"Trailwalk" Category

I’ve been a bit slack of late with my Trailwalker training updates and associated. To remedy this I’m combining three posts; the last two training walks and a walk around Wellington (NZ).
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I attended my second Tailwalker training walk on Sunday. We had four starters from our total twelve participants. This was one of the hardest walks in our training schedule; from CP2 (Lysterfield Lake) up to CP3 (Grants Picnic Ground). This was 13.5klms each way, with a gain of about 400m (most in the last 6klms). The day started out cool (16c) and we had pleasant weather up to the top, but as we came down the warmer weather kicked in (about 27c) and it was very hot.
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Yesterday was our first training walk. We walked about 19klms over part of the trail (Checkpoint 1 at Churchill National Park to Checkpoint 2 at Lysterfield Lake and back again). We started at about 8:30 in the morning and finished about lunch time. It started out cool but warmed up. Of our 12 team members and 1 support crew we started with five walkers and our support person Rod. There are some challenging hills in this part of the walk and it was a good chance to asses early fitness.
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Last night I visited the Active Feet store in Heathmont and bought a pair of runners. The sales folks there are great; the girl looking after me was a final year podiatry student and really knew her stuff. After walking on the treadmill and explaining the type of walk I needed we worked through different shoes to see which would give me the best posture and gait. The Brooks Adrenaline ASR’s, a trail running shoe. After walking around the store, she showed me a different way to lace the shoe up to reduce the amount of heel slip. I also bought a special pair of socks that are supposed to reduce the chance of blistering.

Tomorrow is our first team training walk. We’re covering 18lkms on the trail (Checkpoint 1 -> 2 and back again) over some mildly hilly terrain. Weather is due to be mild. I’m looking forward to it. It will be a good initial test of the new shoes.

Well it’s Jan 1, 2009. Time to start planning for the two big personal goals for the year; completing the OXFAM Trailwalk with the teams from Ultimate and passing my Black Belt Grading in June.
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