Content. Happy. Beautiful.

When I look back to when I started training for The Long Walk Home I was a bit of a rogue student of my own teaching. Thinking the best way to train for walking across the desert would be to walk across the desert, I started by running up and down a sand dune just north of town. My legs hated me for it, and as it was the middle of summer the rest of my body didn’t think to highly of me either.

After putting the call out for someone who actually knew what they were doing, I received a few emails and decided upon one individual who had just finished his university degree in Exercise Physiology. As such I figured all the important stuff would still be in his head, or at the very least he would still know where his text books are to pretend like he knew what he was doing. He was tasked with getting me fit enough to cross the Simpson Desert by foot, and attempting to ensure that my body wouldn’t fail me when it counted most.

When I read his very first training week a few questions went through my mind including who is this guy?, did he really just finish university?, and how on earth will walking on a treadmill for 30 mins three times a week get me fit enough’? As he explained the process and science behind what I perceived as madness, it became less mad. Realising my best opportunity to make a succesful crossing would be to 1. remain injury free and 2. ensure my leg muscles have lots of kilometers underneath them, I started to gain an understanding of his program and could accurately guess the minutes, sets and reps I’d be in for that week.

In the past 5 months training has gradually grown from about 2 hours per week, to around 7 hours, and I can confirm that my heart is far more efficient than when I started, and my leg muscles are finally getting some definition to them. For me, the most important tool in my training (apart from a little motivation), is a little black strap: my heart rate monitor. After I was given this for a christmas present last year, it has become both my enemy and my friend as it tells me when I need to work harder (unfortunately), and when I can stop (gratefully).

Throughout training my heart rate has been my comparison tool, and each week I am given a certain number of minutes during which I need to keep my heart rate at a certain level. During my training there have been ebbs and flows, some weeks my muscles tire before my heart, while at other times my heart tires before my muscles. On a few occasions I have tried a little experiment to see how low I can get my heart rate while at rest: so far the lowest is around 48 and the other night I bottomed out at 52. However overall when I look back to 5 months ago, I can safely say that I am leaps and bounds ahead of where I started.

Although I have gradually realised this throughout the training, the pivitol moment came only a few weeks ago when I was bored walking on the treadmill and instead started to run. For anyone that knows me well, they know that I do not run. I have never experienced the joy that runners say they feel, and have always thought they were rather loose in the mind when they would speak of how exhilarating running can be. Quite frankly I used to tune out when they would start to speak.

When I started running the other day though, I didn’t tire like I used to and my legs continued on their merry way, keeping time with the black conveyor belt beneath my feet. When my time was up I had been running for more than 30 minutes, which is about 25 minutes longer then I have ever run (apart from one school holidays when I ran to the bridge and back in Birdsville…once). I was utterly bemused at how my body had just continued to run, so much so that I sent the following text to Michael advising him of my recent conquest.

Jenna – “You are AMAZING!!! I got bored with walking so I started running on the treadmill. I actually RAN! I don’t run. I ran Michael, I ran! For a whole 30mins and breathed through my nose the whole time. So proud of myself. WOW!!!”

….

Michael – “Haha I was under the impression you hated running? You told me at the start that you absolutely did not want to run …”

I sounded like a little kid who had just won the long jump at sports day, but it was so exciting to realise what a change my body had been through. Admittedly my back and neck were sore the next day from the impact of running, but never the less I now use running intervals to build up my endurance rather then uphill walking. A precursor to realising I could run was the fact that I had a few problems with a foot and had been cycling for nearly 6 weeks before getting back on the treadmill again. After cycling for that long, walking on a treadmill was mind numbing so I started running.

Without ever having the goal of being able to run, I found myself with the skills and ability to put one foot in front of the other at a pace a little faster than a tortoise. Had my goal been to learn how to run, and I use the term learn because I think it is an accurate one, I would not have enjoyed the realisation that I could actually do it, nearly as much.

Knowing how much hard work has gone into getting myself where I am today, I am completely baffled at how anyone can expect overnight results with regards to weight loss and training progress. There is nothing easy about hard work. Even with the hard work, looking at me from the outside it would be easy to say that my body hasn’t changed in accordance with what would be expected, and jumping on the scales it is even more easier to say there hasn’t been any change. Thankfully, I take little notice of these numbers, and realise that internally my body is far more efficient than it has ever been, with less strain being put on my heart and more fat having been turned to muscle.

Although outwardly I was always quite self confident thanks to a loving family, inwardly you always have this nagging feeling which is hard to describe. I suppose that when I looked at myself both physically and mentally I would immediately see what I thought other people saw, and would think about how I could change it from that perspective. It took a lot of growing up from my end and a few testing lessons along the way to realise this, and to now be able to see it differently. To me, being content and happy with who are on the inside is a far harder lesson to learn then being content and happy with your outward appearance and behaviour. The process of training and preparing for The Long Walk Home has brought up a lot of home truths and through them has left me feeling content, happy and beautiful…inside and out.

No longer do I look at my training as something that needs to be done for a specific goal, but rather other parts of my life need to fit around it. Although it doesn’t run my life, the spark you get from realising the good you are doing your body does have its own certain drawcards. It took me time to realise this and get to the point where it became a part of my daily life,  and in many ways I am lucky to enjoy the hard work of aiming for The Long Walk Home. So with less than 4 weeks to go, 3 of which I am sure will leave me with a few more choice words for Michael as my legs scream for mercy, it has been a hard and challenging journey preparing for the walk across the Simpson Desert, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

A Long Walk Home

A Long Walk Home

Check out another great article published on ABC Open Blogs written by Kelly Theobald. She’s got some talent! Click the link above.

Longreach Leader article

Click the link below to check out the great article by Kelly Theobald in the Longreach Leader.

Birdsville local prepares to walk the Simpson Desert.

Thanks Kelly!

I am counting in days now…30 to be precise.

Greetings from a chilly Birdsville!

The past week has been a non-stop ride of organising, training, eating, working and sleeping. My personal favourite of these being the sleeping, however the cold weather has also brought the disgruntled shiver from my body when I peek my head above the doona and feel the chilly air meet my nose and ears. Given the days are sunny with a blue sky and averaging 20+ degrees I can’t complain too much.

I have just received word that Walter Leven has arrived in Birdsville on his ride from Adelaide to Mt. Isa and back again via Broken Hill. Walter is also raising money for the RFDS and chose to do so after hearing about The Long Walk Home. I look forward to catching up with him while he is in town and getting a photo outside the Birdsville Hotel of the two RFDS fundraisers.

In other news of the walk I can confirm that the fundraising tally has reached $15,500 and it is all thanks to you. With a month still to go we are more than three quarters of the way to reaching the goal which is a great effort by all involved. If you would like to donate to the RFDS you can do so by clicking here.

I would like to make mention of The Watermark Hotel, where the Adelaide fundraiser was held, who have donated $1000 to the RFDS through The Long Walk Home. The support of David Elms and his crew is very much appreciated and it is great to see the RFDS being recognised and supported throughout the country.

Last weekend, a radio interview I did through ABC Western QLD was broadcast nationally on Macca’s Sunday morning program. Needless to say it was a huge surprise to me when I received a phone call from my dentist who had heard it in Adelaide. I was also very humbled by a lady last night in the hotel who said she heard me on the radio and wanted to donate when she arrived in Birdsville. It is always wonderful to speak with people about my walk and realise the impact that one person can have with a bit of perserverence. While at the Birdsville Hotel last night we held a raffle to raise funds for the RFDS and gave away a vast array of prizes from cooked chooks to bar mats and panda hats.

The past week has seen organising move to new heights with my preliminary food order being placed with the Birdsville Roadhouse. Working out I needed 10 cartons of tin tuna, 15kg of mince and 48L of milk certainly put the scale of the walk into perspective. One benefit of walking with a support crew is that I don’t have to skimp on too many things, so add to that some chicken, beans and numerous carbohydrates, as well as a few packets of mint slices and I think I should be fairly well fed throughout the walk. On the otherhand I doubt I will ever want to eat another tin of chicken or 4 bean mix again.

After food comes medical preparation so I spent this morning at our fantastic clinic working with Lauren to put into place a medical plan, taking into consideration medical supplies and medications. I think she was well entertained with my relaxed view on it and the fact that most of my replies started with “now…was I getting that was I?”, and with my failure to have got any relevant phone numbers of nearby properties…as yet. Needless to say I spent the next hour on the internet ordering ankle tape, blister pads, ice packs and nurofen, as well as thinking “I really should find those numbers”, but never actually doing it.

After finding a free hour at 9pm last night to go train at the gym, I have somehow managed to use up the hours in this day and as such will probably be leaving the gym around the same time again. Michael assured me this week was my taper week, however given that with less training comes more time to fill in doing other things, I think I have been just as busy. It is my goal for this week to write a post about my training progress, so be sure to either follow the blog or check back later in the week if you would like to know the ins and outs and ups and downs of training to walk across a desert…just in case the urge ever grabs you.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to get on board and donate if you can

Hugh Sawrey print goes to auction.

As the dust settled from the first round of bronco branding last Sunday, the time came to put Hugh Sawrey to the test and see how deep the pockets in the crowd were. Evidently, they were a little deeper than I thought. Don Rayment, the resident auctioneer, has a knack of finding bids in a crowd when all seems quiet, however I must admit that sometimes hands seem to appear out of nowhere and vanish before anyone sees they were there. It is this quirk of his auctions that ensures all itchs are left unscratched and all flies left unwaved until “Sold!” is shouted.

The print was titled ‘Discussing Tactics’ and was of horse riders camped at the Winton racetrack prior to the start of the Winton to Longreach endurance ride in 1982. Donated by the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, the print managed to pick up a quick $600 for the RFDS and brought the fundraising total to well over $14,000. A huge thanks must go to Stratford Ellis who dug the deepest and walked away with the beautiful print. In a quirky twist Strat and I went to boarding school together 7 years ago and hadn’t seen each other since. A huge thanks also goes to Don for giving up his voice in the name of charity and for his entertaining auctioneering skills….”You put ‘em up, I’ll add ‘em up”!

Jenna and Strat. Taking home the Hugh Sawrey print at auction.

From the desert to the prairies and back again.

After arriving back from Canada less than 48 hours ago I found myself wide awake at 4am this morning wondering what on earth I was going to do for the next 3 hours before the sun came up. Enjoying the fact that I could go outside in my pyjamas without freezing, I followed Chevy out and found myself standing on the front lawn in the glow of a couple of street lights down the road, the half-moon above me and a sky filled with stars. Across the road the caravan park was dark and quiet, surprisingly no dogs were barking or running the streets, and the wind almost had a warmth to it which is very odd for this time of year. Whilst out there I started thinking about the fact that in 45 days I will be starting my walk across the desert and will have the opportunity to spend every night looking up at clear skies, watching the stars pulse in the night sky, listening to the howl of the dingoes, and enjoying the solitude of being nothing more than a speck in the vastness of the Simpson Desert. That to me is pretty close to pure bliss.

What is not pure bliss is training in the cold with wind blowing into your face on a flat muddy road in the prairies of Canada. Although the place is practically my second home, and my friends and adopted families are wonderful, I am not going to pretend that walking in their weather is enjoyable. When I read Michael’s training plan for my trip over there, and read the corresponding weather forecast my jaw dropped a little wondering how my extremities would handle walking in those temperatures. Relative to their winter the weather was quite nice considering the temperatures were in the plus, and I will happily admit that when the sun did make an appearance, the 15 degrees seemed quite nice. Given the sun only came out on the day I left though, the ‘quite nice’ day was null and void to me. For the better part of my trip it was cloudy, drizzling, windy and cold. Not exactly the best weather for motivation.

On one morning I awoke from my spot on the couch, passed my friends in the kitchen, opened the front door, yelled “go away rain”, then proceeded back to my spot on the couch again.

Unfortunately this did not have the desired effect.

Realising the weather gods were not going to play nice I eventually ventured out most days, however never for as long as I was supposed to. Let’s just hope these 2 weeks weren’t “vital” for preparation.

It was a bit chilly!

The result of walking into a cold wind. Brrrr!

Speaking of preparation, given my fitness is in the hands of Michael and all I have to do is what he says, I am now focusing on pulling together the resources to ensure that not only do I make it to the other end, but that we get as much publicity for the work of the RFDS as possible. Kelly Theobald is a fantastic journalist who moved to Birdsville last year and is in the process of contacting every type of media we can think of. On top of that my sister is tweeting about the news as it arises (Karen Brook), you can like the Facebook page to keep up to date with the daily happenings, and you can also follow this blog so that whenever I write something new it will be delivered straight to your inbox (click ‘latest news’ above, and then the follow button on the right hand side of the page and follow the directions). We have just had an article published in the latest edition of the RFDS magazine (see below), as well a two page spread in the North West Star newspaper which was very exciting and a huge thanks goes to Sarah Norris for the great writing.

If anyone out there has a great idea for publicity, or works for someone who might be interested in running a story on the walk you can contact me at thelongwalkhome2012@gmail.com.

Fundraising in still going strong and we are approaching the $14,000 mark, which given the goal is $20,000 is a fantastic effort by all involved. If you would like to donate to the RFDS click ‘donate now’ at the top of the page and follow the links. This weekend Birdsville is holding its annual Bronco Branding and we will be auctioning a signed and numbered (179/250) Hugh Sawrey print titled ‘Discussing Tactics’, which was kindly donated by The Australian Stockman’s Hall Of Fame.

I have also just uploaded a couple more photos to the gallery page, and will continue to do so on a more regular occasion from now on…I promise. Although the website has been a little quiet of late, I hope to pick this up as we have a few more sponsors on board and will be releasing these details shortly. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor you still have time and can contact me on the above email address for a sponsor pack.

Thanks again to everyone for their support and kind words and if you haven’t read it or shared it with friends as of yet, check out the last post by RFDS pilot Michael Flood titled “Toilet paper to the rescue”.