Kilimanjaro training in Dubai

You read the subject line correctly... I am officially going to attempt to climb one of the 7 great summits in the world! Okay, fine, according to true mountaineering people, it is one of the "easiest' of the climbs (it's still hard), but hey, it's a life goal and dream, and THIS is one of the reasons I came to Dubai.

So how does one that lives practically 50 m above sea level prepare for such a feat? Good question! Pretty much everyone I talked to that has done it and everything I read said that even the fittest of the fit sometimes don't make it, it's how your body adjusts to altitude. Hmm... how does my body adjust to altitude? Good question #2! I really don't know! Yes, I've gone skiing and sometimes have had a little bit of nausea from quick turnovers (coming from Chicago and landing in the evening to Colorado and then skiing the next day), but always very mild symptoms and it's a fraction of the height of this Summit. What to do except hope for the best! Really, I'm telling everyone (and myself) I'm ATTEMPTING to do the climb. If I make it, it will be amazing. If I don't, I still think the attempt and the experience will be amazing. I actually have never camped before, never slept in a tent, and never done hiking/trekking of this rigor, so it will be quite a challenge all the way around. So again, even if I don't make it to the top, it will be an accomplishment just to do those things. :-)

This is what I AM doing though:
-Training: I can comfortably say I have a decent baseline of fitness - since about May, I've consistently been running 3x/week (endurance), swimming 2-3x/week, doing pilates 1-2x/week, hot bikram yoga 1x/week and strength training 2x/week. I honestly don't have time for much else with a 50 hour work week. BUT conveniently and coincidentally, Ramadan started earlier this month and now I DO have more time to train. So oopsy, some training programs call for at least 3 months of preparation and training, Ellen's Kilimanjaro Training is just about going to be 4 weeks. Alas, in addition to the above, I added stair climbing to the mix. Besides Ramadan hours (working 20 hours less a week), I am especially grateful that Dubai is ALL about tall buildings. My friend lives in a building practically next door that has 80 floors, and yes, I've gone up and elevator 1/2 down, then up again, then same. Quite a good workout and my new camelback has come in handy for that! Again, almost by chance, a regular patient of mine went on an on about these intense spin classes. She had mentioned it before and I kinda brushed it off, but this one day she particular went on a tangent about it AND I had a recent conversation with 2 people that had climbed and said that spinning classes really helped. Sigh... here comes another addiction! So now I am going to FlyWheel Dubai 3x/week - it is 45 minutes of intense, and i mean INTENSE, like dripping with sweat like you just got of a shower and shaky legs afterwards, intense. I've had spin classes before, but this is at another level - it has this rating system that has you (if you want) compete with your other spin-mates, so that competitive twist makes it more challenging (today I almost almost won in the class. Darn "Anna" for taking the lead at the very end. Hmph). It also has REALLY high impact and fun music that has different music set to the workout - slow beats for climbs, fast rhythms for fast RPM's. Really, it's intense!!! Soooo..... although it is still a couple of weeks away, by just adding those 2 things (and some treadmill incline walking and running when I do run and some extra butt workouts), I am feeling fairly strong.

-Drugs: Okay, sounds funny, but I am all set with malaria medications (malarone), altitude sickness tablets (diamox), stomach illness medications, and antibiotics (I already have yellow fever). And.... again, back to the convenience of Dubai, except for the antibiotics, I got all of those things at Emirates Hospital. The malarone was a killer on the budget, 37 dh ($10 USD) PER tablet. Ouch!!!!, but obviously worth it. Oh, and another thing I got at Emirates Hospital is 100% deet. Then of course have the usual aspirin.

-Gear: Thanks to my friend Lal, he's "renting" me a backpack, head torch, thermal vest, and liner gloves. The only things I bought of necessity are hiking boots (obviously a must), a camelback, smartwool inner-wear liners, compression socks (which will come in handy for running later) and special hiking socks. I brought ski gloves, neck gator, my down jacket, a rain jacket, rain pants from home BUT am renting a bunch of stuff from out there (trekking poles, parka jacket and more rain gear, etc etc. They provide tents, etc). This is great because I don't want to spend money buying all this winter stuff when I live in a summery place and have all my winter stuff at home in storage. So I'm happy that is an option and can pack a little lighter :-)

I think that's about it for that!

FYI, here is my itinerary for this big o (expensive!) trip to Tanzania come August 2013:
4 days - Dar Es Saleem (visiting a couple of friends)
7 days - Kilimanjaro hike (Macheme route), including a night before and after in Arusha
7 days - Safari time! Serengeti (the great migration!), Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire National Park!
3 days - Zanzibar! 2 days of scuba diving, a 1/2 day to visit Stone Town and the rest with some well-needed R&R on the beach.

So with some travel time, 3 weeks exactly!!

Soo... wish me luck! Don't know if I will do another update before I go, but I definitely will when I get back!!!