I’ve got nine weeks to go now before the killerthon and I have really got to get my training into gear. I have been using the Christmas period and the wintery weather as an excuse for doing little in the way of training for this race but I can do this no longer.

Sunday I got myself moving again with an arctic trip up Snowdon, deep snow, avalanche warnings, crampons and ice axe. It was actually one of the best mountain trips I have had for years. All the additional kit added to the weight hauled, and the deep snow and technical nature of the climbing meant that we were moving more slowly that we would have otherwise. Six hours on the mountain and about 6 miles covered. Absolutely knackered today though.

The people at the killerthon are sending out weekly training emails which are pretty comprehensive and very similar to my own drafted training plan, so I will adopt theirs as it gets emailed to me once a week and reminds me that I should be doing something. I will be following the intermediate schedule.

So this week I will be doing.
Monday Rest.
Tuesday – 30 minute easy run.
Wednesday - 4x 750m, 3x 500m, 3x 300m with 90sec recoveries
Thursday - 50 min relaxed or steady run
Friday – rest (actually will be playing squash)
Saturday – Cross train. (swimming)
Sunday - 1 hour 20 min long run

Monday rest, no problem with that. My PS3 is calling my name for that session.
Tuesday 30 minute easy run. Perfect, I have a nice 3 miles route just for runs like this, just need to wrap up warm and hope it doesn’t snow too hard.
Wednesday… Not sure about this one. I will need to work out some sort of plan with a running track or something. Not sure will have to research how to do this one.
Thursday 50 minute relaxed run. Again, no issues other than the cold weather.
Friday I will be playing squash instead of resting, but I don’t think that should cause too many problems. Different muscles get worked out on the squash court so I should still be resting the running ones.
Saturday cross training fits nicely with my Saturday swimming sessions that we were doing before Christmas.
Sunday big run. Again, not real issues with that, though I might substitute that with another expedition up a mountain while we have snow to enjoy.

Tryfan and The Great North Run

A lack of any physical activity for the best part of two weeks I decided to kick off this week with a jaunt up a mountain again (Due to the river being unpaddleable at the moment). This time out it was the tricky North Face of Tryfan.

Weather looked good when we set off and we (me and the Wife) spent the best part of 3 hours hauling ourselves bodily up this jumbled rock face. At around 1000ft we came to the snowline which was a pleasant surprise, and were also met by the clouds, which was not so pleasant. Visibility dropped to about 10 metres and the wind speed picked up too. By the time we had got to the top of North Gully at about 2500ft the conditions had become dangerous so we turned around.

Descending, the cloud closed in and we actually got lost. At some point we went left instead of right, and very quickly we found ourselves dropping onto increasingly sheer cliff faces. Vertigo finally kicked in while hanging over a drop from a bit of heather so we desperately climbed back up to firmer footing. We back tracked upward for a while, and after deploying the storm shelter (for the first time. I have carried this thing around for years and on Sunday we finally got to use it.) for a chance to get warm, get something to eat and check the map and compass, we found the route again.

6 hours on the mountain with some serious climbing has left me with aching thighs and back muscles, a scratch on the side of my nose, whopping bruises on my left knee and a large bruise on my right thigh, and I split my hiking trousers. Bloody brilliant.

And then other news. I received an email this morning confirming that I did in the end get on the free ballot for the Great North run. I am really pleased. I had decided to skip this event if I couldn’t get in on the free ballot as I didn’t want the added strain of having to raise X amount of sponsorship when this is not going to be the main event. It does however mean that I am now very much committed to training for two very different races, requiring both leg endurance and upper body endurance as well as cardio vascular capacity.

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)