Sandy Sensations on a Glorious Day!

Today's session was a simple gander on the soft sand, with our 12kg packs. It was 45min and quite tough on the leg and back muscles. Leyette's little girl came along, and walked the whole way, which was impressive. We also had a new adventurer, and she pushed our pace. Emma is just off the back of the 50km East Coast Walk event, so we didn't entirely embarrass ourselves!

Everybody is getting tired and run down. We are all at the Physio, we are all sore. Some of our walkers have doubt about their ability, and I will just be hoping that I say and do the right thing, to get them through it.

Here's the thing about pain and perseverance, though. What we are all struggling with - fitting the sessions in, maintaining pace, keeping our bodies functional, overcoming pain, soreness, and boredom - will make our successful completion of the trip so much more special. Hang in there guys! We are over the hump and bearing down on the big day!!

I am not sure why my photo is on its side, but it was too sweet to leave out!

Stair-Crazy!

Today's session was on the little hill between Freshie and Queenscliff beaches. We did 3 return laps of it, concentrating on placing our whole foot on the step, driving up with the big muscles in our butt and thighs, rather than through your toes and utilising the calves. On the way down, we refrained from using the handrails, for balance, and let our weight fall on each leg - this increases the gravity involved and works your pelvic floor and thigh muscles even harder.

 

I threw some curve balls to the fast walkers, like step up s on the viewing chairs, but aside from that it was a fairly simple 50min session.

 

With 3mths to go until the big day, we then sat down to discuss our training going forward. I gave them a minor heart attack when I asked for 40km in one day... I meant 4hrs, only 20km!

 

Legs are going to be a little stiff tomorrow.

Almost Broken by Alexander Street

Today's session was a short and sweet hill session on one of Sydney's toughest hills: Alexander St, Collaroy. It is 1km from our start point to the top of the hill, which we used as a warm up and cool down.

The body of the session was to speed 1km down Alexander , jogging, then turn around and power back up. We were wearing 10g.

It was tough the first time, then I broke it to the girls that not only were we going to do it again, but we were going to do it faster!!

Stopwatches set, we embarked on another lap to finish the old legs off, well and truly!

This week we concentrate on mixing the sessions up - some longer, some faster, and some with serious hill programming!!

Great Friday

Today's walk went ahead despite Good Friday!

Sandra missed Church with her family to be there, which we were happy about because it would not have been nearly as fun without her! We met at Spit Bridge in a brisk south-westerly wind, and managed under 11min kilometres for most of the first hour, even though it was alot of uphill, stairs, and we were all carrying 10kg in our packs. Our goal was Fairlight, just short of Manly so we could park easily.

Once again i appreciated the specatular scenery, and the diversity. We saw a number of water dragons and one rat.

The walk was at high tide, so included clambering on soft sand, rocks, and not-really-tracks bushland. We discovered how much lower we had to crouch at one point to get under a tree with our packs on. In retrospect, we probably should have taken them off and helped eachother across.

Lisa has a busy corporate lifestyle, so it making use of the weekend to do 2 sessions a day; one 30min speed and intervals, and one long 60-120min amble. The rest of us will continue with one walk daily, carrying 10kg.

We are getting fitter and stronger, and looking towards Macchu Picchu with confidence and mounting excitement. We are raising money for Diabetes Australia Research, support us at www.everydayhero.com/au/team-intoyou

On My Lonesome

I missed Fridays walk because i had a first aid course. The girls did a walk through Bicentennial gardens then spend the day on their feet at the Easter Show.

With our monthly focus on increasing mass, i filled a pack with Evie and her various essentials (food) and walked a 9km loop from my place around Long Reef and back.

Mass training can take two forms- what you carry, and also the steepness of the hills you go up and down (because you are either pushing against gravity or falling with it and absorbing the impact).

Those of you who know Collaroy Plateau, and the size of my kid, know that i did both types today!

We will be doing 4x 6km walks with week carrying 8kg.

Another Rainy Day!

Luckily, although overcast, the rain held off!

Today was a tough walk. We met at 3pm with the intention of shaving an hour off the Warringah's standard time of doing the Park Circuit at Manly Dam. However, we did not realise that the Park Circuit included two other walks, and was 2km further than the 7.3km expected!

Manly Dam is such a beautiful walk. It feels like it could be in the middle of the rainforest in some parts, and the country in other parts! With georgous streams and lush ferns, we could have been anywhere. We saw lizards and rabbits, and wildflowers.

The fatigue hit about half way with a very steep hill (although i have a feeling Macchu Picchu mountains will be a bit bigger!). After that it was all we could do to keep the pace on. We had a fall, so i carried an extra pack. Poor old Deb's knees and hips started failing about 8k in, but she had another kilometre to go unfortunately! Our splits went from 12-14min kilometres to 16-18min, but that did make the finish line so much sweeter!

Tired and bedraggled, and late to pick up our kids, we still shave 1hr 45min off Warringah Council's reccomended time for the walk. We can tell you it is 9k -not 7.3!!

A Need for Speed

This Friday's walking session was engineered for speed improvements. There are a number of ways to increase speed, and we used a variety of them in this session.

We did 5 x 30sec intervals, for 12 sets - six in one direction, and six back again.

The first set was all about big strides - the point of which was to increase the flexibility through the hips, and work the calves and feet harder.

The second set was small steps and quick leg movement - this is the traditional method for increasing speed.

The third set was a tiny weeny jog - designed to push their fitness (remember they are all wearing 6kg in their packs).

 

We did this twice and then turned around and came back again, repeating the exercise. Total speeding time was a full 30 minutes, which will hopefully translate into an overall speed improvement with their regular walks. The actual session was close to 2hrs, which will be excellent for our endurance.

Needless to say, there were a few tired muscles this morning, and they received a well deserved extra massage in their session!