It starts, the Lake District, training log/journal.

[dublin dave]

Hi,
after a Summer of idleness (with a brief flurry of activity at VFW) my mind is turning towards training. I moved to the English Lake District on Sunday to start a Degree in Outdoor Studies. My intention with this log is to chronicle my fitness/strenght/activity regime mixed with personal comments/opinions on my life.

I'm not going to set out a detailed list of fitness aims, but i'm going to start with some musings. I'm here for a minimum of 3 years (living in Ambleside, a small town/large village). Luckily there is a small greengrocers/wholefood shop about 5 minutes walk from my house and a veggie cafe in the town centre. I've not really connected with anyone yet (I know it's early days) but I seem to be surrounded by shallow 18/19 year olds and a small selection of mature students (unfortunately including a meat farmer ).

However the course outline we have been given looks very good and it is obvious that the tutors have put a lot of effort into preparing the course. One tutor in particular gave an impassioned speech on the need to think environmentally and on the coming climate change crisis.

I've just had my induction at the college gym and it was shocking. It is in a small cramped room, with no natural light and no free weights, only very old resistance machines However there is a small but good bouldering wall attached which I suspect I will be using regularly. There is a small boxing gym in town which I am going to visit tonite as I hear that they do some weight training there. Is it to much to hope that they have a bench, dumbells and maybe even a squatting rack??? Ideally I will be able to do some weight training to supplament my bouldering.

I'm going to go out for a long walk in the hills tomorrow (I know that this will put me in a better mood) and i've got a friend visiting for the weekend to go climbing. It will be great to hang out with someone who doesn't eat meat and who is radical. I feel as if i'm in redneck country and that someone is going to start playing a banjo (ala Deliverance). Maybe I am overstating things .

I did meet someone a few weeks ago who has done my course, lives local and is vegan. I'm going to e-mail her tonite and see if she wants to meet up for a cup of tea.

Next week is freshers fair and i'm going to try and set up a vegetarian/vegan society. I'm hoping that in a student body of 6-700 there are a minimum of 10 veggies/vegans wnating to promote a healthy and compassionate life.

Health wise I'm not planning on drinking alcahol for the next few months and i'm going to start training from next week. Training will hopefully consist of regular visits to the bouldering wall, hopefully supplamented with some weight training, regular days out hillwalking and climbing when the weather is good, with a little bit of running and mountain biking for cardio.

My overall/giving myself 3 years, aim is to be climbing long mountain routes at Extreme 1 and become a competent winter (snow/ice climber). I feel good that i'm at the start of a new phase in my life (bizarely, my mood seems to have lifted just by writing this) and that I'm starting a journey that will be full of adventure and that will take me down paths that are not very well travelled.

Respect and love,
Dave.

[Fruitbat]

hey nice start to your log!

Lots of fun things planned and lots of varied activities. I hope the veg soc goes well (my experience of student unions is not good) but it sure doesn sound like you are a bit of a pioneer out there!!!!!!!!

[JP]

awesome mate, thanks for the write up!

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR GOALS!

[Rochellita]

I look forward to reading your log, I like it when people talk about more than just how much they lift or how many kilometers they run or cycle, it's nice reading a bit more about people's lives.

Good luck with your new home, no doubt you'll manage to meet some like-minded people in the longer term, once you are more established.

See you in the Lakes someday soon, I look forward to escaping the city for a visit.

[Fruitbat]

yeah i agree - a life log is always entertaining as well as interesting to read

[dublin dave]

Hi and thankyou to Fruitbat, JP and .flux for the comments.

Perhaps life is not so bad here in the Lakes. Last nite I got home to find some of my house mates having dinner. We got out some cards and started playing 'shitface' whilst listening to music (Bob Dylan, Gill Scott Heron, The Levellers,Anti-Flag and a spanish guitar player from Coventry)! We agreed to go out for today walking and I went to bed in a happier state of mind.

This morning I was awoken by one of my housemates bringing me a cup of Rooibosh tea, with soya milk and one sugar (which is exactly how I like it)! How sweet is that?

We then went out for a 6 hour hike over some beautiful hills. I even discovered that one of the lads on my course is a vegetarian .

Training wise i've been thinking that even though the gym in college is rubbish (and the boxing gym seems to have shut down), I can do dips, pullups, press-ups, lat pull downs, tricep extensions, decline sit-ups and cable curls at the gym. If I combine this with lots of bouldering (for stamina, grip strenght and forearms) I will be doing ok.

Anyway must go, i've got my first lecture in the morning followed by an afternoons walking with my tutor and tutorial group.

Love and respect,
Dave.

[dublin dave]

The last couple of days have been good here in the Lakes. Friday I went out for a short walk with my tutorial group. We stopped regularly, talked about our fears and discussed the landscape around us. Friday nite I had 3 friends visiting from Leeds, which was great, though I'm not sure how we all fitted into my bedroom. Saturday I went climbing with my friend Cat. We hitched to Langdale in the morning and walked for 2 hours to get to the crag, which is high up on a mountain called Bowfell. It was really misty on Bowfell (whilst the sun was shining on other crags down in the valley) and it was very eary. The only sounds we heard were the ravens calling. We climbed a route called Bowfell Buttress (which is a Lakes classic). It is approx 100m long and split into 7 pitches (sections). This was my first proper mountain route and I was very pleased. Sunday we just chilled out and today was spent in college. I went to the college gym earlier but couldn't motivate myself to use the rubbish resistance machines, so I went home and got my climbing shoes and climbed for an hour instead. I'm thinking that my training for climbing is going to be focused on climbing.I believe that this is referred to in Sweden as "doing by doing". Tomorrow I'm going to the Kendal Climbing Wall with college for some more climbing. I think that life is not so bad afterall...

[Fruitbat]

wow sounds great start

[dublin dave]

So, life continues here in the Lakes. I've climbed 4 times this week. Once at Kendal Climbing Wall, twice at my college bouldering wall and once at a crag called Windgather down in the Peak District.

I'm doing less cardio than I used to as everything in Ambleside is 5 minutes walk from my house. In the past I used to cycle up to 60km a week just going to work and college. I've spoken to a member of the college fell running society and I will start training with them as soon as I get my trainers back from getting repaired. Unfortunately this will not be until the end of October.

On Thursday nite I went on an overnite camping/ice breaking trip with college. On the way there I listened to two members of my course discussing their support for hunting, netting rabbits and terrier work! This really pissed me off! Listening to them talk about putting terriers down fox dens and the fox being driven out to be "torn to pieces by hounds" made me feel furious, sad and isolated.

Anyway for this week coming I'm hoping to get out climbing lots and have a few days hillwalking and scrambling at the weekend.

[fredrikw]

interesting to read your log dave, it's like you're at a year-long outdoor camp

[SpugFab]

What did you make of Kendal wall? Looks pretty decent on the website.

It's a distance from me, but I've heard it's just off the M6 so I could stop in on the way back to Scotland one of these times. Would be a good way to split up the journey

[Fruitbat]

wow sounds like a godo life up there in the Lakes. I was camping in Snowdonia this weekend which was fun too

Hey do you know of any outdoor shoes that are vegan because all the ones I could find in Betws y Coed either had leather or suede in them...

have fun fell running

sorry to hear about the silly idiots talking about hunting etc...

[dublin dave]

What did you make of Kendal wall? Looks pretty decent on the website.

It's a distance from me, but I've heard it's just off the M6 so I could stop in on the way back to Scotland one of these times. Would be a good way to split up the journey

Kendal wall is pretty good though a little bit scruffy. 20m+ overhanging lead wall and lot's of good bouldering. They also have a couple of autobelays if u are on your own. It's definitely worth a visit if u need to split up a long drive. It's about 20 min drive from the motorway. If u wanted I could probably meet u there for a session.

Dave.

[dublin dave]

Hey do you know of any outdoor shoes that are vegan because all the ones I could find in Betws y Coed either had leather or suede in them...

I've got a pair of LaSportive mountain running shoes that are synthetic. They are comfy for running in and have a sticky rubber sole that makes them good for scrambling and easy climbing. Unfortunately I have had to send them away for a repair (the rand was coming away) after having them for 4 months. I was however wearing them most days and used them out on the hills lots.

Dave

[dublin dave]

I've visited the college bouldering wall 5 times this week, working on my stamina (contineous traverses of the wall) and on my finger strenght.
I also went Kayaking on Lake Windermere on Wednesday.
On Friday nite I visited the local ameteur boxing club with a view to joining and training there. I had a good chat with some of the trainers there and I ned to go back on Monday to talk to the main coach. Hopefully i will be able to join and start training with them.