shinyhappyrainbows

Admitting I've been pushing it hard, but lovin' it. Back "on the trail" again today. Seven and a half kilometres down the public spaces along the Mernda Railway line, then a train back up the hill and another 900m from the station to home-away-from-home. I feel good. There's always a little achillies tendonitis at the end of anything 5km and longer, though. I never get that on longer bike rides - multiply distance by 5, so today's walk is the energy burn of 38km on a bicycle over level ground. I have spent most of my adult life spinning pedals for anywhere between 12km commuting (usually higher) and 100km touring (sometimes a bit less) a day, apart from the odd rest day. Never really had any achillies pain. Are my muscles "wrong" for walking after 40+ years of bike riding? I'm not calling this bad enough to take another 6 days off for recovery, though. Overall, I feel like today was really beneficial. I figure I just have to do more...

" One Day Ahead " is a film that asks, "Can an ordinary bloke complete the Tour de France?" Eight riders from New Zealand, one a former olympic cyclist, but none from the pro peleton, get to gether to ride every stage of the 2018 Tour, the day before the official race goes through. "Just ride it to enjoy it... ...'cause there's no room in the car." I'll be watching this tonight and maybe adding a bit more to this post tomorrow, when the reel has been watched. Twenty hours later: Watched it, great tale! Would have liked to have seen more riding and scenery, but there was enough, and I kept spotting places I know from the official Le Tour coverage on SBS every year. That said, I highly recommend this film. For cycling and non-cycling reasons pretty much alike. The eight riders, the cameraman/support crew mate, his wife, and the odd other person close to the riders, set out to see if, as ordinary blokes, they could complete the entire ...

Admitting I've been pushing it too hard... Image from visitmelbourne.com Haven't walked since Thursday night. While I cranked out 18km, I've had pain in my right arch, a "shoe scuff sore" at the top of my right foot, heal spur pain and calf pain. I'm coming to the realisation that, while, after a lifetime of cycling, I could crank out enough training in 8 weeks to do 450km bike ride in 3 days, walking is not my primary "sport." So, the EGRT is going to be delayed. The trouble with this delay is that the intended time, last weekend in March, is about the latest I can do it safely. Daylight saving runs out the following week, and I need to be able to cover the ground of each stage with enough time to relax, make camp, prepare food and pitch my bivi before nightfall. Tomorrow (March 1) is officially autumn, so late March is heading back into bad weather to be outdoors. SE Australia is usually great in March and April, cool, clear, bright and s...

Some trail details for you. Orbost to Waygara. The East Gippsland Rail Trail (EGRT) is a former section of railway which served farming, grazing and forestry, as well as general commerce and passengers, in Victoria’s east from 1916 to 1987. In 1993, local authorities and the community began turning it into a recreational trail as mountain biking boomed, but it’s mostly well made enough even for a reasonably sturdy gravel bike and certainly worth riding if you’re a velo-cross nut. Shred, baby, shred! Orbost Viaduct, by Steve Bennett (stevage) - Own work, CC BY 3.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32629454 So, I’m walking it in late March, early April 2023 or 2024, depending on whether I can manage my training to a satisfactory standard to walk 100km in 3 and a half days. While, according to wikipedia, it’s “…a popular cycling route,” many walk it, usually in stages, over time. I want to make an adventurous (foolhardy?) long weekender of it. My first day is the easy...

I've been able to manage this one better, though. So, my walk from McKinnon to the CBD, last Thursday, pulled my achilles tendon. I nursed it on Friday, keeping my foot mostly elevated, but kept doing a few light odd jobs about the place. Then I took delivery of an elastic ankle support and that helped me walk just under 4km yesterday (Saturday), as I write this, and another 2 or so kilometres after dinner at Mordialloc last night. Today, the achilles tendon is coming good, but my calf is “on the grass”, discussing strike action. I think it’ll see reason. This is training and prep for an old bugger. It’s a fact of life. An 8 week training schedule in my 40s was easy. At 61, it’s a tad of a struggle. That’s the second law of thermodynamics - a closed system tends toward maximum entropy. If I can’t do this before early April, it’ll probably have to wait until next year, but I have other Weekend Adventure projects I can plan, train for and blog, and a year of diverse training for a...

In less than 2 hours, 55 minutes, too! Training for the East Gippsland Rail Trail is back… wait for it… ON TRACK! Lol! That is all :-) This was the route.

...and other #wardrobeMistakes I have been working through my walking shoes, trying to figure on the best footwear for doing my rail trail walk at the end of March. I’ve tried both pairs of walking boot and, surprisingly, the cheaper ones (a slightly loose fit) are better than my high quality Colorado walking boots (a slightly tight fit, yeah, I’m halfway between half-sizes), so the former are first on my shortlist. Most of my other shoes are either dressy or overdue for replacement, but my Keens sandals are really light, so I thought I’d try those for my third 10km training day. My feet are hammered! For around the house and yard, these things are great. I also remember them being great for my cardio rehab walks, but they were short walks the first few weeks. 10km (6 miles) is too far in these “planks!” While not quite blistered, I’ve lost 5 days from my training schedule until I can get back home from a friend’s place and pick up my walking boots. I’m nearly back to ready to do a ...