Latest News
18.12.09
Monotonous, mundane, brain dead state
How on earth do you go about training for an Antarctic expedition? Would it surprise you to hear that a key component to any such preparation is to strap a car tyre to your waist with a bit of rope and drag it up hills? If it does, then you've really got to listen to Helen (UK)'s PodCast today. We've also got some comments from Polar Nutritionist Justin Roberts who advised the team during their training.
Helen (UK)'s PodCast:
Link to Podcast
Helen's PodCast in writing:
"Hello this is Helen calling from the UK with the update from Antarctica today.
We've had a pretty cold day today actually. Very difficult to train forexperiencing cold weather where your face mask actually freezes to your face and you've got such a tiny hole left from where you've been breathing and the whole mask is full of ice to actually be force in the food. It made me think about the training that we've done in preparation for the this trip in general.
It's really such an endurance event and day after day to head out and go skiing for between 8 to 10 hours. It's very difficult to train for. Some people train by going on long walks in the mountains and the hills where they live in the different countries around the Commonwealth. Other people have been training by pulling tyres behind them which is a well known sort of Polar trick for strengthening and training the muscles in your lower back.
It's been a combination of building the muscle strength with regular trips to the gym and most people have included a combination of this within their training programs so they've either had to have a personal trainer or somebody has been able to give them some advice about the best possible way of preparing for this sort of trip.
We were really fortunate when we did our initial training in Norway that we had a gentleman called Justin Roberts who came out and talked to us about the type of training we should be doing and also thinking about the balance and nutrition. I know that people have talked on this website about food already and it's keeping a balance of that so that you're taking in the right energy levels at the right time and appropriate food in relation to the training.
Personally I find that tyre pulling works really well for me. It also gets you into that sort of monotonous, mundane, brain dead state. I pulled tyres for between 3 to 5 hours, perhaps a couple of times a week. Actually on this occasion training for the trip this time, I've found that just by doing the big backpacking trip, immediately before coming away, I didn't really have time for tyre pulling but that in itself was also really good training for the lower back muscles.
In spite of all the training, we're still starting sort of feel now that our muscles are gradually disappearing so we might just start off with thunder thighs, some of us but the thigh muscles in particular are now sort of disappearing fast as are our big bicep muscle. The more we seem to experience the cold, the even more we have to put much more effort into actually just pulling our pulk forward and obviously doing that same exercise..."
Justin Roberts (Nutritionist) comments:
Felicity and the team: Firstly hello from a cold and wet UK, but I guess it's colder there. Well done for getting this far, but the job is only half done, its not over until you finish! So take on board all the advice you have been given from all the people who want to see you succeed. With nutrition, remember its about consistency as well as practicality. Even if you don’t feel massively hungry on any particular day, remember what you do today affects tomorrow. Remember to recover from the end of one day to the beginning of the next, this means carbohydrate, protein and fluid intake. Keep me posted.
LOL
J
Photo by Robert Hollingworth