This weekend, we did a combination of two tracks for our Trailwalker training: the Farley Loop track and the Lower Huia Dam track. And results were... interesting.

The Farley Loop was listed as a moderate-to-hard track, and was basically challenging without being totally insane like last week's track. There was one bit where the steep upness was getting just a little bit overwhelming, but with a couple of rests (and a solid mantra of 'it's not as bad as last week, it's not as bad as last week'), it was reasonably manageable, if a tad on the sucking-bog-standard-of-muddiness side. Also, there were vast amounts of pretty to look at, various easy streamlet crossings, and even a waterfall at one point. Plus some very magical foresty bits (and we came to the conclusion that the birds in this part of the Waitakeres were late risers - the forest around us being pretty much silent when we started out, but birdsong starting to gradually appear more and more as the walk went on). Our guide book had it listed as 5km and about 2.5 hours - and we managed it in just on 2, so there was a certain amount of accomplishment about it.

The Lower Huia Dam, on the other hand, was listed as easy-to-moderate; and was, ironically, far less pleasant. For a start, much of it was either along gravel road, or a four-wheel-drive track. And while it didn't have the same kind of level of insane uneven steepness of the Karamatura track, it had its own brand of hellish up - a kind of solid, soul-destroying, trudging-step-after-trudging-step steep upness that, to my surprise, had me missing the whole muddy-tree-root-watch-where-you-place-every-footfall terrain. Mehhhh... I think I'm just bitter because my heart and lungs simply didn't have the fitness to deal with the up-bits gracefully, so I spent the vast majority of said bits wheezing like an asthmatic budgy, and trying really hard not to whine annoyingly. Definitely need to get in some midweek walking to start improving my fitness levels quicker...

But bitching about the up-bits aside, there were still some pretty bits in this walk too - mostly when we were actually crossing the dam via the various bridges, with huge amounts of scenic-ness and picture-skewness visible in all directions (we briefly played with the idea that maybe this was a scenery storage facility, where they stored all the scenic that they weren't using at any given time). And there was an insane down-bit that the guide book listed as 'clay steps', but which was actually giant frickin' mega-steps carved into a near-sheer clay drop - each step of which seemed to measure slightly under mid-thigh height on me - with no handholds (other than the previous step) - and all wet and slippery. And yes, I may have indulged in a moment or two of near-freakage, as my brain processed how much fun it really wouldn't be if I fell. And for the record, it wasn't just me - we all muttered, grumbled and bitched at the bottom about the inclusion of such things in an allegedly 'easy-to-moderate' track. Plus, I managed to bring a fair amount of the clay back with me, attached to various parts of my anatomy (and especially my boots and trouser legs). It's kind of fun describing it now, but yeah, at the time, it really, really wasn't.

So anyway, by the time this walk was over, I was *really* ready to give it a rest. My muscles were tired, my feet were sore, and all my brain wanted to do was switch off (I'm not entirely sure it's come back online yet, either; but that, I suspect, is due more to coughing than walking).
The book had this one listed as a 2-hour walk and again, we knocked about 1/2 an hour off that. Which means that our totals for this weekend were 10km between the two tracks, in 4 hours for what they thought should be about 5, for a total calorie burn value of 2,500 or thereabouts.

So yes. Yay. On balance, 'twas a successful weekend (where success is defined as 'we got off our butts, got out and walking, increased both time and distance, and all reached the end of the track with all body parts basically functioning as well as they had done at the start').

Time to work out what we're doing next weekend now...

Hugs and vaguely accomplished blessings


Starfire

Tags: accomplishment, fitness, trailwalker
Current Mood: tired