My walk to work!

Its taken days to get this on the blog.  This is my walk to work which I do twice a week.  Starting at about 5.00am it takes almost 4 hours to do the 12.6 miles to the office.  Twickenham to Blackfriars in London.  Most exciting!

Tense lats and a steady head!

I have now enlisted the help of a personal trainer - Stu.  With 12 weeks to go,  I want to concentrate on the main areas that I need help on.  The problem was that without the input of an expert,  I had no idea where I was lacking! We have had one session so far which was more of a fitness test (although I have no idea if I passed!) and will be having two sessions per week until the off.  I have been introduced to kettle bells, superman and parts of my own body that I swear have been hibernating for the last 37 years. My lats are tense apparently but the good news is my head does not flop about when running.  I am no biologist but surely that is because it is attached to my neck?

This is in addition to my normal regime of excercise, so to my surprise, Stu was standing in the reception of my gym (Pools in the Park) when I arrived this moring at 6.30 after running from home with my work clobber on my back. I had already done my cardio for the day (the run) so I am still surprised that he managed to pursuade me to join the spinning class he was hosting - and even more surprised that I then did a twenty minute session of "Abs" afterwards.  I now feel it, but also feel pretty good.

This week will also see the start of me walking to work.  This may sound simple but work is 12 miles away so I will be leaving home at 5.00am twice a week. Why on earth did I sign up for this thing!!!! I will update you with further progress as and when.  I have recently bought a digital video camera so you may even get some action shots.

Stu has kindly donated a proportion of my sessions as sponsorship - so welcome to the list of Sponsors Stu and see you tomorrow at 6.30am again!

A NEW SPONSOR

I am very pleased to introduce Hamilton Rentals as my latest sponsor.  Hamilton provide IT hardware rental and hire for the corporate and consumer market.  They have kind enough to provide me with sponsorship and assistance in PR in their market place. 

Welcome on board Hamilton Rentals and thank you very much!

I am still looking for sponsors and in return I will wear logo's during the race, create targeted press releases, talk at corporate events and do what ever it takes!

The GET ME OUT OF HERE weekend....

Ogmore by Sea is on the Heritage Coast in South Wales and is where we spent 36 hours being put through our paces by Jock and the rest of the race organisers.  Once we got to a half flooded car park on the banks of the river, right next to Ogmore castle, we were given 30 minutes to get our tents up and then it was time to leave for a walk to "the dunes". The tents we were using are the actual bits of kit we are taking to the Pole.  Jo, in charge of the tent, has taken it home with her for careful storage! Everything seems very real!

The opening challenge was shuttle runs up and down a huge sand dune.  We were all wearing our pulk pulling harnesses and had been clipped on to a rope in teams of four.  Therefore you were only as fast as the slowest.  The run up was a lung busting cardio workout as the sand was pretty soft and it was half a step down to each one up.  The way down was more a case of trying to stay upright and go as fast as possible. We did five shuttles each which got the legs aching - but as we mixed up the groups they were all done at different speeds.

The afternoon involved a 4 hour walk navigating to various way points that we had been given - all good practice with the GPS.  The weather was fantastic for this time of the year, so it did not really feel like a "get me out of here" weekend.  I was very pleased with my fitness and found the whole day to be more fun than strenuous.  Still,  we will be pulling pulks in very cold conditions for 12 + hours per day whilst fuelled by dehydrated ration packs - so any physical training will be helping my end goal.

That night we ate in the local pub - The Pelican.  Food was great and very much needed, and of course there were a few obligitory beers to be consumed,  I realise that this was not exactly roughing it, but the team building and bonding elements are very important as well.  After a wet and windy night in the tents,  we woke to find ice all over the tent.  The temperature had dropped a lot, to the extent that passers by on the following day who had seen where we were camping, all thought we were nuts!

The next day we were back in our teams so Jo, Lucy and I were handed a set of coordinates that we had to get to in a set order.  This time however,  we were pulling our pulks that had kindly been leaden with big bags of sand!  We had a thoroughly good day and got used to the posture differences involved in pulling a heavy weight (you automatically try to lean forward which puts extra stress on the lower back.... something I am working on in the gym!).  We had some gear breakages that we managed to mend easlily enough, and we even managed to meet up with another team to have a packed lunch next to the beach!

All in all it was a great weekend, and now I have my harness,  I will be getting some used tyres and hitting the gallops in Richmond Park!  A couple more blogs to follow shortly.  Until then!

The Team

Its time to introduce the team - and the team name.  Jo, Lucy and I make up the POLAR SLUGS! Slugs because we strike an alarming similarity when all in our sleeping bags!  Also,  its to lull the competition into a false sense of security as after all, slugs are not know for their speed over the ground!  You may also have noticed that I have started to grow my beard!  It is fiercely Ginger at the moment - and strangely having one has given me the appetite to flail my arms around on public transport whilst grunting loudly!

We have divided responsibilities amongst ourselves.  One person is responsible for a task with someone else to support if needed.  I am in charge of many things, the most important being the food and the cooking duties (which also includes gathering and melting the snow/ice for water).  We are eating dehydrated food (casseroles, chille, soups etc) which will not try my culinary skills too much, but I am proposing to take some enhancements to reduce the monotony. Ideas so for are Tabasco sauce, veggie bouillon, packs of jelly, herbs, garlic granules...  If you have any ideas please leave a comment! 

Jo is in charge of shooting, the gun and the ammunition and Lucy is in charge of medical areas - which is very handy that she is a doctor. 

We have a Facebook page - please like or follow or what ever you do - and leave messages of support!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Polar-Slugs-Polar-Race-2011/170809679625751?v=wall

We have recently spent our first night together in the tent which was great.  It was cold but we were all fine in our remarkably warm RAB sleeping bags.  Another update will follow on that later but it was our first taste of waking up to a tent with ice on the outside.