It was our first session pulling a sled today, the first time I’mve ever done it. I was looking forward to giving it a go seeing as I have committed myself to 4 months of it. 30kg on the sled and then haul it round the running track. Repeat.

Ben said that the feeling with the friction was akin to pulling a heavily-loaded sled on the ice. So I’mm pleased to have had a taste of that. My butt, groin and calves are going to be mighty stiff tomorrow! We did 8 minutes hauling, then 8 minutes jogging round a field and repeated it 6 times. Each haul we had to cover at least the same distance as the time before. To pass the time as I plodded round the track, sweat streaming on this most un-Arctic of muggy summer’s days, I did a bit of mental arithmetic [that’s what comes of being married to an accountant!]. Our trek is going to be 2900km… equivalent to 7250 laps of the track. We hope to have 110 days to accomplish this. So each day in Antarctica we have to haul our sledge round 66 laps of the track. Today I did about 10. I came home, had an ice bath, stuffed my face with pasta and thought “crikey, I’mm pretty weary now.” There’s a long way to go. In every sense.
On the track we were in illustrious company, being at the England Institute of Sport in Twickenham. Mo Farah, one of Britain’s Olympic medal hopes, was being put through his paces. Several lithe looking Kenyans were also hurtling round the track at amazing, languid speed. Ben and I hugged the outside lane, plodding our way through almost 2000 calories of effort and, for me at least, excited to be manhauling for the first time. It felt like proper training. I suspect that after 110 days the novelty may have faded somewhat…