Topless and Dying.

In a pool of sweat , grasping at each stuttered breath trying to regain some dignity. And yet I stand up smile and say "Well that was pretty fun wasn't it" .

Having suffered some minor set backs in making it to Colorado, I decided to get my ass into gear and get serious about training for this winter. I'm going to be climbing the more technical sections of my final expedition route and trying to get a real idea of what I'm getting my self into. A few of my FD friends did Crossfit already , and I caught one of the days of the world open on Espn. But that gave me no indication of what was to come.

It's a glorious summers Friday , in the unassuming historical village of Clitheroe. The castle, standing watch over the upper-middle class shops that make up the small highstreet. A ways outside this flurry of orthopaedic shoe shops, wedding hat boutiques and pretentious card shops lies an old warehouse and boiler room, Crossfit Clitheroe. Industrial , obviously once derelict. This is no ordinary gym. No mirrors. No standard machines. Just bars , sandbags, kettle bells , and an array of Olympic lifting weights. This is what all gyms would look like. If Rocky had this there would only have been one film , with a quick montage and then him decimating the opponent.

Friday's workout , aptly named 'Start a hero , finish a hero' is in remembrance of a US soldier who died in action. Nicknamed 'Jared' , this Workout of the day (WOD) is 4 gruelling rounds of 800m run , 50 pull ups (scaled to 30)  and 70 press ups (scaled to 50) . I made the mistake of checking what the WOD was , and for the first time, was scared.

That feeling, unimportant as the time starts. And by the end of the first road run the vest comes off. This is going to be brutal. The even mix of men and women start on their sets of pull ups and press ups. Each of them not looking to the left or right focused in the small homemade puddle in front of them. By now most of the men have followed suit, setting off for the second run, bare chested , running almost tribally past a procession of unsuspecting rush hour traffic.

The next 3 rounds were testing , each set harder than the last. But unrelenting , I finish just short of the 45 minute cap with a time of 44.11

If you haven't tried Crossfit or don't know what it is. Go along. Just for one session. I'm telling you, you will never go back to a normal gym again.
This was just a quick update as its been a while, needless to say I'm very excited for this winter.

Now to crawl up the stairs for a shower.

Happy Adventuring and as ever , listen to this =].

The New Plan.

I'm a month out of moving to Colorado.

My touch typing is almost flowless. flawyless. flawless , from the masses of last assignments due.

And then that will be it. Life. Shit.


No no, I'm actually super excitied about getting out there, and starting this crazy new life of mine, which brings me to the goal for the next 3 years. Initially I was going to plan and train for the first solo traverse of the Continnental Divide Trail in winter. I was going to hike , climb and snowshoe along an interesting and commiting 1200 miles of the American Rocky Mountains. Now don't get me wrong, that would have been a seriously fun trip. Dangerous. But fun. It also dawned on me that this trip would have been something else:

Arrogant.

The primary reason for the trip was to push my self as close to the edge as I could go. What. No you idiot. The primary reason for the trip was to raise money and awareness for the organization that inadvertently changed my life and continues to change the lives of hundreds of young adults living with cancer. In my whirlwind of planning a route and equipment and drop points and training and was I going to be the first one. I completely flew past THE REASON. So lets start that again.
With the New Plan.

In 3 years time a group of my friends and I will embark on a truly epic adventure. The plan is to Ski, hike and climb 2000 miles of the Rocky Mountains from Fireside, Alberta to Twin Lakes, Colorado. The time frame is still the same with the hope being that I will arrive at the bottom of Mount Elbert around about 60 days after setting off. The main difference this about the New Plan is the company. I intend to split the trip up into 10 or so legs. On each of these stretches a different person will accompany me. Between each of the legs I will spend a night at a town resting up and resupplying, not at a hotel, but with a family in the settlement. This I feel will be the greatest part of my trip. Staying for just a night with people of the mountain villages and cities and swapping adventure stories and spreading the word about how awesome First Descents is. This will be preplanned. I'm not going to knock on doors until I'm let in. That would be much more dangerous than all the avalanches mother nature could conjure.

So thats it. Thats the New Plan. Which is where you come in. Yes. YOU. If your my friend, and you fancy an epic adventure, let me know. I'd love to have you along.

Stay posted here on my blog for my training diaries , equipment reviews and photos of some seriously epic places and people .

Much love and Happy Adventuring.

Smile and Listen . Listen and Smile . Either way =]

I'd like more time.

I noticed .


My posts can be split into two categories.


On one side we have the adventury (great word), fun posts with interesting pictures of where I've been. On the other side are the posts about things I've read, watched or discovered and wanted to share with the world. And then obviously the ones that mix it up in the middle.


I also noticed that I hadn't posted anything in 2012 ! So here it is . Enjoy. 

__________________________________

A film editor friend of mine shared this on the old FB. Just take a second to read it.

Woah that was quick ! Let everyone else catch up ( witty blog banter . Lame right ?) . 

  I have rewritten this bit about 6 times now. I launched into exploring each of the points , interesting considerations and my views but you don't need those. Instead I'm going to let you mull that over , while I talk about a brilliant article I read in last months CLIMB by Dave Mcleod. In the article he explored reasons why people become stagnant in there climbing improvement. Performance in sport can split into 4 areas as below. 

 However proficient you may be in these, they are all restricted by the participants lifestyle. Mcleod suggested that by quitting your job and taking a lesser paying job closer to climbing venues, you'll spend less time earning money to go climbing. And more time actually going climbing. Wow that was heavy. Number 5 on the list says take a break so here's a joke.The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. 

After all that rambling and a joke the tone turns morbid for a second. Life this past 2 years has really shown me how fragile it is. Yes people say all the time " Seize the Day" ,"Live each day as your last", etc. However simply saying it is not enough. You have to come to terms with the how definitive time is. You will never EVER in the whole of your life have another 2011. Ever. So whyy spend time doing stuff that in no way contributes to anything you want to do. " My parents told me to" , "It's what everyone's doing", "It's the best paying job". All pathetic excuses to do anything for any period of time. 

Do it because it's what you want to do. 

One of my best friends Paul Mc Intyre a medical student at Nottingham shared one of(in my opinion) the best life philosophies I have ever heard. With pictures . There is a lot of writing so far. Apologies. 

         Life rule .1                                                                    Life rule .2

    Do what you want                                                          Don't be an arsehole

                                 

                     

These kinda work like the robot laws from I.robot. Don't do Rule .1 if it breaks Rule .2 

I know the topic of LIFE isn't exactly light. But it is there to be lived. Oh and New Years Resolutions - Good luck with them and share them (number 3 on the list) !

Hope your 2012 is as epic as I hope mine will be. Get after it , Happy Adventuring. 

Ps. Wrap this song around your head. Loud.