Please VOTE NOW to decide my 3rd and final charity!

PLEASE VOTE ON THE SURVEY OVER HERE!

Thank you so very much to everyone who has offered their support for me since I announced this trip a few weeks ago.

As requested, a few of you left suggestions for the 2nd and 3rd charities that I will be raising money for and I am very grateful for that.  It is from these suggestions that I have decided to select MIND as my 2nd charity.  They will be receiving 30% of all money raised.

This leaves just the one slot for my 3rd and final charity.  I have compiled the shortlist into a survey at the right of this blog and now require you to vote.

The charities in contention are:

The Prostate Cancer Charity - http://www.prostate-cancer.org.uk/

We provide vital support for anyone affected by prostate cancer: concerned and diagnosed men, their partners, friends and families.

We are working towards a world where lives are no longer limited by prostate cancer. To get there, we provide a broad range of services and fund a robust research programme as well as awareness raising and campaigning work at a national and local level.

Help for Heroes - http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/ 

Help for Heroes raises money to support members of the Armed Forces who have been wounded in the service of their country. We ask our supporters to “do their bit” to show these extraordinary young men and women that they are cared for by us. Over a million people have responded to date and millions of pounds have been raised to buy much needed services that will aid their recovery

The Royal British Legion - http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/

The Royal British Legion is a UK charity that has been helping Service people past and present for 90 years, and although their needs have changed over that time the need for our work is as vital as ever.

We're committed to the welfare, interests and memory of the Service family - those who we feel have made a unique commitment to their country and deserve to be rewarded for that with long term care.

We are probably best-known for our role as the nation's custodian of Remembrance and for the Poppy Appeal, our annual fundraising campaign. But the Legion is not just about poppies in November, but caring for people all year round.

Age UK - http://www.ageuk.org.uk/

We believe that age needs respect. It needs kindness. Sometimes it needs help. Because there is strength in numbers, Age Concern and Help the Aged have joined forces to become Age UK – so that we can be here for everyone in later life.

Encouragement for strangers in training

From now on if I ever see anyone training hard for anything I am always going to throw some encouraging words towards them!

When I'm in the middle of a tyre pulling session and things are hard it is a welcome distraction to have people show an interest and ask what I'm training for or to say well done for the obvious effort - and my effort probably is very obvious with my bright red face and sweat dripping freely off my nose!  I can even raise a smile for the 1 in 5 that tells me I have a flat tyre or that something has got caught on my backpack - I forgive you wannabe comedians as at least it stops me thinking about what I'm doing for a second.  Or as just happened today, cheers of very enthusiastic encouragement from a mixed group of mountain bikers as I was half way up a fairly steep hill.  I don't know if it was just the exhaustion but the cheers of support actually moved me.  Being a cynical Englishman raised in a country where it seems uncool to support each other I always suspect some of the shouts may be a little sarcastic for the 'nutter in the forest', but I use them for positive energy so I don't care either way.

Today was the first day I've gone out and trained with a lot of other people out - as it's Saturday afternoon - and I was really pleased by the general reaction of people.  I genuinely appreciated the support and it definitely helped get through some of the harder parts.  I even took 15 minutes off my last time over the rather hilly 5km, this time pulling 30kg of tyres in a time of 1hr 5mins.

I am not sure that always training up and down hills is the best method but the nearest space for me happens to be quite a lumpy bit of forest so it will do for now.  I will research a bit on the web to see what experienced adventurers advise.  I'll also try to gauge a consensus on the best type of terrain and also body positioning whilst pulling, in order that I best prepare for and mimic the pulling of the pulk on the ice cap.

So thank you good people of Bracknell and Swinley Forest for an enjoyable session today!

Nominate YOUR Charity!

For a month I'll be putting myself through extreme temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius and I thought I must use the leverage to raise some money through my wonderful friends and family  ...so that we can all help some great causes.

Marie Curie nurses care to terminally ill
patients in their own homes or hospices,
while offering support to their families.

The first charity I will be raising money for is Marie Curie Cancer Care.  My expeditioning partner has personally experienced the care and support that they offer through what must have been an unspeakably hard time.  I can't think of many groups who deserve to be supported more in order that they can continue their amazing work.  The fact that I would never be endeavoring on such a trip without his trust and faith in me makes this an even easier choice and seems an apt way to show my appreciation.

50% of all funds raised will be contributed to Marie Curie.

Charity 2 will be your choice,
receiving 30% of all funds raised.

Now, THIS IS WHERE I NEED YOUR HELP!  30% of all funds raised and 20% of all funds raised will be going to two additional charities.  As of yet these two other charities have not been chosen and I would like your input on who should benefit.

Anyone can nominate an officially registered charity to fill one of these two remaining slots and be responsible for them receiving either 30% or 20% of all the funds that I raise!  All you have to do is to comment on this post with the name of the charity you are proposing.  If you would like to also provide an explanation as to what they do or provide a story as to how you have been involved with them then that would be wonderful.

All the charities that have been proposed by the end of next week (Friday 14th October) will be compiled into a survey which will then remain on this blog until the end of this month.  Here, every unique visitor will be able to vote on who they think should receive the 20% donation.  

Charity 3 will be selected from
amongst your suggestions.

Charity number 3 will be one of my choosing out of all of the suggestions that are received.  I will make every effort to educate myself on each nominated charity and will reach a final decision based on what I feel is most meaningful to me.

Please, please get involved in this and make your wishes known through the comments section below.  I  rarely call on the help of my friends and family in order to raise money for charity - and I'm still not (yet) - though I do want your input!

The three finalised charities will be announced through this blog on Tuesday 1st November.

Best Wishes,

Andy.

P.S.  You can also contribute towards making this expedition happen by clicking on any one of the promotions from my targeted advertisers.

2nd tyre pulling session - Heavy and hard

So previously I blogged that I wondered why more people didn't do tyre pulling as a general training exercise.  Well, I can tell you why they wouldn't do heavy tyre pulling:  IT'S HARD!

Despite thinking I would maintain the small weight for my second session and increase the time to 2 hours I opted to up the weight and attempt 2 hours anyway!  So this time I went out with 3 tyres dragging behind me, providing a weight of 50kg.  I started on a stretch of firetrack which had about 5 slopes (well you could barely call them hills, but they felt like mountains!).  Some of them steeper than others, all of them increasing the intensity to an incredibly high level.  I did one out and in lap with the 50kg and had to drop two tyres for the second leg, I was operating at the very peak of my capacity.  However, 10 metres in and my friend (who had joined me for some fitness and was pulling 15kg with two tyres herself) decided that she should have dropped one too.  So I had to take one off her and I was back up to two tyres, though only with a weight of 20kg this time.  This reduced load made all the difference and I whizzed up and back again the second time.

Unfortunately, we only lasted an hour this time and both decided we should call it a night as we'd gone too heavy to early.  The nights are getting colder and it would have been a typical time to pull a muscle or similar had I pushed it through to another hour.  Time for some rest, rehydration and some recovery provided my Maximuscle!

Next time: 2 hours, 30kg!!  I shall report back.

TYRE PULLING in Swinley Forest

HAVING JUST RETURNED FROM MY FIRST TYRE PULLING SESSION I AM WONDERING WHY MORE PEOPLE DON'T JUST DO THIS FOR FUN!  What a fantastic way to get a full body workout.  At least it would be if I had some ski poles to aid me in order to bring the arms and shoulders into play (something to scour ebay for shortly).

For those who may not know tyre pulling seems to be the staple training for Arctic expeditioners.  It apparently mimics closely the motion of pulling your pulk (which is the Scandinavian sled I will be pulling with my equipment on).  The recommendation is that you can pull up to 1.5x your bodyweight.  I am currently 95KG and my body weight is rising so I could potentially pull over 150KG, though I think we are aiming to pull no more 120KG each.

I picked a selection of old tyres up from Bracknell Tyre & Battery.  Most tyre places will be greatful for you taking their rubbish away, though you may want to just check with them first prior to helping yourself!

I don't have a harness at the moment but fortunately I had an old metal cable lying around which served as an easy way to secure the tyres to me.  Firstly I just tied the tyres together at one end, then the other end to me.  In order to spread the load a bit I wore an old rucksack and tied the cable to that.  This worked perfectly well for me and I was please to have a free rig ready for use now so I can start getting some time pulling under my belt and begin to progress the weight.

Onto weight, I began with two tyres weighing just under 30KG.  I was thinking that would probably be very light but as much as I dare test my makeshift harness with.  As it turns out I think the harness is capable of carrying plenty more - at least until I can get a proper harness - and the weight was plenty for my first time!  I ended up walking the firetrack in my local forest.  By the time I got out it was 8pm and pitch black (ah the great British summer months!).  My good friend offered to walk with me this first time out and the company was appreciated though I will soon have to get used to being alone in the forest in the dark, cold winter months as the training hours required increase.  It is fairly strange (dare I say scary) being in the forest, not only alone when it is dark but also when you are pulling a weight behind you which makes loads of noise and alerts everyone to your presence - who knows what's lurking in the trees, especially as the forest I train in contains the notorious high security broadmoor psychiatric hospital! :)

We ended up walking for 45 minutes taking in a long slope up to begin and a short sharp climb midway through.  The steeper pitch certainly got my heart rate up and I the sweat was pouring off me - which could potentially be a problem in the Arctic - but it was a very enjoyable bit of training and I look forward to getting out again very soon.

The next time out will be for a length of time - probably 2 hours, just to allow the body to start familiarising itself with it, probably with the same weight.  I would like to think that very shortly after that I will begin targeting specific distances and with double the weight, all the time keeping in mind a rough target of pulling 120kg for 40km a day when in the Arctic.

I am now going to rehydrate, refuel and rest all the time whilst musing a world where more people really do tyre pull as a means of training.  I imagine a Dickensian style Christmas scene where instead of lots of people ice skating they are all tyre pulling.  What a great way to train!