Training for the Top

Just this past weekend, I passed the 700 mile mark on my training, meaning that I've logged over 700 miles on my feet since I started officially training last July.  It is hard for me to believe that I've walked/hiked/run a combined total of over 700 miles!  Even the author of the notable Kilimanjaro field guide, Henry Stedman, was impressed with my mileage, but in his words, "...it will still be bloody hard..." to climb Kilimanjaro!  (Henry is British, so I love reading that line from his email to me with an Austin Powers accent.) 


I officially started to train for this trek almost one year ago, on July 12, 2013.  That date marked one year from our anticipated summit date, so it seemed like a good day to kick off the training.  I started a Facebook group page for Sara, Liz, and myself with the idea that we would record our workouts there and encourage each other to persevere when the intrinsic motivation waned.  The question at first was, "Exactly what do we do?"


When I trained for my marathon, I followed Jeff Galloway's program called Marathon: You Can Do It.  This program called for 2 - 3 short runs each week with one long run of increasing mileage over a six-month period.  It made sense to me that we could do something similar to this, but use hikes and walks instead of runs.  That is how it started, then.  We set a goal of two "shorts" and one "long" each week. We tried to increase our long hikes by about 10-15 minutes each week.  Eventually I decided it was also important to add in more focused strength training, both for the trek and also because I am an over-40 woman; everything I read says training with weights is critical to maintaining health, fitness, and even bone strength at my age.  I joined a gym close to my home, and added that into the program. 


Side note:  for the first six months or so of this training, I was dealing with pretty severe anemia.  As you may know, anemia means that iron levels in the blood are very low, and that translates to less oxygen in the blood and a much more difficult time with endurance training.  Thanks to a great hematologist, though, and two very effective IV iron infusions, my levels came back up by about January, and I had energy like I haven't had in a very long time!  This added energy gave me the motivation to start my running again, so I started back at square one with a "couch-to-5K" program.  At this point my weekly mileage went significantly higher with hikes, walks, AND runs. 


I live in a neighborhood with more than 25 miles of beautiful wooded mountain trails right outside of my back door, so hiking has been a significant part of my training.  The winter in the woods was sublime!  First and foremost, I was able to traipse around the trails with no fear of stepping on a timber rattler or copperhead snake, which is a real concern in the warmer months here.  Second, I was able to test out all of my cold weather gear (which will be the subject of my next post) to make sure that I am well-outfitted for the trip.  Third, I put in hours upon hours and miles upon miles of climbing on varying inclines with lots of different terrain.  My longest hike was over five hours (11 miles in the woods) and there were a great many hikes just an hour or so shorter than that. 


I've read lots of different sites and blogs that say any 'reasonably fit' person is capable of reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro as long as they don't fall victim to altitude sickness.  There is no way to predict who will have problems with that, either.  You hear about the fittest athlete (like Martina Navratilova) turning back before the summit, and then the slightly-overweight smoker dude who doesn't have a problem.  All I know is that I am leaving nothing that is within my control to chance; if the altitude gets me, then it does, but I've done my part.  As I move into the last 35 days of my training (yep, I've been running a countdown), I'm planning to take it up another notch and get in twice-a-day sessions when I possibly can.   So, if you live nearby and see me schlepping along with my loaded backpack and hiking boots, feel free to join me for a few miles!

How it all began...

I'm not even sure when, actually... but it was definitely more than a year, or even two years ago.  I'm guessing that I first had the seed planted about climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro sometime in 2008.  That year, Anne Curry, as part of some Today Show "environmental awareness" thing, attempted the climb.  I watched some of the footage, and I remember the drama surrounding her 'not making it to the top.'  It must've given me the thought, somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind, that if she could undertake that, why couldn't I?    Sometime after 2008, Jessica Biel also made the big Kilimanjaro climb along with some other celebrities.  Once again, the idea pinged that these celebs are really just mere mortals, so if they can... you get the idea.  It might have been around 2010 that I mentioned the idea to my sister, who herself enjoys travel and challenges, and she jumped on board with me right away.  We started talking dates, and although years in the future, it was settled that late 2013 or early 2014 might be do-able.   Time passed, and we kept working on making this a reality.  It got to be 2012 when we decided that a summer trip (since I teach school) would be best and that a full-moon summit would be ideal.  About this time, my BFF for the last 30 (gasp) years, Liz, decided that she wanted to be part of this big event, and now we were a group of three looking to make it official. 


I should probably interject, here, that early-on in this process I would not have been in any kind of physically fit enough shape to do this. Somewhere in 2007 or 2008 I started running for the first time in my life with the idea of trying to complete a 5K race.  I did it, and felt like I could do more, so I did my first 10K.  Next came my first triathlon (which was also celeb inspired: if J-Lo could do it, so could I!), followed by a half-marathon, and in April of 2011 my first (only, and probably last) marathon.  What I learned about myself in the marathon and triathlon training processes is that I really want/need a big goal to be pointing towards in order to stay motivated to stay fit.  Just 'looking good in jeans' isn't motivation enough for me.  After the marathon, I was stuck for a while, so the Kilimanjaro idea bubbled up to the surface and became "the next big thing."  This is when we started to really search for a tour outfitter and make it official. 


Sara, my sister, did a lot of the leg-work and helped narrow down our possible tour operators.  We booked with "Climb Mount Kilimanjaro"  (www.climbmountkilimanjaro.com) , with one main reason that Henry Stedman, the main guy at this place, literally wrote the best-selling guidebook about Kilimanjaro.  That gives us a lot of confidence that we are dealing with someone who knows what's up! (19,340 feet up, to be precise).  If you like their page on Facebook, (search for Climb Mount Kilimanjaro), I believe you will be able to see updates about our progress on this trip.  There is also a web site called Team Kilimanjaro  (www.teamkilimanjaro.com) that may have that info, but I haven't confirmed that 100 percent yet.  Anyhoo... with confidence that we had picked a good company, we committed to the trip with a deposit of funds, and that made it official:  Sara, Liz and I will be trekking up Mt. Kilimanjaro from July 6 - 13, 2014.  


Stay tuned for more blog posts about my preparations, packing list, etc.  Read as little or as much as you'd like! :-)