Hi there,

My name is Fiona Lindsay, and this is my first blog for In The Winning Zone.

To fill you in about me, my aim is to be the first woman to make a true crossing of the Antarctic continent from coast to coast, via the South Pole. 

We will be on skis, using huge kites as wind power and pulling a sledge behind us carrying all our equipment.  We have just 75 days to make the crossing, camping in minus 50 degrees below freezing, where one small mistake could cost you your life.

We therefore need to be able to understand our skills and kit to the highest level.  There is no room for mistakes if we want to come back alive.

I have taken nine years to get to this point and my expeditions have got larger in scale and commitment every year.  In 10 weeks time, I will be undertaking a similar 400 mile crossing of the Greenland Arctic, to raise awareness and funds for the most northerly orphanage in the world.  This expedition is called Cairn’s ‘Greenland’s Children’ Expedition.
 
I started training for this expedition in September last year and everything has gone exactly to plan.  As part of my training, I need to practice pulling a sledge, so I hike around Edinburgh dragging tyres behind me.  By mid January I was dragging two tyres for six hours a day, and three tyres for four hours, so well ahead of schedule, which was fantastic. 

In the past, I have had a problem with my knee.   As there is no room for error on the expedition, I needed to push it hard, well before we leave to see how it will cope and if there was anything that I needed to work on. 

I dragged three tyres up over Arthur’s seat and as a result, the cartilage failed.  This was what I needed to know.  I went straight in to Space physio clinic, a centre of excellence for sports injuries and great supporters of the expeditions. 

Stephen Mutch, the best physio I know (and being a physio myself I know many of them!) saw me within three hours of injury.   Gordon Mackay, the Orthopedic Knee Specialist (who also used to be an athlete himself) drained my knee of 28mls of fluid (usually you have only 3mls in your knee) and said it needed an operation.  The next day, this was done at Ross Hall Hospital in Glasgow. 

They explained that they understood the urgency of the operation and as they wanted to help support the orphanage, they gave me the operation free of charge.  This support was extraordinary, second to none and I have no idea how to thank them all enough for becoming part of this team.

Four days later, I had to run a course at Tiso on endurance injury and prevention – on crutches which made everyone laugh!  I explained that it is only in very rare cases that anyone pushes themselves into an injury and that this should be avoided at all costs and only done with medical supervision. 

Within the same week I had a big talk to do (to help a little boy in Georgia ((the country, not the US state)) get an operation for his back to save his life) and did not want to let him down.  I followed all the advice I had been given by the doctors  and was able to do the talk on just one crutch. 

I saw the physio in the last week in January and I was allowed to do eight minutes of exercise on my leg (knee extensions) only for six days*.  This feels very difficult as I am used to training for much longer and need to be skiing hard within 6 weeks for crucial training in Norway. 

However I must keep my self-control* and take it in little steps to build myself back up.  If I over train on it, I could put myself behind schedule.    There are many things that you can do to train without using your leg, for example I sit on the floor in the gym, using pullies and weights to practice kiting or swimming with a float between my feet to maintain strength.

The other area I need to concentrate on is putting on fat!  Ruth Mckeand, sports nutritionist at the Scottish Insitute of Sport is helping me put on two stone before I leave for Greenland. 

This fat is crucial to survive in the polar regions for warmth and also for extra food rations. I have been eating everything fattening I can find,  which was luxurious at the start, but is now becoming hard work as my body is telling me I don’t need anything more!  I have put on a stone, although Ruth has measured that is largely muscle and I need more actual fat.

Although it feels very scary not knowing when I can next train with my tyres again, I am so pleased that I experimented in practice and my injury has happened three months before the expedition, so I have time to sort it out and get back on track.  This is absolute proof that you must trial all eventualities in practice so that you can prepare for the main event.
 
When this was all going on, it would have been easy to worry about what would happen.  However I know that thinking like that will get me nowhere.  This is only one of the many big hurdles I will have to jump on my way.  The only way is to think positive and rise to the challenge. 

There are always going to be many difficulties and this is just one of them.  There is no way that I am going to give up.   So I am looking forward to the small goals in front of me, keeping focused and taking one step at a time.  Therefore I will get back on to my bigger goals.
 
So it has been an interesting month with a very worthwhile outcome.  The book Think Like a Winner, by Israeli consultant Yehuda Shinar, says it is always best to experiment in practice and never on the event, and that has been the most useful thing that I have done this year. 

I would also encourage anyone to look at their weaknesses, don’t find a way around them, but sort them out, no matter how hard it looks, so that you can get back on track as fast as possible.

I would like to say the biggest thank you to Space Physiotherapy, Gordon Mackay and Ross Hall Hospital’s nurses for their extraordinary support and care which I will never forget.  If I continue to follow their advise,  I will be back on track in a month’s time, at which point I will catch up with you again.

Bye for now,

Fiona

*Fiona is referring to the ‘Winning Theory’ as outlined by Yehuda Shinar in his book, Think Like a Winner.  You can find out more by clicking the links below.

Yehuda's Winning Ways

Think Like a Winner book review

Yehuda Shinar: Winning Detective

© Copyright In The Winning Zone, MMIX, All Rights Reserved

www.greenlands-children.co.uk