On Saturday, October 30, 2010 I started back with my personal trainer, Cecilia Gauvin. She’s fabulous! What an inspiring, loving, yet gentle, “butt-kicker” she is! I finally returned after 6 weeks off, due to my back injury (tripping on those pillows in my bedroom a few weeks back, the story around which I shared in an earlier bog). It was hard work, and in typical form, I begged for mercy!…but it felt good to be, “back in the saddle” again! Even by the time I got home, however, my “old” injury was reminding me that it was still hanging around, even if only by 2 or 3%. So, on with the heat body wrap for the balance of the day, and a couple of Advil, to boot…and I was good to go all over again. The next day I was fine, but I confess, for half a second there, I was worried I’d pushed it too hard and would regret my return. And now is not the time for doing that…pushing too hard, because now there are only 10 weeks to go until climb time!
I’m starting to pay attention to the daily temperatures on Mt. Kili, just out of curiosity and also because this will be the first time in my life-among all these other firsts of my life–that I’ll be sleeping all night long outside in temperatures below freezing (for we’ll be in tents for the full time on the mountain–9 days). But, of course, not all the nights will be that cold…or will they? Must look into that. Here’s the link to the Mt. Kilimanjaro daily weather forecast if you’re curious:
http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Kilimanjaro/6day/top
This coming weekend it’s up to Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario, Saturday evening, in preparation for a hike with my fellow climber on Centennial Ridges in Algonquin Park early Sunday morning. Algonquin closes this best-trail-to-train-on for the winter due to the difficulty of climbing it in snowy, icey weather. After all, no one wants to slip off a 2000 foot ridge! But, at least so far, it’s still open. Guess we’ll just be squeaking in just under the winter wire before the snow flies. I’m also shooting for an extra hike at the same location this Wednesday, as I’m up at Deerhurst on the Tuesday anyway, delivering a keynote presentation for a client’s staff off-site. What a lovely coincidence! Only trouble is, all my hike-loving friends are corporate and, therefore, I can’t seem to find a hiking buddy who’s available to do the climb on a Wednesday…at least so far. And I won’t do it alone. Not a good idea. Too bad. Looks like midweek regular urban hikes for me.
And lastly, I visited my exotic travel doctor today, November 3rd–Dr. Mark Wise–for all my shots and prescriptions required to visit Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar. Hope I don’t wake up with touches of yellow fever in the morning! So far, so good. Dr. Wise is highly regarded as one of the best in his field, in our area/ Greater Toronto area and perhaps beyond, too. He can be reached at:
And, just as his website suggest, his staff — Indie and Eve — are lovely…wonderful, friendly and efficient customer services, indeed! And that, dear reader, brings you up to date with me thus far.
