Getting Ready

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Greg Maud training

My Training Regime

After that one crazy thought that got me started on this adventure I realised that I was going to need to up my usual training if I was going to get to Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbour, Antigua in one piece, eighteen months later.

I was  probably going to do most of  a million oar strokes on the journey so it made sense for me to get a Concept2 erg so that I could train at home rather than waiting for space on one at the gym. At first I set aside about 15 minutes a day to build up a base line I could work from. Since then I steadily built up the time. If you’ve looked at the About Page you’ll have seen that I’ve done a lot, and I mean a lot, of running. You tend to do that if you run 150 marathons. I wasn’t going to be doing a lot of that in a 7-meter-long boat. Walking anywhere’s not even an option so running didn’t seem to be worthwhile. Cross training and strength training was now my focus. I was going to need a strong core, legs and back when I left La Gomera.

The Eating Right Rules

I generally tend to eat right anyway. Sarah, my wife is an awesome cook. You should taste her cheesecake! She’s famous for it. As far as I’m concerned Sarah’s cheesecake is an important food group all on its own, one that’s very necessary in a good balanced diet!

Apart from cheesecake, my diet is usually high in protein. Which is good for building muscle. The race rules said I had to carry food for a minimum of 80 days. I needed to stay healthy so I took a good mix of carbs, protein and fat. Cheesecake had to fit in there somewhere. I also needed a goodly amount of fibre – had to keep things working right, if you know what I mean. As I didn’t have a fridge to keep things fresh, all my food supplies were a mix of dehydrated meals and snacks.

THE CHALLENGE
Greg Maud Cycling

Adventure is allowing the unexpected to happen to you. Exploration is experiencing what you have not experienced before. How can there be any adventure, any exploration, if you let somebody else – above all, a travel bureau – arrange everything before-hand?

Richard Aldington