Recovering!

Welcome back 'Bro! I hadn't thought about it that way but yes I guess I'm back in the land of ultras. It's been far too long :)

Recovery week - yippee!

Monday & Tuesday: rest. Felt exhausted on Monday. More tired than normal after a long walk. I think it was all the *thinking* involved in navigation, foot placement through the mud sections & then the river crossing. Well, that's my excuse & I'm sticking to it! 10 hours sleep on Monday night helped.

Wednesday: back to the pool again for another 750m swim. Keeping the sessions easy so the shoulder (which suffered some bursitis after I was hit by the car can adjusted to the training again). It feels a touch hypermobile at the moment; it seems to be moving around a bit in the socket so it's time to get back to the strength work again.

Thursday: out of bed & straight onto the bike for the first time in weeks (months?) without a fair amount of procrastination, FB & twitter checking & morning television viewing first.

Another bike session, this week 10mins warm up with 9 x 1mins hard efforts at low cadence with 10mins cool down. A hard, hard session. Getting off the bike safely with jelly legs is an exercise in concentration. 38mins. 13.4km

Friday: took myself off to my second home (Glenbrook National Park) with some stair repeats this morning. I haven't done this session in a few weeks & was quickly reminded off that fact. I park at the gates, walk down the causeway & then do repeats up the bush stairs of the campfire creek fire before crossing the causeway & walking back up the 'hill'. About 3km in total

Friday night (and early Saturday morning for that matter) were spent crewing for the Wild Women team at Trailwalker. Crewing is always a great experience. But I had forgotten how hard all-nighters are. I was awake around 6am Friday morning & was still going at 6am Saturday morning. Had about 90mins of rest (but not sleep) until I was able to crawl into a bed around 12pm Saturday for 2 hours sleep. We stayed on Saturday night at the Urban Hotel in St Leonards, using our free nights accommodation that R received as part of his 'goodie' bag at Ironman earlier this year.

Around 4pm on Saturday in an effort to stay awake, I dragged myself to the hotel gym - which, fortunately, wasn't that difficult as it was about 40 paces from our hotel room - for a (very) easy session consisting largely of mobilisers but also a few strength exercises. A few niggles have been creeping in during my last few training sessions so I need to keep on top of it. Only 4 weeks to go!

10.5hrs sleep & I was feeling somewhat human again.

Sunday: rest. Had planned a bike ride but it didn't happen.

MTD:

Bike: 45kms

Hike: 91.7kms (!)

The trails, they are a changin'

Another big week!

Tue & Wed: rest

Thursday: it suddenly occurred to me last night that it was less than 12 weeks until the Nepean Tri. Given I've hardly ridden in the last 6 months, it's time to get my butt into gear (& onto the bike). So this morning I dragged my butt off the couch for a short bike session consisting of 10min w/u, then 6 x 1min in my smallest gear @ low cadence followed by 10min c/d. 11.1km. 32min.

Massage later in the day

Friday brought a long drive to a wet, cold & windy Tamarama for another Wild Women on Top session, this time a 2hr session consisting of a walk from Tamarama to Coogee & return with lots of sand walking, stair repeats, squats, push-ups, walking lunges on soft sand & other strength exercises along the way. About 5km in total.

Saturday was a rest in which R & I drove down to Kangaroo Valley where we met Lulu & Mr K as Lulu & I had planned to walk part of the Trekking for Timor course.

Lulu & I started about 7:10am from the Fitzroy Falls visitors centre to walk 25km (effectively checkpoint #1 to checkpoint #3). Despite rain (which sounded like it fell) all night, Sunday dawned overcast & misty.

The course had everything from wide fire trail, single track which had turned into a mud bath and lakes, the beautiful (and slippery) descent down Meryla Pass & then a creek crossing. Actually normally I suspect it is a creek crossing. But recent rain had the river running above knee level as it turns out. Fortunately it was only 4kms in wet feet to the location of checkpoint #3 where Mr K & R picked us up. Lovely way to spend a weekend, only 5 weeks out from the event! 24.5km in total over 5:35 in total (4:45 walking time)

Recovery week ahead. The old body needs it!

MTD:

Bike: 31.6km

Hike: 88.7km

Blisters, driftwood & flooding: just another weekend!

Last Monday morning I woke with fatigued & stiff legs & a sore butt after Team Sparta's little adventure on the Six Foot Track the day before. Recovery was critical last week ahead of my next adventure - hiking & camping on the Coastal Track in the Royal National Park hiking between Otford & Bundeena - this weekend just past.

Mon 8/8: After doing a bit of work in the morning, I took myself off for a swim about 9.30am. Almost empty pool = bliss. This was my first swim since my crash 2 months ago & probably only my 3rd swim since Husky in March :0 so to say it was a struggle would be accurate. Oh well, need to give a shoulder a chance to get used to the stress of swimming again before I do anything crazy distance wise. 750m

30mins of SMR once I got home.

Tues 9/8: I joined a Wild Women on Top group at Balmoral for 3hrs of rock scrambling, beach walking, stair climbing, strength work, chatting & laughter. Distance was only 7.1km but the difficulty was increased (significantly) by the 14.5kg pack I was carrying. Few better ways to start the day than looking out thru Sydney heads while rock scrambling. I *love* rock scrambling - it really puts me at the edge of, and occasionally beyond, my comfort zone. Unfortunately I only really have an opportunity to do when I am with WWoT.

Legs were surprisingly ok after Sunday's session on the Six Foot Track though some general fatigue was still evident.

30mins of SMR once home.

Wed 10/8: bad nights sleep. Bit worried about a blister on my foot which developed due to Sunday's bad sock choice & which was aggravated a bit yesterday.

Easy recovery & regeneration session around lunchtime - 15mins of cardio (5min bike/10mins easy strength exercises) followed by 30mins SMR. Nice!

Sat-Sun 13-14/8: Spent a wonderful weekend with a great group of Wild Women (on Top) walking (and camping) on the Coastal Track from Bundeena to Otford in the Royal National Park.

Too many things to comment other than it was a tough walk thanks to a bad nights sleep on Saturday night, a heavy pack (about 20kgs by Saturday afternoon when I had to take on some additional gear from someone else who wasn't well) carried over 31kms in total.

Oh, and I took on 2 pieces of driftwood & lost - one took my feet out causing me to do a face plant on a beach, directly onto the 2nd piece which grazed my forehead.

Oh, and then there was the torrential rain on Saturday night which turned our campsite into a lake (literally) which had Sunday challenging; wet gear = even heavier packs & wet shoes = uncomfortable feet.

Will put some photos on FB in the next few days.

Mon 15/8: oh so tired when I got home last night. 9.5 hours sleep & I still wasn't feeling too energised on Monday morning. Easy recovery & regeneration session (including 30mins of SMR) around lunchtime to get the body moving. Legs still very fatigued.

A relatively easy week ahead before another big walk this weekend!

MTD:
Bike: 20.5km
Hike: 59.2km

Returning to my happy place..

A rather quiet week. My hips & TA were quite sore after Sunday's session which was actually exciting (as it means they were probably working properly for the first time in my life) - yippee!

Mon 1/8: easy recovery & regeneration session at 7am consisting of 13mins of movement/exercises & about 40mins of SMR using the foam roller & tennis ball. A few tight spots in hips after yesterday's long walk.

Thu 4/8: much needed massage. Nice!

Sat 6/8: back on the bike today. Drove down to the Regatta Centre & rode (with R & Mini Mango) 3 laps of the Regatta Centre plus 1 lap of the industrial area to show Mini Mango the Nepean Tri bike course. Nice to be back on the bike, getting used to the new setup & over the mental aspects of being hit by the car. Still scared witless of cars (even when driving) & riding like a nana but I'm back :) 20.5km/52:43

Sun 7/8: a return to my happy place -

3/4 of Team Sparta that is taking on the 50km "Trekking for Timor" team event in Kangaroo Valley next month (yikes!) met in a cafe in Katoomba for a pre-walk coffee before setting out to walk part of the Six Foot Track as training.

The city slickers from the Eastern Suburbs (Lulu & Sammy) had not been on "the track" before so it was nice to introduce them to one of my favourite parts of the mountains. We walked about 10.5km out (just beyond Pinnacle Hill) before heading back to Nellies Glen on what was, for the most part, a beautiful day.

Unfortunately the rain started to fall (quite heavily) as we started our climb back up Nellies Glen & shortly afterwards Sammy started suffering from low blood sugar levels & headspins. Not the best place to suffer from this, particularly once the thunder & eventually hail started. But we managed to get back to the car safely. It was a good lesson for both Sammy (in terms of how to look after herself) & myself (in terms of how to look after people in similiar situations in future).

Lunch in Katoomba afterwards left us feeling (almost) human again. 21km in 4:37 in total

MTD:
Bike: 20.5km
Hike: 21km