Ahhh, the weekend. The birds chirp as the sun gently rises on a calm and still day. You can hear gardens growing, flowers opening, and a day full of promise beginning. Or rather, on this particular morning, I awoke as the sun pierced the curtains sending a dagger of light into my skull, erratic and jittery due to the cold wind shaking them apart randomly with the early morning cold snap. The dog was licking my face with his enormous, slobbery tongue, breathing his hairy breath into my airspace, and the neighbours were chainsawing a tree down on the fenceline.
Saturday dawned somewhere between the two of those. I wished for the former, but it was probably closer to the latter. Today was a 'work at home' day, and that's what I did. I went outside maybe twice, but for less than a few minutes, and spent the rest of the day on the couch hunched over my computer and watching TV and doing nothing much else. The good news was that despite thinking it might happen, I never did get sore from the Friday session. Phew.
When Sunday rolled around, I was ready and rearing to go. The suggestion of a timed march up the Huntsbury/Vernon lump, then down and up Rogers Track and back had been accepted by all the Sunday walkers. They didn't seem to realise that as the crow flies, both tracks were 100m elevation over about 250m distance. The track however was not direct, thankfully, so the distance travelled would be different, and longer. We met at the table where the tracks start, and as I had the dog, I started on the other hill to the rest of the group. Yes, Austin was back and keen as mustard to go, but would be permanently distracted by people if we hung with them. At about 8:10am we struck out, they went Huntsbury way, we went Rogers way.
Feeling a bit bullish we decided to jog the first bit, which got the lungs burning very quickly and i was gasping for air all the way up. Austin was great on the tracks, only becoming a burden at the stile where he had to be carried over (and he's pretty close to a wriggly 40kg) and a quick poop on the way back down. We managed to keep a good pace all the way up, but legs were hurting and lungs burning by the time we saw the seat, and hit Rapaki Track after nine and a half minutes. I could have sat in the sun and recovered, but instead, I turned tail and we pushed down again.
We got back to the table and I quickly gave Austin a drink (time stopped) and I realised it had taken about 30 seconds less to come down than it did to go up. I knew at that point that I had started too hard, and resolved to take it easier on the climb next time!
Dog watered, we struck out for the 2nd hump. I had seen the others heading up as I was on the other side of the valley, all heading in different directions, some getting lost, some taking the easier path, some the not so easy path, but they all made it and we crossed paths towards the bottom of the hill. Based on that, I assumed this hill would be as long and hard as Rogers was. We took the short cut track up the hill, steep but more direct, and by the time we were back on the trail I was gasping for air, legs were screaming in pain and I knew I was about half way there. Austin was heaved over the stile and we recovered on the fairly flat bit of trail, then pushed up the last steep section to the table. I almost gave up with 50m to go, but pushed on knowing that the downhill would be easy in comparison, a real walk in the park. I reached out, grabbed the table, climbed on top of it and sat and looked across the valley at the others walking up Rogers track. They were about half way, up which surprised me, and checking my time showed that this hill was indeed much quicker than the other hill.
Once the stars had stopped spinning we started the descent. Slowly and gently down the first section, then once on the trail we jogged along at a good pace. Over the stile and a decision to keep on jogging rather than go down the shortcut. I was fairly sure I could make better time going faster and longer than I could going slower and shorter. Plus, I was enjoying the jog, so we kept on going. We hit the bottom gate and moments later were back at the table. Time stopped. 33:41 - crikey!
Yes, I was way faster than I thought I'd be, it was also a lot harder than I thought, but I set a good time, one I am going to be hard pushed to beat. I will beat it tho, however to keep things fair I will take the same paths as this time so my times are a direct comparison. No cheating.
The others arrived at the table over the next 20ish minutes, all relieved to be back and not have another hill to contend with. It was our shortest hill walk, in time or distance, but it was the hardest by far. A great wee outing. I love challenges like this.
This morning I got away without doing a session, not sure how I managed that, but my legs were a bit tired so happy to ride to work unmolested by lunges or curls. I may do a lunchtime session in the park - the first of many I hope. It could be great fun, it might be bloody awful!
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