So ... this week I'm not sure who is facing the bigger challenge, me or my old school Mini Cooper Sport, Lulu!
Tomorrow's challenge - the Pirate Rampage, takes place in Salcombe - a 4 and a half hour drive from Reading, where I'm based.
Then it's back late tomorrow night, only to have to drive to Kempton Park, Middlesex first thing on Sunday morning for the Leukemia Research Bananaman Chase, and then that evening I'm driving to Windemere to do a Bushcraft Course in the Lake District - at least another 4 and a half hours driving.
Unfortunately both these distant challenges are in places which are really difficult to access with the train, so it looks like Lulu will have to suck it up and face the challenge!
As for me, not sure how sprightly I'll be doing the 10k on Sunday! It's been a pretty manic week - not just with the three challenges I've already done since last Sunday (London to Brighton, ice-climbing and flying) but I also managed to squeeze in the Cambridge vs Oxford cricket Varsity Match at Lord's and the May Ball back at my old Cambridge college (essentially 9 hours straight of drinking!), so I'm a tad delicate already to say the least.
Plus, the Pirate Rampage finishes tomorrow night at 10pm, so after a 5 hour drive home I should get about 5 hours sleep before I'm up again and having to drive to Middlesex for the run ... delightful!
Remind me again why I do these things ;)
Charly xxx
Showing posts with label ice climbing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ice climbing. Show all posts
Friday, 20 June 2008
Friday, 13 June 2008
Challenges This Week ...
It's not just technical logistics I struggle with (oh dear, I really do need a production team!!!) ...
Sometimes Challenges provide more difficulties than just the physical ones! Take Sunday for instance - I've agreed at very short notice to cycle the London to Brighton cycle ride. 54 miles ... now hopefully my 4 hrs or so of cycling in the gym each week should stand me in relatively good stead for the race, even if, as those of you who have watched the Stockholm video will know, my camera skills behind the handlebars are absolutely appalling!
No, the problem is the logistics of getting my bike to London, and getting home from Brighton!
In the end I decided to start 2 days early, and my bike is currently locked up outside my uni's Cavendish Campus.
What an absolute nightmare taking a bike on the train and the tube! Half the tube lines don't allow them! And I still have to get it all the way to Clapham tomorrow! Oh dear!
I have decided to leave it in Brighton on Sunday and just drive home! (I have a tiny old mini - one tyre wouldn't even fit in its miniscule boot!!)
Though I'm not just being lazy, I promise!! I'm going to leave it on the coast, because I'm hoping to cycle it from Brighton to Land's End, in a warm up for cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats in November!!!
Anyway ... that's months away ... this week in addition to the cycle ride I plan to squeeze in a spot of Ice Climbing, and hopefully a Rally Car Driving Day ... oooh and I'll be filming some more footage of me learning how to jump a horse ... that Challenge to be posted soon :)
Charly xxx
Sometimes Challenges provide more difficulties than just the physical ones! Take Sunday for instance - I've agreed at very short notice to cycle the London to Brighton cycle ride. 54 miles ... now hopefully my 4 hrs or so of cycling in the gym each week should stand me in relatively good stead for the race, even if, as those of you who have watched the Stockholm video will know, my camera skills behind the handlebars are absolutely appalling!
No, the problem is the logistics of getting my bike to London, and getting home from Brighton!
In the end I decided to start 2 days early, and my bike is currently locked up outside my uni's Cavendish Campus.
What an absolute nightmare taking a bike on the train and the tube! Half the tube lines don't allow them! And I still have to get it all the way to Clapham tomorrow! Oh dear!
I have decided to leave it in Brighton on Sunday and just drive home! (I have a tiny old mini - one tyre wouldn't even fit in its miniscule boot!!)
Though I'm not just being lazy, I promise!! I'm going to leave it on the coast, because I'm hoping to cycle it from Brighton to Land's End, in a warm up for cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats in November!!!
Anyway ... that's months away ... this week in addition to the cycle ride I plan to squeeze in a spot of Ice Climbing, and hopefully a Rally Car Driving Day ... oooh and I'll be filming some more footage of me learning how to jump a horse ... that Challenge to be posted soon :)
Charly xxx
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Borneo!
Just a quickie I'm afraid as I'm on a hostel computer and there's a queue.
Have spent the last three weeks in Borneo, travelling around Sabah and Sarawak, and completing two pretty hardcore trekking challenges whilst here.
The first was Mount Kinabalu - the highest peak in South East Asia at 4095m. Not all that high compared to Killimanjaro or Base Camp, but a really tough trek because the first day you ascend 1300m in just 6 or 8km (depending which trail you take), and then the second day you ascend 800m before sunrise, and then have to come all the way down again!
The steps up were far steeper than anything on the way up to Everest Base Camp, and adding to the difficulty is the humidity - sweat literally gushed off my fringe the whole way up.
I made it to Laban Rata - the overnight stop at 3300m in just under 6 hours, and then the next morning it took me a further 2 hrs up, and 1 then 3 hrs back down again.
Accompanying me were Challengers Charlie, Kathy, Denzil, Jesse and Chris.
The second climb was The Pinnacles, a unique rock formation in the Mulu National Park in Sarawak. I thought that Mt K was hard - the Pinnacles Climb seemed twice as steep!
Just wait to watch the video to see how crazily steep the whole 2.4km climb up to the viewpoint was. I think we ascended 1300m again, but in less than half the distance!
Up Mt K every half kilometre is marked - something I'd never seen before up a mountain, though you realise why the markers are needed once you start walking - it's just like a marathon!
And yet up the Pinnacles every 100m is marked! And you feel like it takes you just as long between markers.
Jesse, Denzil and Charlie all also accompanied me up the Pinnacles, so they are all eligible for both Challenge 4 and Challenge 5 t-shirts!
Bring on Challenge 6 - Soweto!
Have spent the last three weeks in Borneo, travelling around Sabah and Sarawak, and completing two pretty hardcore trekking challenges whilst here.
The first was Mount Kinabalu - the highest peak in South East Asia at 4095m. Not all that high compared to Killimanjaro or Base Camp, but a really tough trek because the first day you ascend 1300m in just 6 or 8km (depending which trail you take), and then the second day you ascend 800m before sunrise, and then have to come all the way down again!
The steps up were far steeper than anything on the way up to Everest Base Camp, and adding to the difficulty is the humidity - sweat literally gushed off my fringe the whole way up.
I made it to Laban Rata - the overnight stop at 3300m in just under 6 hours, and then the next morning it took me a further 2 hrs up, and 1 then 3 hrs back down again.
Accompanying me were Challengers Charlie, Kathy, Denzil, Jesse and Chris.
The second climb was The Pinnacles, a unique rock formation in the Mulu National Park in Sarawak. I thought that Mt K was hard - the Pinnacles Climb seemed twice as steep!
Just wait to watch the video to see how crazily steep the whole 2.4km climb up to the viewpoint was. I think we ascended 1300m again, but in less than half the distance!
Up Mt K every half kilometre is marked - something I'd never seen before up a mountain, though you realise why the markers are needed once you start walking - it's just like a marathon!
And yet up the Pinnacles every 100m is marked! And you feel like it takes you just as long between markers.
Jesse, Denzil and Charlie all also accompanied me up the Pinnacles, so they are all eligible for both Challenge 4 and Challenge 5 t-shirts!
Bring on Challenge 6 - Soweto!
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Still to come ...
Just to give you a taster of some of the challenge ideas for the next 6 months ....
- Three Peaks
- Mount Brandon (in Ireland ... Brandon is NOT a person!!)
- Ice Climbing
- Flying Lesson
- Coasteering
- Indoor Sky Diving
- Zorbing
- Wakeboarding
- Windsurfing
- Aerobathon
- Pirate Rampage!
- Bushcraft Week
- Learn to Sail
- Mountain Leadership Course
Any other ideas?! Then get in touch! And come join me on the challenges!!
- Three Peaks
- Mount Brandon (in Ireland ... Brandon is NOT a person!!)
- Ice Climbing
- Flying Lesson
- Coasteering
- Indoor Sky Diving
- Zorbing
- Wakeboarding
- Windsurfing
- Aerobathon
- Pirate Rampage!
- Bushcraft Week
- Learn to Sail
- Mountain Leadership Course
Any other ideas?! Then get in touch! And come join me on the challenges!!
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