Monday, September 19, 2011

Blisters and Natural beauty?

I'm baaaack...
I had a fantastic time bushwalking through the south west of Australia, it is such an amazingly beautiful part of the world and such untouched beauty!
The four of us got along really well and we had a great time.
In the end, we managed this:
Day 1: 31.2 km (~ 7 hrs)
Day 2: 26.1 km (~ 7 hrs)
Day 3: 22.7 km (9 + hrs)
Day 4: 10 km  (5-6 hrs)
Total: 90 km.
The reasons for the progressively slower timings?? Bad planning... Me and the other girl on the trip had horrendous blisters by the end of day 1, which just slowly got worse. One of the other guys stuffed up his knees. So the three of us pretty much limped about 60 km of that entire walk. It is the furtherest I have ever pushed my body beyond pain. We were seriously walking less than 2 km an hour by the last day, and it was really, really slow going. I am really pleased with the fact that even with painful blisters and really tight calves, we still pushed our bodies, still kept going and it was really amazing how much your body will put up with!
I also saw my first snake in the wild and didn't totally lose it, although I did scream one night on a trip to the long-drop toilet when I heard a noise as I opened the door.
The terrain was constantly changing - beginning with tall trees and fallen leaves underfoot, changing to beach flora and fauna and constant undulating terrain - enough to drive you batty. Seriously, the day of 22.7 km (day 3) was so painful. There was about 3+ hours of non-stop up-down-up-down-up-down the sand dunes, and one GIGANTIC mountain of a sand dune which was like, 1 km long and took us about an hour!! It is seriously hard work climbing those dunes!
I was planning to upload some pictures but I'm short for time. So this will do for now.
Oh, and despite over 30 hours of exercise in one week, I lost only 1 kilogram. I'd like to hope that means that I ate well enough to support all the exercise, but I know that I actually didn't eat enough... so what is going on there, I don't know, but I feel better about myself anyway and lots of cardiovascular fitness likely gained from the endless hills!

Ahh, and for this week?
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Yoga & 3 km easy run (not sure how this will go due to one blister on my big toe being infected and extremely large...?)
Wednesday: BodyPump
Thursday: Hill run 3km
Friday: cross/trainer & BodyPump
Saturday: swimming 30 mins
Sunday: 5km race