Its over................ for now

So the dust has settled, my bags are unpacked, the adventure seems to be over.... this has to be the hardest blog I have to write. So much has happened in the time since the last time I wrote about our impending adventure.

I recall writing that the same person that goes up Kili never comes down, and I stick by that, for two reasons Kilimanjaro has changed me forever.

Firstly climbing Kilimanjaro was always 70/30 split between personal ambition of climbing the mountain and doing some good for charity. If I am honest, the Charity element always took a back seat.

However after actually going to the slums, hearing the stories and spending the afternoon playing with the kids who have absolutely nothing, the focused changed. My personal ambition became empty, a bitter taste in my mouth signifying a remnants of my selfishness.

What these kids go through is horrific, their reality is something that I hope none of us ever have to bare. Children with no parents and HIV living in a tin house with 30 people to a room.

The kids didn’t want to give us their sob stories, I had to learn about their horrific past and damned future from the adults, all the kids wanted to do was play. Nothing delighted them more than being picked up and thrown at Nic, who at one point had 10 or so kids climbing on him.

The second lesson learned was the importance of the team. Mountain climbing is always a selfish thing to do. The very basics is that “I” want to get to the top.

On this trip however the selfish “I” soon disappeared as the band of misfits joined together to completely transcend any selfish desire. The team developed into one amazing unit, and whereas before I openly said to the guys, that I would leave them if they had to turn around. We soon developed a bond that meant I would have rather died than left any one of my team on the side of the mountain.
It seems strange to even acknowledge this, but the mountain is almost insignificant now. The real success is the desire I have to do more for charity and seeing what my team mates have become.
Abduallah and his ability to look as if he was taking a stroll through the mall, always  badly singing in Arabic, Swahili or English. Ameer, who should have turned around halfway through the night, but kept going on and on and on, even when he showed all the signs of an exhaustion and hypothermia. Nic, who made this all happen, quite literally pulled everyone together, and despite a horrible illness on the mountain just carried on and rallied the troops.

Kilimanjaro was “epic” and getting to the top meant a lot to me, but it was nothing compared to the brothers I made out of friends, and the drive to not simply see atrocities on TV and simply say “that’s horrible”

The last line in my blog however shouldn’t be about me; it should be about you, everyone  who donated to a cause. Without your support and the support of Thomson Reuters, North Face, Talise  everyone who gave gifts for the pub quiz,  this could never have happened, and believe me when I say your money will significantly change the lives of people half way across the world who have less than nothing. So from the bottom of my heart I thank you! 

The Battle is over and the war is won

Very very happy to confirm that all four of us made it to the summit, Uhuru peak.

Thanks to everyone who supported us

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Praise be. The time is upon us

He saw our pain and suffering, and he knows of the good of our journey, so yesterday his omnipotent power reigned supreme, he reached out with his noodly appendage, touched us and cured us of our ills

Small inside joke

Just in the  nick of time, the bug has passed, and we are quickly getting back to fighting fitness. VERY relieving indeed. But I have to draw the positives, it forced us to finally rest, so now we’ll be stronger for it J

The excitement is now unbearable, only a few days of work to pass before we get to the mountain and achieve the ultimate goal. For me it’s been quite a journey. I can’t tell you why I’ve always wanted to climb Kili, it’s not really a rational goal. I’m not a mountain climber, I’ve never been to Africa. But I’ve always wanted to go.
You may already know that Nas and I by this point should of already been to Kili, we should already have been able to claim the mountain and challenge as conquered. But some higher powers had others plans, during training preparations last year I went to a wedding, stood in Church and professed to not believing in God – the following morning whilst running I broke my ankle, quite badly.
SO, either God is a bit of a git and quite vengeful, my Pastafarian power above thought I was ill prepared, or it was just back luck, the opinions have made for many amusing conversations this year.

That’s brings us back to now, take 2!!

I had four objectives for this trip:
Raise enough money
Get fit enough
Get down to 100kgs
Climb the mountain

I am over the moon, a few days before the trip to have achieved the first 3.

Between us we’ve raised, 80’000 Dirham’s. A sterling effort from all involved, I once again extend my sincere thanks to every friend, family member, colleague and company that supported us. I will assure you now that It will go to a very good use, later on I shall show you the pictures following out trip to the charity and the kids this coming Friday

The getting fit enough and losing weight have gone hand in hand. Since about Feb I’ve trained every week, hard. I’m in better shape than I have been for a long time. Thanks go to Nas, who pushed me every step, joined me in every stupid idea and then dreamt up the next silly training session, and to Abs and Ameer who brought enthusiasm and comradery. Upping our game has made all the difference. Today I weigh 100.5kg, when I took my first measurement in March/April’ish I weighed in at 118.5, that’s 3 stone lost in the last few months, I can only imagine how much that’s going to help me once on the mountain. Nas put it into perspective this morning by saying that I could now carry our entire teams daypacks it would still only be what I weighed a few months ago.


So in the nature of adventure, in the name of charity, in the need to make a difference and in the spirit of an awesome challenge..................BRING IT ON

Ps Feel the loving embrace of His Noodly Appendage :)

Coming apart at the seems

Most of last week’s training was fantastic, I really really enjoyed it.

The guys and I even got some serious man down time, and went and played in Talise’s main gym

Nic soon discovered a heavy bag, and we got to take our cabin fever out on the bag doing three minute rounds. Followed by some hilarious grappling.

That however, seems like a distant memory, after a brilliant training session in Ski Dubai, everyone of us has been hit by a mystery bug.

My body is seriously under attack and losing. I only came into work, because trying to sleep hurts.

Nic, Abz and Ameer have all got it. So with 4 days to go, everyone is on the lowest point they can be.

The only positive is that we were talking about tapering down the training, having not trained for two days this isn’t what I had intended, but the rest will do my legs well.

Writophobia.. The real challenge of Kili!

So this will be my second blog post, and if anyone saw my first one you'll notice it was a cheat as it consisted of just pictures and no words apart from the captions (I tried the "pic is worth a thousand words" excuse but I didn't really get away with that).

The truth is I have been procrastinating to write anything in this blog as in my mind the concept of creative writing seems to be more of a challenge than the Kili climb itself! After much chasing from the team mates and also a couple of threats (namely from Nic) I finally found the courage to give it a real attempt.

Preparing for this trip has made me.. well.. grow up! When we first started off a couple of months back, I literally thought Nasir's message suggesting a training session at 7am on a Friday was a joke. I replied with "lol" but noone acknowledged, and that's when I began to realise it wasn't a joke. Giving into the peer pressure I agreed to it but still wasn't 100% convinced that everyone would be committed to that. I mean really? 7am? Weekend? So as usual I went out that Thursday night with the "let's see how it goes" attitude. Coming back home from that late night, I had convinced myself that others would drop out for sure, so I didn't turn up!

I woke up with messages from the team that they had a great session. They stayed true to their word and cracked on! I felt disappointed in myself. I let them down and let myself down. From then on things were different. If I say yes to a training session, I will do it no matter what it takes, and being awake at 5am on a Friday has become a norm. A late night out would never be an excuse even if it meant I didn't sleep at all, and I have drastically reduced late nights out on weekends because I don't need them. I feel great about it!

I'm still not perfect. Yes I will turn up to the session but I will probably be 20 mins late :) We are 5 days away and everyone is packed and ready to go, yet I didn't buy my kit until today.. and I still don't have a camelback! I am so unorganised that I lost my prescription for the malaria tablets.. I don't even have my passport because I didn't hand it in for the Kenyan visa until last Wednesday.. this is #lastminute.com, #storyofmylife.

But I promise you, I will have all my kit items down to the spare shoe laces, I will have everything packed into my bags and ready, I will have my passport, I will have my tablets, I will respond to Tazmin's email about my choice of lunch, and I will climb Kilimanjaro.. and most of all, I will finally post this blog!!

5 days to go

Our "tapering down" down phase got a little more tapered than expected yesterday.
We all went out and did the snow hike in the morning, then by midday started to feel crap. three of the four of us are now laid up in bed with a fluish sickness
Just what the doctor didnt order!!

Oh well, at least we taking in some rest!!`

Paper over the cracks

This is one of those rare occasions where writing a blog is pretty hard, if I write about the injuries and issues it only makes them seem more real. So for now, I am pushing them to a very dark place in the back of my brain, they will only be let out when Inshallah I make it back down the mountain. Needless to say, training everyday is taking its toll and I cant help but feel my past sins are coming back to haunt me in the form that all the old MMA and BJJ injuries seem to have amassed together and look to be out flanking me.

On the positive side, for inspiration I am watching lots and lots of Bear Grylls,  currently going through the Foreign Legion series.  “don’t think, do” is their mantra, and yesterday through training it worked brilliantly, managed to push through a very hard gym session.

On the bloody brilliantly positive side, we are training in the Altitude Chamber at Talise, the science I am able to put into my training is fantastic. Because of the high tech equipment I can get readings of my blood oxygen level and every machine I go on pairs with my the Heart Rate monitor, so I get constant readings of my heart rate.
Yesterday I broke the session into three parts. The room was at 2800 meters above sea level, I spent 30 minutes on the bike, keeping my heart between 130-140. After the bike, I did the Crossfit Omar Circuit at full speed. Lastly full incline on the running machine, with variable speed, but keeping the HR above 150 for 30 minutes.

We have another 10 days of this, and I am loving being able to have access to the gym.
If anything can help me paper over the cracks, its having access to the best facilities in Dubai, and being able to Ivan Drago my training J  

The countdown has begun

This is it, the start of the adventure is only just around the corner. We are now under two weeks and last night began our oxygen chamber sessions, 12 of them that will lead us right up until the day before the climb.

It was a pretty big weekend all round, some good training, good preparation and a fantastic sense of excitement for the impending trip

Ameer, Nas and I trained together Friday morning, an 11k walk in the sand and then two sets of stairs, about 4.5 hours all in all. It was nice to feel that all of us found it quite easy and could have gone on far longer - but we all had plans.

The following day Nas and I were up at 5am to go cycling. There is a desert cycling track that leads out to a hotel 30k's away. We cycled there, sat for a breakfast coffee and banana and then cycled back........faster!

A few hours rest by the pool and then our first session in the chamber.

We started on a nice easy height last night, with the room set to 2500m, we will then increase this height every day until we leave. We are all very excited to already have trained at 3500m before we even get to Africa

Some pre trip admin got done this morning, our yellow fever vaccinations are now complete. All of course performed with the expected Dubai military precision. Arrived at the clinic at 7.30 sharp (opening time) and left at 10.30. The responsible staff didn't even arrive until 8.35! I literally have no idea how such hopeless organisation is still allowed to exist of such an aspirational city

Panic on the dance floor

I spent a considerable bulk of my last submission discussing my inherent shortcomings as opposed to my team mates. It is beyond contestation that I have always been at a physical disadvantage climbing the mountain being as unfit as I am. However it has now transpired that my disadvantages are IQ related as much as they physical.

This past Wednesday I indulged in what is essentially a night of mayhem fueled by 3 dollar bottles of booze. It did not end well. At some point during the night I slipped down a well cleaned marble stair case (damn Dubai) and sprained my big toe. It’s a whirlwind of pain. I am enraged that something so small could destroy months of work so quickly.

I was wearily okay with it at first until a phone call with Nic put things in perspective. I essentially have two weeks for my toe to heal or else I could miss out on this trip. I could definitely have done without this dosage of drama.

I am currently ticking the RICE (rest, ice, compress, elevate) steps. I will practically lock myself up this weekend in hopes that this proves to be a simple sprain that will heal come Sunday. I am slightly more optimistic now that I am able to step on it. Hopefully this will only be a floating cloud. One thing is for sure now, I’m going into bubble boy mode until this trip comes along.

Tick tock

The months have drawn into weeks now and it will soon be days. When I used to talk about climbing Kili, I was comforted by the fact that I was able to say, its in a few months, I have loads of time to train! Now I can quite literally count the days.

I am delighted to say that we have raised our money, in most part thanks to Nic, his ability in organising fund raising events, getting large organisations to sponsor us has been exceptional.

I think me, harry and Ameer owe in a very big thanks.

On the training side, training has come along incredibly well, everyone is pushing themselves well beyond their limits.
Ameer is pretty much unrecognisable from the overconfident underprepared “yea man” character he was. We actually call him “New Ameer”, because his turn around has been that drastic. He has even called me a few times to lecture me about not training enough.

Harry ,  has no right to be pushing himself this far, the slight fat soft dough boy, has been turned into a machine.  When we were training up Jebal hafeet mountain, he simply left the group when we stopped for a rest, and pushed all the way through.

I still have 2 major fears that are constantly going around in my head. Altitude is still the biggest. Reading the blogs, Ive seen how it has turned grown men into a crying mess. One blog that sticks to my mind, was where a guy actually leaves his wife because she cant make it.

He then spent the next 7 hours crying his way up the mountain....Altitude is no joke, around 5 people a year die on Kili because of it, and there is no doubt, each of us are going to suffer.

Out of every 10 people trying our route up kili, statistically 6 wont make it. I hope that in our group none of us are that 6, but the challenge is such that we have even planned as a group for the very real prospect one of our bodies gives up.
The harsh reality is the rules on the mountain, is if you get too sick from the altitude you have to turn around and go down as the group continues without you.

My next worry is injuries, years of combat sports have meant both my knees have dislocated at some point, and with the extra load ive been pushing through them during training has meant that they constantly hurt.  This is where having great team mates really helps, no matter how much my knee hurts, I think about Nic, who once described the pain in his back as “the devil grabbing your spine and twisting it” When he does 4 hours of stair walks with  body that damaged, I cant really moan about a dull pain in my knee.

Each and every one of us has used this to push ourselves mentally and physically beyond our comfort zones.

There is a proverb about Kili that the same person never walks up and down the mountain, because you are always a different person after completing the challenge, seeing what training has done to me and the team I can really believe it.  

75% there

I had a personal target of being under 100kg by the time we got too the mountain.

When we started the journey, I weighed in at a mighty 118.5KG. So nearly a 20kg target

Last night  i weighed myself for the first time in ages. 106.5kg. 

So, with 3 weeks down done 12kg's and have 6.5kg to go. 2kg's a week, tough. 

Let's see how that works out

:)

3 weeks and counting

In order to make sure that the guys fully understand the test that stands in front of them I've sent round a the excerpts of a few journals I've found from previous climbers
Rather than prepare them, they're all now petrified

Oops

Another new PB!

But this time not for me.
Ameer, Abs and I did two sets of the stairs again last night, and annoyingly for me the fitness of youth shone through.

It typical Ameer fashion, shrugging off any expectancy or doubt, he donned the altitude training mask in he usual 'yeah why not' fashion and shot up the stairs without any perceived effort and finished 90 seconds faster than me! 24.5 Minutes.
I was delighted, now I have a target to aim for!
Not having been pushed enough by using the elevation mask, he then tried to beat my normal time (without the mask) which stands at 19.20 secs from the day before. This time however depleted energy levels got to him and he finished in very respectable time, but 42 seconds slower than that which I had set the day before

I think this inter team competition is going to step up a gear. Nas gets back in a few days and currently holds the slowest time in the mask, I can guarantee he goes all out to change that within 2 days of being back!

New PB

My training isn't going to set anyone's mind alight with interest, but hopefully one day it will provide a good indicator of what I went through to get to the top of Kili.

Last night I wasn't blessed with a great deal of time, so I opted for speed instead, and set myself the challenge of getting to the top of 82 floors as quickly as possible.
Racing up such a long flight of stairs is difficult, go to slow and the result is obvious against the clock, go to fast and risk having to stop or have leg fatigue/lactic acid kick in too soon and too harsh.
So I set myself the target of 20 mins, knowing that we usually take around 25 minutes at an average pace.

I started badly, far too fast, and within 10 floors the burn set in my calves, I took this on board and slowed back down to 5 Minute per 21 floor pace. I soon hit an excellent rhythm and flew up the next 40 flights. All the while I was calculating how long the next ten floors would take and how much time I could save. When should I start running?
Bearing in mind by floor 60 my heart was beating out of my chest, I stepped up a gear, only 30 secs faster per 10 floors but it made such a difference to how I felt, my heart was now audible above the Biffy Clyro songs blaring from my Ipod.
Floor 70, time to jog. Psyching myself up I broke into a jog, it lasted 3 floors before wanting to be sick.
9 Floors left, cant stop, cant go slower, cant be sick, just keep moving.
7 Floors left, why have these stairs got longer? Why are they taking so long? Has this got harder? I need to stop
5 Floors left, Go faster, don't be sick, go faster. don't be sick, don't be sick
3 Floors, run , run , run
1 Floors left, elation.
Heart currently thudding through my chest at 165 Bpm

19 Minutes and 20 seconds

Now onto the gym, much more to do!

A Fat-inating Realization

There has been a lot said on this blog about our training. If there is any distinguishing feature about our group though it is the sheer discrepancy in each of our respective fitness levels. There is a joke which I have shared with anyone willing to hear, much to their dismay. Nas has actual fitness, Nic has mental toughness...I have nothing (the joke predates Amir). There is a sense of bewilderment among some circles at the fact that I climb out of bed every morning, so it is no wonder that I have gotten quite a few quizzical looks whenever I disclosed my plan to climb Kilimanjaro. Even my mother has a lingering belief that this is not really happening. And that's saying something because she is the quintessential supportive Arab woman. This is why it is so important that I write my view of our Kilimanjaro training to represent my people. The few. The proud. THE FAT.

Strict parent (Nic) and fun parent (Nas) have been generous with their description of my feats, on this blog specifically. However it should be said that this mainly stems out of their general preference for constructive criticism. In reality, my greatest achievement so far has been achieving average results. But I'm not going to deny my pride in that.

Growing up I was obese, flat footed, and just outright unathletic. The only sports I ever joined were the basketball in middle school and rugby at university. The first ended upon the immediate realization that's I couldn't dribble the ball for the life of me. For those of you unfamiliar with the game of basketball, dribbling is somewhat extremely important to do almost anything. The second lasted for a full 2 years, where when I was lucky I would get to warm up the bench. My sparkling career ended when I dislocated my shoulder and realized that I'll give sports a 30 year rest until I pick up golf. The prospect of little to no movement has me looking forward to my post retirement sporting career.

This lengthy introduction brings us back to this proud month. This climb has been a revelation. The “average” results I have achieved since the start of our training reflect an exponential increase in my fitness since the start of all this. Running 5Ks in the morning has become a warm up exercise. Climbing 82 stairs, our main form of exercise, has become commonplace. A regular workout is going for around 200 staircases. Granted I do hold the distinct advantage of growing up in Lebanon, where electricity is sparse and stair climbing is the national sport. But fact of the matter 200 staircases is still a lot of stairs. The highlight would have been this week, when I actually beat Nas’s time of climbing with an altitude mask on (sorry NAs :) ). Nic, Ameer and I went on a 5 hour trek of Dubai this weekend the day after doing 200 staircases and while I wouldn't say it was a breeze, I’ll admit I was out again that very same afternoon.

Why am I listing all these? I am definitely not trying to brag here, because anyone with basic fitness would be able to do all the above easy. This is a written monologue of sorts, reflecting my attempt to explain who I have become. This certainly is not the first time I had a crack at an active lifestyle, but it just might be the first time I succeeded at it. The reason, after great reflection, is my light at the end of the tunnel. I want to climb Kilimanjaro. I have tied this hand in hand with our fundraising efforts. I do not want to get there and fail (or die for the matter).  I know what all this is leading to.

Since we made our way out of the cave, hunting is not really a daily activity and the only form of survival you need to practice is professional. We have no goals to aspire to. This will sound extremely basic, but I am sure my fat brethren can use all the reminders they can get. SET GOALS! Find your light at the end of the tunnel. Everything will get progressively easier from there on. You will succeed every time. I already am looking for my post Kili-goal  because this lifestyle is worth keeping.

Author, Model, Athlete

Three words that should never be used to accurately describe me.

Another tough week of training, having seen some form of exercise every day this week, including two grueling stair sessions with the elevation mask on, and another two without, finally culminating today with a 4 hour beach hike ending in 37 degree heat.
Very happily Im told that we are pushing ourselves far harder than most of the trekkers usually do (in this charity's experience), I pray to god that it proves useful.

It wasn't just the training that stepped up a notch this week, so did our sponsorship. We hit our first fundraising target thanks to great support from friends, family and colleagues.
We also progressed our plans with the Talise gym at the Madinat. Talise have very kindly given us some use of their altitude chamber. You should see this thing, its amazing, a full on gym inside the chamber -all of the latest technogym treadmills, bikes, a rower and a trx/weight station. Couldn't ask for more, cant wait to use it!
Before what I do now, I used to run gyms, and that in addition to being a former gym monkey - I've seen the inside of a few. This place is unlike the ones I've seen.
All the latest cardio kit and so many pieces you'd never wait for a machine. Free weights that if combined would outweigh all the elephants in Africa, Studio rooms over spilling with circuit/spinning/boxing equipment and pool facilities that would give Mike Phelps a shiver.
So we turned up to the gym yesterday for a photo shoot with Mens Fitness who are covering our story for the August Issue. Ive never had a proper photo taken before, it felt very weird posing-without posing for a camera whilst on a treadmill!
If anything though, we looked the part. North face have given us some exceptional kit and it looked excellent in the shoot.

The jackets they've given us are amazing, like the old duckdown puffer jackets, but 1/4 the size, so far they feel very warm, but we are going to do a snow hike at Ski Dubai next week, so Ill report back on how good they were in the proper cold.
All in all a very good week. But tiring, so off to the land of nod for me.

Is this the shape of things to come

Over the years, Ive trained pretty hard at different sports, Ive pushed myself to different levels.........today was a whole new level for me.

Nas has an altitude training mask, or elevation mask. It replicates high altitude by cutting the oxygen flow with different filters.

We agreed that we'd try it on the stairs last night, I was late out of work so when i got home Nas was just finishing the first ascent of the stair well.
Bearing in mind the stairwell is 82 floors high, I asked him many flights it took before it made a difference, his reply was 3!!
I understood as soon as i put it on, I DID NOT expect it to be that tough.
Continually and dramatically sucking for air and not getting anywhere.
Slowest 26 minutes of my life!! Great training though :)

A good weeks training

Well Im happy with that weeks training, it increased well from the week previous

At the end of it all, 26000 Steps, 1300 Flights of stairs, 8 hours in the stair well and a nice 15km walk down Jumeriah beach road

At this rate I should be in a lot better shape come the big day................4 weeks time!!!

I dragged Ameer up three flights of the Tower on Friday morning, conscious that none of the others are spending enough time building up their leg strength. He did well, broken by the end of it mind you, Im sure he'll of slept well afterwards!
Right now off to think up the next training challenge

13120

The number of stairs I've climbed this week............so far

So far this week I've managed to find enough time to get up and down the tower twice, twice!!

And tomorrow, we (as Im dragging the others up there) are aiming for four times - that's going to hurt!!

Only myself to blame....

When I was younger our PE teacher Mr Duffy called a few of us to the front of assembly. As I walked up to the front, I contemplated what trouble I was in, trying to figure out what they could pin on me during this soon to be public trial.

AS I got to the front, where there were now 6 or 7  of us that were that were called, I looked at my co accused, confusion set in. I couldn’t recall a single crime or misdemeanour committed with all of these guys.

My fear of a public lynching dropped somewhat, as we were all handed a test. Mr Duffy, then said to us that the first person to complete the test would be given a prize.

I immediately turned the page and before listening to any instructions, I began using fingers and thumbs to do additions, quickly working my way through the 10 or so questions set before us.

To my dismay, my best friend at the time Kunle, who was far far better than I at Maths, had finished the test first, I wasn’t even second or third.

I bring up that day because a lesson I should have learned then, resurfaced today.

On the first day of every week (Sunday in the UAE) I like to just do a cardio or Crossfit session. Today I choose the Omar WOD. (workout of the day)

The fantastic thing about crossfit is you don’t need to spend lots of money train, you don’t even need to join a crossfit gym, they post a different WOD each day, and you go out and give it a go.

They also encourage the community to post times, so people have something to work towards.

This particular morning, I looked up the Omar, scrolled down slightly, saw a 6.03 time, and wondered down to the gym.

The Omar consists of the following:

95 pound barbell Thrusters, 10

15 Bar-facing burpees

95 pound barbell Thrusters, 20

25 Bar-facing burpees

95 pound barbell Thrusters, 30

35 Bar-facing burpees

6 Minutes into the exercise, it dawned on me that I was going to finish nowhere near the WOD time. I nearly dropped the weight on my head and instead of jumping over the bar to do the burpee is trotted like a broken horse.

The last 30 Thrusters were soul destroying, I had planned to try to get to 15 before taking a small rest, but after 10, it got too much so the whole thing took three attempts.

By the end, I had finished in 9:35 and was gutted, I really really pushed, and was nowhere near 6 minutes.

As I walked sadly home I went on to the Crossfit website (www.crossfit.com) to look at some other times to see how bloody bad I was, I then noticed something.

Yes the first post said 6:03, but that wasn’t the time he did it in, but the damn time of day he posted it.

This brings me back to that day in school, Mr Duffy hadn’t brought us up there to see who could finish the test the quickest. As Kunle awaited his Prize for finishing first, Mr Duffy asked him to read the front page.

On the front page of the test, it clearly said “Read all the questions before starting the test” He then asked Kunle to question 11, which simply read “ Do not answer any of the questions”

I should have learned that day to not half read something before jumping in with both feet, I didn’t. Today, I learned never do a bloody Crossfit WOD without reading through it properly and nearly killing myself in the process.

I kid you not, my chest is still burning. 

Fundraising update

The day draws closer!!

We now have only 6 weeks until the climb, so yesterday we had a huge fundraising day and tried out best to squeeze a little money from quite literally everyone we know, and plenty that we don't! 

Firstly we have a bake sale at work, providing sweety goodness for our colleagues. We started by politely smiling and offering our treats, after a few hours this turned into standing over peoples desk and strong arming them into parting with their cash. 1700 Dirhams later Abs and Nas left the office smiling!

Then straight onto the big event, our quiz night! A brilliant 65 friends, and colleagues came to support us on the night, from all corners of the planet and all level of quiz knowledge. A small fear was soon realised, I passed the microphone to Nas at witnessed the transformation from annoying to really loud and annoying, I created a monster. He definetly enjoyed having the power of being able to make people listen to him. Bravo to Abs, he wrote the questions to his first quiz and quickly came to a simple understanding, against his adamant belief not everyone is a fan of Nintendo, harry potter and comic books! The poor man was heart broken

(As were some of the quiz participants when another comic book hero hit the projector screen)

4000 questions later we had winners, the PWC girls doing a great job despite the small number of them. Then there was our raffle, we had thankfully been given some great prizes - THANKYOU Rotana , Hilton and Raddisson Blu and the crowd gleefully received them, many many smiley faces! One of the prizes was so good we held an auction and took a brilliant donation of 1800 dirhams from our friend Nina! Great end to the night, over 9000 dirhams raised. On a quick tally up we only have 6000 left to go!!

Thank to everyone that made the effort to come, and even more to the people that donation in their absence!

Dubai comes to our aid!

Dubai's a funny old place. It’s really only actually home to a small amount of people, everyone else is a guest of either short or long stay. We definitely fall into the former, and I certainly so with only two years under my belt. Being such a varied and transient society it’s hard to feel a connection to the city, the people, the culture, everything changing at such a fast pace.

But I made a real connection last week.

As a group we’ve been doing the usual fundraising activities, emailing friends/family to donate, doing raffle's, and soon a pub quiz. For the pub quiz I needed prizes so I set about trying to track some down via friends, with a small amount of joy (thanks Ali).

I then went on the offensive toward the big brands, mostly the hotels and the response was AMAZING. I sent a very simple and honest email to a handful of contacts and told it how it was:

We are off to climb a mountain for charity

It really help some kids who need the help

Please help us

I got the usual and expected palm off's from most, but I can’t tell you how happy I was to see some of the responses:

"This is a great cause which we would love to support and in case we can assist you with anything else, please let me know."

"Thank you for your below email and we are happy to support you for this great cause"

I didn’t anticipate such a personal, supportive and charitable replies to my request. It gave me a fresh boost of enthusiasm toward the inhabitants of this city!

Huge thanks to Rotana hotels & resorts your support has been unparalleled

Not forgetting the excellent credit due too Radisson Blu, ITP, Hilton and the Entertainer for your support it has been amazing

Thank you Dubai!!

(Pub quiz is Wed 7pm offshore sailing club, YOU MUST BE REGISTERED to get past the door so please email me first on nic.potter@thomsonreuters.com) 

Training update

So the training is coming along well..............................for me

Apparently Abs and Ameer are getting on well in their mid week sessions, Nas - given his updates seems to be pushing himself too, to enter a cross fit competition or something gym related

I on the other hand have been doing specific uphill training and aside from runs have done some serious uphill work in the last week.
During a 4 day trip to Petra managed some quality training, including a thigh deep, up stream hike for two hours, a 10 set 80 stair sprint circuit and an 8 hour hike with 2-3 of it Uphill.
Last night, our first night back, I was out on the stairs for 90mins and did 150 floors. Two laps of our tower, I'm going to start upping this to 3 and 4 laps as of next week

I'm starting to think that I'll have to write motivational messages on my back for the guys to read much much further down the mountain :)

Bouncing Back to form!

Like a self proclaiming prophecy, after my last blog, I took a few days off as the 6 days a week training for 2 weeks just took its tool.

The last three days back in training have been loads of fun! Feels great to get back into it.

Ive lost my training partner Ali to his girlfriend, so its just that little bit harder getting up at 6:00 to be in the gym when there is no one relying on you to train.

Started with the AR7 squat a back session, for those of you who have never done its horrible!

Basically leaves you with an end result of total of 110 Deadlifts, 110 Weighted Squats, 110 Jumping Squats in less than 40 mins.

I added on 10 x 10 second incline sprints on the running machine, then decided to run to my apartment, managed to run 10 flights of stairs and walked 2-this as it turned out, was a stupid idea as I couldn’t get from the stairwell to corridor because the fire door only works from the other side. The walk down 12 flights as I swore lots was very long.

The following day, was a AR7 chest session, which I always love.

I wanted to mix it up yesterday, so I did the Randy Couture Barbell workout.

Bent (Horizontal) Rows x 8

Uprows x 8

Military Press (NOT push press – keep knees stiff)  x 8

Good Mornings x 8

Split Squats/Rear Lunges x 8 (each leg)

Squat Push Press x 8

Straight-leg deadlift x 8

Then put the bar down and rest for 60 seconds and repeat 6 times.

I started with 10kgs each side of an Olympic bar, dropped to 5kgs straight after the first set!

Along with the Crossfit stuff, I absolutely LOVE this routine, you are in and out of the gym in no time, but it quite literally destroys you.

As I trained twice yesterday, I have given this mornings session a miss, but am going to head to the pool straight after work and see if can do a 1km swim.

I hate swimming, its the only exercise where my brain doesn’t switch off, all that goes through my head the entire time is stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!

Need to get a waterproof mp3 player, as the 40 min swim feels like purgatory! I am only doing it as its a low impact activity and works the whole body!

The highlight this week is that our story came out in UAE Outdoor Magazine, thanks to the fact that Nic can take a photo and I cant, Im in some pretty cool pics J

Its official

Lightest I've been for a considerable time.
A quick jump on the scales during the weekend away confirmed that I have lost exactly 1 stone since starting  training
Amazingly during 5 days away travelling across Jordan I also made time to train 4 days! and fit in two hikes! This MUST be getting serious

Too much of a good thing?

ROSALIND: Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?

Come, sister, you shall be the priest and marry us.

Give me your hand, Orlando. What do you say, sister?

If you’re wondering where the above comes from, its Shakespeare's As You Like It. Like many of Shakespeare’s great quotes, they have been adopted into mainstream language.

The gym is no doubt a good thing, I  love it, since starting training for Kili I’ve been training roughly 6 days a week, and I can really see the benefit ive had to punch new holes in my belt, ive lifted more and pushed harder.

The reason I quote Shakespeare here is because, ive derived so much benefit in the last few weeks,  but I couldn’t help feeling really really tired today. The AR7 chest routine is a monster.

100 push up, 100 squats

7 Dips, 7 diamond push ups – repeat down to 5 then do 3 sets

Incline bench and flys follow the same pattern – 7,7,6,6,5,5

Flat Bench  wide superset with close grip does the 7,7,6,6,5,5

Once your over that, then, standing military presses with but you do 7, hold the bar up for 5 seconds (active rest) then work down to 5.

Then I see what the WOD is from the cross fit website and do that.

This is no doubt a good thing, I love the feeling of smashing a session like this, but man it’s taking its toll on its me as well.

So Mr Shakes, I kind of agree with you! 

Small training update

Big week this week so far!
Gym session, 12 km run AND then 150 floor climb last night.
Which Abs BOSSED AGAIN.
Im beginning to think we have a hustler in the team

Do you want to fight crime?

I once read somewhere that all the crimes of the world are different forms of stealing (it probably was “The Kite Runner”…I genuinely hope my lack of originality does not turn you off so early on though).  Theft is obviously synonymous with stealing. Murder is stealing someone’s life. Rape is stealing someone’s self esteem. The list goes on. I cannot deny the truth of this. All crime is rooted in the same cause.

There is however, in my world at least, another way of looking at this that reveals an equally gruesome crime. All crime is actually derived from the same effect, missed opportunity. Stealing is someone’s missed opportunity to use the money to invest, to vacation…or more importantly to eat. Murder is someone’s missed opportunity to spend time with a loved one. Rape is someone’s missed opportunity at a healthier life.

It is also criminal that children the world over still miss an opportunity to achieve their full potential due to lack of access to resources as basic as education. There’s a reason there have been so few African Nobel Prize winners, and I promise you it has everything to do with there being so few African university students. There is also a reason African nations still lag behind on most development metrics, and I promise you it has everything to do with the type of aid they are getting. They are getting a lot of fish but no one is teaching them how to fish.

I know this because I am not too far removed from observing the effects a proper education could have on someone’s life and even that of his community. I wish I could say this story is about me, but that would take away from the mammoth effort my parents put to raise this middle class brat. This story is about another Abdallah Mukalled. An infinitely greater Abdallah Mukalled. It is about my grandfather. He left school at 6 and soldiered through a life of poverty. He grew up in 1950s Beirut where classism was still very much a reality. The clichés of a poor family are true. While everyone around him was raising a family of 8 children and sinking into the abyss of mediocrity, he was a visionary. He had two kids. He sacrificed sweat blood and tears to educate them. It is that simple. His kids would go to university no matter what. He died with very little to his name but by god has his name endured. The rest is obvious. My father seized the opportunity he was offered and produced a litter of upper middle class grade A douches. He went on to work in aid organizations and help people all around the world. The past 10 years, he has worked 30 minutes away from the village where my grandfather was born and has helped develop the area in a way that no politician or neo-feudal lord ever would.  Abdallah would tell my father every single day “my only heirloom to you is your education…so don’t mess it up”.

This brings us to the Kiliminjaro climb. No one on our team is far removed from a similar story. This one is mine. To sit here and say that the climb is just a natural progression from the above and that all along I was only climbing because I wanted to pay homage to the great man that is my grandfather would be, well, lying. Fact of the matter is it all started with an idea, than a challenging stare from Nic and Nas, then an incredulous look as I actually accepted. In fact, if I am to be awfully honest I knew absolutely nothing about the charity when I first signed up. Serendipity, though, is a beautiful thing. I have always had two dreams for my millionaire years. The first is buying an Aston Martin vanquish. The second is starting a Abdallah Mukalled Scholarship at my alma mater, the American University of Beirut (naturally this is in reference to my grandfather, because despite an inherent sense of entitlement I am not that much of a douche). The Aston Martin is still miles away, to say the least. We are talking distance to the moon miles here. But god, the force, the spaghetti monster, you name it has given me a twisted chance to achieve the second dream. My priorities shifted. Fund raising to start a university scholarship fund for the Hanne Howard fund makes me want to break out in song. I am thinking Journey-Don’t Stop Believing, but at this stage I am so psyched even Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah would do.

The kids at the Hanne Howard foundation deserve a university education and they deserve to achieve their full potential. They deserve to change their lives. For years people have been donating to build a well in a village and to feed an African child. Not to sound like a cliché here, but people would have been better served if they were educated on how to build wells or in order to feed themselves. It is criminal that there are generations of Kenyan Children who missed the opportunity to fulfill their potential. This is your chance change that. This is your chance to fight crime by helping them realize their full potential. You may never don a batman cape on the streets of your city, but this is your chance to be the true Dark Knight. Carpe Diem!

https://www.justgiving.com/climingkili/

Hafeet Journey in Pictures

Preparations, "chop chop"

 Let's do this!

Team Kili

Early days, still on top form

 

Some greenery....

...But mostly brown

Tricky at parts

Abs too far ahead of everyone

Mid-way

 Rest of it on the road, still a very long and steep walk

 Made it to the top!

Piece of cake :)

 The reward

Smarter than Tony Stark.........

Watching Iron man, one is always going to have suspend their belief in reality for the 90 minutes or so, that you’re  inside the movie theatre.  I love the idea of Tony Stark, Billionaire super intelligent playboy. The suit is pretty cool as well. Like batman, superman and every superhero movie before it, the audience is invited in to an extravaganza of explosions fight scenes and  cliff hangers.

In return for such an extravaganza, the audiences part, we are  asked to mostly leave the “that’s just impossible” comments at the door, and see where the movie takes us.

And the most part, when watching Iron man 3 that’s exactly what I did, then *watch out spoiler alert* came the bit when Tony called on a hidden army of suits to help fight the baddies at the end.

Now, I can live with flying parts, even the flying facemask that had no obvious mode of propulsion as it travelled 836 miles! What I can’t believe is the fact that Tony Stark, who has an IQ of 180 (according to Abduallah) went through everything he went through, including a Mc Giver, style shop in a DIY store, before actually calling in the Calvary, who  would have solved his problems 45 minutes earlier.

This brings me neatly onto training, I have always been able to train fairly well, I am by no means the fittest person I know, but I’m slightly better than average. I bring up this point because I’ve always been able to do this, whilst maintaining a unhealthy Shisha smoking habit. I’m not going to get drawn into a debate with myself about the pros/cons of smoking Shisha, but the fact is, as much as I fool myself, it must have some negative impact on my fitness, and going forward my health.

Therefore, I am going to do what Tony Stark didn’t do in Iron Man 3, I am going to call in the Calvary, at the beginning of this training programme rather than at the end.

As of today ( perhaps I will give myself a farewell one)  I am stopping Shisha, for those of you who know me well, this I have no doubt will come as a shock.

The great thing is, no one will ever be able to say I am as stupid as Tony Stark..... 

Quiz night finalised

Last night I popped down to DOSC- Dubai Offshore Sailing club, and booked the venue for the 22nd May.

We'll be hosting a pub quiz and raffle to raise funds for HHF and have a cracking night while we are at it! Thanks Jen for arranging this for me

I thought it would be a wise idea to run home afterwards, and up my game a bit in regards to training.
DOSC is 12.5km from my house, and it was HOT last night. Needless to say, this morning I feel pretty knackered. On my third cup of tea and its only 10am!

SAVE THE DATE - 22nd MAY - DOSC- PUB QUIZ
Flyer to be posted today
Bring a friend, bring 5!


I'm quickly noticing a grown trend with amount of people authoring on this site (ABS, NAS take the black and white capital letter HINT!!)

A Jebel Hafeet Training session

A successful weekends hiking, we have a new hike leader!

In the sweltering midday heat and barren rocky landscape Abdullah found new depths of focus and a whole new world of fitness. He is our new leader!

On Friday morning the gang drove to Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain to climb the UAE's third tallest hill

We started later than planned so our climb faced some harsh temperatures, roaring into the 30's by midday. Abs & Ameer initially petitioned for a day of sitting by the pool and chilling out., but that fell on deaf ears.

We didn't makes the plans and drive for hours to sit by a pool, we had a mountain (hill) to conquer. For embodying such an attitude I have been dubbed "strict parent", Nas being a little more relaxed but as equally determined has been (self)dubbed "cool parent". Together we are the responsible organised half of the group, Abs and Ameer are our children.

As there are no consecutive paths to the top aside from the road, our plan for the Friday morning was exceptionally laid out - go to the bottom of the hill, walk up and down bits until we are tired!!
The road is a bit too easy to climb and we wanted something that would last longer and put more stress on our legs - something I was hoping would force the realisation within the "kids" that their training should be taken more seriously and their boots needed wearing in. And what do you know - it worked.

So we started out at the bottom., parked the car and found our first path, a sheer entry into a gully. The trip down was fun, sliding on our bums down the shale surface before ascending an equally sheer path on the other side. This was repeated a couple of times before landing on a path to the natural springs, by this time we had worked up an excellent sweat and took a ten minute breather at the natural baths further round the mountain.

From there we headed straight back into the gulley's for what felt like an hour long shear ascent up a rocky path. This is where Abs found his own, tired from the first hour and the oppressive heat he took of not wanting the slow for fear of stopping, he set out a blistering pace up the track. When Nas went to catch him up, he had to run for ten minutes!

An hour or so later, out path came back to the road, and exhausted we opted to use that route to continue to the top. We were in the state Id hoped for, very tired! I was very enthuastic to find how the group interacted in such a state, how charecters changed, how people responded to the tiredness. I was very happy with the results.

The journey brought out determination, great sense of humours, comrardery and a focus toward our ultimate goal - summiting Kili

To get to the top took us a further long harsh hour, at 1pm in the afternoon the heat was now really taking effect, our conversations by this point centred purely on swimming pools and ice!

Amazingly about 15 mins from the top, a guy came up the hill in his car, honking us and holding a huge bag of ice out of the window! It was amazing, he cheered us up no end.

15 mins later, after much back slapping, high fiving and the like we retired to the pool to cool down and then sat down for a large healthy dinner at the top with the wives - who did have the luxury of sitting by the pool all day

A good day had and a great training session.

(so much so Nas and I stayed on a night and did the road walk again at 6am the morning after. Abs informs us that motivated from the climb he was also up early to run 7k the next morning!)

At the Finish, very very hot!!

On to the next session!!

Fundraising Update

A couple of weeks into making an effort and we are now up to the sum of 32000 Dirhams. Our target is 80000 so still a good way to go

Thanks for all the support so far, but still a good way to go! 

All bikers will remember the first time they get their knee down. Most of us spend years going around roundabouts at 6am slowly trying to tip the damn thing low enough to feel the rough of the road on our knee sliders.

When I think back to the day I did it, I’m not filled with a fond memory of that lovely summers day, instead my mind goes about 5 hours later, as I sat in an ambulance, left wrist broken, right arm dislocated looking back my bike in bits on the side of the road.

Its interesting how 24 hours can such joy and sadness. Yesterday was such a day, I started off in the morning doing a AR7 arm and back set:

7 pull ups, 7 BB Curls

6 Pull ups 6 BB Curls

5 pull ups 5 BB Curls  

Rest 60 seconds repeat 3 times.

7 rows 7 DB Curls

6 rows 6 Curls

5 rows 5 Curls

Again rest 60 seconds then Curls

I train with Ali Cuma from the office, who is your quintessential gym person, trains right, eats right. I am slowly introducing him to the cross fit concept and its a completely different from the norm of what he is used to. We did the Cross fit baseline test, he posted a very respectful time under 4:58 minutes. I post 3:56, which is faster than I have ever done, and given that Ali is very fit, I was incredibly happy with.

This brings me back to that Summer day 3 years ago, getting that time was like getting my knee down, little did I know an ambulance a few broken bones and a shot of Morphine was on its way.

I was joined later that evening in the gym, by Nic and Abduallah who wanted to see what their times were at the cross fit base line test. Abduallah set a time 5:38, and considering his general fitness is bloody amazing, I was so impressed with the 100% effort he gave it.

Nic... as you will see from the photo’s Nic is 100kgs +, yes he is generally fit, but his rugby and power lifting days sculptured him to be big, guys with that much muscle shouldn’t be able to move quickly!

3:52, three minutes and fifty two seconds no matter how much I write it, it hurts!!

I know im competitive, I stopped hiding it a very long time ago! He beasted the row, even this morning when I went back to set a quicker row time I couldn’t get within 10 seconds.

I remember being in hospital that day, pretty drugged up, and in quite a lot of pain, the nurse said to me, “ is it worth it, putting your life a risk for cheap frills?” In the mist of all the pain, I said yes!

Losing to Nic yesterday hurts, training this morning I squatted more, dead lifted more and rowed faster, it hurts, but its worth it!