Dairy of a Madcap Idea or Preparations for my next trip
Early November 2018On arriving back from India, one of the jobs I had to do was catch up on my emails. These days, as a gentleman of leisure, this in not as onerous as when working, but they can still accumulate over a month. One of the emails was an advert from The Walking and Climbing Company, which is a company I have dealt with before. I looked at it and thought it interesting and worth further investigation.
A bit later in November
I looked at the companies web site and their information on the trek they had advertised. It still looked interesting, as it was a trek in Himalaya, in Bhutan. Bhutan is the one country of the Himalayas that I have not visited, which does not have major problems, from a traveler's perspective. (The other countries I have not visited are Pakistan and Afghanistan). The trek looked tough enough that I needed to check that I thought I would be able to do it with some training. So I went up to my local gym (five minutes walk away) and enrolled there. After induction, and receiving a training plan, off I went, making a notable figure in the gym (rucsac and (by special arrangement) clean boots).
Late November
Training going well enough that I thought that it was likely I could do this trip if I got in a reasonable amount of training before late September. Then one of the trainers at the gym asked me about what I was intending to do. I told him and immediately he referred to the trip as an endurance event. This completely changed my perspective about the trip, and the preparation needed for it. The trainer has himself done endurance events - tri-athalon, and iron man. His perspective was correct though: the trip is 24 days of trekking, spread over 31 days; and goes over 12 passes all of which are in excess of 4,400m. Training continued, with a greater sense of urgency and a revised training plan.
Early January 2019
I was in Samye Ling for Xmas and New Year as usual. Whilst there I was not able to do my training, but managed a couple of hour long walks, with backpack up to Garwald. I also realised that my route home from Eskdalemuir to Milton Keynes went very close to Pontefract, which is where the company is based. I arranged to call in there on my way home, and ended up having a very useful and enjoyable chat with Susie and Kalsang, the two founders and directors of the company. It turned out that not only had I had contact with Susie before (a trek that I had to pull out of with foot and fitness problems), but Kalsang had been in charge of arranging all the medical logistics for the Xtreme Everest medical experiment I was a guinea pig for some years ago. As such they were immensely reassuring, and assessed my plans for training and fitness. They indicated that they thought I could do this trek.
Late January
I arranged a trainer session with the trainer with the endurance event experience. He put together three training plans to be done in rotation. Two of these were very different to what I had been doing, and one was an extension of what I had previously been doing. Started these plans, and found them very hard work. It has taken me until now to build up to doing the full set of workouts consistently. I am just about to start increasing the workouts. Meanwhile the dates of the trip had been brought forward by four and a half weeks, which reduces my training time. My training plans are:
Build muscular endurance whilst training for aerobic and anaerobic adaptations.
Further strengthen my body and core.
Build walking endurance. This one is possibly the most needed, but also the most boring - just about two hours on the treadmill, carrying around about 15kg, on varying gradients. Hard work. Even harder is the barriers put up by the lump on my shoulders - it is amazing how many reasons for procrastination, one person can come up with. So far I have not succumbed to them sufficiently to impact my target for training (3 sessions a week), but it is not easy.
Still, much of my motivation for this has been to prove to myself whether or not I am a quitter. Some of my recent attempts have terminated early, for a variety of reasons. Equally, some of my recent activities have been successful. So it all hangs in the balance.