Mountain Training

So what are you going to do this weekend?
Well, I was thinking about going up a mountain.
In this weather? Why?
Kayak training.
Up a mountain?

Friday, I was bemoaning the fact that was having a rest day but didn’t really feel the need for rest as my body had long since given up protesting about going to the gym. What to do about this? A weekend of exertion, that’s what!

Saturday I went to the gym with Nigel finishing work and joining me a bit later. 15 minutes on the rowing machine set to a pretty easy level as a warm up.

I then moved to the weights. I was lifting the 7.5kgs but I kind of struggle with these and am not able to do many repetitions, so I set my ego to one side and dropped it down to the 5kgs, and got a much better arm workout than trying and failing to lift the heavier weight. This was followed by the back lifts. 3 sets of 15 reps at 59kgs. And then the last of the resistance equipment with the triceps push downs, 3 sets of 15 reps at 7kgs.

Then onto the treadmill, 7mph, level 5 interval training, 20 minutes. This kills me, and after about 10 minutes in my head I am making reasons for slowing the pace down or lowering the difficulty. I didn’t though and persevered and felt pretty chuffed with myself for sticking with it.

Then after the stomach crunching hand to knee exercises to failure and the plank to failure I hit the cross trainer on intervals, level 8, 20 minutes. Nigel’s trip around the gym coincided with joining me on the cross trainer so we both did the same set.

Then after all that I swam at a good solid pace for 20 minutes before finally relaxing. About 2 hours of muscle bashing. Quite knackered.

But that wasn’t enough. Oh no. I had managed to convince the good wife that we should pay mount Snowdon, the higest mountain in England and Wales, a visit on Sunday morning.

Packing my rucksack with survival gear, water proofs, lunch and all manner of navigation aids I was to be carrying 10 kilos of additional weight up the 1085 metres of Welsh geology.

We arrived at the Pen-Y-Pass car park at about 7:30ish, and after spending half an hour or so donning all manner of waterproof layers, we set off into the rain, mist, and the fog.

Head down we just slogged along the Pyg track in the drizzle. I know it’s not a mountaineers route but it is good cardio stuff. We have walked this route a few times and know it well enough, usually I am pretty exhausted by the time the Pyg track meets the Miners track (about halfway up) but this time out I was still fighting fit, much to the wife’s dismay as she was well and truly tired. Like a trooper though, when I asked if she wanted to head back, she pointed up into the mist and said “On!”

We reached the top eventually, soaked, and well and truly chilled to the bone. We had a bite to eat and a couple of cups of morale boosting coffee using the wall of the café/train station as protection from the excesses of the elements. (the café and train station was closed for the winter as most mountain tourists stay away in the middle of November)


Heading down was much better, we returned along the Miners track which is a well constructed walkers path, we were no longer fighting against gravity, and once we got off the ridge the weather improved significantly. We took great delight in telling people we were passing that the summit was still several miles away and when they got there they were going to get soaked. Watching their tired faces drop in dismay was so much fun.

I was going to get the sat nav to give me some stats that I could quote today, but sadly the weather was so grim it could not find a single satellite through the cloud cover but I do know that we took exactly 4 hours and 20 minutes from car, to summit, and back to the car again.

But that wasn’t all, I was not going to stop because I had blitzed a mountain, I headed off to join Nigel at the gym again.

I hit the rowing machine and managed a grand total of 6 minutes before fatigue finally set in. This was pretty much my last effort at doing cardio vascular work this Sunday. I got some light 5kg weights and worked my way through various resistance exercises with my arms, before I ended the day with 15 minutes of swimming before really relaxing in the sauna and Jacuzzi.

I am a wee bit tired today, my thighs are a bit achey when I try to walk down stairs and my back and shoulder muscles feel as though they have had a good workout but I still feel capable of taking on Snowdon again today. It wasn’t that long ago that I would be hobbling around like some kind of zombie for days after exercise.

(Due to the fact that this is a true, bare faced, no lies, blog where I honestly admit all of my sucesses and failures. I have to point out that any photos that seem to sugest that I might have been doing various exercises, pressups mainly, have been staged)