Training...a whole new experience!

Being back has been very strange, I don't sleep well in a bed and don't do crowds of people very well. I eat every meal as if it is the only one I'm likely to get all day. When it rains and the wind blows hard I feel I should be out on my bike, not inside watching Beyonce, shake her booty on MTV.

I am however very busy (when not watching the golf or Tour De France) preparing for the next stage of the trip, Tour #5 Greenland Icecap crossing.

A classic crossing of the vast Greenland Icecap- one of the 3 big Polar Expeditions. Following the line of the Arctic Circle between Isortoq and Kangerlussuaq, I will attempt a 'full crossing'; that is, from coast to coast. Instead of being flown onto the Icecap, I plan to start the expedition at sea level on the East Coast, and finish on the shores of the fjord in Kangerlussuaq. Travelling by ski, hauling all my equipment in a sled (pulk), the crossing is likely to take around 27 days.

Starting with a heavy load, I will make my way up the initial steep slopes onto the icecap, from where the slopes gradually ascend to the summit, before gradually losing height until I reach the terminus of the ice on the West Coast. I will continue on foot to the sea's edge- the final stage in making a complete crossing of Greenland.

A total distance of about 550km, total ascent of 2500m and a total timeframe of about 30 days.

Temperatures should range between 10 and -30 degrees centigrade.

My days are spent training for the crossing - 8 to 10 hours a day towing a sled on skis is quite hard to simulate on the south coast of the UK in July. So I am mixing up, running, cycling, kayaking, hiking with fully laden rucksack, swimming and gym work as well as the infamous Polar Explorer training exercise of tyre pulling. I spent the first 2 weeks after Iceland pulling a lorry tyre up and down the beach for 3 to 4 hours, 3 times a week, this was very hard to start with and caused my knees a lot of pain so I took a week off for them to recover, I have now upgraded to 2 tyres and have dropped the number of hours, to see if this relieves the pain.

On Thursday however I was out with a friend in Dorchester and whilst explaining to his parents what I was about to do over a cup of tea, they admitted to having a real pulk and harness in the loft, albeit one especially for towing children through the snow in Lapland, but a pulk all the same. They were keen to bring it down and for me to have a go in the garden. After rummaging through the loft we found it caked in a layer of dust. Out on the lawn we put Molly (Jan's daughter) into the pulk (ironically his parents pulled him to nursery in Sweden 36 years ago in the same pulk), she was a willing guinea pig, but I think I enjoyed the experience more than she did.

The rest of my day is spent, tweaking my equipment, tying to reduce the weight of each item, making zips more accessible and generally reading up on travel in extreme temperatures, of which I have no real experience.

Next week I have a climbing lesson to simulate crevasse rescue, one of the main dangers I will have to face at the start and end of the expedition. I have to be conversant with hauling people from the bottom of one and also comfortable with climbing out of one myself. Crevasses aren't the only risk to this journey, Polar Bear encounters, these I have been told only really appear on the West coast - but I have retrieved my old gun from the loft and have been taking target practice on the local pigeons (also a great source of protein for my diet!) I will also be carrying a gun on the expedition albeit a bit more powerful than a .177 Webley Omega.