6 days a week of training, I really don’t know how I end up motivating myself to do this. Even the trainers at the gym find it strange that I am always there even if I look dead tired. I am doing 4 gym days, one hike day, one run day but I may switch one of the gym days for a run day making it 2 run days. I feel like upping my cardio levels. Hike day includes carrying weights and doing a minimum of 10 miles walking with some hills. I usually catch a train out of London to somewhere less flat. It’s a good way of exploring England. Run day is an hour jog. Gym days are a mixture of weights, core work and cardio.
I enjoy the running quite a bit but the first 15 minutes is always a killer with my mind telling me to stop and how could I possibly continue on for an hour. But once I bypass that pain threshold and force myself through the mind battle, the last 45 minutes is almost easy. One foot after the other just keep going. I think that will be my mantra up Kili.
There are 2 more potentially large-ish climbs to do before Kili. One is Mt Snowdon in Wales, set for 2 weeks time. I am heading there with some of my comrades who are coming to Tanzania with me. It will be a chance to test each other’s fitness and see how much fundraising everyone else has done. We will do a couple of days walking in the mountains before heading back to London – and back to my cat who seems to be missing the attention with all this training I’m doing. The amount of washing that piles up too is amazing. I feel like I’m the local laundrette woman.
The third prep mountain is Scafell Pike in Yorkshire. It should be a toughie; the biggest problem around here seems to be the weather, which makes these relatively small mountains rather dangerous. Hoping for some fine days in there but I won’t hold my breath.