We all recovered from the 30km of Easter Monday quite well so after a week off we decided it was time to revisit some of the tougher legs and start our training in earnest.
As always it was an early start and we were very grateful that "Top of the Ridge" pies open at 0600 to provide a good pyschological start to the morning. It was then back in the car to Brooklyn and we got under way just before 0630.
Has the concrete track out of Brooklyn gotten any less steep in the last 6 weeks? Nah! we must be getting fitter because we managed to get up much easier this time. The early part of the first leg is very pleasant and the weather was perfect for walking. We were very pleased with our progress throughout the whole leg, even managing a few very short bursts of something that might even classify as a trot. Jerusalem Bay looked spectacular in the morning sun and as we reached the new Checkpoint 1 at the RFS Station we stopped the clock at a couple of minutes over 3 hours.
After a short break and some more of last year's left over energy bars we set off on the second leg. (How many energy bars are there in the bottom of that pack, Fred?).
Maybe we shouldn't have stoppped because shortly afterwards both Fred (calves) and AJ (knee) started to have hassels. Tony R was going strong at this stage and since we needed to catch the train back to pick up the car he headed off at his stronger pace with the view to getting an earlier train. Fred and AJ continued on steadily, although slower than usual, especially coming down the stairs into Berowra Waters. As we left Berorwa Waters we realised that AJ had somehow managed to block large sections of this leg from memory. According to AJ, this leg seemed signifcantly longer than before and the bush had grown many more hills :-).
A steady pace was the go, and with a few stops for stretching exercises Fred and AJ arrived at the Berowra checkpoint in just under 3.5 hours. While Fred was enjoying his well earned spring roll (purely for the medicinal salt value of course) they discovered that their earlier scheming plans of sending Tony on to get the car had been thwarted. Tony had developed some cramping and was only 10 minutes ahead at the end. So all of us piled onto Berowra Station for the train ride back to Brooklyn.
Overall we had a tough workout and learned a lot about our tolerance levels. We are pretty happy with our stamina and aerobic fitness. However, we have to make sure that knees, ankles etc are going to last the distance so a few physio visits before we tackle the next weekend walk.
Thanks to all our generous friends and colleaugues who have already donated to our Team. We are now over 10% of the way towards our $5000 target. Don't forget you'll find our donation page here.
Thanks also to Julie Wise, from The SilverOwl, who has done a great job on our blog and is trying really hard to drag us into the social media realm with our Twitter account. Hopefully we are not too far away from welcoming Tony P back into the fold. So keep tuned (either here or via Twitter) for our next adventure.
PS: Congratulations to all those Teams that completed the Melbourne Oxfam Trailwalk over the weekend. We have a good idea what you went through - well done.
THE STATS
The Walkers: Tony R, Fred, AJ
Start – Cp1
Start Time: 6:26am
Duration: 3:02:05
Finish Time: 9:28am
Distance: 15.17km
Average Pace: 12.00 min/km
Average Speed: 5.0 km/h
Cp1 - Cp2
Start Time: 9:40am
Duration: 3:19:06
Finish Time: 12:59pm
Distance: 12.02km
Average Pace: 16.34 min/km
Average Speed: 3.6 km/h
Total Time: 6:21:11
Total Distance: 27.19km
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