Training and Preparation for Kilimanjaro

20 days from now, I will be on a flight to Kilimanjaro. My 'healthy eating' action plan has morphed into comfort eating and grumbling about how cold February is. I haven't cycled to work since December and I am currently sitting at home when I should be at the gym after 5 days in the office. Ready or not Kilimanjaro, here I come!

Upon picking up my kitbag today, it suddenly hit me how fast my departure was approaching. Everything I need for a 8 days on a mountain, packed within the bag pictured above. Kilimanjaro has already killed my wallet. I'm bewildered by the price of outdoor equipment. Why are down jackets £200!? I didn't even know sleeping bags went up to £1000?! 
I've slowly accumulated equipment for the past few months, buying bits and bobs as and when I found things I needed:

• Rab Ascent 900 Sleeping Bag 

• Jack Wolfskin Svalbard down jacket  (still need to buy)

• Trekmate Mittens (and glove liners)

• Lined Brasher trousers

• Icebreaker Merino wool long johns and base layer

• Columbia Snood 

• Sports Direct thermal socks

• Black Diamond Gaiters

This has of course, put me in a state of relative poverty for the past 4 months..

Training 

At school, I was the girl who hated PE lessons. I dreaded running and I was happier in a library then I was in a muddy field. Skip ahead from compulsory education to a procrastinating university student and I found that I actually loved exercise (away from the scenario of being forced to do sports in a girl's school). 

I still struggle to do full press ups. I've yet to run a marathon but I know I will give everything I possibly can towards Kilimanjaro. I don't know who has coined the term 'experienced walker' or 'experienced trekker'. I am neither of these, I'm just another person who genuinely loves a challenge and sense of revival you get from being away from everything.

I have to admit, with 11 days to go before my departure, there will be a fair bit of blagging involved. I regularly gym (2 - 4 times a week), but my so called tailored eating plan and 10-miles-every-weekend has gone out the window. So far, my walks have been:

Sunday 18th January 2015: 9 miles from Putney to Richmond 

24 - 25th January 2015: Walked 30 miles from Lewes to Eastbourne

                                          31st January - 1st February 2015: At a chocolate factory...

Sunday 8th February 2015: Walked/got lost for ? miles around Riddlesdown (3 - 4 hours)

I've spent my second to last weekend before Kilimanjaro at the gym, cleaning up my bike and inciting fear by looking up articles and personal accounts of how hard people found their trek. Kilimanjaro has been on my mind for years. Ready or not Kilimanjaro, here I come!

Sept 2013: 200 miles coast to coast with 10kg = Hardest thing I've done.
No training, just optimism and lost toenails.