Training for Kilimanjaro

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Several people have asked me how I am training for my attempt to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro.  There are probably as many training methods employed by people preparing to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro as there are people making the attempt.  I don’t claim my method is better or even as good as any other one, but here is how I trained.  We’ll find out how good it is after my climb.

I began in late October, 2009 by doing pushups, situps, stomach crunches and deep knee bends each morning and before bed.  I did these 5 days a week and rested 2 days.  I started walking 1 to 2 miles twice a day 5 days a week.  Each week I increased the distance by a mile until I was hiking 6 to 8 miles at an outing.

Unfortunately, my routine was interrupted in January with gall stones.  In February my gall bladder was removed and I wasn’t able to resume training until March.  At that time, I had to start over because much of the training was lost to inactivity for 2 month.

Throughout March, April and June I regained what I had lost in January and February.  It was becoming difficult to train so hard in the Florida heat and humidity, but I was able to get back to being able to hike 6 to 8 miles per day.

In July we traveled to our home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the temperature was 10 to 15 degrees cooler and there was less humidity.  Also, our home in Michigan is about 900 feet above sea level; not real high, but much higher than Venice, Florida, which is at sea level.  This somewhat minor sounding difference may well make a big difference in becoming acclimated to high altitude on Kilimanjaro.

In Michigan, I resumed my hiking schedule with 2 changes.  Our home is located on a bluff about 50 feet above a lake.  We have a stairway down to the lake with 54 steps.  Each day, I ran up and down the stairs several times.  Also, I loaded my backpack with the gear I will be carrying on Kilimanjaro and wore it on my daily hikes.

So far, all of this sounds like the way most people would prepare, but remember I’m blind.  You may wonder how a blind person could hike several miles unassisted.  Actually I was assisted.  I used my BrailleNote Apex, a device similar to a laptop computer, but with a braille display and the ability to speak aloud whatever is being displayed.  It has a talking GPS with maps of the entire United States, including millions of points of interest such as stores, restaurants, gas stations, banks, parks, etc.  With my BrailleNote I was able to create walking routes of any distance I desired and then walk the route with the GPS pointing out each turn, intersection and point of interest along the way.

Mt. Kilimanjaro is located in Tanzania, Africa.

The training didn’t always go smoothly.  About 2 weeks ago, I switched hiking boots, forgetting that I had taken the innersole and used them in another pair of boots.  That day I hiked 10 miles and got major blisters on both feet.  That cost me 2 days of training, a trip to the doctor and a great deal of pain.  Little things can mean a lot.

Beginning the first of August, I again changed my routine.  Wearing my backpack, I traded my long white cane for a pair of trekking poles, which is what I will be using on the Kilimanjaro climb, and had my brother attach a small bell to our golf cart and had him lead me down the 4 wheeler trails around the area.  I had him go as fast as I could fast walk over miles of sand, rock, tree roots and pot holes.  This quite accurately mimics the terrain at the beginning of the route up Mt. Kilimanjaro, even to the swarms of mosquitoes chasing us down the trails.

My intense training will conclude Sunday, August 15, a week before we leave for Africa.  This will give me time to rest and restore myself before the climb.  It will also avoid any risk of blisters or injuries such as twisted ankles which would be disastrous at this point.  Well, we’ll soon find out if this was a successful training program.  My next report will be from Tanzania, Africa.

To learn more about the Mt. Kilimanjaro Challenge, how to donate and the Blind Services Foundation of Florida, visit us at http://www.floridablindservices.org.

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