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 =].