Build up - Preparation

With the New Year has come a mix of thoughts and emotions.  I have not made an New Years resolutions as I have so many goals already in place that there really is little room for more.

Being 2012 I now feel like I need to really prepare for the hike more seriously, more diligently, more thoroughly.  I need to be fitter, smarter, and healthier then 2011, I need to be more focused on my goals.

Speaking with my personal trainer - Marcus Bourne of M power Personal Fitness - Marcus suggested that I create a calendar of goals so that I can map out what objectives I need to achieve in preparation for my departure.

For those of you who are local, I invite you as often as possible to join me in training.  Receiving your encouragement and support through your participation in some training has to this point been motivating and I look forward to having fun training with you all at some stage this year.

Here is the "Game plan"

February

We will welcome our 3rd child this week so training and personal goals will take a back seat to being a father.  We look forward to welcoming "Andie Grace Belanger" on February 1 via C-section surgery.
February really becomes a month of maintaining my current condition.

This will consist of 3 gym sessions a week to continue to build a solid core strength and muscle conditioning.  Although "big"muscles aren't required for hiking I do believe in having an overall strong physique as you never know when it will come in handy.  In my trip with Dad "Wow! What an Eye opener" see past article.  We came to a section which had our weight sliding downward left across a small cliff.  Unfortunately for Dad, the humidity had got to him and he fell upside down pack and all and was perched in a couple branches inches from falling 10 metres down a cliff into a fairly dry creek bed.  Knowing that I am able to pull him & his pack up quickly and safely if worth carrying a couple extra kilos of muscle.

I will continue to ride my bicycle about 100km each week which has become easier now that I have sold my car..... I partially sold it so that I am forced to ride or run to work or other venues and force myself to train more during a standard business day.

I want to increase my running kilometres from about 15km per week up to about 25km per week.

And of course as always I need to watch my food.  It seems every week I learn something new about the food I'm eating.  Whether its a new tasty recipe, or that a certain food no longer agrees with my digestive process.  I guess I'm more aware these days.

In 3 weeks I have a weigh in and body fat test with Marcus Bourne and my goal is to for the first time in my life have less than 11% body fat.  Let me say that at 11% that is still the healthiest I have ever been.
My goal before my departure is to get down to about 8 or 9 % body fat.

I will also mention that this month as part of training I will be running the "Richard Rancie memorial run" around the "Tan" in Melbourne.  This is an annual event to remember a friend who died about 4 Christmas' ago.  See you local fellas there!

March

I do not plan on changing much about my personal fitness through the coming months.  I will still continue with 3 gym sessions per week of which 1 every 2 weeks with be a tough session with Marcus Bourne.  He always gets 110% out of me each work out.  I physically cannot do anymore by the time the session is over.

I will continue with my 100km approximately of bike riding per week but I will increase my running kilometres from 25km to 40km per week.

Part of preparation which I haven't really touched on but is a given for anyone doing this much exercise and planning on achieving any athletic achievement is the "mental toughness" required to succeed.  Tim Marsden & I know the Australian Alps Walking Track will throw up some challenges & we will have to be mentally fit to take them on and sort them out if we want to complete the track and do so with little errors.  In order to push my mental intensity and plan to participate in 2 fun events that will also be great endurance training for me mentally & physically.  First is the "Tough Bloke Challenge" which is an obstacle course with 15 obstacles set over a 6km trail.  This will be a light hit out early March in preparation for "Tough Mudder" which is 18 more difficult obstacles set over 20km and will no doubt test my mental & physical endurance.

These are the goals I have set for the next 2 months.  It would take people all day to ready the blog if I did the whole years goals in one segment so stay tuned for the rest of the goal setting schedule.