I consider myself as a fit person in the sense that I'm really active. In everyday life, even when I'm not getting ready to go on an expedition, I try to work out at least 3 times a week. Plus I'm a part time fitness instructor. I teach 4 hours a week in a gym. I have a good cardio-vascular endurance because I can maintain for long minutes or hours a good level of work out... And because I teach, I need to speak to my participants at the same time.

But climbing mountains is something different. All sports are very specific. I'm good at doing aerobics and step aerobics, because that's what I do the most.  To be good at something, you need to practice it! I want to be good at climbing mountains, I need to climb mountains! This is what I would like to do as a training, but...

I live in Montreal... It's an island, mostly flat. Yes, of course, there is Mount Royal, a small hill in the middle of the city (233 meters or 765 feet), but everytime I want to go there, it gets complicated because I need to check the time of the day if I don't want to get stuck into traffic... I work full time, I work part time at the gym, I have a family, friends, etc... This is the reality!!!

So, what will I do to get in shape for the climb ???

I try to maintain my cardio level up to where it is since a long time. But I really need to get more specific on my training. Last time, when I went to Cotopaxi, in Ecuador, that was one of the mistakes I've done. I had done a lot of cardio-vascular exercises before I left, but I really needed to do more legs, to develop my endurance and strength.

I needed to find something to re-create the movement of climbing a hill. There are two major things I do. First, I walk on the treadmill in the gym with a 15 degree angle (I'd like to go higher but none of the treadmills I've tried do) at around 3.7 mph. It's not too fast, not too slow. It makes the contractions in my legs long enough to feel the calves and the quadriceps muscles working. I do this with my rucksack on. I put big bottles filled with water in it plus free weights so my bag weighs about 40 pounds.  I try to do this for 50 minutes, 3 times a week.

The second thing I do is go for a regular walk outside, with my backpack on. I have a path in a park that I follow and there are benches where you can sit down every few undred feet. When I get to one of these benches, I do "step ups", 3 sets of 15 on each leg, wearing my 40 pound bag. On a one hour walk, I do it 5 times, every 10 minutes. After the legs, I do 3 sets of 15 "push ups". I keep my bag on and I put my hands on the back rest of the bench, keep my toes on the ground. It's like an easy push up, but with the bag on my back, it's very hard and at least, it keeps my arms and chest toned.

Once in a while, I go for a long ride in the woods with my snow shoes on. When it's possible, I go on a mountain. Even if all the mountains around here are kind of small, it's still a climb up.

I teach aerobics, step and Yoga 4 hours a week. So I kind of get a total of about 10 to 12 hours of work-out every week!!!

Starting May first, I will be off from the job until my departure, so I will spend the last month focusing on my training and plan on upgrading my level those weeks prior to the trip. Until then, I need to keep on working hard on all the aspects I've talked about earlier. Because if I do the whole work just the last month, it will do no good. The training I'm talking about, I've started it since the week I've decided to join the expedition, third week of january.