….my word is my bond. Here’s my post about training.
As you already know, this job takes more than just dreams, willpower and positive thinking; it takes iron discipline and intense physical and mental preparation.
To give you an idea, I train between eighteen and twenty hours per week dedicating extra time to warming up and stretching exercises before and after training sessions both to avoid muscle cramps and also to improve my flexibility. Once my body is ready, as if I’d do anything else, I get my bike out on the road and then at least once a week I go for a training ride in the hills to work on technique.
At the moment, with my next expedition just around the corner, I’m working on strengthening and building up my muscles by doing as many kilometres as possible and I do interval training too.
But, as I’m sure many of you will also have done at some point in your lives, in spite of warming up I damaged my Achilles tendon at the beginning of the year during a hard training session and I’m still seeing the physiotherapist even now.
There’s less than a month left before Mongolia 2017, so I’m trying to simulate the conditions that I will find, above all ascents and descents carrying weights to acclimatise myself. I’ve just returned from Alicante, where I did several routes including, for me, an irresistible ascent of Puig Campana. What amazing views! So, people, remember to do stretching before and after training sessions and don’t let anybody tell you something is impossible if you really believe in it.