Night Walk

Friday 24th saw Geoff, Brian, Shona, John, Kate and Linda setting off from Upper Ferntree Gully at about 8.30pm to test our night walking skills. Up the Kokoda Trail steps (trip number 3 up these stairs for Brian and Linda) and into the wilds of the Dandenong Ranges National Park. Some of our team had never walked at night - and so this was a challange.

As usual, it took me 31 minutes to get up the hill - does not seem to change. We had some great views of the lights over Melbourne (probably Mooroolbark or somewhere equally as exciting) from the top of the hill. Met some other crazy trailwalkers running up and down the stairs. Something about those Kokoda steps that is slightly unsettling - there are always people running up and down.

We made good time on the trip - although the night was very warm - probably about 27-28 degrees. On some of the flatter stretches, the air felt like a silk cloth surrounding us. The night lights caused a phenomonen Shona called the mask effect - the night light shining out from our head torches made the dark on the periphery of our eyes seem like a diving mask.

No photos tonight - carried the camera but forgot to take it out! The trip took around 2 hours 55 minutes. Not bad going for the night run. Next - the really big training walk - 47km in the heat next saturday 4th March.

Mt Donna Buang conquered on 27.5km training walk

Sunday 12th Feb was the day of the hill. We met on top of Mt Donna Buang at 8.00am ish. I finally saw not one but three lyre birds beside the road on the way up the mountain. I have never seen one before in the flesh. Half an hour transport back down the hill to check point 6 Woori Yallock Primary School to meet up with our two support crew walking with us today - Bett and Kerry. This was the first time the whole two teams - team nurofen and team nurofenjerkin had walked together. The walking participants were: Brian, John, Clayton, Kate, Shona, Justine, Linda, Geoff. After a slight disagreement about the direction we were to start off on - we headed due east when we picked up the warby trail.

The sun had a bit of a bite to it even at 9.12 when we set off. We made very good pace and stopped for lunch at check point 7 at Milawa in record time. Off to Warburton after a nice sit down and some sock adjustments, and we crossed the main road and started up the aptly named Martyrs Road - just a warm up for what was ahead. Peeled off by the golf course and then upwards for two or so hours. Clayton's advice on not lying down when exhausted and keeping a steady pace keep us in good stead. We all emerged at the top into the sun in 6 hours and 5 minutes - some had got up the hill some time before.

I think walking hills like this is like childbirth, luckily humans are designed to forget significant pain and remember the good bits - like the snake Justine stood on.

A little tired on the way home - and such a long way home. I hope I can get someone to pick me up from the end and drive me home from the event!

Next week - hopefully back to cycling - then a night walk just for interest - back over the kokoda trail in the dark.

Training intensifies and another training walk completed 22.5km

After the miserable performance over the dandenongs last week, I decided that I had to increase my level of training and improve my overall fitness. I took on a new personal trainer - Mr Paul Davy who these days only trains elite atheletes, so I was lucky to get a couple of sessions with him and I was able to apply his governing principles to my training regime.

Governing principles include:

• Only exercise as hard as you can breath through your nose;
• Exercise is only a means to an end. It has no intrinsic value and should be abandoned once you acheive your goal.

(I think he may have adapted these from other philosophies such as yoga and buddhism, but as he is currently only paid with bags of cherry tomatoes, what can I expect?).

In the week following I cycled 54kms, ran up 22 flights of stairs per day and did one and a half hours of yoga. Last Sunday, I decided that I would do the walk again. This time with Shona, Geoff and Brian. This time, we only stopped for one coffee, and we managed the walk in 6 hours 25 minutes, including a 45 minute lunch break.

Saw a big echidna. We managed to avoid getting lost this week and ending up in Silvan dam, but discovered that we only walked a few extra hundred metres last week when we got lost. The weather was cool to quite warm by afternoon, but none of the bone sapping humidity of last week. My increased fitness stood me in good stead, I did not have any sore muscles the next day. Next week is the dreaded Mt Donna Buang!

Lessons learned this week: stair walking is good. Wear 'wicking' clothes and not cotton t-shirts on training walks. Drink lots of water on the hill sections. Put kitchen sponges in toes of walking shoes to stop bruised toenails.