Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro - Preparation

See you at the Top!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 05:37:00 +0000

Its finally here!

I fly out to Nairobi at 2am tomorrow morning - am I excited? am I nervous?

no - I'm sick!

I'm currently lying here in bed trying to get as much rest as possible and shake a nasty chesty cough that came on, on Thursday - how did that happen?

After months of not getting sick, even though everybody I work with has had every germ known to man, why now?

The day I fly out!!

Have gone straight onto antibiotics - I'd be devastated if it went bronchial and I couldn't do the climb - after all my hard work it would be heartbreaking.

I've got 3 days to recover before we do any serious walking, so will take every opportunity to rest or sleep. I'll need to make sure I stay well hydrated on the flight and will take plenty of snacks - 'feed a cold starve a fever'

hmm...think a good curry is in order tonight at the turf bar and maybe no beer....or maybe the beer could be counted as 'medicinal'... ;-)

Once I get to Nairobi we're staying in a nice hotel, so I should get a good nights sleep there, then the following day its an 8 hour bus journey to the trail head - I seriously doubt I'll get any sleep bumping over african roads - although I have slept in some pretty strange places during my travels, so anything is possible! Then monday night we're staying in a lodge so I should be able to get some good rest there.

go the drugs! keeping my fingers crossed...

see you on the other side

:-)

Last Day!!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:39:00 +0000

OMG! its my last day of the stairs - 15 weeks ago it seemed like it would never get here! and now it is, where did the time go??? how did it get here so quickly??

I'm feeling eerily calm at the moment...I'm sure it won't last! Saturday will be good - off to the pub to watch the bledisloe then straight to the airport and fly out at 2am Sunday

bring on beer o'clock

:-)

Taper Up? Taper Down?....no, Sleep!!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:29:00 +0000

Anyone who has done any significant amount of intense physical training for a particular goal - a marathon, triathlon, high altitude trekking, professional athletes, at some point close the end goal have to decide whether they taper up (increase) their training or taper down their training and there's also the question of diet - do you load up on the carbs or not?

so with 5 days left before I head off what am I doing?

same old, same old really...

In the last 15 weeks I've ever so gradually increased my workload - 2, then 3 then 4 times up and down the office block every day, starting the jacket weight at 6kg and increasing to 10kg, then also doing a training session every day before work

Am I going to load up on carbs?

To be quite honest, having been on a high protein, extremely low carb diet for nearly a year now, I haven't suffered from any loss of energy despite all the training, my recovery ability is so much better than it used to be, I'm lean, fit and looking good.

I get all the carbs I need from dairy, nuts, seeds and veggies, and besides when I do eat bread or rice I feel fat, sluggish and slow - and I do suffer energy fluctuations due to blood sugar swings - so why would I want to add carbs back into my diet now?

Don't want to go back to that!

so what am I going to do differently?

SLEEP!

eh?

thats not in the training manuals!

It probably is really, after weeks and weeks of existing on adrenaline, about 4.5 - 5 hours of broken sleep, and stress, my main goal this week is to get some sleep!

Sleep is when the body gets to assimilate changes you've made, and settle into its new 'shape', so by not sleeping I haven't been growing into myself properly or recovering fully and healing minor aches and pains, on some days I've been so exhausted, that its just been sheer stubborn bloody mindedness that has kept me going

You have no idea how good it felt this morning to finally have shut down the noisy chattering monkey brain I've been living with and relax completely into a deeply 'out of it' meditation - it took me 5 minutes to resurface when the screecher went off!

And then I was so comfortable in bed, I just went back into another deep meditation until daylight 'woke' me up - felt wonderful after that! :-)

If I happen to miss a few training sessions this week, because I'm asleep I'm not going to get upset - I'm totally going to enjoy the rest - I think I've earned it!

Sweet Dreams!

Packed!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:07:00 +0000

It all fits!

Good old purple nasty - has never let me down!

bit of a tight squeeze though, I'll have to do a repack at some point - I think I've actually packed for 10 weeks instead of 10 days!

only 5 more sleeps to go!!!

To my family I leave....

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 01:33:00 +0000

I've just written my Will.

Forgive me if I start getting a little sentimental or philosophical, but what a bizarre experience!

Quite depressing really in some ways, but motivating in others - I mean you look at everything you have and try and decide what to do with it - is the stuff worth anything? will people want it? What will your loved ones be thinking as they go through your clothes, books, DVD's, photos...

Do I want to be buried or cremated? Where shall I be scattered - thats an easy one for me - it has to be at Booze (my parents cottage in North Yorkshire)

I also look at myself - have I achieved anything worthwhile? Did I live life to the fullest? Did I make the most of my opportunities? Did I ever do anything of note - have I inspired people in any way? How will I be remembered? What will people say about me at my funeral? not that I'll care - I'll still be dead! ;-)

I'd certainly like to be remembered as a person who loved life and adventure, grabbed challenges by the horns and went along for the ride. I'd also like to be remembered as someone who was genuine, caring, generous, compassionate, kind and loving, someone who is a good friend, a good partner, a good teacher (we're all teachers....), a good mother (? now thats something I've not contemplated before - hmm...deep), and a good role model - have I achieved this? I don't know.

I'm pretty happy with where I'm at right now - in some tiny tiny way I am inspiring some people - I have got IT doing the stairs, starting to eat much more healthily, to think about or to start some exercise and to value their health - without your health you have nothing - so thats a start! :-)

Have I helped someone less fortunate than myself?

Definately - I sponsor people through Kiva - an organisation that provides micro finance to people in developing countries who want to improve their lives through small businesses. It gives people a hand up not a hand out and can totally change their lives - its awesome - here's where my loans are going and some of the businesses:

So thats cool, I can definately do more though....and thats my motivation...

I just want to leave the world a better place for me having been in it.

This is a great exercise to try for yourself....who knows you might discover something about yourself, a new passion, a new direction or the courage to do what you always wanted to do or be....

Go for it tiger!

Snaptastic!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:56:00 +0000

I've got a flash new digi SLR camera!!!

very excited..

comfort shopping - you can't beat it!!

:-)

The Stairs...armchair style!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 11:09:00 +0000

Why don't you join me on the stairs today?

Easy - just 4 times up and down the office building, with 9kg in the terrorist jacket.

Come on, you can do it....

Oh, you're worried about getting all sweaty and red faced and you don't have your runners or sports gear

Relax!

go get a coffee...or a muffin or something...this is 'The Stairs' - Armchair Style!

you ready?

1st up - you've heard me mention the sand filled terrorist jacket plenty of times - so here it is

lets go!

1st climb - 1/2 way ish

1st climb - complete. Easy!

2nd climb - 1/2 way ish

aren't you glad you're sitting down!

2nd climb - complete

going down is just as important as going up

3rd climb - getting tougher!

3rd climb - complete

4th climb

4th climb - the wall!

4th climb - complete (phew!!)

bring on the shower.....

eeuuwgh!

Well Done! 288 floors

I need a beer.
:-)

Meet the Stars of the show....

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:50:00 +0000

It occurs to me every now and then that I'm probably writing most of these posts in completely the wrong order - not that there is any order, its all just random when an idea crosses my mind!

But, I was thinking last night that I'm only 11 sleeps (?? maybe I should say days...too much going on in my head at the moment for sleep!!) away from the 3rd biggest trip of my life (RTW solo and Bhutan are 1 and 2) and I haven't really explained why I keep going on about how fantastic my boots are or how wonderful and warm my sleeping bag and doona jacket are...

I mean who cares? Does it really matter?

Well, yes it does.

Let me introduce you to Warm....

and Dry.....

The stars of the show.

Here's why

At altitude if you're wet and cold and have no way of getting warm and dry, your body gradually withdraws blood from your extremities in order to preserve its core temperature. This is why toes, fingers and noses are the most susceptible to frostbite. Once there a re no more extremities to shut down, the body starts to lose core heat...

then you die.

quickly.

If you're wet but warm for the moment but again have no way of getting dry, you will get cold and...

you die....

quickly.

If you're cold and dry you can still die - just a bit slower than if you're wet.

Even if you have shelter, if you're cold and wet, and can't get warm and dry - you die.

hmm....I'm not selling this trekking stuff terribly well! :-)

Of the treks I've done at altitude, there were 2 particular days in Bhutan when it was just miserable. One of the days we hiked 9 hours at 16000ft through a driving blizzard - now I mentioned before that I get very hot when I hike and within about 1/2 hour of setting off, am stripped down to a singlet - not this day! I had every layer I possessed on - when we set off in the morning it was minus 2 and got steadily colder and windier and more snowy - god knows what the wind chill was - brass monkeys for sure!

After a few hours of whiteout, my feet were wet through and cold, my face felt like it was being sliced open by razor blades and that was through the balaclava! My gore tex jacket was beginning to lose the battle against the sleet, my waterproof pants had already given up the ghost so my legs were wet and in pain from being so cold. We couldn't find any shelter at lunch, so ate that on the go just to keep moving - we all just had to keep putting one foot in front of the other because to stop would have been fatal.

The thing about hiking through a blizzard is that its quite scary - you are deprived of all your senses - everything is white - there is no path, there is no sound except the wind, there are no landmarks, there is no sense of distance or time or direction.

Your mind plays tricks on you - 'what if I can't keep up?', 'what if I get left behind and get lost?', 'what if no-one finds me?' - unless you can see the person in front - there are no tracks to follow - its so incredibly easy to become lost and then you really are on your own....

By the time we got to camp, I'd cursed every deity known to man and beast (and probably a few new ones!), I had gone through every emotion you can think of from fear, depression, anger, despair, apathy, resignation and finally to sheer exhaustion and numbness - just numb, mentally and physically - it was like I didn't have feet, legs or hands, I didn't have a nose, I was a lump of ice. I couldn't think, I was on total autopilot - head down against the wind

one more step....one more step.....one more step....

That was the only thing I was capable of thinking.

Never have I been so glad to see a tent!

Camping at 16000ft in snow and minus temperatures is not everyone's idea of heaven, but that day I wouldn't have swapped that tent for all the 5* hotels in the world.

I just collapsed and tried to strip off everything asap (ish!) to get some dry clothes on, but that took about 1/2 an hour - try untying frozen mud caked boot laces with frozen hands - I ended up cutting them undone! I stayed in my sleeping bag for about an hour until I stopped shivering at which point the pain of getting feeling back into my feet and hands kicked in - OMG! I was in tears, it was excruciating.

One of the other guys was in a much worse state than me - full hypothermia - it took the guides hours to get him back to normal.

It was the day from hell and it felt like it went on for 3 weeks!

The second day that really emphasized how frail humans really are - half of our yaks went AWOL - we got to camp after another freezing wet day....

and there was no camp!

the kitchen tent was there, but none of our baggage yaks, so no dry clothes, no tents and no food! We were camping in a corrie/cirque/cwm (bowl for you non geography students!) and at night in the mountains the wind always blows from high to low - in this case straight off a glacier.

Bitter. Bitter Bitter.

We all huddled together in the kitchen tent for what seemed like an eternity to share body warmth, but each of us was getting steadily more and more cold and sliding towards hypothermia. The thing with hypothermia is that as your body slowly shuts down in an effort to try and preserve your core temperature, you get very drowsy and all you want to do is sleep - this is fatal.

As a group we must have run through every crappy joke, every karaoke song, and everybodies life stories in an effort to stay awake and functioning.

Our yaks finally showed up about midnight and that must have been the quickest camp setup ever - everyone pitched in and then just crawled into their sleeping bags - if someone had teleported me to a tropical beach at that point it would have taken weeks to thaw out!

Nasty.

So that is why I'm so enthusiastic about a sleeping bag and a pair of boots!

And by now you're probably wondering even more why I'm doing this when its obviously so awful....

because I get to do this....

Rinchenze La Pass - Bhutan

in the most stunning, remote, beautiful, unspoilt parts of the world - until you've been there for yourself, I cannot possibly describe in just words how incredible an experience it is.

So, for those of you who like to know techy sort of details

My sleeping bag is a custom made RAB Expedition 1200 100% goose down, rated for comfort at temperatures of -30C

My boots are Asolo Stynger GTX's

My doona jacket is a Goose down 700 from Kathmandu

My gore Tex jacket is about 15 years old and still going strong!

Its good to know that I'm being looked after by the best!

:-)

13 Sleeps to go...Trial pack!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 11:53:00 +0000

This time 13 sleeps from now I will probably be at 35000ft somewhere above Africa - it really is getting close now!

I thought I'd better to a trial pack today just to see if I can fit everything into the purple nasty. I'm only allowed to take 12kg of stuff up the mountain so if I can get away with only taking that much stuff then I'll be set.

I should explain the purple nasty - its in the piccy on the right, just above the walking stick - Its my trusty old Karrimor backpack that I got when I was 21 for my 1st interrailing trip around Europe!

I've had it for 20 years!!!

Its been everywhere that I have - round Europe twice (1st time was with a bright pink buvket and spade attached to it - long story!), round the world several times, Peru twice, Chile, Argentina, Tahiti twice, Easter Island, USA 5 times, Bhutan, all around UK and Australia - and its even been to China and Mongolia, which I'm very jealous about because I haven't been there yet -

My backpack went to China and Mongolia without me!

How dare it!

Best money I ever spent - only 1 clip has ever broken, its still waterproof, there are no holes in the fabric - this is one tough backpack!

ok back to the packing...

The trouble is that I have to cater for everything from tropical to arctic - the tropical is fine - 1 pair lightweight walking pants, 1 lightweight shirt, sunnies, hat, 2 pairs thin socks - job done.

The arctic is slightly more difficult - the trouble is that when I hike, I get very hot very quickly but as soon as I stop I cool down just as quickly to the point of shivering even if the temperature is warm. So I need to take layers of thermals that I can strip off down to even just a singlet - yep even at minus temperatures I get that hot! and getting sweaty is not pleasant because as soon as you stop and cool down the sweat gets even colder - at that point I generally need to pile on 5 or 6 layers just to stop the heat loss!

At altitude temperature modulation is critical, you can't afford your core temperature to fluctuate too much and hypothermia is always a risk. The hardest part to gauge is when you're sitting still or doing nothing, because there is nothing physical to generate heat, I tend to find I just get colder and colder - I have been known to wear my sleeping bag at the dinner table!

So I've spread evreything out on the floor and ticked it off the equipment list - looking good. Mind you I've still got to get it into the purple nasty - got distracted doing other things so haven't actually put it in the bag yet - minor details!

The travellers mantra....halve the amount of stuff you take and double the money!

I'll get it all in somehow

:-)

Sorted!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:31:00 +0000

Peregrine must have read my mind! I was about to email them to find out all the info I need about where I'm staying, local contact numbers etc - and there in my email inbox yesterday morning was everything I needed to know!

Definitely much more confident about heading off to Africa by myself now. :-)

3 Weeks...

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:41:00 +0000

3 weeks...

3 WEEKS!

doesn't matter how I say it, its not long at all - am I ready? I have no Idea!

I have no idea who will be meeting me at the airport in Nairobi - if I get lost or don't get met, I have no idea who to call!

I have no idea where I'm staying in Nairobi,

I have no idea who is going to be on the trip or even how many of us will be in the group

I have no idea how much money I'm going to need or what the weather is going to be like! Am I going to get hassled by thousands of people wanting to 'help'

am I just a little bit nervous about this - you bet! I can't believe I've done so little preparation beyond the physical training - so unlike me!

hmm...better get my act together! time to hit the books...

Belief

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:22:00 +0000

What is belief?

this is what dictionary.com comes up with:

–noun

1.something believed; an opinion or conviction: e.g a belief that the earth is flat.

2.confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof: a statement unworthy of belief.

3.confidence; faith; trust: a child's belief in his parents.

4.a religious tenet or tenets; religious creed or faith: e.g the Christian belief.

I was thinking about belief whilst climbing the stairs today - I have plenty of time to think about things when doing the stairs!

Why I was thinking about belief I don't know, I think it was probably on the third ascent when the thought suddenly popped into my head that I could climb this mountain.

Somehow, for some reason, my fitness, my training, everything I've put in to this trek in the past few months, it all of a sudden just seemed to crystalize inside me - I was feeling good, climbing at a steady pace as I had done for the past 2 ascents today and it occurred to me that I was moving up the stairs much more quickly than even 2 weeks ago.

My legs weren't burning with lactic acid so much, and I wasn't getting so out of breath even to the extent that by the time I finished the 4th ascent I wasn't feeling like there was an alien trying to burst out of my chest at any second.

And then I knew I could do it.

It all just seems so right - no more doubts, no more what if I haven't trained enough...from here on, the extra training will just consolidate where I am.

Of course I'm not going to slacken off - that would be dumb (see my post on Complacency!), I'm not about to waste all the hard work I've already done!

so there you have it.

Belief - a conviction

I finally believe that I can do it.

Feelin' Feline...

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 23:17:00 +0000

It's wonderful being this fit and healthy!

You know that 1st stretch you have in the morning after you wake up? well its even better when you can feel every muscle in every part of your body uncoiling and uncramping then sliding into its correct space - lean, sleek, strong - catlike

I love seeing my back and shoulder muscles rippling under my skin - so cool.

oh come on!
cut me a little slack...after 10 months of sheer hard work, sweat and discipline, I reckon I'm allowed to pat myself on the back a little bit to acknowledge my achievement! :-)

try it for yourself...you'll understand what I mean :-)

Bit and Pieces

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:46:00 +0000

4 weeks to go, another 6688 steps down and another 15k on the boots - looking good! No trouble with my shins today either on the stairs so feeling a lot better!

I think I'm quite well on top of all the things I need to do for this trip - have got all the jabs for the hundreds of diseases, have got the altitude sickness pills, have got the yellow fever certificate (somewhere?) so they'll let me back into Australia, have got the doona jacket, boots and clothes for every type of climate from tropical to arctic, have got most of big items of equipment - custom made sleeping bag (big plug for RAB here - love my sleeping bag! kept me toasty warm at 16000ft & -10C in Bhutan), self inflating sleep mat (well I'm not going to be blowing it up every night- won't have the energy!), thermals and waterproofs...

all set! aren't I?

so I've just been through the what to take list....

oh.

Lots more bits and pieces - all the niggly little things like sun cream, paracetamol, spare laces, spare batteries for the torch, 1st aid kit, blister stuff, copies of documents, money (quite important!), spare batteries for camera, travel insurance, will (well, just in case I fall off the mountain, someone has to know how to distribute the property empire! hehe!)

etc etc!

Another thing to do is sort out a camera.

I do have a good SLR camera, but its a film camera and I want to upgrade to digital, but I couldn't decide whether I go for a cheap happy snappy or SLR for this trip. for around the camp and people pics, the happy snappy would probably be a good idea, but for the close up shot of that charging lion I'd really want something with a bit of power

Problem solved, I'll rent the camera!

I had no idea you could do that, until one of the guys at work suggested it - what a great idea!

So I'm going to hire a digital SLR body (I can use my own lenses), that way I can try before I buy for the next big trip :-)

brilliant.

now I'm nearly all set :-)

Not Now!!!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 03:32:00 +0000

Shin splints!!! with only 4 weeks to go...****!

was running in this morning and only got to about 3k before I had to stop..

damn, just when everything has been going so well - the walking into work has really helped with the stairs, have been doing really well on the stairs - am easily doing 3 times up and down and only struggling by the 4th time

I thought I'd been managing my body really well - haven't had knee problems, haven't had back problems, haven't had feet problems and apart from muscle soreness in my quaddies theres not been a hint of leg issues

damn, damn and bugger.

better get to a physio asap and get some work done and switch to swimming for the week.

damn.

Stair Masters!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 09:36:00 +0000

Awesome! 3 of the guys decided to do some stairs today for a bit of a laugh - I have to admit I didn't think they would go through with it, but they did - so at 5 oclock after beer we went from floor 18 up to 32 and then all the way down - well I didn't go all the way down, I ducked back into the office at floor 18 and left them to it :-) (I know...wuss!)

Good on you guys for proving me wrong! Proud of you....

now we just have to work on those who have promised to do the stairs but have yet to make good on that promise...

you'll all be stair masters by the time I go!
:-)

Friday 13th!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:43:00 +0000

Lucky or unlucky?

Finally! after weeks of existing on 4 - 5 hours of interupted sleep, I actually had a decent nights sleep! my apartment is quite weird, it seems to go really really silent - the sort of silence that you can hear - about 1 minute before the 5:30am tram rattles down St Kilda Road. This is when I like to wake up because I can get a good 1/2hr meditation in before the screecher goes off at 6.

Today I woke up just in that moment of complete silence - very cool - so feeling really good, and trained well as a result.

so far so good for Friday 13th!

Breathing is easy? right?

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:02:00 +0000

It occurred to me whilst huffing and puffing up the stairs that I'm really glad that I know how to breathe - I know that sounds totally odd, I mean we all have to do it or we'd be dead, and we all take it completely for granted - breathe in, breathe out, repeat - how hard can it be?

Ask an asthmatic person having an attack, they'll tell you its hell. For non asthmatics,try to imagine someone placing iron bands round your chest then slowly tightening them more and more so every breathe becomes a panicked fight to get oxygen into your lungs whilst your brain is screaming at you to try harder...

Now imagine that same asthmatic being at an altitude where there is even less oxygen available - this, essentially is me.

No, I'm not stark raving mad, and no I don't require all those crappy drugs and inhalers and no I'm not a pale faced weedy little waif (thanks to my wonderful mother) and I haven't had an attack for a long time.

Even the huge stress I'm placing on my chest and lungs doing the stairs doesn't set me off - why?

Because I know how to breathe!

There are so many different ways to breathe - watch a baby, they breathe down into their stomach, watch someone who is stressed or angry or excited they will be breathing shallowly using only the top of their chest, watch an asthmatic having an attack very often they will be using their shoulders to force their chest in and out - its exhausting!

Watch someone who is deeply asleep they'll be breathing like a baby, watch someone meditating - chances are they will breathe into their stomach 1st then work their way up their torso filling their lungs from the bottom up, then they'll pause before breathing out from the top of their chest back down to their stomach.

In some forms of Yoga the emphasis is on breathing all the way out using your stomach muscles before you let your diaphragm rebound naturally sucking in a big hit of air - in fact the breathing technique my mother taught me to manage my asthma as a kid was the same - instead of panicking and concentrating on fighting to breathe in, I had to breathe all the way out until I couldn't squeeze any more air out and then the in-breath that followed was much deeper, easier, quicker and most importantly relaxed.

In fact the one surefire way to calm down when you're stressed or angry is to focus on breathing more slowly and more deeply filling the your lungs from the bottom to the top and when full, hold for a second before breathing out emptying your lungs from top to bottom - try it, you'll be amazed.

Just out of curiosity, I thought I'd get you a breathing picture from google images - there are millions, outlining lots and lots of ways to breathe!

heres a sample, should you be interested http://www.indoindians.com/index.php/200901201043/Keeping-Fit/breathing-exercises

So what technique do I use - from bikram yoga, I contract my core muscles and diaphragm forcing the air out of my lungs until I can't breathe out anymore, I pause for 2 heart beats then let my diaphragm rebound sucking in lots of air using the whole of my lungs, then I pause for another 2 heart beats and repeat.

Sure I sound like a steam train, but it works!

till next time, be grateful for your breath.

Happy breathing!

These boots are made for walking....

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:43:00 +0000

Did I mention how much I love my Asolo hiking boots? Here they are again just in case you haven't seen them before!
:-)

Had a good day today - my feet seemed to be on air cushions (or is it the thought of seeing Will tonight...hmmm..?)!
These boots are so comfortable, its like I take 'giant' strides (of course being so little giant is relative of course!)
The tramp to work took 40 mins instead of 45 and it was such a beautiful morning - must be getting walking fitter, even the 10kg of metal in the backpack didn't seem so heavy today.

The stairs at lunch also didn't seem to be such a challenge - it was only about 1/2 way up the 3rd time that I really started to get fatigued - mind you this week I only have 6kg in the terrorist jacket, which is definately much nicer!

These boots are definately made for walking - hope Will is still on for a long hike next week

Check out the View!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:27:00 +0000

WOW! check out the view!

this is my life for about 1 1/2 hours every day...told you its all about the mental training :-)

really struggled today only managed 3 times up and down not sure why, I just didn't have the energy - maybe because I did circuit training last night instead of boxing which involved a lot of sprinting and running, I have also had to change my diet to add even more protein - so instead of yoghurt for 2nd brekky the last 2 days I've had more meat! I think its overloading my system as I'm finding myself really low on energy by about 11:30.

I'll try switching back to the yoghurt tomorrow and see how that goes.

167200

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 10:56:00 +0000

thats roughly how many stairs I have tramped up and down in the last 10 weeks! and now we're getting to the pointy end of the training - this week sees the 1st week of 4 times up and down the building at lunch - thats approximately 6688 stairs per day!

Wonder if I've walked up the mountain yet - lets see - the average rise of a stair is maybe 15cm? so thats
167200 * 0.15m = 25080m or 25.08km

I'm about 1/3 of the way up the Mt Kilimanjaro already!

Who says kids have all the fun?

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:15:00 +0000

I got to test whether my beautiful new Asolo boots are waterproof today - it started to rain just as I stepped out of the office to walk home - hooray!!! :-)
so waht did I do? Did I scurry home as fast as I possibly could?
NO!
I went and jumped in all the puddles I could find to get my boots as wet as I possibly could! The deeper the better...
True, I arrived home soaking wet, and I'm sure more than one person stuck in going nowhere rush hour traffic would have wondered what a 40year old woman was doing splashing around in puddles like a 5 year old! probably thought I was a complete nutcase - but who cares anyway? Its not about them, its all about my lovely boots - and yes, they passed with flying colours.
For a real test, if I can find a shallow enough bit, I'll go and stand in Albert Park lake for 20 minutes and scare the swans! :-)

see, childhood - wasted on kids!
Whats stopping you?

go on - revive your inner child!

Be afraid....be very afraid!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Who'd have thought a little tiny chick standing just 5'3'' (163cm) could be so scary!
This morning I was walking in to work (probably stomping in reality, I was pushing myself a little!) with weighted backpack, baggy leggings, hiking boots, looking a bit of a sweaty wreck with my hair all over the place and was just going down the last bit of the street to work in my own focussed little bubble world and one of the guys I work with came past me and made a quick quip about beating me, which I laughed at - like I said earlier they've got me pegged as supergirl at the moment!

So after I'd transformed back into a normal human being, and was my usual mild mannered computer programmer self, I went to chat to the guy and he told me that initially he didn't know if he should say anything to me because I looked like I was about to kill someone!
yikes!

I reassured him that I was merely very focussed...

but maybe he might not want to upset me....

hehe :-)

Tiff?

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:13:00 +0000

Has Charlie had a tiff with the weather gods? we got rained on twice - just enough to get a bit damp and then the wind would pick up cutting straight through the skin - it was freezing!

The hot shower when i got home was wonderful! nice and toasty now and full of a very yummy west sumatran kangaroo curry!!

Happy Days! :-)

Cough, Cough,Cough - its Yellow Fever...Honest!

noreply@blogger.com (sarzy) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:05:00 +0000

Getting much closer now!
So I've had 4 days 'off' due to...eerrrm.....Yellow Fever would you believe?

ok, ok - more like green gill disease! ;-p

You see it was like this - the Kiwis did the job and thrashed the Aussies in the Rugby, and James Anderson took 11 wickets against Pakistan...so I figured a few beers would probably be appropriate and everyone who knows me, knows I always buy my shout(s)....and its would have been rude not to....

ok, i know - what a load of crap, come on though - I think I deserve a little hair down time! :-)

I think its done me good as well - felt good at the gym this morning, Nicola devised some evil butt and core workout and I actually had company on the stairs today - there was a guy who went up and down the building twice - he did it much faster than me - I'm up to 10kg in the terrorist jacket slow and steady plodding was the order of the day.

oops better go to boxing!
talk soon