After months of preparation, she set off from near Havana in August, but an asthma attack forced her to abort after 51 miles and 28 hours.
Last spring, after months of preparation, she took time off from work to tackle the trail's southernmost stretch, solo.
States have developed a box-checking attitude: if a client does not show up for job preparation classes, she is taken off from the program for noncompliance.
André Villas-Boas might have permitted himself a little smile as he broke off from his preparations for a family Christmas to examine the result of his most recent club's initial attempt to move on from his 17-month reign at White Hart Lane.
Breaking off from his preparations for Wimbledon, where he will face the Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in the opening round, Nadal fulminated at length about the plight of Spanish tennis, which he said had become embroiled in a relentless media circus that threatened to damage the sport's image, discourage participation and deter sponsors.
Taking time off from his intense preparation for the Rugby World Cup closing ceremony ("We have to make sure we don't cover the pitch in debris") Fleming surveys the line of seven cakes.
"That brings us back to his method of preparation, the way he shuts himself off from the rest of the world, so that he can still call on reserves that other drivers might not have: Fernando Alonso, for example, who is busy with politics and funny comments.
"Bikini" similarly takes off from newsreel images of preparation leading up to the 1946 testing of an atomic bomb.
The experiments were performed using the preparations of the saphenous artery, which branches off from the femoral artery at the level of the knee and supplies blood to the foot [ 30].
(One father even took a year off from his job to supervise the preparation of his daughter's admissions portfolio).
