I’m shifting my focus to improving the quality and quantity of experiences on the site. So basically I’m adding loads of experiences onto the site. I’m adding

• Top 20 marathons
• Top 10 Iron mans
• Top 20 cities- with 10 top attractions per city
• All UNESCO world heritage sites (Big one and will take a while but worth it!)

If I keep adding what I consider to be fun and exciting experiences then when people come to the site they will be able to simply add photos and review experiences as opposed to having to add the experience themselves.

It is about reducing the barriers to members adding content I suppose, and making the site much more full of cool experiences.

Any other suggestions for what to add next would be much appreciated!

Thanks

DK

In summary 6 x training sessions in total (8 days)

Sunday

Gym session (Shoulder and tricep): Dips, Shoulder press, Close arm bench, shrugs, lie on bench with 25kg bar arms straight up, bend at elbow down to the back of your head x 10, then 10 x press straight after (x3). Two sets with 7.5kg: shoulder fly x10, shoulder fly (elbows bent at 90) x 10, bottom of back up to front shoulder height x10 

Monday-6 a side footy 40 mins

Tue - None (Barca vs Chelsea)

Wed- None

Thu-Am- 3 mile run in 30 mins. PM 3 mile run in 30 mins

Fri-None

Sat- Gym (Chest and biceps)

1) Overhead pullups 3 x 10,

2) bench press 10 @ 60kg, 10 @ 70kg, drop set 4 @ 80kg, 4@ 70kg, 4@ 60kg

3) TRX- Feet against wall (1 foot up), body straight then use the TRX straps to pull your body up. 3 x 10

4) Press ups & abs- Mix set 4x10 press up handles with feet raised on big ball, mixed in with leg pushes i.e. you lie on back, your mate stands above your head, you hold onto his ankles and bring your feet up (legs straight) then he pushes them down in any direction and you have to stop them touching the floor and bring them back up and repeat 3 x 20

5) Biceps 21’s @ 20-25kg 3 sets then plank in between (hold as long as it takes your mate to do the set

6) Chest fly on cable crossover whilst lying on a big ball 3 x 10, relatively low eight but good technique

7) Sit down chest press- 3 x 10 @ 40, 45 & 50KGs

Sun- Swim

4 lengths FC with a 60 second break x 4

3 lengths FC with a 45 second break x 4

2 lengths FC with a 45 second break x 6

= 40 lengths in about 30 minutes the 3rd length in each set was always the hardest. This was a good format because it starts to force your body to get the oxygen on the length as opposed to the end of the length…still a long way to go tho as a mile is a long way with no breaks!

Aiming for more sessions this week as Im not away with work at all…need to up the intensity of workouts

It has not been the best week to start training everyday because I’ve been travelling a lot with work. I have managed to fit the below training in:

Sunday-64 x 25m lengths in pool (1 mile) front crawl 41 minutes & 30 seconds

Monday- gym session 4 x sets of 8-12 reps of: Back squats (60 up to 80kg), overarm pull ups, tricep dips, 16 KG kettle bell presses, straight leg push downs, raised foot push ups (feet on mobility ball, using press up handles)

Tuesday- No workout (Ldn)

Wednesday AM-4 mile run

Wed PM- 300 workout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggiYjRelWgc

Thursday- No workout (B’ham)

Friday-No workout (Mancs)

Saturday- 2 hour surf

Haven’t had any booze for two weeks and starting to feel the benefit. Sending my food intake to Jonny to see how I can improve my diet

This week should be better for regular exercise as I’m only away Tuesday

First blog post in a while! Sorry been busy, but now I’m BACK!

Firstly I’m trialling a new idea for Doolist…currently you can only review experiences after you have done them, but my friend, Andy Holroyde, suggested we should also let people have a mini blog to document their preparation / training for any experiences before they do it e.g. training for a marathon, triathlon, charity fundraising etc. I think this is a great idea so I’m going to trial it on this blog first then maybe integrate it into the main Doolist site if it goes well.

I’m going to document my training for the upcoming Great North Swim (1 mile lake Windermere swim in June). So I’ve embarked on a two month health kick, and I’m being helped into shape by my friend Jonny Thompson, who is a CrossFit trainer. He has just opened his new Cross Fit gym (CrossFit Cumbria) in Penrith two weekends ago and it is awesome…really really good. If you want to get fitter, stronger and look better check it out at this site http://www.crossfit-cumbria.com/

Jonny is devising me a progressive training schedule for me based around CrossFit, so I’ll document my progress on here then post review the GNS on Doolist. It will be a mixture of swimming, running and strength training combined with a healthy diet.

To kick off the training I did a mile swim in my gym pool this AM (64 x 25m lengths) front crawl, and clocked up a time of 41:30, but that was with quick breath breaks at the end of each length.

My mate Stu did it last year in 39 minutes with little training. Last year’s men’s record was 18:35….so I think 30 mins would be a good target to go for.

I’ll keep you posted with how I get on in training

In 2009 I had the idea

In 2010 I developed the plan

In 2011 I built the site

In 2012…this year my aim is to launch Doolist to the world and get to 100k members within 12 months (We’re currently on 253!)

This is a tall order, and exactly how I’m going to do this yet I’ll admit I’m not 100% sure, but I’m going to give it my best shot, try and get as much advice as possible from people in the know, work hard, stay positive and keep believing.

I know there are people out there who will love the site, people who like to push themselves, achieve, experience and share a lot of things…the trick is for me to find these people and to get them on to the site…I’m thinking of a line from Wayne’s World 2 when he’s trying to book Waynestock…’Build it and they will come!’ I’ve built it, and now I just need to find the right people.

A lot of people say there are too many social networks ands what’s the point in going against the likes of Facebook and Twitter. However history is littered with cases of giant corporations and business empires being humbled by small, new, fresh, hungery & agile startups. I am a firm believer that if you can group together the right kind of motivated people and they feel part of something special….then you will succeed in building something successful.

Of course, the site needs to look, feel and work well, but I also believe too many tech startups are guilty of focussing too much on the technical side of the site and don’t spend enough time attracting quality people…I too am quilty of this. As a site founder you need to be careful not to spend too much time tinkering and improving the site at the expense of growing member content….of course there needs to be a process of Kaizen i.e. constant improvment based upon user feedback…but in truth the site will never be ‘finished’, you simply need to get it out there and get people on it for them to start building good quality content, listen to their feedback, then improve the site…this is what I need to do now!

There are some good ideas in the pipeline to help me try and find these adventurous people;

• Doolist 2012 t-shirt competition
• Facebook advertising campaign to top 20 UK cities
• Doolist extreme charity challenge- TBC
• Targetting adventurers
• Me going around the UK based events and meeting people

However I’m always looking for new ideas…if you have one that you think might help please let me know dk@doolist.com

This year I will use my blog to document both mine and Doolist’s journey, from a fledgling startup, to a successful and exciting organisation which is full of adventurous and motivated people…the kind of people that make good things happen!

DK

Awesome, the best theme parks I’ve ever been to

Really, really good. the technology used in a lot of the rides now is insane. It’s got a rollercoaster in the traditional sense ‘The Hulk’ but a lot fo the rides e.g. Spiderman, The Simpsons, and Harry Potter use a lot of 3d and visual effects and mtion technology to make you feel like you’re living the ride. Alos in the queue they have screens tellign you the story behins the ride so it keeps you entertained. Hogsmeade looked excellent and like it was straight from the set of Harry Potter…Olivanders wand shop always has a big queue! This whol place makes Alton Towers in the UK look absolutely pants! We bought a ticket for around $180 which gave 14 days worth of access to Universal, Islands of Adventure and Wet n Wild. Universaal and Island of Adventure are right next to eachother…Wet n Wild is a little bit further away but still an excellent day out. The Disco ride there was my favourite!

Best bits

The Simpson’s ride, The Harry Potter ride and Spiderman

Worst bits

If it’s cold you rerally have to think whether going on the water riders are worth it becuase you really do get soaked!

Suggestions

Go late season maybe late October/Early November because the queues are much shorter like 5-10 mins in most cases

Just read a fascinating book ‘Ghosts of Everest’ (Hemmleb, Johnson & Simonson, 1999) on Mallory & Irvine’s 1924 attempted ascent of Everest. Did they make it before Hillary & Tenzing 24 years later? Last sighted a few hundred metres from the summit going strong for the top. I hope one day we find either Irvine’s body or the missing camera that may prove it. Def worth a read!

http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Everest-Search-Mallory-Irvine/dp/B0006IXL5M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317218253&sr=1-1

Me and Sir Ranulph Fiennes…a true living legend and hero of mine

I’ve read several of Sir Ranulph Fiennes books such as ‘Captain Scott’, ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know’ and ‘Beyond the Limits’, so when the opportunity to go and listen to him speak about his adventures I was of course really keen to go.

I went along with Liam, and the place was pretty much sold out. He described many of his adventures such as his expedition up the Nile on hovercraft, his Transglobe Expedition, which was the first and only ever expedition to circumnavigate the globe on it’s polar axis; the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic with Dr Mike Stroud, Searching for Lost City of Ubar in the Oman desert etc etc. He spoke for about an hour an a half and the crowd were captivated all the way. Such is the depth in his experience in the world of adventure, he didn’t even have time to cover off climbing the North Face of the Eiger, running 7 marathons in 7 days across 7 continents (shortly after undergoing major heart surgery, and again with Dr Mike Stroud) and climbing Everest! The crowd laughed when he described a part of the Transgobe expedition, which his late wife Ginny had planned, rowing and trekking up through Alaska. This particular route had never been done before in under 3 years…Ginny had given them 2 months!

He then answered questions. He was asked about his biggest fear to which he answered spiders and vertigo, both of which he has now clearly overcome. It made me laugh when one guy in the audience said that last year he had suffered from frostbite, as if it were a badge of honour, then asked Sir Ran about the best way to deal with it. Ranulph then went onto describe how when he suffered bad frostbite on a expedition to the North Pole, upon returning home he kept catching the dead fingers on his bed sheets which was naturally very painful. Much to his doctors discontent, he then went into the shed and went at them with a saw. When that didn’t work he went and bought himself a black and decker power tool to see the job done. That put the guy in the audience in his place!

In summary, for a man who has achieved so much, he tells his stories in a very matter of fact way, and does not come across at all arrogant, just as someone who has confidence in his own ability and a stern determination to see a job done once he has started it.

Me and Liam rushed downstairs and were luckily on of the first in the queue to get our books signed and have a photo taken. I wish I would have had 5 minutes longer to talk to the man who I consider to be my biggest living hero.

Full review and photo here:

www.doolist.com/events/an-evening-with-sir-ranulph-fiennes/

I highly recommend all of his books which you can buy at the following links:

Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know
http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Bad-Dangerous-Know-Autobiography/dp/0340951699/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316345260&sr=1-1

Beyond the limits
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Limits-Lessons-Lifetimes-Adventures/dp/0316857068/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316345352&sr=1-1

Captain Scott
http://www.amazon.com/Captain-Scott-Ranulph-Fiennes/dp/0340826991/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316345392&sr=1-1

Skydive in Madid two days before the Pamplona bull run, awesome!