The Exercise Plan 1

It's been an exciting time recently. After much research and discussion we booked the flights and the trip. No backing out now! Suddenly the enormity of what we are attempting hit home and we realised that perhaps we should start taking things a bit more seriously. Most of my focus had been on clothing and I had happily spent a small fortune on a waterproof, windproof, goretex ,bullet proof coat (ok so maybe not bulletproof) plus a pair of trousers with zip off legs (which caused me much excitement) walking poles (now leaning against a wall in my bedroom with the tags still attached), a money belt and a travel towel which folds up into a little bag the size of a pack of cards (my favourite item, I'm easily pleased!).

I have two of these. They go longer and shorter and have an anti-shock system. Now all I have to do is work out how to use them!

So in a more serious frame of mined we discussed fitness and Dele found several 8 week exercise plans online. All of these seemed to involve about 4 hours a day which we simply do not have time for. We barely fit in the essentials of life after long working hours, general chores and the neverending housework. The housework element does apply to Dele more than me, she seems to have an obsession with sock fluff on the carpet and as long as I have known her irons virtually everything in sight. I on the other hand buy clothes that need little more than a trip in the washing machine and a quick hang on a dryer, and being the owner of a permanently moulting cat, sock fluff is the least of my worries. Anyway I digress, right from the start we were determined that we did not want to fail to reach the summit because of a lack of fitness. Also we would quite like to enjoy the trek rather than spending most of it in a sweaty wheezing heap. With an 8 week plan an impossibility we decided that a longer, focused effort was more suitable. After spending a few weeks playing with the incline and speed settings on a treadmill and doing battle with a cross trainer we realised we really didn't have a clue! Enter Carly, our Circuits instructor. She kindly agreed to work out a gym programme for us and talk us through it.

So we dutifully turned up to our appointment, water bottles and towels in hand and enthusiasm high. It was amazing! She had a full programme designed specifically for our needs and time limits and took us through every stage together. Having been our instructor for quite some time she was well used to our general silliness and ability to get the giggles over pretty much anything  so employed a patient teaching manner that would probably work brilliantly in a primary school classroom! We sailed through the treadmill activity (suprisingly our own efforts hadn't been that wrong) then met the AMT, a machine that was to become our nemesis, not that we knew it at the time.

Doesn't look too scary does it?

After a brief foray into the mysterious world of weights we completed our ab crunches, lunges and pull ups and headed home in a confident, excited mood ready to share (bore) friends and relatives with our shiny new workout plans. Little did we know how much our mood would change during our first full session where we entered our own personal hells!