Walking with Trevor

After many failures I had finally given up smoking in May 2011.

I was overweight and had put on more weight on our trip to Canada and East Coast of the United States and during the Christmas and New Year Festivities.

I needed to do something to get fitter and to lose some weight.

A combination of walking and control of my calorie intake seemed to be an appropriate course of action. I have mainly continued to control my calorie intake.

February 2012 was the start of my walking.

I decided that I would would do some walking each day.

My first aim was to be walk around the local oval without stopping. This was about 2k.I than started to extend the distance I undertook each day. After a couple of weeks I started doing this twice a day, After about a month I extended this to a walk to the adventure playground and back, about 4k. I did this twice a day. I continued walking each day until I was walking around 10k a day, usually in 2 lots.

The next step forward was to include some inclines in my walks. I decided on 2 circuits. The  Inkster circuit (5k From Home up Inster St, down Sulwood and up to Kambah Pool road and Home) and Urambi (6k From Home past the Adventure playground up past Urambi, along Smodgrass, left onto O'Halloran than turn at Woolshed and Home via walking paths). The first time I did each of these circuits I needed to stop going up the inclines. I am happy to say that by May I was not needing to stop. I also added another walk (Coolaman Court via the Stanhope Highway)

With the Flinders Ranges walk due at end of August I needed to start doing some serious climbing walks, Mt Taylor beckoned. In July I accomplished a double ascent of Mt Taylor, with stops along the way. In early August I did a triple ascent of Mt Taylor. I added a couple of additional walks on Mt Taylor. The first from Colquhoun around the base of the mountain to the top of the horse paddocks the second is the complete circuit of mountain.

Flinders Ranges here I come. It was with some trepidation that headed towards the Flinders Ranges. Being the first organised long walk we had undertaken I did not know what speed we would be walking. Lorraine has covered this walk in detail. The best can be said was that I surprised myself with how well I survived. 

In December I did, along with Lorraine and Michael, the Camelback Trail, Camels Hump and beyond. This was a real drag and whilst Lorraine and Michael walked ahead I brought up the rear. I was not fast but I did make it. This was probable as difficult a walk as we are likely to do anywhere.

Each day I was driving over to Duffy to walk the alpacas. I decided that instead of driving that it was probably a good idea to ride (7k each way, with numerous inclines). I borrowed Nic's bike and rode over a back each week day. After some time I decided that I should get my own bike instead of using Nic's. This I ordered and it arrived the day before we went on the alpine adventure.

The next planned trip was the Great Alpine Walk, around the Mt Hotham area in Victoria.This walk had for each day a standard walk followed by either an easy walk or a more difficult walk. I did the difficult walks each day even if I was much slower than the fast group, but I did have some slower than me.

At the end of January I suggested to Lorraine that that we do a walk and thought that perhaps one in Tidbinbilla would do. However Lorraine had pretty much exhausted the Tidbinbilla walks so she suggested that it was time to look at some of those in the Namadgi National Park. The Orroral Heritage Trail was the one she selected. This was a reasonable easy stroll and during the walk we must have seen half the worlds population of kangaroos.

My normal walk each day is between 10-15k, with some longer walk days. In addition, each day I ride about 15k. My campaign has been somewhat interrupted with swimming in the last month, especially with school swimming meets.

March has come and gone

I'm not sure where the past month has vanished to. I guess the combination of my regular swimming activities and the school swimming have really consumed a great amount of the month. Still, I have managed to get walks in most days.

Having tackled the loop around the western end of Lake Burley Griffin early in the months (see earlier blog), Trevor and I tackled the eastern circuit of the lake. We started at Kingston and managed it in pretty good time. I felt that the western circuit was the more pleasant of the two circuits and will probably tackle it again.

I can never tire of circuits of Mt Taylor. There is always so much to see from the views over the Tuggeranong and Woden valleys to the ranges, kangaroos turning up in both expected and unexpected places as well as delightful sunset lighting. This circuit is a little over 9km from home to home via the Colquhoun Street access to the Taylor Nature Reserve. The track offers some challenging ups and downs, particularly if you are doing the circuit at a fast pace. Adding a loop around the ovals near home brings the distance up over 10km and I have been doing this extra bit of late.

I've also done some loops around Lake Tuggeranong. From home to home this walk is a little over 13km. It is fairly flat with only gentle rises. The biggest challenge is coping with all the other people and creatures using the circuit.

I have continued to do my 6km walks between home and Tuggeranong Town Centre, Cooleman Court and Woden Plaza. Each have some pleasant aspects and I still enjoy walking through the Taylor Nature Reserve on the walk between home and Woden as well as the amble along the Stanhope Highway which is part of the walk between home and Cooleman Court.

On Saturday Trevor and I walked from home to Antony's via Cooleman Court and then home via the same route. That clocked up around 18kms.

On Sunday I tackled a walk from the National Library home. The first part of the walk took me along the south western shore of  Lake Burley Griffin before cutting off towards Weston Creek. There were interesting sections on the route with views across to the new Molonglo suburbs. I did enjoy a sit down and coffee when I got to Cooleman Court. To extend the walk I took a deviation from my normal route between Cooleman Court and home by walking around the outside of Allchin Circuit. All in walk this was a pleasant walk and totalled over 21km.

So, my stats for March ...

Distance: 370.42 (11.95km per day)
Duration: 65 hours 18 minutes 18 seconds
Calories: 15,039
Elevation gain: 4,721m
Elevation loss: 4,435m

My left heal has finally healed ... about time. Having blisters on blisters was no fun. I now need to ensure that I don't blister either of them again.

Forward planning is to consider adding some running in to my regime in April and in May I'll start doing some serious climbing again. By May the snakes should have disappeared and no longer present a problem on unformed tracks.

All in all I feel pretty confident that I can handle the Coast to Coast walk. Yes, I know that the average distance for the 13 walking days is 23.5 but we do have all day to do it. The average height gain is 450m per day with the biggest climb being 970m on one of the longest days ... one of the 32km days. Fortunately, that is near the end and the climb can't be any worse than tackling Grouse Grind was and I'm a lot fitter now, too.