Training update

Christ! This is getting tough. My 7am gym sessions with my trainer Ollie Reeve have stepped up in intensity and are really challenging now. They only last an hour but after two harsh beastings on consecutive mornings, I'm flagging. I had to sit down for half an hour this morning just to stop sweating before I could go to work accompanied by at least a shred of dignity.

Ollie's the man who has devised my training programme, contrary to some unfortunate misinformation in the recent press and TV coverage (which was probably my fault - sorry mate.) This guy has gone to extreme lengths researching the best, most effective, training methods to ensure I'm in prime condition when I leave. He's an unrelenting taskmaster. Which is complimentary compared to what I called him this morning after he lied to make me work harder. He said I was within a whisker of nailing my best time ever for a circuit. Somehow, I managed to convince my brain I could do it, to which my body responded and I beat my time. By about 10 seconds, which was brilliant. Then it dawned on me that Ollie had lied to me. The bastard! But what a sense of achievement I got from it along with the realisation that I had more in the tank.

It's things like this I need help with. I need to be pushed to the extremes of physical exhaustion so I know when I'm on the ice, feeling like I want to quit, that deep down within the pits of my soul I've still got fuel reserves to call upon. When your body starts burning fat you know about it because you reach exhaustion pretty quickly. I'm due to lose up to 21lbs throughout the trip so I need to get used to working through the fatigue and the pain. I just keep telling myself I knew this wasn't going to be easy. My concern is I have no idea just how tough it's going to be.