From Sunday Morning, 8:36 am on 2 September 2012 Listen duration19′ :08″ Add to playlist Download Listen For adventurer Steve Gurney, life is about taking risks and he fears that New Zealand society has become over-regulated, risk-averse, and wrapped in cotton wool. His challenge is to let children make mistakes, climb trees and play bullrush - to help them learn how to find their limits in later life. Eating Dirt, by Steve Gurney, is published by Random House.

https://issuu.com/epicmentors/docs/august_2012?backgroundColor=%2523222222 The Legendary Steve Gurney

17:42, Sep 20 2011 Kiwi multisport legend Steve Gurney says he is off to buy ''10 Lotto tickets'' after he survived his car colliding with a Tranz Scenic passenger train this morning. The crash happened about 7.27am on Marsh Rd, Rangiora. Gurney, who was the sole occupant of the car, was taken to Christchurch Hospital by ambulance, but was discharged soon after. Bryan and Kelly Strnad were travelling from Christchurch with their young daughter Tessa to stay at a friend's house in the Marlborough Sounds. When they felt the impact, Mrs Strnad, who was born in Christchurch but now lives in the US with her American husband, said there was "a little bump''. Mr Strnad said he thought the driver had simply touched the brakes. The train then braked heavily and stopped. Other passengers saw the car spinning and bits of debris, they said. Mr Strnad, who is from Colorado, said he didn't know who Steve Gurney was, but wondered why he hadn't seen the train coming. The nine-time Coast to Coast winner said he suffered a few "aches and pain and bruises everywhere". "I'm lucky I walked away. I'm going to go buy 10 Lotto tickets." Gurney said he had been planning to go skiing, and was surprised by how far his gear had been thrown from the car after the crash. "I can't believe how big a radius all my gear was strewn ... about 80 metres." The Tranz Scenic Coastal Pacific train had departed Christchurch for Kaikoura and Picton at 7am. KiwiRail spokeswoman Sophie Lee said none of the 32 passengers onboard the train were injured. The crash damaged the train's "cow catcher" - the device attached to the front of a train used to clear track obstacles. The passengers would travel between Picton and Christchurch by bus today, while the cow catcher was repaired. The train was expected to be back in service tomorrow. An incident report would be filed to ensure all necessary safety and emergency procedures were undertaken, she said. "KiwiRail undertakes incident reports for every level crossing incident."

Yes, yes! It was me. I took on a train and survived. It’s not often that a car occupant just “walks away” from a collision with a train travelling at full speed. Well, I actually ran away. In the movies, the car always explodes into a huge ball of fire and deadly metal shards. So I bolted and cowered in the ditch. Nothing happened. The train had disappeared around the corner, my ski gear and bits of car were spewed all over the road in a 100m radius. What was left of the Subaru was quietly idling away, like it was waiting for me to jump back in and continue on to the ski-field, a mere graze to its integrity. Amazingly the door opened perfectly and I reached past the airbags and bent bits to turn the engine off. I’m forever indebted to Subaru for building such strong and safe cars. My Outback was only 4 weeks old and had to be totally written off. A shame, but I owe my life to the Subaru Outback with the latest in safety design, strong passenger cage and the fact that all of the airbags went off, even the little knee protectors! I got a wee scratch on my hand, some whip-lash in my neck and some gnarly bruising, but was back on my bike within a couple of days. The police charged me with careless driving. I pleaded guilty because I know I made an error in not stopping where I could see the train (it was a rural crossing with no lights, barriers or bells). Many people have since shared similar experiences of not noticing a train, and I’m shocked that I, “Mr Adventure”, a supposed expert at managing risk, was not aware of the train until it was too late. This prompted me to research how it is possible for so many people to hit, or to be hit by trains by accident. I’ve found some great results to share with the police, KiwiRail and Transit NZ, to hopefully save others from this experience. I’ll also include this research in my new book, “Eating Dirt”, on the shelves August 2012.

You'll have heard the news about the devastation and deaths. My family is OK. So far my friends are OK.. the ones I've heard from that is! That's the scary thing, we know there are casualties and many many injuries, but how many of those are friends I just haven't heard from yet! Where I live in Sumner was pretty badly hit this time. My house has severe structural damage, big cracks through most walls, the cliff has slumped so that it's sliding away just 50 cm from my lounge, I can put a hand right through the wall there, (that's 120 mm solid concrete), 50% of my windows are smashed right out, no doors shut anymore, there is nothing left on any shelves. Everything I own is mixed on the floor with broken glass, spilled contents. It's a disaster. I expect my house is unrepairable. Fortunately I was outside going to the letterbox at the time it struck. Unfortunately, I was halfway up my cliff track as things started to tumble off the cliff; fortunately, I'm quick on my feet; unfortunately I had slippers on; fortunately my slippers didn't slip and I made it back into the middle of the street, safe! Sumner comprises lots of cliffs, and these have all fallen. Huge piles of rubble at the foot of cliffs, many houses have been buried or smashed by falling rocks. Lyttelton and Sumner have many houses perched on steep hill, so many of these have slipped. It's hard to imagine people escaping uninjured. I suspect there will be casualties we've not discovered yet, of people living on their own being buried. Power and water is off and in some areas will likely be days before power is resumed, with a very real attendant risk of fire with shorting. Water and sewage will likely be weeks in my area, as most lines are broken. I'm at a friend's place where there is power and phone (no water or sewer, so that is a whole different dynamic!) I'm planning to stay at my place later this week, camping in the garden. I have gas for cooking, I'll dig a hole for the toilet, and bathe at the beach. I have 60 litres of water in my external toilet cistern that will be fine for drinking. Aftershock waves are continuing every few minutes, short but sharp. At first it's very unsettling, but to me it's a good sign if we're getting frequent after shocks, as this indicates to me the fault line is still releasing pressure and not building up energy. We're all upset, some tears at the fear and the losses of lives, personal belongings and uncertainty. I'm also wondering how I'll get business running... my next few bookings for conference speaking and workshops have been cancelled. It'll be a challenging year, so if you have any need for a speaker or for some workplace skills training, I'm at your service! However, the camaraderie here is great. People are rallying around supporting each other. It's useful to re-frame on this and look at the bigger perspective. Rather than say it's good or bad, I believe it will simply be different now. All sorts of new opportunities. Focus on what is good. "Energy flows where attention goes" Smiles to you all.

I was stark naked, clinging tightly, (tangled actually), to the neighbour’s thorny rose bush, on a steep bank above a cliff. The lurching earth attempting to buck me off the precipice into the street below. At times of crisis, humour is often the best medicine, but at first I didn’t see the funny side. I’ve made it my job to expose myself to scary, sometimes death-defying stuff. I’m used to fear. But NOTHING comes close to the fear I felt at 4:35 am when the earthquake rocked my world! Fear from a sudden life-threatening danger like an earthquake is much more intense than the fear from a pre-planned, calculated and managed situation. I’ve always been worried that my house would collapse in an earthquake. Ironically, 4 weeks previously I'd started researching whether to demolish my house or reinforce for earthquakes. My flat roof, art-deco style house is really old, cracked concrete. The roof/ceiling is concrete, big, fat, heavy, 120mm thick concrete. Every single wall, is poured concrete. It was built during the war, and they temporarily ran out of concrete half way through, which explains why almost every wall had cracks running through it. Renovating it, I knocked out an interior wall to replace it with a strongly engineered beam. To my horror, the old wall, had only 3 measly, skinny reinforcing bars that didn’t even run the full height of the wall. So you can see how I vividly imagined 9.8 tonnes of concrete crushing me to death in bed when the earthquake struck the other night! Months ago I’d already decided that doorways, or kitchen tables would NEVER save me in this house. They’d be minced to match-sticks, and I’d be minced to…. Mincemeat! The best place for me in an earthquake was outside. Shaken suddenly from deep sleep at 4:35 am, I bolted out of bed as fast as lightening. My bedroom is upstairs and the quickest way out is via the window, onto the roof and then,… off the roof,… somehow. The rumbling and resonating roar of the quake was deafening. Intensely grumbling, it penetrated every cell. In a single leap I was at the window, yanking on the cord to roll up the blind,… well I thought it went up, but I pulled the wrong cord and it rolled down into a heap at my feet, totally blocking the window. I yanked the other cord to pull it up in an adrenalin fuelled display of speed and strength that Superman would be proud of…. which broke the cord, leaving the blind still blocking the window. By now the house was swaying crazily like a,.. a,.. a,.. a….. huge swaying crazy thing, and I was convinced at any second the whole house was gonna tumble off the cliff. Oh yes, I forgot to tell you, my house is perched precariously on the edge of the cliff of Cliff Street. How could it possibly stay on the cliff? I was in a blind panic by now! I’d be trapped, squashed inside as it smashed it’s way down the cliff! Ripping the blind aside I booted open the window. Now I was on the roof, a heavy old concrete roof, which was surely gonna collapse. The quickest way to get clear of this soon-to-be death trap was straight off the edge. With a sprint like Road Runner, followed by an adrenalin fueled leap like Spiderman, I found myself precariously clinging to a web of shrubbery on a bank. In the wintry coldness and relative safety I woke to the stark facts… I was naked The shrubbery was actually a wild, thorny rose bush that I had a death-grip on. I was in the neighbour’s thorny rose bush. The bank was steep, and was above a cliff . The ground was lurching and leaping like a mighty bucking bronco and would surely toss me, the thorn bush and the house off this precarious precipice to certain death on the road below! After a terrifying 2 hours, (well it was actually merely minutes), my bucking ride halted. Still I was too terrified and reluctant to leave my prickly perch. Gradually, the quake’s deafening roar that had previously rattled my bones, was replaced by a trenchant chill penetrating my nakedness. I began to notice that thorns piercing me and in places I’d prefer they didn’t! I felt suddenly very exposed, stupid even! I realized my mother‘s stupid warnings about wearing pyjamas and clean underpants weren’t so stupid after all! I had to make a break for safety before the next shake… and before anyone found me like this! In the chilly darkness I could just make out the gap I’d need to leap back across. I couldn’t believe I could ever have leapt that far! The human fight or flight response must provide for fantastic feats of physicality! Reluctantly I realized instead, I would need to extricate myself from the thorny tentacles and tip-toe down past the neighbours and back up to my clothes inside my death-trap-house! Heart thumping with adrenaline doubled at risk of being discovered wandering the neighbourhood in the buff, or being crushed by the next aftershock, I nervously picked my way back up to my house. Being nude, it felt guiltily like the walk of shame! In trepidation I inspected the house for damage and then snuck in to get clothes and my 2C solar light hat. Miraculously I had no damage to the house. Not a single crack anywhere. All of my previous repairs to the walls were still intact and invisible. Just a couple of pictures fallen off the mantelpiece. I contemplated sleeping outside, perhaps put up my tent. But I was shivering uncontrollably so decided to risk my bed with 3 duvets and fully clothed this time. I left the lights on and the windows and doors open for a quick escape, and phoned the neighbours to check they were OK, (after all, they had many reasons for trauma, quakes, and streakers amongst them!) Laying wide awake shivering from the fear and the cold, my analytical engineering mind concludes that my thick concrete house is in fact as solid and sound as a bomb-shelter, after all, it was built in the war for anything that can be thrown at it! I reckon my story is hilarious in hindsight, and this is a useful skill to be able to see the funny side (re-framing) and it’s the perfect tonic for these tense times. It’s fascinating to see the different phases of society in crisis Phase 1: Saturday. We’re hit! Initial fear and nerves, spur adrenalin. We generally react well. Once the initial crisis is managed, we tend to turn our attention to check others, less concern for ourselves. The real gravity didn’t sink in for me yet. I seemed to be OK, so no excuse to slow down, continue with plans to give a kayak lesson and complete various projects in the office. Phase 2: Sunday. Realization hits home. Didn’t sleep well, due to aftershocks and fear. Gradually the reality sunk in. This is going to affect life for some time! Muck in and help. Still oblivious to the full implications, I went for my 3 hour bike ride, but I diverted through the city and the worst affected suburbs to rubber neck. Struck with the severity and consequences for some of the worst affected folks, I rushed to help a mate clean up the mess. I’m now fully aware! Phase 3: Sunday and Monday. Community connectedness. There’s a real sense of camaraderie. The adrenalin has leveled off, dramatic stories have circulated on the grapevine, and people are beginning to comprehend the fact that all humans are vulnerable no matter who they are. Mother nature takes no note of status. We’re all super grateful to be alive. There is a warm smile on peoples faces, people truly care and there is a palpable willingness to reach out to help. We can trust everyone. I don’t bother locking the car, the house, or my bike. Everyone is “present” and in the moment. Phase 4: Tuesday and Wednesday. Tiredness and overwhelm sets in. 4 days later and we’re still getting big aftershocks, 5.1 Richter this morning. The constant uncertainty is subtle but potent. We’re all weary and brains are like cotton-wool. It’s the unknown, we’re all on tenterhooks, wondering if we’ve had the big one yet. Is the next aftershock gonna lay us flat? It’s in our DNA to be on full alert at times of danger, peripheral vision awareness and acuity, constantly scanning for threats. There’s no rest or relaxation for our brains so we end up tired and easily overwhelmed. We see some folks, especially those living alone tearful and finding it hard to cope. What can we learn? We were very lucky to escape with zero fatalities. Lesser earthquakes have killed hundreds of thousands. Apart from the time of night the quake struck, part of the reason we came off without casualties is that our infrastructure and building code in NZ is good. I have often felt frustration at pedantic council building codes and inspections, but I must eat my words on this now and be thankful for their planning. It is useful to have a “what-if” escape plan for emergencies. I’m not advocating the cotton-wool, liability avoidance litigation litany that I see evolving around us. Rather I encourage the Darwinism thought process of clever, skills based response where we use our own intelligence to practice a level headed approach that is applicable in any crisis situation. Practicing a thought process of sorting our own priorities, fitness and skills that would enhance survival. Don’t rely on, or blame others. There is great satisfaction in taking personal responsibility. There is much analysis and conjecture about the “big one”. Was this it, or will this trigger the next one. Where will the next one be? I’ve found it’s not useful to worry about stuff we can’t control. Just work on being resourceful, intelligent humans. If another one hits, just run outside nude! My thoughts to those still stuck without power, water or sewage. Research shows that it’s very therapeutic to share stories with others in crisis. Some children are particularly traumatised. From my studies, I believe a successful and practical solution for kids is to get them to tell their story, and get them to discuss the learning from it, to write about it or draw a summary of it. Research shows healthy representations in our minds of crisis are smallish pictures, distant and plain or pastel colours. So if they're drawing a picture of it, I'd suggest giving them only a small or normal A4 size page, and not a giant poster. Pinning their picture of the earthquake on a distant wall may be useful. Pictures and summarised stories like this should enable them to distance themselves and dissociate from the trauma of the experience and be able to see it from a distance for the learnings. NLP has a wonderful, short, 20 minute process to clear trauma. If you want more information about this, contact me. “An earthquake achieves what the law promises but does not in practice maintain – the equality of all men” - Ignazio Silon

https://explorersweb.com/trek/news.php?id=18693 Posted: Sep 08, 2009 03:29 pm EDT (ThePoles.com) Geoff Wilson, Garth Freeman, Steve Gurney and Craig Hansen finished their kite-buggy expedition across the Sahara from Morocco to Senegal. During the last days the seasons changed and the team was hammered with heavy rain, which caused them to stop short of their target, Dakar. Landmines The UN warned the team about the likelihood of landmines in Western Sahara and advised them to stay on the beach or on the roads. At night they made camp just to the side of the road on tyre tracks that ensured they did not sleep on mines. Western Sahara is full of mines and they reported that 11 people have had mine related injuries this year so far. Out of Buggy Experiences They guys had many, what they called OBEs (not spiritual OBEs, but Out of Buggy Experiences). Steve Gurney experienced the worst one. He had a major fall when he was air lifted at least 10 feet and slammed into a lava rock. The side of his body and head taking the impact. Despite wearing a helmet his sunglasses where embedded into his left eyebrow and one of his teammates had to cut them away. Steve was taken to a nearby Western Sahara hospital where he stayed overnight. He explained his injuries, I had some concussion, there was still blood trickling down my throat and my right ear-drum had burst. Id torn ligaments around my scapula (shoulder). I was mightily impressed that this Western Sahara hospital was empty! It was pretty run-down, but the staff were fantastic, cordial and welcoming. Steve was temporary not kiting. Body armour Steve said he was lucky to have survived that crash and his life was definitely saved by his full face helmet and Thor body armour. It dawned on me just how naïve I had been with assessing the danger of buggying. It only takes a nano-second lapse in concentration to let a kite drift from safety into the power zone and imminent danger. Craig and I chose Thor Impact Rig SE for Body Armour. Its been most excellent, has certainly saved me damage to joints, in my back, shoulders, and elbows. Mauritanian Sahara When the team entered Mauritania they reported that there would be no water for 455 km, sand dunes for 300 km and only poles in the sand to guide them. With wind its feasible, with no wind impossible, they added. In Mauritania they crossed the railway line to Choum, which marks the end of the landmines they said and some relief for the entire expedition. Later on though they experienced landmine areas again. They entered the Banc De Arguin region. This is world heritage listed desert and is pristine and well cared for unlike so much of the Sahara that is used as a tipping ground for plastic, they reported, and experienced it as a buggying heaven. Into Senegal When the team entered Senegal the weather turned against them and the seasonal rain started. They reported, We were in the middle of a desert saltpan when we were hit by a major thunder and rain storm, bogged in mud, threatened with hypothermia and then dehydration. The seasons had changed, the southerlies had begun, and so had the rains. Then the wind died and rain hammered them for the next 4 days. We covered less than 100 km in these days and on the 30th of August called it a day as we had run out of time - roughly 2160 km (without independent verification of GPS track). According to the team this is the first time the Sahara [Ed note: from Morocco to Senegal] has been crossed by wind power and also the longest kite buggy journey. Co-ordinates Start: 28° 59.26N, 10° 33.56W End: 15° 39.60N, 16° 35.71W Distance and records to be verified independently by Titley Electronic by analysis of their tracking chips x 4, stated Geoff Wilson. On 4 August 2009 the Mad Way South Sahara Desert Kite Buggy Expedition with two Australians, Geoff Wilson and Garth Freeman, and two New Zealanders, Steve Gurney and Craig Hansen, started a kite buggying journey from Morocco across Western Sahara to Senegal. The expedition finished on 30 August, 150 km short of their target Dakar in Senegal. According to the team they travelled approximately 2160 km in 26 days. They were assisted by a support team in four-wheel vehicles and kite-supported. Partial biographies courtesy of the expedition website: Geoff Wilson - Team Leader, Buggy Pilot One of the four buggy pilots, an African born Aussie, veterinarian/adventurer obsessed with all things wind driven. Geoff undertook a 25,000km sea voyage over 367 days and traversed the Egyptian Sahara by bicycle. Craig Hansen - Design/equipment. Buggy pilot Craig is a recycled Zimbabwean now Kiwi. He is also the co-owner of Peter Lynn Kites based in New Zealand. Craig and Peter Lynn have developed the Big Foot buggy and its Saharan adaptations for the Mad Way South. He has been flying kites since he was 10 years of age. Steve Gurney - Motivator/team driver. Buggy pilot Kiwi born and bred, has a mechanical engineering degree, is a published author, a NLP Master Practitioner and ex-professional Adventure Racing athlete. Garth Freeman - Navigation/Router. Buggy pilot Aussie born and bred Garth is the youngest member of the team. Garth is a professional kite instructor and flew his first kite at the age of 12. Support crew: Guy Lankester - Guide, Security and Advisor Chair - local Mauritanian guide Eric Pearson - Leader Support Crew Alan Wilson - Communications/Book keeping Nigel Milnes - Quarter Master/Camp Cook/Logisitics Lance Martin - Driver 2nd Vehicle/Sand Board Crash Test Dummy Derek Wilson - Water Procurement/Morale Officer Lincoln Williams - Producer/Cameraman l Matt Hooker - Cameraman ll/Stills Photographer Hugo Fitzsimmons Cameraman lll #Trek #feature

By MARC GREENHILL11:39, May 05 2009 A fear of pirates is an unlikely obstacle for former multisport champion Steve Gurney when he attempts to traverse Africa's Sahara Desert by kite buggy. The nine-times Coast to Coast winner will team up with Ashburton kite expert Craig Hansen in August to race Australians Geoff Wilson and Garth Freeman 2500 kilometres from Morocco and Senegal. With no desert experience, Gurney rated the Saharan expedition his most "scary" adventure. The two teams will chase the world-record distance for kite buggy travel, which stands at 1000km. They also plan to raise funds for a charity that rescues girls forced into prostitution in Asia. "From the top to the bottom of the Sahara, no-one's ever done this before and there's probably a reason for that," Gurney said. The New Zealand-made three-wheel buggies feature large balloon-tyres and are propelled by kites. Gurney was looking forward to the "survival of the fittest" challenge. "We don't know what's in the desert; we don't know if we're going to make it and there's a lot we're going to have to be MacGyver-ish about it. "We actually don't know all the answers, and that's the definition of adventure." The possibility of ambush by land pirates was Gurney's worst fear. "We've got four of these colourful kites up in the sky, probably 30m up, so it's like `here we are, come and get us' for all the pirates. The risk had been researched and a Saharan guide would accompany the party, he said. They will have to lug the buggies, and 80 kilograms of gear, up sand dunes as high as 180m and in temperatures peaking at 50 degrees Celsius. "Unfortunately, it's also in the rainy season if there is such a thing in the desert." The deadline of four weeks was "touch and go", Gurney said. "The 2500km is measured in a straight line, but we'll be zig-zagging around. We've probably got more like 5000km to cover." A film crew will cover the journey for a documentary.

Steve Gurney has just recently had some major ankle reconstruction surgery to rectify injuries from sprains. Steve is effectively going back to zero running fitness. With typical Gurney positivity, he has turned this obstacle into an opportunity, instead of a negative. He has recognised this as an opportunity to help kiwis that need a wee helping hand to get into some jogging and running. Steve is concerned about the plight of kiwi society, the decline into obesity, dependence on technology and the less than optimal nutrition we see prevailing. This is a step he wants to take in helping people make healthier choices. It will take Steve 3 to 6 months to ease gradually back into running training and 10 months before Steve can consider running competitively. Steve recognises this is about the ideal length of time needed for an unfit person to build fitness enough to be able to achieve a goal like comfortably finishing a 10 km fun run or half marathon!! Exciting and achievable!! So he wants to publish a weekly column, where step by easy step, he encourages people to join him in his quest to get back into running. (This is a bit like holding someone’s hand as they take on this challenge). Over all summary: Week 1. Start with an easy pace walk to the street corner or around the block for 6 days of week one Week 2. Progress to walking easy pace for 30 minutes 6 days of week 2. Week 3. Fast alternate lampposts for 2 days, walk 30 minutes easy/steady for 30 minutes for 3 days. Week 7 might be walk/jog alternate lampposts 2 days for 20 minutes total, walk 40 minutes 2 days, and 1 long walk 90 minutes in the weekend. So each week is a very slight increase with variety. It would be described in a funky style schedule/table included in the column. I suggest you print it off and stick it on the mirror, cereal box, toilet door or TV screen for the week. Week one. The official start! Here we go! How did you go last week? (Recall, it was to set goals, and get out the door for 10 minutes walk at least 3 times.) Congratulations on getting out the door!! I’ll admit that I ran out of time this week to fit my walking in as I had planned. So I had to get innovative. I managed to combine some work with walking! I took my cell phone with hands-free ear plug and a list of phone numbers, and walked my talk! Other possibilities to fit training in on a busy week are: Use lunchtimes, get up a bit earlier, instead of sitting down for a meeting, suggest that you walk and talk instead. Exercise often clears your head for better thinking too. Some of my best ideas have come during training! I also had to re-evaluate my goal. The Abel Tasman event might be a bit ambitious, so I have reset my goal to being able to jog for an hour, pain free by the end of September. I’ll look for a shorter fun-run event around that time too. WEEK 1: Here is my schedule for this week: (I’d be delighted if you would join me! Cut this out and stick it on the fridge, mirror or T.V. screen.) Mon: Walk 15 minutes at easy pace. Tues: Walk 15 minutes at easy pace, but go a different course that yesterday. Wed: Walk 10 minutes, easy pace. Thurs: Walk for 15 minutes (5 minutes easy warm up, 5 minutes a little harder, breathing increased, but can still hold a conversation (or sing your favourite song), 5 minutes warm down) Fri: Day off (but, you can walk if you really want to!) Sat: Walk 20 minutes. Easy pace. Invite a friend, or explore a track in your neighbourhood. Sun: Walk 10 minutes. Easy pace. There are always challenges thrown in that could be excuses to not get out the door. Above I’ve suggested some inventive ways to make exercise fit your daily routine easier. Here are some other points that should strengthen your resolve: The first 6 weeks are typically the hardest, most challenging to get fit. In those first few weeks there is often a little discomfort, the new demands on your body and your lungs. Instead of focussing on pain, focus on how marvellous your body is as it adapts to your training, making itself stronger! It’s hard to imagine a healthy addiction, but here it is! Once you get over this initial adaptation, you will start to feel the endorphins, the natural high of exercise, and some will even feel an addiction to it! Getting into a routine, a habit of making the time and the habit of incorporating it into your weekly schedule is essential. Even if you don’t have the time to do the entire session, doing just some of it is MUCH better than dong none. Allow yourself to get excited about your goal. Go on! Feel your heat beat increase, the smile on your face, the buzz inside, as you imagine the enjoyable journey to your goal. Enjoy your week! Steve Welcome to week 3. Training concepts. This week we’re increasing the pace and effort of our walking on some days. How did your training go this week? I’ve had some great feedback again,.. one woman getting so motivated that she walked several hours a week with her husband, losing 3 kg in the process, (since the start of my get fit program 2 weeks prior). Her arthritis is a little painful, but seems to be reducing as her weight reduces. How’s that for inspirational? My walking pain is improving too, and I’m feeling very motivated to manage and reduce the pain after that story! (yes, I did feel like a wimp!) My schedule this week aims to introduce some sessions with increased intensity, inter-spaced with easy recovery days. Sat Walk 40 minutes: Good honest pace. My breathing is heavy, but still able to talk or recite a poem. Sun Walk 20 minutes: Easy recovery pace. Mon Walk 30 minutes: 10 minutes easy warm-up. Next I do 15 minutes of lamp-post intervals: Walk one lamp-post (or 50 metres) fast and briskly, and every other lamp post walk easy. Finally, walk easy as a warm-down for 5 minutes. Tues. Walk 20 minutes: Easy recovery pace. Wed Walk 20 minutes: 10 minutes easy warm-up. 5 minutes brisk pace with slightly longer strides for a change, finished with 5 minutes easy warm-down. Thurs Walk 30 minutes: 10 minutes easy warm-up. Next I do 15 minutes of lamp-post intervals: Walk one lamp-post (or 50 metres) fast and briskly, and every other lamp post walk easy. Finally, walk easy as a warm-down for 5 minutes. Fri Day off. Training principles: To get fitter and stronger we need to give our bodies a challenge in the form of a session of physical exertion. Then we need to allow it a day or two to recover and rebuild. With good nutrition, sleep and reduced training load over this recovery stage, the body will rebuild itself slightly stronger, just in case we give it the same challenge again. This is called the “overload principle”. There are important considerations though: The challenging physical exertion needs to be challenging but not damaging. In our case this week, it is the 15 minute lamp-post intervals on Monday and Thursday. The recovery is just as important as the hard sessions. Recovery days need to be easy pace and revitalising in the form of adequate sleep and good nutrition. Your body will rebuild strongest if you give it good materials to do so. Foods like fish, lean red meat, eggs, low fat dairy, balanced with fresh fruit and veges. C’mon team, let’s cut out that junk food, and get back to what our bodies are designed best to eat; food close to it’s source with minimal processing. For those of you who I know will be “struggling” to keep to the schedule, let’s use some wisdom from my mentors the Feltons: It’s not a struggle, ..it’s a “challenge”. Also remember that the first 6 to 8 weeks are the hardest. Don’t despair, stick at it and it will become easier! Try smiling as you walk! Week 5 Try Jogging! This week is particularly significant for 3 reasons; I’m going to start a little jogging (only for a few short minutes) I’m introducing a time trial on Wednesday. A time trial is a course or loop of a set distance that you use weekly or fortnightly to test your progress. We’ve completed one month, a significant achievement. Congratulate yourselves! How does it feel? Many of you will be feeling that exercise is becoming easier after 4 weeks, even an addictive habit. Some will still feel a bit of pain, and some will still find it a challenge to stick to the schedule. But take heart my fellow foot folk! If you stick at it for just another 2 to 4 weeks, it should start to feel significantly more enjoyable, your body will begin to adapt and you feel that this is an enjoyable habit. Especially when you visualize the benefits, of a fitter, healthier, more toned you. Here’s week 5's schedule: Sat Introduce lamp-post jogging. Walk 10 minutes easy warm-up. Next do 5 minutes of lamp-post WALK intervals: Walk one lamp-post (or 50 metres) as fast as possible, and every other lamp post walk easy. Next do 5 minutes of lamp-post JOG intervals: jog one lamp-post (or 50 metres), and every other lamp post walk easy. Next do 5 minutes of lamp-post WALK intervals: Walk one lamp-post (or 50 metres) as fast as possible, and every other lamp post walk easy. Finally, walk easy as a warm-down for 5 minutes. Sun Walk 20 minutes: Easy recovery pace. Mon Walk 43 minutes; (a) 10 minutes easy warm-up, on the flat, at talking pace. (b) 5 minutes of full-on, fast, hard walk, (hill or stairs if available). (c) 2 minutes easy walk, to recover. Repeat, (b) and (c) to a total of 4 times. Finish with 5 minutes warm down as easy walking, giving a total session time of 43 minutes Tues. Walk 20 minutes: Easy recovery pace. Wed Time trial. Find a repeatable course that takes you about 20 to 30 minutes. eg around the local park or around part of a handy golf course. It will be about 4 or 5 km. If you are a facts and figures fanatic, you might like to measure out 5 km on your bike or car odometer. However, the actual distance is not really important, more that it is repeatable in subsequent weeks. Do a 10 minute warm-up. Next walk as fast as you can around your time trial course, recording the time at finish. Warm-down easy pace for 5 minutes. Write this time in your diary and we will compare it to next week’s T.T. Thurs Walk 10 minutes easy warm-up. Next do 5 minutes of lamp-post WALK intervals: Walk one lamp-post (or 50 metres) as fast as possible, and every other lamp post walk easy. Next do 5 minutes of lamp-post JOG intervals: jog one lamp-post (or 50 metres), and every other lamp post walk easy. Next do 5 minutes of lamp-post WALK intervals: Walk one lamp-post (or 50 metres) as fast as possible, and every other lamp post walk easy. Finally, walk easy as a warm-down for 5 minutes. Fri Day off. We’re smack in the middle of winter, and it is sometimes challenging to get out in the foul weather. Personally, if I have good weather proof gear, I absolutely LOVE walking and jogging in inclement weather The secret lies in the “layering” of garments that provide thermal insulation and wicking of sweat and water off the skin. Don’t skimp on the gear. The most valuable items to take are a woolly thermal hat and woolly thermal gloves. They are small, light and very effective, especially as most of your heat is lost through your head. (If I had to choose only one item of clothing, it would be a hat!) On your body, next to your skin you need a thermal, wicking layer such as merino or polypropylene. (Cotton is useless, and dangerous in that it can lead to hypothermia once wet in the cold). Then add more thermal layers as necessary, on top of the first thermal, eg another merino or poly, or a woolly or fleece jumper. Once again, no cotton sweatshirts in the rain. The outer-most layer should be a snug, waterproof jacket with a good hood, and overpants. If the weather is life-threateningly bad, then you can be imaginative by walking up and down stair wells in high-rise buildings, or going to the gym. A winning weather strategy is the 4 “P”s: Prior Planning Prevents Procrastination. Get some good kit, and read the weather forecast so you can plan the best time to go and know what gear to pack. The ultimate tool is always your attitude. If the weather is bad, look for the positive, after training you will appreciate that hot shower and cuppa all the more! Week 7 - We’re on the run. Did you count any foot steps? It’s pretty amazing the number we do eh? Walking, I totalled 134 per minute, which equates to approximately 31,000 steps for last week’s schedule of jogging/walking! Congratulations on moving that body of yours so many times last week! That’s what the body’s designed to do, so we will increase it a bit more this week. Use it or lose it! Did you manage to get off the hard stuff ? I did, and found a vast reduction in jarring, enabling me to do all of the scheduled jogging. Waahoo! I jogged on grass at the local park and school sports field. So this week I’ll increase the jogging component from 50 metres to 100 metres. Here’s my schedule for week 7. It has some added jogging and a new fun session with accelerations. Sat Lets ramp up the jogging a bit. This fun and interesting session will be 30 minutes long in total: 10 minutes walk to warm up, on the way to a jogging site off the asphalt or concrete. 5 minutes of “accelerations”: Start with a walk pace, increasing the pace, a faster gear every minute, until at the start of minute 3 you are jogging. Keep increasing the jog pace slowly until you are jogging at a good old clip at the finish of 5 minutes. Do a total of 3 accelerations. Warm down walk for 5 minutes. Sun Walk 40 minutes: Easy recovery pace, but since it is a day off work for most, add some interesting bits such as walking a bush track, the beach, or take a friend along. Mon Walk 43 minutes total with some optional jogging: (a) 10 minutes easy warm-up, on the flat or easy on the hill, at talking pace. (b) 5 minutes of full-on, fast, hard walk; or a jog , (hill or stairs if available). (c) 2 minutes easy walk, to recover. Repeat, (b) and (c) to a total of 4 times. Finish with 5 minutes warm down as easy walking, giving a total session time of 43 minutes Tues Walk 30 minutes: Easy recovery pace. Wed Time trial. Firstly, warm up walk for 10 minutes. Walk or jog, or walk/jog combination as fast as you can around your time trial course, recording the time at finish. If you’re intermittent jogging this T.T., try jogging a little longer or faster than last week. Warm-down easy pace for 5 minutes. How’d you compare to last week’s T.T? Remember to record your times each week for comparison. Once again, we’re looking for improvement in the long term, not all of you will get faster straight away, but you should aim for faster times by 4 weeks at most. Thurs (Jogging again on the GRASS, but longer jog intervals) Walk 10 minutes easy warm-up. Next do 5 minutes of 50 metre WALK intervals: Walking 50 metres as fast as possible, then 50 metres easy. Next do 10 minutes of 100 metre JOG intervals, followed by 50 metres easy walk. Next do 5 minutes of 50 metre WALK intervals: Walking 50 metres as fast as possible, then 50 metres easy. Finally, walk easy as a warm-down for 5 minutes. Fri Day off. This week I want to talk about posture and technique. Our modern lifestyle often leads to a lot of time seated, either at a computer or at a desk, even sitting whilst eating. Many, myself included, end up slumping, and especially when typing. Our training is a great opportunity to make sure we walk and jog with good posture. This will help prevent injury in training, but also strengthen those posture related muscles. It will also remind us of a better posture when at a desk etc. Remember when walking and jogging to hold yourself up tall. One of the reasons we “shrink” as we age, is that we allow ourselves to slump, or surrender to gravity. We can prevent this by making sure we keep our torso, chest and shoulder muscles toned, fit, and holding our spine erect. I find it helpful to start at my feet. When standing still, I try to stand equally on 2 feet instead of wrenching my hips by standing more on one leg. Next I aim to hold my abdominal muscles (abs) taught, not just when stationary, but also when exercising. This stops excess curvature of my lower back and stops my pelvis tilting forward. Next I fully expand my chest, but without over arching my shoulders. Other ways to think of this are, imagine a broomstick up my spine, or to push my sternum out toward my nipples. Next I think about lengthening my neck in line with that broomstick I mentioned. Another way to think about this is to increase the distance between my ears and shoulders. Breath deeply and fully. Lastly, relax those frowns and stress wrinkles…. Smiling is a good way to do this! Practice this posture during your training, and at other times too. Speaking of injury prevention, you might like to stretching your muscles that get used in training: I’ll introduce the quadriceps (quads) stretch today. Do stretches after you are warmed up, or at the end of your session whilst you are still warm. Repetitive actions like running tend to gradually shorten muscles, so a moderate stretch is a good idea. For the quads stretch we need to push our pelvis forward to get a good stretch in the hip flexors as well. We also need to make sure we keep our pelvis level and horizontal without dropping one hip, (try looking in a mirror as you do it). There are several ways to do this stretch, but I’ll show you the most common. Stand where you can support yourself with one hand on a wall. Stand tall and grasp your foot with one hand. Suck your abs tight, push your pelvis forward a little to maintain a tall posture, keep your hips horizontal and even, keep your knees together. Now pull your foot toward your bum till you find a good stretch. Don’t go into pain zone, just till you feel a healthy stretch. Hold this for 20 to 30 seconds. Swap legs and then repeat. Have fun out there. I’ve had some great feedback, with some people reporting that this fitness idea is becoming an enjoyable habit. Great! How’d your jogging go this week? I could only manage half the jogging planned for Saturday. The first 2 lamp-post jogs were tolerable, but any subsequent jogging was painful to the degree that I felt the jogging impact was injuring my ankle. It’s important to listen to your body, and intelligently adjust plans to suit. The increasing pain was a signal that further running activity in this session would lead to injury. However, I didn’t want to stop my fitness plan. No problem! Just find another way to do it. I modified the session to replace the jogging with a very fast walk. (Remember it can go both ways, if things were pain free, you felt great and you wanted to do more, then that is fine too!) For the following 2 days, walking hurt my ankle, so I modified my plan again, replacing walking with cycling for those 2 days. This allowed me to do similar training, but also rested my ankle from any impact. Other alternatives could be swimming, aqua-jogging, kayaking, skating, rowing or the gym. Stay off the hard stuff, take the soft option. How many footsteps do you take on your sessions? (do a sample count next time) Let’s think about the impact and jarring that runs through your body with each footstep Walking on soft grass has very little jarring, but at the other extreme, running long distances on flat concrete can sometimes be hard on your body. That’s what happened to me on Saturday as I jogged lamp-posts, the jarring on hard footpaths upset my delicate ankle. So from now on I’m going to jog only on soft surfaces such as grass, sand or dirt, and where possible avoid walking on pavement. If I need to get down the street, I’ll use grass verges and get to parks, beaches, golf courses, farms (with permission) etc. by the shortest route. I find varied terrain like this infinitely more exciting than the repetitiveness of streets. It’s also a wonderful escape vehicle exhaust fumes and to get back to nature. This said however, it’s better to get out on pavement if you have to, than to not get exercise at all. Get a grip Winter off-road excursions are more fun with ground gripping shoes, built a bit tougher for the job. Caption “In winter I stay upright easier with good aggressive grip” Caption “I make sure the shoe is matched to my foot shape. If the heel pushes over even the slightest bit like these 2 pictures, then I need a different shape of shoe.” Finally, I rate comfort as the most important factor. Comfort and fit can be can be enhanced by after-market insoles like Formthotics. I’ve never regretted the price of quality shoes that I enjoy wearing, that prevent injuries, and that give traction to the ultimate off-road machines, ..you and I! Week 8 Training in Treacle ...those challenging sessions. Shall I or shan’t I head out the door? “What about those days when every step feels like a major effort?” Several readers have asked me this lately. I know how you feel, getting out the door and 5 to 20 minutes into your session, you feel like you’re walking/running through treacle, or gravity is playing a mean trick on you,… you’re abnormally lethargic or sore. Personally, I have days like this too, not just during my current ankle injury phase, but throughout my 20 years of competition. Those “major effort” days are the days where i really need to listen to my body, as this could possibly be the warning signs of something major. More positively, it could also be a fitness breakthrough,… i might be going faster than i realize!! (that’s another use for testing with time trials). How do I tell the difference? My strategy is firstly to do some detective work on what caused the lethargy, pain or stiffness. Then adjust the session accordingly, usually changing to an easier and alternative work-out. However, I don’t turn around and crawl back to bed or the TV! I believe that it is critically important to still do some sort of session, to maintain the habit of getting fit. Here are some possible causes: Stress from extra work-load, family issues, etc. Lack of recovery between hard days. Poor sleep Poor nutrition Some physical activity in previous days that you’re not accustomed to that has left you a bit sore. A threatening cold, flu’ or bug lurking around your system, (esp. winter) Low blood iron/electrolytes etc (get blood test) Over-training Hangover Once I have some clues as to the likely cause, then I re-design my work-out. This is usually mid session, and requires a bit of lateral thinking. First of all, I’d like to define the concept of “stress”. We need to stress our bodies in training to facilitate the overload principle, (as discussed in week 3). Stress is good, but too much stress becomes dis-stress, which is unhealthy. Other stressors like work-load increase, family issues, poor sleep and nutrition or threatening sickness are individually manageable, but when we combine two, three or all of those stressors with the stressor of hard training, then this will likely exceed our stress threshold and the total becomes dis-stress. This is when our bodies rebel with lethargy, lack-of-recovery-stiffness, susceptibility to colds and ‘flu, and possible injuries. It is safest to cut back a bit on training. I don’t mean to stop training, but perhaps do easier sessions that are just aerobic (you can still hold a conversation). In other words, do some non-strenuous exercise. Low-level exercise is often useful relief when under stress to help with perspective. If it is a sore throat, or other lurgy threatening, a wee stroll is likely beneficial, so long as you’re warm and toasty, and restrict to less than 30 minutes of easy walking, and work on getting other stressor levels down. If you have the ‘flu, then I believe it’s best to dive under the covers with good nutrition and sleep before you venture out the door again. Your body’s busy fighting the lurgy and needs maximum resources with all stressor levels to minimum. When temporarily redesigning your session, make it enjoyable. For example, I like to work on technical skills of balance and proprioception which are low intensity effort but max concentration. When I’m training for the Speights Coast to Coast, I do a rock running session several times a week. Most sessions are fantastic, running with the sure-footed coordination of a mountain goat and the gliding speed of a Gazelle. Some days I run like a drunkard! On those days where my coordination and proprioception are abominable, I’m tempted to postpone that session 'till I’m more together. However those sessions are the MOST important ones, as this is training to improve my bottom line. If I can lift the bottom line, then the overall average performance will be better. In addition, if on race day I’m poorly coordinated (eg nerves) then my training in this zone will pay huge dividends. So if it is simply a technical issue that is causing your frustration in a session, I encourage you to stick at it, thereby raising your lowest level. Most of those stressors I listed above have obvious solutions. Over-training is the only challenging one to identify, and usually it is only those around you that can gently help you realize this one. Symptoms include lethargy, grumpiness and irritability. The solutions include reducing stressors in your life, and cutting back on the length of your training. Finally let’s look at the possibility that the extra effort you feel in training is due to you going faster than you realize. Check this by comparing your time trial times over 4 weeks or so. Here is my program for week 8. Last week I really enjoyed the accelerations for variety. I was sore for the 3rd set so did walk accelerations instead. This week I’m adding a new component of endurance. I’m showing my body the approximate duration I want to eventually jog at by week 15, but with out the intensity of jogging. I will walk it instead. Should be fun! If I didn’t give you enough warning this week, then do as long as you can fit in, and plan it for next week. Sat Long, easy walk. Between 90 minutes and 4 hours. Yep! You read it right, it’s a hike, day tramp. Find an enjoyable track, take a wee backpack with 3 litres of water to drink, some food, a map, a raincoat, a hat, some gloves, and warm thermal layers, and a friend. Tell someone where you’re headed, check the weather forecast and have a back-up safety plan. Have some fun exploring!! Sun Walk 40 to 60 minutes: Easy recovery pace, but since it is a day off work for most, add some interesting bits such as walking a bush track, the beach, or take a friend along. Mon Walk 43 minutes total with some optional jogging; (a) 10 minutes easy warm-up, on the flat or easy on the hill, at talking pace. (b) 5 minutes of full-on, fast, hard walk; or a jog , (hill or stairs if available). (c) 2 minutes easy walk, to recover. Repeat, (b) and (c) to a total of 4 times. Finish with 5 minutes warm down as easy walking, giving a total session time of 43 minutes Tues Walk 30 minutes: Easy recovery pace. Wed Time trial. Firstly, warm up walk for 10 minutes. Walk or jog, or walk/jog combination as fast as you can around your time trial course, recording the time at finish. If you’re intermittent jogging this T.T., try jogging a little longer or faster than last week. Warm-down easy pace for 5 minutes. How’d you compare to last week’s T.T? Remember to record your times each week for comparison. Once again, we’re looking for improvement in the long term, not all of you will get faster straight away, but you should aim for faster times by 4 weeks at most. Thurs 35 minutes in total, with accelerations: 10 minutes walk to warm up, on the way to a jogging site off the asphalt or concrete. 5 minutes of “accelerations”: Start with a walk pace, increasing the pace, a faster gear every minute, until at the start of minute 3 you are jogging. Keep increasing the jog pace slowly until you are jogging at a good old clip at the finish of 5 minutes. Do a total of 4 accelerations Warm down walk for 5 minutes. Fri Day off. I trust that you’re getting fitter and faster already. Congratulate yourselves, and remember the words of Plato; “The beginning is the most important part of the work.” Week 9 Munching that matches my metabolism. I’ve had a few enquiries about whether to eat before your session, and about losing weight. What is the reason you’re doing exercise? Primarily, the aim for me was to help any of you who are interested, to get fit. The aim was not necessarily to lose weight. However, weight loss is a possible side benefit, and for some of you it is a goal that you have. That is fine, and admirable! Good on you. The topic of sports nutrition is wide and huge, and many books are written on it, and many people make a career out of the study of it. If you have further enquiries than what i discuss here, i encourage you to get a book, or consult a sports nutritionist/dietitian. I like to think from a performance perspective. My body is a machine that requires fuel to function, and perform. Like a motor, if I feed it fuel different to what it’s built to use then it will not perform, and like a motor, by-products will accumulate and further hinder performance. Touching on weight control, I will speak in general terms here, (find more detail from books and nutritionists/dietitians). Here is the simple but critical equation that says it all: Energy in (food) = energy out (exercise/activity) Average adult male = approx. 2630 calories per day Average adult female = approx. 2030 calories per day Simply add up the calories you eat/drink in one day, and adjust the balance. If energy in exceeds energy out, energy is usually stored in form of fat. But be assured, it’s harder to go the other way… If energy in is less than energy out, then the body has mechanisms to let you know it’s hungry! Excess weight is much better lost by gradual process. Fad diets, and sudden loss of kilos over a few weeks are usually simply temporary fluid loss, or not usually sustainable. The only way to reliably lose weight is to adjust the “in = out” balance equation. I maintain that it is best to provide my body with a steady supply of energy through the day. This is to train my metabolism into a regular pattern rather than a roller coaster of starvation and supply. If metabolism is starved at stages through the day, then it becomes efficient at storing energy as contingency. I eat small, good quality meals at regular intervals. I believe it’s very important to give my metabolism the right signals by eating something early in the day. Snacking is better than large meals, so long as the snacks are healthy. (eg make 3 low-fat salad sandwiches and eat 1 at morning, lunch and afternoon). I opt for a smallish evening meal, as there is little energy expenditure whilst sleeping, and I sleep better this way. To eat before training or not? True, training on an empty stomach will burn a bit more fat, but it is setting metabolism into “starvation and store” mode which is ultimately unsustainable For long-term weight control, I believe it is best to keep a small but steady supply of incoming food, (ie. better to reduce over-all energy intake through the day). Fat is not used for fuel until 20-30 minutes of activity, so activity at moderate levels for long periods is better than short bursts (eg. stop to talk disrupts the fat burning, allowing muscles to be re-supplied with glycogen instead) Some find it hard to eat first thing, so it is perfectly fine to try drinking some fruit juice (best to dilute it a little). Alternatively, take it with you in a drink bottle, or eat a banana as you walk. Be innovative. Nutrition straight after is important too, as our metabolisms are still in faster mode for an hour or so after a good session. Eat healthy in this time, protein is good for recovery, and remember to drink some water or fruit juice. Here is my program for week 9. How’d you go on the endurance session? I had a lot of fun walking a local hiking track with a friend. I’ve included it again this week. Plan for it again next weekend too. I also had some success on my jogging, managing to jog for 5 minutes during my time trail session! So I’m going to increase the jogging component this week with in the existing schedule structure. Sat Long, easy walk. Between 90 minutes and 4 hours. Find an enjoyable track, take a wee backpack with 3 litres of water to drink, some food, a map, a raincoat, a hat, some gloves, and warm thermal layers, and a friend. Tell someone where you’re headed, check the weather forecast and have a back-up safety plan. Have some fun exploring!! Sun Walk 40 to 60 minutes: Easy recovery pace, it’s a day off work for most, add some interesting bits such as walking a bush track, the beach, or take a friend along. Mon Walk 43 minutes total with jogging; (a) 10 minutes easy warm-up, on the flat or easy on the hill, at talking pace. (b) 5 minutes jog , (include a bit of a hill or stairs if available). (c) 2 minutes easy walk, to recover. Repeat, (b) and (c) to a total of 4 times. Finish with 5 minutes warm down as easy walking, giving a total session time of 43 minutes Tue Walk 30 minutes: Easy recovery pace. Wed Time trial. Firstly, warm up walk for 10 minutes. Aim to jog the entire T.T if you can. It’s OK to walk bits of it to recover, but be determined to keep the walk bits short, remember your exciting goal to get fit. Record the time at finish. If you’re intermittent jogging this T.T., try jogging a little longer or faster than last week. Warm-down easy pace for 5 minutes. Compare to previous 8 T.T. results. Remember to record your times each week for comparison. Once again, we’re looking for improvement in the long term. Thurs 35 minutes in total, with accelerations: 10 minutes walk to warm up, on the way to a jogging site of grass in a park or similar. 5 minutes of “accelerations”: Start with a walk pace, increasing the pace, a faster gear every minute, until at the start of minute 3 you are jogging. Keep increasing the jog pace slowly until you are jogging at a good old clip at the finish of 5 minutes. Do a total of 4 accelerations Warm down walk for 5 minutes. Fri Day off. Week 10 Getting serious about jogging. Introduce calf stretch, (soleus, gastrocnemius) Shorts & singlet, sweating, & soaking in sunshine! Skiting! Yes, I was in the northern hemisphere on business last week, and enjoyed training in warmth for a change. However, as the clement, cosy sun’s rays bathed my bare skin, I was tortured with guilt at the thought of you, my fellow fitness friends freezing in the tempest that was chilling New Zealand…. Not! It was glorious! (To be completely honest, I ended up rather jealous. I love the novelty of snow at home in Christchurch, and I missed it!) However, it raises a very motivating notion. We may be currently challenged by the chilly climate, but we can always turn this into a positive. Personally, I can clearly visualize how good I will feel being fit again this coming summer, when once again I feel the warmth of the sun whilst out exercising. You’ll find it motivational to visualize the benefits of your toned body as you emerge out of winter into summer, having done this schedule. This can only happen if you get out the door, making exercise an enjoyable habit, no matter what the conditions. Remember Week 5 when I talked about equipping yourself for any weather. This week is another milestone. Congratulations on making it to 2 months! How is your jogging going? This is the final month of the schedule, we are going to aim to be jogging 6 days a week by the last week. In my last time trial, I was able to sustain 20 minutes easy jogging. Despite the slight pain in each foot strike, I was very pleased to be jogging! At Week 10 it is time to get serious about jogging. I will be introducing a slightly different schedule where we will be jogging 4 days this week. Remember to jog where-ever possible on grass or soft surfaces. Avoid jogging on tar seal and concrete where possible. Sat 10 minute warm-up walk. Jog for 25 minutes, continuously, but easy pace. 10 minute warm-down walk. Sun Long, easy walk. At least 2 hours long. It’s a hike or day tramp. Find an enjoyable track, take a wee backpack with 2 litres of water to drink, some food, a map, a raincoat, a hat, some gloves, and warm thermal layers, and a friend. Tell someone where you’re headed, check the weather forecast and have a back-up safety plan. Have some fun exploring!! Mon (a) 10 minutes easy warm-up walk, on the flat or easy on the hill, at talking pace. (b) 5 minutes of full-on, fast, hard walk.. (c) 10 minutes of jogging Repeat, (b) and (c) to a total of 3 times. Finish with 5 minutes warm down as easy walking, giving a total session time of 60 minutes Tue Walk 30 minutes: Easy recovery pace. Wed Time trial. Firstly, warm up walk for 10 minutes. Jog at a sustainable pace around your time trial course, recording the time at finish. This is a test of your ability to judge your pace. You want to be pleasantly weary at the finish, having judged your pace to jog at a good clip. Warm-down easy pace for 5 minutes. How’d you compare to last week’s T.T? Remember to record your times. Your jogging time should be faster than your walking time. Thurs 35 minutes in total, with accelerations: 10 minutes walk to warm up. 5 minutes of “accelerations”: Start with a walk pace, increasing the pace, a faster gear every minute, until at the start of minute 3 you are jogging. Keep increasing the jog pace slowly until you are jogging at a good old clip at the finish of 5 minutes. Do a total of 4 accelerations Warm down walk for 5 minutes. Fri Day off. Once we get jogging more you will probably find slight tightening of your calf muscles, the soleus and gastrocnemius. Repetitive actions like running tend to gradually shorten muscles, so a moderate stretch is a good idea. Do stretches after you are warmed up, or at the end of your session whilst you are still warm. Don’t go into pain zone, just till you feel a healthy stretch. Hold this for 20 to 30 seconds. Gastrocnemius: Find a sturdy object like a wall or tree. (This stretch looks like you are pushing this object over, and you’ll probably get some “smart” comments). Start by facing the sturdy object, and leaning against it, supporting yourself against it with your hands. Bit by bit, move your feet backwards, keeping your heels in contact with the ground, and knees straight. Keep your body in a straight line, hips forward and head/neck up and in line with your spine. You should feel that all of your weight is driving nice and straight down your spine and through your hips and legs to your heel. Keep your toes pointing straight forward, in line with your knees. For more of a stretch move your feet further back, and push harder down through your heels, keeping your heels on the ground. Alternatively, you can stretch one leg at a time for more of a stretch. Soleus: Find a door edge. You could also use a curb with a handy post. You will need shoes on. Stand very close to the post/wall with your right foot toes up the wall or skirting board, approx 10 cm, so that the front of your foot is bent upward. Your heel is in flat contact with the floor, but your toes are in extreme dorsiflexion. Keep your toes pointing forward, in line with your knees. (Your left foot is supporting your weight a little behind the other foot). Next relax your right leg and allow your right knee to bend forward, very relaxed, toward the door post. As you sink into this position, you will feel a stretch deep in your calves, (the soleus muscle). Hold for 20 to 30 seconds, swap legs and then repeat. Week 11 Check-up on goal Introduce hamstring stretch. My jogging is coming on very well, clocking up a 32 minute jog for my Time Trial. I still have challenges though as I have a lot of sharp pain in dorsiflexion (when I run uphill). I’ve had another CT scan yesterday to search for clues, but in the meantime I use the pain as a warning to only walk up hills for now. Now is a good time to do a progress analysis. I’ve asked questions like: Am I on track for my goals? Do I need to adjust my goals? Are my goals realistic, or perhaps too easy now? It’s important to realise that it’s perfectly OK to change goals. The great thing is that even if the goal changes, we’ve made progress compared to where we were earlier. We’ve experimented, learned more about our capabilities and potential. Best of all, we have had some direction and purpose which feels positive, eh! I’ve decided that my jogging and walking is going well enough that I can make a second goal change, back to my very original goal of completing the 33km Macs Gold Abel Tasman Coastal Classic on Sept 11 (www.coolrunning.co.nz). I’m not planning to jog all of it, just the flats and downhills. I aim to finish it. Components of training: In preparation for this, I’ll need to show my body the requirements I have of it for the Abel Tasman event. I’ll break it into 2 components; the duration and the pace, and show my body these separately. I’ll do some sessions that will be close to the time I expect to take, but at a slower, easier pace than the event. This allows my body to recover easily for more training. Later in the week I will show my body some short sessions of how fast I want it to go in the event. Once again, this allows my body to recover easily. It is also very helpful and clever to simulate the conditions of our target event. For me, I need to prepare for muddy tracks in case it rains. Practice on slippery tracks is excellent and specific training. I’ll need to have good grippy soles, and wear my ankle brace support. In case the event conditions are dry and hard, I’ll have alternate, less knobby pair of shoes in my bag. The grippy knobs are energy saving in mud, but create unnecessary friction or drag if the track is not slippery. If it is a road running race you are preparing for, then it is important to show your body the specific hard surface you are preparing for, but I believe that it is best to avoid excessive training on hard surfaces as this may lead to injury and stress fractures. Just one or two sessions per week on the road is all that is necessary. I reckon the other 4 or 5 days should be mostly on grass, dirt or sand. I’d estimate that my time for the event will be around 4 hrs 30 mins. So Saturday sessions will be a relatively easy paced 4 hour walk. Later in the week I will do 2 x 40min days that comprise fast walk and jog. Sat Long, easy walk. 3 to 5 hrs long. Take water, food, a map, a raincoat, a hat, some gloves, and warm thermal layers, and a friend. Have a back-up safety plan. Have fun! Sun Walk 30 minutes: Easy recovery pace. Mon 10 minute warm-up walk. Jog for 10 minutes, continuously, but very easy pace, soft surface. 10 minute warm-down walk. Tue Time trial. Firstly, warm up walk for 10 minutes. Jog at a sustainable pace around your time trial course, recording the time at finish. You want to be pleasantly weary at the finish, having judged your pace to jog at a good clip. Warm-down easy pace for 5 minutes. Wed 40 minute recovery walk or bike. Include some “accelerations” for 100 metres if you feel strong, but otherwise use this session to recover. Thr (a) 10 minutes easy warm-up walk, on the flat or easy on the hill, at talking pace. (b) 5 minutes of full-on, fast, hard walk.. (c) 10 minutes of jogging Repeat, (b) and (c) to a total of 3 times. Finish with 5 minutes warm down as easy walking, giving a total session time of 60 minutes Fri Day off. In Week 7, I showed you a quadricep stretch. It is a good idea to balance muscle group activity, by stretching the opposite muscle group. To balance the Quads stretch here is a Hamstring stretch. There are many ways to stretch hamstrings. This is a nice version that you can easily do whilst playing with your kids, reading, eating dinner, or simply relaxing on the floor. My toes are straight up and flexed toward my chest to give a stronger stretch. Aim to have a straight back. Imagine that you are aiming to get your sternum or nipples (NOT your chin) to your knees so that you have a straight back. Don’t curve your back as in the second photo. Repetitive actions like running tend to gradually shorten muscles, so a moderate stretch is a good idea. Do stretches after you are warmed up, or at the end of your session whilst you are still warm. Don’t go into pain zone, just till you feel a healthy stretch. Hold this for 20 to 30 seconds. As we draw to a close of this Get-fit Series, (Week 15 is the last one), now is a good time for you to analyse your progress, check your goals, and adjust them if necessary. Be positive. Week 12 - Setting Sights for a Sensational Summer! Last week we talked about evaluating progress to our goals. How did you go? I adjusted and improved my goal to include the Abel Tasman Coastal Classic race. This event is next week, Sept 11th. The function of our training schedule is to prepare our body for a goal or event we have set. Part of this preparation is testing the components such as endurance. I used last Saturday’s long work-out, (4 hour walk/jog), as a test to check that I could cope with duration. That session was a challenge for me, as I had quite a bit of pain on the uphills, and my ankle was sore for 2 days following. However, with recovery techniques including icing the ankle, substituting easier, shorter sessions for the next 2 days, some gentle stretching and massage, I came right. This was a great test, and the resulting recovery gave me confidence that I will last the distance of the event next week, so long as I am sensible on the uphills. Re-setting goals: An important part of goal-setting that often gets overlooked is the re-setting of the next goal once the first goal is finished. I will be planning my next goal this week, so that once the event this weekend is finished, I am not left in a void: The advantages for this advance planning is that it prevents that anti-climactic feeling in the following weeks, and it also prevents any lasting disappointment if I don’t manage to achieve my goal, as I have something new and positive to focus on. It’s also really important to celebrate successes. Once the event is finished on Saturday, I’ll be celebrating with friends, and I’ll reward myself with a nice meal out. If I beat my target time of 4 and a half hours, I might shout myself a treat like an extra massage. Re-setting time is also the perfect time to plan the next season. Spring is officially here, and this is a great motivator in itself. We start to think about our summer activities, the summer holidays, those fun summer toys can be dusted off, (I’m looking forward to kite-surfing, and mountain-biking without the ice cube fingers) Take time to dream about those exciting goals you want to set, then plan them to make them achievable. To do this seasonal planning I use a “periodisation chart”, which is essentially a year planner. I plot all of my events, including work, social (eg Christmas) and family commitments on the calendar, and then prioritise and plan my time and training accordingly. I reckon it’s critical to make sure your goals support and fit with other significant people and commitments, for maximum integrity and synergy. Remember to focus on the fun and enjoyment. Here is my schedule for week 12. Hope you can join me! It’s a little easier this week as I am tapering for my event on Saturday Saturday Long, easy walk. Jog the downhills. 4 hrs long. Take water, food, a map, a raincoat, a hat, some gloves, and warm thermal layers, and a friend. Have a back-up safety plan. Have fun! Sunday Walk 30 minutes: Easy recovery pace. Monday 10 minute warm-up walk. Jog for 10 minutes, continuously, but very easy pace, soft surface. 10 minute warm-down walk. Tuesday Time trial. Firstly, warm up walk for 10 minutes. Jog at a sustainable pace around time trial course, recording the time at finish. Be pleasantly weary at the finish, having judged pace to jog at a good clip. Warm-down easy pace for 5 minutes. Wednesday 40 minute recovery walk or bike. Massage (no less than 3 days out from event. Drink plenty of water) Thursday 35 minutes in total, with accelerations: 10 minutes walk to warm up, on the way to a jogging site of grass in a park or similar. 5 minutes of “accelerations”: Start with a walk pace, increasing the pace, a faster gear every minute, until at the start of minute 3 we’re jogging. Keep increasing the jog pace slowly until jogging at a good old clip at the end of 5 minutes. Do a total of 4 accelerations Warm down walk for 5 minutes. Friday Day off. Travel to Abel Tasman Coastal Classic race. Week 13 Beer bellies and the Big day out. Today (Sat 11th) is my big day, the Macs Gold Abel Tasman Coastal Classic. I’ve been planning, and have re-set my goals, so that after the Abel Tasman event is finished I have a new target. (My new target is a cycle tour at Christmas, and to be able to jog pain free for an hour) Here is my schedule for Week 13. It is designed to give me some recovery after today’s event, which will be challenging and long. It is reasonable to expect that I will be sore for 3 days after the event, and as such I’ve scheduled an easy week. I will be getting massage, and supplementing my walking with non-weight-bearing activities like cycling, kayaking or swimming to aid my recovery. If a long Saturday training session does not fit your plan this week, then you might like to repeat last week’s schedule. Saturday Macs Gold Abel Tasman Coastal Classic Event. Goal: To walk/jog. To finish under 4 hr 30 min. Others might like to do a similar length training session. Find a new track, or favourite track. Sunday Walk 20 minutes, easy recovery pace. Kayak, swim or cycle for recovery. Monday Walk 40 minutes, easy recovery pace Tuesday 10 minute warm-up walk. Jog for 10 minutes, continuously, but very easy pace, soft surface. 10 minute warm-down walk. Wednesday “Fartlek”. or Accelerations It’s spring, so try doing these accelerations somewhere inspirational, like the beach, the botanic gardens, or outside of a golf course if you’re allowed. Warm up for 10 minutes by walking fast. For the next 30 mins do accelerations as they take your fancy. Fartlek running is all about variation in your pace. Eg, around a golf course you would sprint up inclinations and stride out down the hills. In a park, you might sprint to markers such as a tree in the distance. Aim to do more than 10 accelerations in the 30 mins. Warm down for 5 mins. Thursday Time trial. Firstly, warm up walk for 10 minutes. Jog at a sustainable pace around time trial course, recording the time at finish. Be pleasantly weary at the finish, having judged pace to jog at a good clip. Warm-down easy pace for 5 minutes. Friday Day off. Beer belly or 6-pack. Back pain or core control. Personally, I need to look after my abdominal muscles, also affectionately referred to as “abs”, tummy muscles, or “6-pack”. I have an exaggerated curve in my spine, and to prevent a sore back, I need to keep my abs strong to hold my pelvis in the correct position. I’d also like to avoid a beer belly,… a very motivating thought indeed! It’s all about core stability. In other words, control over our pelvis and torso area. This has a big effect on preventing injury and poor posture. There are many fitness programs that deal very comprehensively with core stability such as yoga and pilates. Today I will just deal with simple abdominal exercises as these muscles are the key player. Here are 3 exercises that will strengthen and tone your abs. It’s easy to incorporate them into a daily routine, and does not take much time. I like to do a 3 minute abs. workout as I wait for the shower to warm up or whilst watching the news. I just do one set of 30 each day. Personally, I like to categorise abs into upper, lower and oblique (or sides). Upper abs This is the standard abs crunch. Always keep my lower back in contact with the floor. This is why my feet are on a chair, knees at right angles, as it helps keep my back in contact. Keep neck as straight as possible by maintaining a gap between chin and chest (about a tennis ball size gap) Arms can either be on my chest, or as in the picture, touching my ears. Avoid holding the back of my head as this would strain my neck. Oblique (side) abs Same as the upper abs, but you are taking shoulder/elbow to opposite knee. Adjust this exercise so that you feel your side muscles working. Lower abs Lower abs often get overlooked, but are very important. Keep my lower back in contact with floor when my legs are down (don’t allow any concave arching) . Raise your bum off the floor just a few cm by pushing your feet directly up to the ceiling. Don’t rock your feet forward and back over your head. Just up and down with vertical legs. (do this beside a mirror to help) This is quite a subtle exercise and is challenging for the first week. Keep at it and it’ll get much easier. Consistency truly pays off with abs. After 4 to 8 weeks you will get some great benefits for posture. Stick at it longer and you’ll see that 6-pack emerge, and all the other benefits that come from that! Week 14 Energy flows where attention goes. My Abel Tasman Coastal Classic run was great! I recommend the event as fun and achievable. I set a target of finishing in 4hrs 30min. I went 50 minutes under my target! I managed to jog 70%, and walked the tricky bits. I was sore for 5 days after the event, so modified the schedule, replacing the jog/walk sessions with cycling until Thursday. Dealing with pain: 2 and a half hours into the event, my ankle started to hurt more than usual. Every time I put weight on it I winced! All I could think about was the intense pain and it got worse and worse. Then I remembered an old saying I use often for inspiration in racing; “Energy flows where attention goes” The more I focused on the pain, the more miserable I felt which intensified the vicious circle. Instead, I changed the focus my attention to the phase of my stride that was pain-free, the non-weight bearing phase. This was an amazing breakthrough! I worked on making the pain-free phase last longer and longer. This made a massive improvement, until slowly but surely the pain during the weight bearing phase was shortened in duration and reduced in intensity. It took considerable effort, but once I mustered that energy to shift my focus, it enabled me to enhance my mental state, which in turn increased my enjoyment, which then released endorphins, and energized me. Taking the focus off the pain to something else also relaxed the tension I was holding in the muscles and tissues, thus allowing better circulation and more efficient function, not to mention saving some energy! As the pain reduced, I could adjust my posture and technique to be more efficient, thus further reducing the pain. It was bordering on perpetual energy! Wickedly powerful eh? Instead of thinking about the reasons something won’t work, think about the reasons it will work. How do I tell when the pain is damage? It’s very important to listen to my body. Personally I seldom take pain killers as pain is there for a reason. It gives me feedback, and if pain is masked by drugs then I can easily do permanent damage. At that two and a half hour point, I had to assess whether the pain was indicating damage or not. There was no dull ache, and it didn’t hurt when I stopped, and my experience over 20 years told me it was OK to keep going but at a reduced speed. I decided to walk the tricky bits and to try my focus strategy above. I needed to adjust my gait, because I’d slipped into a bad technique, favouring that weak ankle. Jogging with others. In events like the Macs Gold Abel Tasman Coastal Classic, there are many other joggers and runners so it is easy to find someone your own speed that you can run with. Between breaths you can squeeze out some fun comments and encouragement to each other. Week 14: After an easy recovery week, it’s back into jogging with gusto! Saturday Long, easy jog. At least 2 hours long on an enjoyable track. Take a wee backpack with 2 litres of water to drink, some food, a map, a raincoat, a hat, some gloves, and warm thermal layers, and a friend. Tell someone where you’re headed, check the weather forecast and have a back-up safety plan. Have some fun! Sunday Easy recovery walk 30 minutes , or a bike ride for 1 to 2 hours Monday “Fartlek”. or Accelerations Do these accelerations somewhere inspirational, like the beach, the botanic gardens, or a golf course. Warm up for 10 minutes by walking fast. Jog for the next 40 mins, adding in accelerations as they take your fancy. Fartlek running is all about variation in your pace. Eg, around a golf course you would sprint up inclinations and stride out down the hills. In a park, you might sprint to markers such as a tree in the distance. Aim to do more than 20 to 30 accelerations in the 40 mins. Warm down for 5 mins. Tuesday Jog for 1 hour at a steady pace, where you are just able to breath enough to have short conversations. (warm up and warm down walk of 5 minutes) Wednesday 40 minute recovery jog, walk or bike. Include some “accelerations” for 100 metres, but not too hard. Use this session to recover. Thursday Time trial. Firstly, warm up walk for 10 minutes. Jog at a sustainable pace around time trial course, recording the time at finish. Be pleasantly weary at the finish, having judged pace to jog at a good clip. Warm-down easy pace for 5 minutes. Friday Day off, (get a massage or do yoga/pilates/Tai Chi, etc.) Week 15 What truly motivates us? For my last column, I want to ask what is it that truly motivates us? The bottom line is enjoyment of course. Enjoyment takes many forms, ranging from fun in the moment, to deep philosophical fulfillment. Put into fitness terms, this can range from an endorphin buzz during exercise, to satisfaction of reaching for a healthy lifestyle goal. Taking the first step is usually the hardest part of getting fit. The enjoyment, fun, and the buzz usually come once our body has adapted to the new load, after a few weeks. My 15 week fitness column guided willing participants through that first step. It’s now time for you all to identify the enjoyment for yourselves and continue on with the habit of fitness. I can encourage you, “leading the horse to water”, but “I can’t force the horse to drink”. You’ve got to want to do it. I’m an optimist, but it is sometimes helpful to take a quick foray into the “dark side”. This could be used as “away-from” motivation. There is a growing awareness accompanied by alarm of an epidemic, of health disasters inflicting our society. These include obesity, diabetes, cancers, etc. I believe the source of this is a basic lack of understanding of the needs of the human body. As a generalization, society seems to be greedily focused on money and creature comforts, wanting instant gratification. We worship the motor car. It’s basically a sign of affluence to be able to drive instead of locomate by foot or bike. Affluence deems that it is not really acceptable to arrive at work sweaty. I think we are going through a phase of technological excitement, where we blindly embrace new gadgets and “lifestyle enhancers” without properly researching the effects. I used to get very agitated and worried by this. Now I understand motivation a little more I realise that people need to learn their own way, which is sometimes the hard way. In the next 2 or 3 generations, I believe we might see more of the “survival of the fittest”. There could be a natural selection of genes. We’re seeing an over-reaction, and pretty soon, the “orgy” will be rudely interrupted by the realization that science can’t provide all of the answers and alternatives to the basic needs of the human physiology. Nutrition and fitness in the form that the body is designed to work with. Anything else is going to lead to disease. It’s a shame that so much money gets wasted on hospital bills in the mean time, as prevention is better than cure. I’ll change to an optimistic view now. We can make the lifestyle adjustment right now. It’s not hard to incorporate activity into our daily routine, with very little extra time or effort. We don’t need to drive to the gym for a separate workout. It’s simple to bike or walk when it’s not necessary to take the car. It only takes a few minutes longer and we’ve had the bonus of a work-out. Combine a walk/jog with activities like discussion time with your mate or a business meeting. Incorporate biking, walking into daily travel such as biking to work, or parking the car a few kms. short of your destination. The key is fun. I reckon it’s worth spoiling yourself with a flash bike (and a good lock). It’s so much more fun on a new toy, and the investment in good health is worth every cent. Make it a habit. Find motivating sports to enjoy. I can thoroughly recommend Orienteering as a fantastic sport for all ranges of fitness and for the entire family. (www.nzorienteering.com) It’s been fun having you all train with me as I get back to jogging, thanks. Congratulations to all of you for making fitness a habit. My competitive future is unsure as recent scans have shown more damage in my ankle than originally thought. One thing is sure though, I’ll still be enjoying other outdoor adventures. There are plenty of other things I’m passionate about to re-focus on. Watch this space! Here is my final week program. You can use this or any of the last few weeks to keep going over summer. Modify it to make it even more fun! Saturday: Meet with others for a walk or jogging adventure. 2 hrs+. Sunday: Walk 20 minutes for recovery; or kayak, swim or cycle. Monday: Jog 1 hour on hilly terrain. Easy to steady pace. Tuesday: Time trial. (approx 30 mins) Fast pace. Important to warm up first, warm down after. Wednesday: Jog 30 to 40 mins., varied pace, short accelerations or fartlek according to how I feel. Thursday: Intervals, total 40 mins. 10 mins warm-up. 5 mins hard followed by 5 mins easy, 3 times. Friday: Day off. Saturday October 2nd, 9:00 am is the national meeting date for you all to train with others in your area. Here are some meeting places: Hamilton Memorial Park, Bridge St, at the Waipa Delta departure point. Wellington Freyberg pool, Oriental Bay. Christchurch Sign of the Takahe. Dunedin Bridge on Malvern St/Woodhaugh St corner. (Near Woodhaugh Gardens,) Invercargill Sandy point, Kayak Clubrooms Burnside Joggers and Walkers offers friendly support and encouragement for walkers/joggers. The club meets each Sunday at 8.30 am at Burnside Rugby clubrooms at Burnside Park. A range of distances/speeds from 3km to 13 km is available. Showers available and morning tea afterwards. Come along and enjoy the company while getting fit.

Cameron Descent 1997: Our transport to the Cameron Highlands materialised out of the heat wave, rather like a mirage appearing in the desert. Not only did our 4WD come equipped with shovel mounted on the roo bar , it also had a second skin of decals, mementos of previous rallies. There was no paint left showing. Under the relentless sun, Mike O’Donnell and I lashed the kayaks on the roof cage. It really felt like we were off on some sort of Safari. Albert, our driver, apologised for the mud in the truck,…he’d just got back from reconnaissance of next month’s 4WD rally. Albert seemed a placid, quiet chap, and that, coupled with the fact that a truck this size, was built for trying, not flying, lulled me into thinking this would be a slow and boring trip up into the mountains. NEEEEP, wrong! Albert turned out to be the quiet, but dangerous type! WOAH!!!! Hold on boys. Nauseous memories of my stint as a co-driver in the International New Zealand rally flooded back. A tyre squealing, roll threatening, blind corner passing, 3 hours later, complete with 3 micro millimetre near misses, we arrived at the Equatorial Resort Hotel atop the Cameron Highlands. We should have guessed Alberts tendencies, when we read the sticker on his mate’s truck; “get in, belt up, hold on and shut up”. Fortunately at our higher altitude of 5000 feet, the cooler air helped the contents of our stomachs to stay down despite the lesser gravitational pull at these heights. Before dinner, Michael and I took the time to adjust our boat seats. The Aussies came to watch and chat. I got the distinct feeling that they didn’t take us as serious contenders for the race. I guess it was because their fancy lightweight Kevlar speed machines, were in a league above our Perception Wavehoppers , essentially a heavier plastic version of what they had, designed for training and for beginners. I must admit to be psyched out by this fact, and accepted a placing perhaps in the top 5 if I was prepared to race hard. As dusk descended, I lathered myself with even more insect repellent and donned my mesh bug-suit, determined to scare off the mosquitos. I was paranoid about getting sick again. My last adventure racing trip to Malaysia saw me a gnat’s whisker from death for 2 weeks in intensive care with acute Renal failure and Pulmonary Oedema. It seems I’d caught Leptospirosis during the race. So this trip was as much about racing kayaks as about facing my fears, clearing skeletons out of the closet, getting rid of the ghosts, exorcising the demons, getting back on the horse that bucked me, and other cute cliches. Previous to travelling, I’d researched my odds of getting ill again, organised all the right medications, and packed all the bug proof stuff I could find. I felt secure that night as our hotel had bug screens. Imagine my horror in the morning as Mike and I found 2 mosquitos buzzing bloatedly about our bedroom, full of bright red blood!!!! It took me an hour or so to come to grips with the fact that I’d been exposed to full risk again on my very first night back in Malaysia. What if those Mozzies were carriers of Malaria?……. I decided that I had to trust the Doxycycline I was taking. Or worse, what if the mozzies carried DHF (Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever)?! I downed another Vitamin B pill and ate another tablespoonful of Vegemite, remembering that there was no preventative against DHF other than avoiding being bitten. So there was not much more I could do about it short of getting back on a plane. But that would be letting my fears dominate me. Logically I worked through the odds, and the fact that adventure is all about risk, and flying in the face of fear. Life is about experience and growing. Trembling in a padded cell is not “life”. I asked the 80 year old Steve Gurney for some advice and he told me to accept the risk and get on with living life to the full, after all you’ve only got another 46 years or so left at the most! So I managed to kick those skeletons in the butt right at the start of the trip. This was fortunate, as the risk factor was to increase dramatically through the trip. Assembled ready for the 4WD trip into Kampang Tiat, the competitors, 83 of us, including 30 foreigners from UK, USA, Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia and NZ milled around a mountainous pile of gear, paddles and kayaks. Out of the highland mists, like some weird hallucination, appeared an endless procession of beat up old 1950’s Land Rovers, “coming to take me away, take me away” as the Beetles LSD song would say,…perhaps I was hallucinating after all.. This was to be our transport deep into the jungles to the start of the race. The quiet, plush portico of the Equatorial Resort Hotel was transformed into noisy mayhem. It was bizarre, but also very comical that this small town could muster so many of these old British machines in an Asian land where one would expect Subaru, Hyundai, Suzuki, Toyota and Proton Saga to reign supreme! This fleet of fifty battle scarred Land Rovers was owned and driven by local farmers, each with a toothless maniacal grin, just itching to take us into the jungle to show off their 4WD skills. The atmosphere was charged with impatient energy and exhaust fumes. The trip in was a safari adventure in itself. We zoomed past tea plantations, fantastic vistas and were generally entertained by the 4WD skills of our mad chauffeurs as we bumped and squeaked along the deteriorating track. We were to be the guests of the Orang Asli, the indigenous inhabitants of the villages along the race course. Kampang Tiat, our village for the first night and, the race start was an education. Grass huts, complete with grass roofs, squat toilets, and you eat with your right hand, coz’ you use your left hand for something else,… so Mike informed me after I’d heartily tucked into rice and curried chicken with both hands! Next morning we started the race in heats of five. Last year’s winner, Abdul Aziz the Malaysian was in the second heat. My heat was first off. As predicted, John the Aussie immediately took the lead in his fancy Kevlar boat. The river was very shallow, averaging shin deep, producing terrible bottom drag for my Wavehopper. John’s boat being lighter, longer and of less rocker was soon out of sight, leaving me frustrated and wishing for my Kevlar Sisson Evolution. After all, it seemed the rapids we only grade 1 or 2. The race organisers must be grossly exaggerating, by claiming this piece of the Telom river to be grade 4! With no chance to come in early and inspect this remote river I could only go on the advice of the Malaysians, which sometimes gets distorted in the translation. I started to get pissed off by the whole affair. As I rounded a slow lazy corner, my heart leapt into my mouth as I was suddenly confronted with fluoro red-clad, flag-waving officials atop huge boulders, their shrill whistles just audible above the roar of a rapid. Before I knew it I was in the middle of a grade 3 rapid. Spat out the end, I was relieved that this might be fun after all. A few minutes further on were more race officials. I figured that that previous rapid was only number one rapid, and the next six were supposed to be much harder! The whole race had just moved up the scariness scale by many notches! Heart pounding with adrenalin, I carefully manoeuvred into #2 rapid, and over a narrow mini waterfall. The River was apparently very low flow this year as there had been no rain for 2 weeks. The rapids became a series of drops and waterfalls, with massive rocks exposed there were many pour-overs and narrow chutes. It was important to keep forward speed to avoid broaching sideways. and I was mighty grateful to be in a plastic boat. WOAH! Look out. John the Aussie was being towed to the side by an official. He’d gone fish counting! I yelled to check he was OK. The tone of John’s reply was “I’m OK mate but look out coz’ I’m coming after you!”. A huge burst of competitive determination flooded my veins. I felt dizzy with the compounding stress that I was first down the river, I was the “Gurney pig”, the tester. John the Aussie had already come to grief on number 2 rapid, was I to be next? The worst rapids were yet to come. I felt tempted to wait for John and follow him. But Aziz the Malaysian had started 5 minutes behind us in heat 2, so I must press on as fast as I could. Besides, I figured that I needed to put as much distance on the rest of the field to compensate for Day, where these others will have an advantage in the slow, flat water. In the pre race brief, we’d been told there were 7 major rapids, the last one was the most difficult, but #4 was dangerous due to a tree across it. We were not to run it if there was hazard tape right across the river above it. Old “Gurney-pig” got there to find tape half across it! The stress was unbearable. What should I do? I wanted to get out to scout the rapid, as my better senses told me to, but the competitive devil in me prodded me with his fork into the mouth of the rapid. You know that sickening feeling of dreadful anticipation, deep in your gut as you approach something you don’t want to do? Well, that's how I felt on #4, but I didn’t even get time for that on rapid #7! A cunning grade 3 lead-in distracted me from what really lay ahead until it was too late. I seriously wanted to get out and inspect this one, and as I entered the jaws of this watery monster, I decided that in fact I really wanted to walk this one. It looked as if you’d need to be an Olympic gymnast to contort your way through it,……. a couple of half pikes and a double somersault, with an acute left hand turn half way down. If I got my line wrong, there was gonna be a few cartwheels followed by some unsynchronised swimming. To compound matters the curling bluff wave half way down the waterfall funneled through a chute so narrow I’d have to watch my paddle didn’t wedge across it. Beyond that was obviously some more steep action, but I couldn’t see it yet. I felt despair turn to panic then to fierce determination. Some powerful support strokes got me through that one! The relief flooded the fear out, and then it was back to the business of getting to the finish line for Day 1 ASAP. One by bedraggled one, the other competitors arrived, and along with them some gruesome stories. John the Aussie had swum 4 times and cracked his boat. All but three of us K1 paddlers took swims. The K2 Aussies in true Americas Cup tradition snapped their boat in half, the remaining two K2 teams, fear struck into them, walked around the major rapids. All the racing rafts jammed or flipped at some stage. But none of these stories were as gruesome as the news that one of the rafting competitors had drowned on rapid #7. The mood of the camp suddenly transformed. The poor guy was a novice competitor who’d left behind a wife and 2 kids. Long into the night we debated the safety of the race. We concluded that the organisers had provided what was probably the best river safety that was available in Malaysia, but perhaps entries should be limited to experienced paddlers only. This fatality highlighted how dangerous adventure sports can be and the need to assess the risks before we start. I spared a thought for my family back home. Would the news reach New Zealand before we got out to a phone? Would they worry? Although they didn’t say anything at the time, I suspect they thought me crazy to face my nemesis in Malaysia. Day 2 Was to go ahead as planned , we had wondered if Day 2 would be cancelled because of the tragedy. I was dreading day 2. I’d heard it was slow, shallow and that we’d frequently run aground on hidden sandbars. Like grilled bacon, we were gonna fry under the relentless sun, for 3 hours. The brown river water would offer little relief as it would be luke warm, heated as it ran over the shallow river sand. Day 1 placings put me ahead of Aziz the Malaysian by 2 minutes and John the Aussie was a further 14 minutes back. We three started together in the same heat. Due to their superior hull speeds, we were all within striking distance of a win. Personally, all I had to do to guarantee a win was to stay with these guys today, ……..an idea that was blown out the door the instant the gun went! John and Aziz blasted ahead. Plan B was to keep Aziz in sight and hope that John stays less than 14 minutes ahead of that. Emotionally I was see-sawing. Day 1 had been a fantastic revival from my aim of a top 5 placing to a win with a 2 minute buffer. Now my buoyant spirits were being plunged, as the buffer wasn’t gonna be enough. The other two were out of sight ahead of me. It was time for the turbo booster. In rather a contradiction of terms, the 80 year old Steve Gurney revisited, evicting that moaning superficial being that reacts to pain and fatigue. I felt that wonderful flame of burning desire heat my soul. My mind sharpened and focused only on efficiency and pulling back the guys ahead. As if in reward, the river changed unexpectedly to a beautiful little tree canopied gorge. The cool respite from the sun, fueled my drive even more. Within an hour I’d regained the lead. Aziz blew up, leaving John and I to battle it out to the finish. In a do or die half hour blast, I beat John to take line honours by 50 metres. All skeletons are cleared from my closet and it feels fantastic. I challenge you to face your fears. Men's K1 Race Results: 1st Steve Gurney NZ 4:04:03 2nd Aziz Malaysia 4:12:00 3rd John Australia 4:22:23 4th Michael O'Donnell NZ 4:40:49 Michael performed fantastically for an old fart! (It must be pointed out here that he was NZ National whitewater champion in 1975). First Woman: Chen Yuen-Li Malaysia 6:00:56 Race Description: Day 1 is 22 km of grade 3 to 4 rapids. Day 2 is 35 km of essentially flat water shrouded by spectacular rainforest. The event is open to K1, K2 and 6 person rafts. Hype before the race: The Cameron Descent is not just another Kayak race. It is a very worthwhile and affordable Grade 4 paddling adventure trip for experienced paddlers. It is also an excursion into one of the world’s oldest rainforests to meet the Orang Asli aborigines and to live their primitive lifestyle for a couple of days. The Telom river starts in northwest Pahang mountains in the Cameron Highlands, at approx 5000 feet altitude. Fly to Kuala Lumpur (Flight is nine and a half hours). Race organisers: Base Camp Sdn Bhd. Phone: 603 457 5007 Fax: 603 457 3007 e-mail basecamp@ppp.nasionet.net A 12-2-2, One Ampang Business Avenue Jalan Ampang Utama 2/2 6800 Ampang Selangor Durul Ehasan Malaysia