively that I am leading a Gay Pride march up Kilimanjaro. Oh and I have purchased a lovely aqua coloured she-wee off amazon! Excitement and Nervousness combined is one of the best emotions someone can experience. I felt this way about competing prior to each time I stepped up on stage. I would tell everyone who listened about how nervous I was about a competition, but when I said excited and nervous out loud to them it was in the same tone, and with the same level of energy! This is exactly the same with my Kilimanjaro trip, I am nervous about what to expect and if I have put in enough work, but I am so excited for the experience and can't wait to arrive in Africa!
Lainey x
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AuthorsSharon & Lainey are Online PT & Nutrition Advisors with a combined 18 years experience in the Health & Fitness Industry. Archives
August 2018
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