Training for LongPac

Nat is starting her training for LongPac - one of the things that's important is to be in good shape. It gets very physical on a boat, particularly short-handed as you need to wrestle sails down to the deck, you might have to recover one that fell overboard and that gets very heavy because it is full of water and being dragged behind the boat by the sheer speed of the boat, you might have to actively trim your main sail in heavy winds, you may get a very uncomfortable ride because of heavy seas and being banged around all the time is very tiring on your body - so you need to be in great physical shape.

Nat now talking in first person...

Getting some upper body strength is also really important, particularly for me and in race situations as it gives me speed: I can trim the sails on my own without the use of a winch handle in a wider range of conditions.

Obviously, the choice of an Express 27 was also because the boat is extremely well-suited for rough ocean seas and pretty heavy winds while offering light loads (as far as boats go, there are still thousands of pounds of load on the boat!) and equipment that I can actually lift up myself. Not an innocent choice :)

So item #1 training is getting in shape, particularly after a while with no activity because of the eye problem (which is actually NOT healed up yet and still giving me trouble, but I'll just be careful and maybe double-check with a doc...) - so my program includes:

• Pull-ups: I have installed El Cheapo bar on my closet door and I do pull-ups morning and evening. I can manage about 8 in one go and I do roughly 32 per day right now in series of 8s. Mostly working on biceps.
• Push-ups: I double-up with the same number of push-ups. Mostly working on triceps
• Abdominal sit-ups: doing anything between 100 to 200 a day is ideal
• Biking: this is endurance training. I don't actually have a formal program, I just use my bike mostly everywhere I go when the distance is manageable and I don't need to dress up for the occasion. If I can't bike, I'll job around Bernal Height parks to enjoy the views. Since I live at the top of a hill, biking up this hill on a near daily basis both strengthen my legs and trains up by heart and lungs. And when I neither bike nor jog (I can't do long distance running anymore, I have damaged some tendons in my knee doing that and it becomes very painful very quickly which would then prevent me from doing the biking ;-)), I walk, at least 30 min in a given day usually to run some errands so I double that up with something useful I need to do anything.

This + some healthy eating habits (loads of fiber, veggies, fruits for vitamins and now daily glasses of milk to increase calcium levels in my bones) is starting to make a difference. The trick is not to do too much. These exercises really do not take much time during my day and are very compatible with my lifestyle. At weekends, I mostly sail, so this is during the week only. That way I can do them every day.

I have also two additional problems I need to deal with:

1. because of cancer surgery some hormone making devices have been removed from my body: I have hormone-replacement therapy but it looks like it is actually not enough to produce enough hormone to strengthen my bones enough...so I need to add more calcium and vitamin D to my lifestyle, otherwise, my bones get more brittle than the average bone. This could be why when I fell on the winch, I had a fracture? Maybe with healthier bones, it wouldn't have been the case? Anyhow, fractures are nasty and if I hit something I'd rather have a bruise, at least they are decorative and they don't prevent you from sailing your boat :)  I need to drink at least 3 glasses of milk and go out every day for a few minutes to get enough sun exposure without sunblock to get my vitamin D fix. I prefer the natural thing that getting supplements. So that's what I am doing!
2. because of cancer treatment side effects, I have a weakened immune system, which means that I am more likely to develop cold, catch viruses and end up sick than the average person, or than the pre-cancer Nat. This fitness training is also helping for that. The more energy your body has, the more able it is to fight infection. The less tired you get with a similar intake of calories (if your body has a high metabolism which can be developed with exercise, it is more efficient at utilizing the calories you give it), the better able you are to use some of this energy to fight bacteria and cold. This would actually be helpful even if I didn't go sailing long-distance, it's just another element that increases my safety level!

Clearly, none of this has any impact on the likelihoos of getting hit by a whale...for this, I just need to get a good liferaft and keep my satphone handy :)

My energy level goes up and I am a better sailor on the boat. Good long-distance and short-handed sailors are in great shape...particularly on small boats and I want to be no exception :) Competitive and safe sailing comes with practice and good preparation. And preparation goes for both the boat and the sailor - they tag team, so they can't let the other down ;)