45 Days to Go - In training

For those of you that know me, I can't imagine I'd be in your top ten of fittest people you know.  Which is a bit of a problem, because sailing halfway around the world is not something you do everyday.  They say its a marathon, not a sprint.  But actually its more like 20 sprints a day.  There are times of intense action, followed by bouts of nothingness.  So I really do need to get the fitness levels up, so I'm ready for action whenever its needed.  And for the month of July - I'm going hard at it.  

I've hired a personal trainer - Ibby - who is putting me through my paces.  Because I need to do this for a specific activity, he has tailored a programme to cover three main areas.  Legs, arms and general cardio. Obviously, the cardio day is by far the worst, and I spend most of my time wanting to puke my guts up. But it does seem to be working. Legs is pretty bad too - as I do endless squats and jumps adding different weights and even a Bulgarian Bag.  Arms and upper body is going well.  Ibby has rigged up a rope simulator where I have to pull down or across a thick rope for 40 sec intervals.

I play squash with a friend - and when I started 5 months ago, I would need to collapse in the corner after every game, and we only managed 4 before I passed out completely.  Now I'm nearly matching him, and sometimes even beating him!  

I don't know if I'll ever feel truly fit enough to take on this challenge.  But by the size of my ever increasing biceps, I'm well on the way.