And so our training for the big Mount Kilimanjaro climb has begun. As you can imagine, our combination of careers means it's not that easy to get together on a regular basis to train. Having said that, I do know that everyone is prepping as much as possible.
Training to climb a mountain is a difficult one; you'd think it's pretty straightforward. You could be one of the fittest people in the world and still not make it to the summit because of the way that your body adjusts to the altitude. No one can fully prepare for that bit of the mountain but preventative measures can be taken such as taking things slow and drinking heaps of water.
January has been an especially crazy month of travelling for me. Despite this, I've managed to get in some pretty solid training. The 1st of January started for me in Dubai. Dubai is not the easiest of places to train to climb a mountain - not only is it one of the flattest place in the world it's also a desert..! And so I enlisted in the help of a personal trainer. Between gigs, I was up by 10am, hitting the treadmill in a big way.
I had a few days in London to recover, before I found myself on yet another plane and this time off to sunny Cape Town. I was actually pretty excited about this trip as not only would I get to dj to a crowd of 5000 people at the L'Orimans Queens Plate, but luckily for me, Cape Town also boasts a few small mountains that I could use for my training. So, shortly after my arrival I started my ascent up Lions Head. Whilst it's no where near the height of Kilimanjaro, it still takes 2 hours to get up to the top and some of the bits are actually quite challenging. I found myself in a few precarious positions but am happy to report that I made it..!
A few days later I was back in London but with only enough time for one session in the gym, before I was on yet another plane, this time off to the British Virgin Islands. I have to say I am pretty lucky to end up on this particular Caribbean Island, most of the other island are relatively flat. Tortola has the most amazing hills I have ever seen. It's quite unnerving while driving, but perfect for hiking. I leave my apartment every morning at 9:30am and set out for a 2-hour hike up some of the most strenuous hills I've ever experienced. After all that sweating, I get to dive into the clearest ocean you have ever seen. I would say it's a pretty awesome way to train, and I count myself incredibly lucky.
Today marks exactly one month to go, at the moment I have only one way to describe how I am feeling. "Eeeeeeeeekkkkk...." (if that word even exists.... let's just pretend for today that it does...)