Month: February 2019

Come and do a training session at the Altitude Centre they said.  It’ll be fun they said.

As usual I forgot to look before I leapt.

So before the send off for the Everest Rugby Challengers at the Wooden Spoon Rugby Ball at the Hilton on Park Lane I joined the other challengers for a “quick” training session at The Altitude Centre.

Now I have never used a Watt Bike and if I am being honest I’d not actually heard of them before this session.  It is fair to say that my little legs and them do not get on.  Add to that this the training session is in a room where the Oxygen content is controlled to simulate being at 2700m/12,000ft and I am seriously struggling.

Matt Mitchell asked if anyone else had found themselves “breaking wind” more in the session because of the altitude and I replied that I hadn’t been able to fart because I was using that particular orifice for breathing through.

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Riding a Watt Bike at a simulated atmosphere of 2700m is horrid but trying to walk uphill in a mask which simulates an atmosphere of 5000m altitude with no acclimatisation is a whole new level of “outside my comfort zone”.   It is fair to say that at that point my muscles, such as they are, were in spasm so badly I was shaking like a shitting dog.  This challenge is now very real, I have work to do and I am well and truly on the raggedy edge.  I am also loving every second of it which I put largely down to the group of people involved.

Suitably knackered we went off to the Hilton to meet our respective partners and families and to help Wooden Spoon raise as much money as possible at the charities annual ball.  The event also served as a send off for the challenge and the support from those gathered at the event was amazing.  For sure they all thought we were bonkers as well but then almost everyone I’ve spoken to regarding the challenge thinks that anyway.

The event was top notch and certainly puts my fundraisers into perspective.  Sarah, Jules, Laurie and the rest of the team put on one hell of a show and it is truly incredible how many legends of the game they get to willingly support the cause.

There are legends and then there are legends and Willie John McBride is the latter, a true great and an icon of the game.  The sort of man that inspires awe in everyone who has played the game and is respected by all he played with or against.  He has 17 test caps for the British & Irish Lions.  To be clear that is test caps and not just match appearances.  Or to put it another way he has more test caps for the Lions than any other player in the history of the side and more than most players get for their nation.  During the Wooden Spoon Ball that night in the auction when an auction prize dinner with Sir Bill Beaumont and Jason “Fun Bus” Leonard, themselves bonafide legends, at a Michelin star restaurant stalled at £2500.  Willie John spoke to auctioneer Jon Gould and offered to pitch up as well to see if that would help raise more money for the charity.  The dinner went for £5000 around 30 seconds later.  I think it speaks volumes about the work of Wooden Spoon and the standing they have within the rugby community that they have someone like Willie John McBride involved with the charity

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I would just like to thank the team at The Altitude Centre for the time they gave us – very much appreciated and no doubt I’ll be back to try and squeeze a few more sessions in before I go.