BT Global Challenge - Leg 2 - 15th November

Andy Magrath, LG FLATRON, Wednesday 15th November;

'On LG FLATRON we try to take our fitness very seriously. Ever since I attended a talk three years ago by a crew member from the last race who said, 'The best piece of advice I can give you is that if you think that you are fit enough - you’re not!'

I knew that fitness was going to be an important part of my race preparation and during the race itself. The three Ss are Strength, Stamina and Stretch. It is these three words that have driven my training program, which has been gym based, doing at least 3 x 2.5 hours per week at the gym and 2 x 4 mile runs per week.

Once I met my skipper, Conrad, in January 2000 there was no let up. It was obvious that Conrad took this aspect of our race preparation very seriously, as we were soon to find out. Every time we met up for team practice there were early morning fitness circuits to complete and this was before the all-day gruelling sail training on the boat. After these weekends we would all get home late on a Sunday evening absolutely shattered and then back to work on Monday morning!

When training in Plymouth there was the compulsory 06:00 hours dunking in a February-cold Plymouth Sound. When training off Weymouth there were the circuits on Weymouth Beach - particularly difficult running on sand - and then the charge into the freezing sea! All of this whilst early rising dog walkers looked on in bemusement.

Four weeks before the start of the race we moved into our crew house in Hamble, home of the infamous ‘Hamble run’. Conrad would set the target, 'Off you go, I will set off ten minutes later and anyone I catch has to go round again!' To my knowledge and the crew's satisfaction he never did quite make up the ten minutes! Hamble Common was home to the LG FLATRON circuit training and if the press-ups didn’t get you then the mosquitos and wasps would - what a joy.

Throughout the year we were working with the Southampton Institute who have been monitoring our fitness progress. The big question is whether or not our fitness will have improved or deteriorated over the ten months of the race.

The key factor as we started Leg 1 was that fitness prevents injury. The first leg from Southampton to Boston was relatively short, upwind and it was therefore difficult to exercise on the boat, especially when heeled over at 30 degrees! Unfortunately, the Boston stopover was only 14 days and a mad dash to get the boat ready for Leg 2 - our fitness suffered. We did no formal training as a crew and with parties galore we knew that our preparation was not ideal for the second leg.

After settling down to life on board, following the restart in Boston, we decided that it was important to work out some simple exercises that we could do on the boat. As bowman I knew that I needed to keep my strength up, as later on in the leg there would be endless spinnaker peels and drops, involving me climbing up to the end of the spinnaker pole, no mean feat and embarrassing if you don’t make it.

We decided to use the cockpit for a couple of exercises. Even when the boat is heeled over you can do press-ups across the seats and then use one seat for bar dips. Stretching out the backs of the legs and arms can be done at any time. For sit-ups we hook our feet under a bar on the side deck. When the mainsail is sheeted in we use the jackstay, which runs along the underside of the boom, for pull-ups. To practice climbing up the pole I climbed up the lower aft shrouds a couple of times a day. When below decks you can do overhand pull-ups as you go down the companionway steps and underhand pull-ups using a ladder rung in the sail locker.

So, do these exercises help? To a certain extent you keep fit just by sailing the boat. With winching, sail changes etc. there is plenty to keep the muscles working. Some of the crew take part in the onboard training and some don’t. From a personal point of view, on a 35 day leg of the race, if you don’t do some training your fitness will suffer and with a Southern Ocean leg approaching it is better to be safe than sorry. Also, once in Buenos Aires there will be endless parties and nights out to attend, to which the same three Ss apply - don’t they?'

LG FLATRON is closing on the finish, aided at the moment by a solid south-westerly breeze. But this is forecast to drop quite quickly as the low pressure system is replaced by high pressure. But their lead is substantial, and the rest of the fleet have enough to worry about just wrestling for the other places on the podium. At 07.43 GMT on Wednesday 15th November, the BT Global Challenge website reported the positions and distances to the finish of the top six as:

1 LG FLATRON 290 nm
2 Spirit of Hong Kong 388 nm
3 Logica 427 nm
4 Olympic Group 438 nm
5 Compaq 443 nm
6 BP 447 nm