Fundraising:
I am astonished and astounded at the generosity of the individuals that donate to VSO. I am most delighted to call these kind individuals my friends and colleagues and I thank you on behalf of the ultimate recipients of VSO. My fundraising hit £11,045 pounds at the end of July 2009 and we have 122 sponsors that will be on my flag heading up!
As I previously committed, I have now also added my personal donation of £3,000 to the total (in a tax efficient manner) so we are now up to £14,045. I wonder if we might make £15k by the time this whole adventure ends – that would be a nice round figure eh?!
Stop Press: I have a cut off for my flag of 09th August 2009 as after that it goes to be embroidered!
More sponsor babies that need a mention. A baby boy - Rowan for my dentist Gordon and his wife who now run a dental practice in Hertford – congrats and let’s hope my teeth can cope with -20c!
Training:
July was a month of jumping (jumping a bit too hard actually… more later) So the main background activity has been ‘squats’ a couple of times a week. At times I felt like Zebedee but at least he had a spring for legs rather than my pins.
Training was at peak (sorry a desperate pun) so I did a quite a few things
1. A breathing controlled run which was most weird. A Short run of 3 miles over 20mins but only breathing every five seconds rather than normally to try and force my body to use oxygen wisely – please no more magic roundabout links here.
2. Session of pylometrics with Gymanda – I can hand on heart say this was modern day torture … So picture this – an evening in Hyde Park and Amanda has me doing a whole variety of things (mostly jumping again) in full view of people out for a stroll – free and embarrassing entertainment with me doing burpees all over the place.
3. I have also been weekend walking along the Ridgeway walk, from Ivinghoe Beacon to Wendover which is a really lovely 11.5mile walk with about 418m ascent and 317m descent. The National Trail guide states it takes 5hr 15mins and my record is 3hr 14mins – It is not all plain sailing, once I had to cross a field full of sleepy cows, I tell you some of these animals are big and when they start running toward you - you run very fast, check out the pics.
4. After last month’s 600m challenge in the Black Mountains (Wales) – I decided to do a real mountain… I was also lucky enough to get up to Scotland and hang with a few of my real mountain climbing friends in Glasgow one weekend in July. Alan (a previous Killi summiter – is that a word?) and also Louise (aka the mountain goat – she once dragged herself off a mountain with a broken ankle!) and her hubby Matthew who have between them climbed 100+ Munro’s.
So to kick the weekend off, they treated me to a haggis with neaps and tatties which actually was very nice. To help simulate altitude sickness, they suggested alcohol sickness, so you can guess how that night went… The next day staying well clear of any naked flames we went to climb Ben Dorain. Alan tells me that I went very quiet when I saw it’s 1075m profile.We started at 100m and went up this beast only stopping for tuna and sweet corn sandwiches at 700m and then all the way to the summit. It was a steep 3ish hours up, almost all in the rain, which at times was horizontal! When we got to the top we were in the thickest cloud you could imagine and we could not even see the high altitude sheep milling around amongst us. Check out the vid.
Coming down was even harder, given the rocks, mud, streams we had to negotiate. It is when I came down I started to have some problems with my left knee…
Kit:
I now have a final list of what I need to get in the last couple of weeks – such as handwarmers, lip balm etc, so I better get onto that soon.
Mind:
The descent from Ben Dorain was all about the pain in my knee and it was not easy. After only about 100m I started to feel an anvil like pain in my outer left knee. I found it rather tough hobbling down. I have since had it checked out as it is still troubling me. I went to see Sarah the Physio. She has the most amazing hands as she squeezed my knee – I was writhing in pain but also from finding some real comfort. The diagnosis is a case of Iliotibial band friction - ITB. I am doing some exercises to try and settle this, this is the most important issue for the Mind – I have to rest and get better and fast.
July Highlights:
So the weather men/women in the UK have come clean and told us that though they predicted a barbeque summer they were in fact mistaken even with the extra heat from global warming. July has been like a damp sponge failing to dry, we have even had to turn the heating back on in the house!
There was one highlight though, At a school charity event, I got the chance to dress and dance for 3 hours like Michael Jackson from the 70’s including the wig and sequined glove – and on 1st August, the actual day we had MJ tickets. Just this weekend, my wife Arjinder hijacked a wedding reception and got them to play Billie Jean as the final song which brought the house down from young to old – now how cool is that!
As Gandhi once said, ‘Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from indomitable will.’
Until August, work that mind - not that body.
