Reflections and preparations

April 20th, 2009

So I’ve been back home for a week now and I’ve had some time to reflect on my first week of training and the after effects of it. Here are some of my insights:

- extreme tiredness takes a while to get over. All of last week I felt as though I had narcolepsy, nodding off at inopportune moments. Had someone said to me: “Are you tired?”, I would honestly have been able to say no because I didn’t feel tired. Yet when I least expected it, my eyes would just suddenly close and I’d need a brief power nap to keep going.

- a week of no make up coupled with a bit of sunshine, blasts of sea air and splashes of rain = the best facial ever. Honestly, my skin has never felt as smooth or looked as clear. No need to pay a fortune to a spa, just head out to sea. Sure there’s less barfing at a spa but hey, maybe the purging helps as part of the cleansing regime.

- the week after a being at sea is not good for the figure. Your body gets used to eating bag after bag of gingernuts and chocolate raisins. Trying to convince your tummy that it no longer needs the calories isn’t easy. Then there’s a week’s worth of not drinking wine to make up. All in all, it’s probably best to take a picture of yourself when you step off the boat toned and trim because it won’t last.

- despite having a completely surreal experience, when you get home you get sucked straight back into the laundry pile and you’ll wonder whether it ever happened at all.

So now that I’ve finally stopped swaying when I shut my eyes, I have just five more days before I head off for Part B of the training. I’ve armed myself with knee pads and some better deck shoes. I’ll be packing less stuff and will certainly take more socks this time. And I need to practice those sodding bowlines because despite having mastered the art of tying them before I left home, under pressure I was pants.

Anyway, I’m off to enjoy a rare sunny day, the last day of school holidays before trying to fit a month’s worth of work into four days.

Tags: bowlines, chocolate raisins, facial, gingernuts, narcolepsy, sailing

Entry Filed under: Training