Land and sea

My knee was hurting in the way it does when it senses I intend to do exercise and my body feels compelled to try and discourage me from doing so. Which meant I wound up doing 10km on the road last night and 1km in the pool this morning. Neither seems to have made it particularly better or worse so I think my body needs me to call its bluff. It turns out the 4th bridge up the Thames is for the Tube and can't be crossed so I had to turn back there. Time to start exploring downstream past the Houses of Parliament as well. Being near the river is providing a nice backdrop as the sun goes down and does a great job in sucking some of the pollution out of the air.

I think I'll bring a camera next week and get some shots around sunset. Especially as the walk goes quite near to Battersea Power Station as well and that must be awesome with good lighting. Not sure how close to it I can get on the South Bank as I haven't explored that bit of the river yet. It's reminding me of the days of living out of hotels back at Netscape and going for a walk to explore the local neighborhood in the evenings. Thought, obviously minus the drinking, inappropriate corporate anthems and wooden bears.


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Haircut

Saturday's walk told me some useful things. First up, St Catherine's Hill is steeper than I remember. Second up, it does have 324 steps up one side. Third up, I desperately need a haircut. The last part of that has been, somewhat brutally, dealt with. The rest of it is something I have to live with.


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So, 67m from bottom to top. Realistically, I want to be doing that 10+ times during a hike to get some upwards miles into my legs. On Saturday I did 3. So going to aim for 4 or 5 next time and see how far I get.

EDIT: turns out my mapping app supports capturing vertical gain during a trip and that, all told, I did 357m of vertical elevation gain on Saturday. Which I'm feeling a lot happier about. 357m is a much better place to start. We can work with that.

Kettlebell

Another training aid which I can completely swear by is the humble kettlebell. Of which we now have a 16kg in our office. The perfect tool to build cooperating muscle groups and coordination. I can do a few sets between compiles and (maybe) take with me on a walk up and down the 7 floors of this building.

The one I picked up is a little bit heavy in the handle for my liking but for something that'll occupy the odd spare minute it should be fine. My main concern is being unable to hold the handles properly on the foosball table afterwards.

Dogfood

As part of my training I thought I'd indulge in a spot of corporate loyalty via capturing routes on my Nexus One. Here's the result. Should make for some interesting maps.


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Learning to Walk

When I was 18 we had a guy called Keith Haig come to give a lesson at our Tae Kwon-Do club. Before he even arrived you could tell the sort of regard he was held in by the hushed tones people used to describe him so I was expecting something special. What I didn't expect was how that was to manifest itself. The first thing you noticed about him was the huge knee supports he was wearing (his doctor had been, unsuccessfully, trying to convince him to give up for a number of years). Other than that he was a slight guy. Maybe 5'9 or 10. Then I saw him do a punch and my jaw just dropped. Just a basic punch. The thing you teach to guys the first time they walk into the dojang. The simplest technique you can possibly think of. Something I considered beneath my attention. Something which was easy. But the complete fluid grace with which he delivered this punch left me examining my own agricultural efforts with dismay. Not only did he transform the simplest of techniques into a thing of liquid beauty but the whole room reverberated with it. That single moment made me re-examine the way I trained and my whole attitude to it.

Which leads me to my point. Last night I went for a walk with 5kg ankle weights on. One of the things that I noticed straight away was that my normal walking gait was not the most efficient way of doing things. Staying lower and moving the legs less expended less energy and moved me about as fast. So, now I'm thinking about how to move more economically. To apply the lesson I learned 19 years ago from a slight chap to the everyday task of walking. That walking around in boots and crampons requires can be treated in the same way as that basic punch all those years ago. That I can be better and I shouldn't assume where I can improve.

"An exercise in naive optimism"

Or, to paraphrase, my imagined training plan.

• Day to day tweaks (stuff to blend into my daily routine)
  - 10kg of ballast in my rucksack.
  - 20-30 floors of stairs every day with ankle weights to simulate heavy boots.
• General
  - Swimming. Good for the lungs.
  - Running. Good for the legs and the lungs.
• Specifics
  - Climbing. Not specific to a trekking peak strictly speaking but awesome for strength, flexibility and balance. Plus good practice at handling ropes.
  - Hiking. Near where I live is St Catherine's hill - an Iron Age hillfort. 180ft from top to bottom and featuring a handy series of routes up and down.

And because I'm goal oriented and fully aware of the likelihood of my efforts waning without shorter term goals here are some of the things on the horizon in conveniently chronological order:

• July: JP Morgan Corporate Challenge
  3.5 miles around Battersea Park.
• October: Great South Run
  10 miles around Portsmouth.
• November: Hell Run
  10-12 miles through swampland.
• January: Vertical Rush
  42 floors (plus the Mezzanine) of Tower 42.
• April: Mera Peak
  Big icy rock.

So, there it is. A picturesque tableau of wishful thinking and foolishly recorded targets. If Pete and Andy are game then hopefully I'll be able to wedge a TrailPlus Challenge in there somewhere as well.

Rough Ramblers

Mike: "I had fifteen rocks in my rucksack instead of the regulation five. I knew something was wrong when I got her in the water. She was sitting so low. So low. But I didn't stop, Tim. Fifteen rocks in my rucksack and everyone knew it."

Tim: So what happened when you rolled ?

Mike: "I lost control of the vessel two feet from the shore. As I struggled to right her, I banged into the jetty, damaging the canoe's carcass. The ramble leader had to dive in and rescue me from beneath the canoe."

Time to start making little tweaks to my life to incorporate training into my daily routine. Specificity is the key apparently which means training as closely to the muscles and coordination you'll need. The obvious areas to get started on are:

• Getting used to carrying weight in a rucksack.
• Getting used to heavy boots. This is a twofold thing - first up having a big lump attached to your foot makes you clumsier and more likely to trip (which is a Bad Thing TM on a mountain).Secondly - crampons are heavy and make you walk funny.

To tackle the first of these I've loaded my day to day ruck sack with 10kgs of ballast. This is proving to be a rather pointed lesson in how far I have to go.

Mera Peak

Some numbers:
Mera Peak 6,476m tall (21,247 ft) - which is 3,338 of me stood on top of each other.
Located in the Himalayas in Nepal. At that altitude there is 46% of the oxygen available at sea level. You need to drink 3-4 litres of water a day to avoid getting dehydrated. Temperatures can drop as low as -25C.

It was first climbed in 1953. Technically, it's classified as a trekking peak which, hopefully, means less opportunities for me to stab myself with crampons or my ice axe but the last day will all be on snow and ice.

In the footsteps of Shipton

I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of the Six Mountain Travel Books written by Eric Shipton. One of the prevailing themes was of the fulfillment of being in the wilderness for the sake of it. Of the excitement of setting out to explore something for the sake of it.

He is lucky who, in the full tide of life, has experienced a measure of the active environment he most desires. In these days of upheaval and violent change, when the basic values of today are the vain and shattered dreams of tomorrow, there is much to be said for a philosophy which aims at living a full life while the opportunity offers.


There are few treasures of more lasting worth than the experience of a way of life that is in itself wholly satisfying. Such, after all, are the only possessions of which no fate, no cosmic catastrophe can deprive us; nothing can alter the fact if for one moment in eternity we have really lived.

I was able to go to Nepal in 2007 on a trip to Everest Base Camp. Reading Shipton's travels re-ignited the wanderlust in me. The urge to be back in the mountains. To be surrounded by awe inspiring pieces of rock. To wonder if I'm going to able to push myself one step further upwards and what will be revealed when that next blank of cloud rolls over.

So this is my tale of the journey from the moment of decision. Today 16th May 2010. To Mera Peak in Nepal in April 2011. Along the way I'm hoping to learn something about myself and what drives me. If I make it up the mountain I cannot think of a better reward than a breath catching view. If not then 3 weeks in the Himalayas sounds like a great place to be. Either way I will need to find reserves in myself I've never tapped before.