We headed off in the reverse direction of yesterday's walk. For those who are familiar with the park, this means walking up the very long and steep hill that is the road out of the park. I didn't know it is exactly 1 kilometer from the trailer to the main road via the steep hill. It has also been so long since I walked up that hill that I forgot what an expedition it is (the last time I walked up it was about three winters ago on a day of coasting when we drank beer while walking up the hill and then coasted all the way down. Ironically I did that with Michelle too). About halfway up the hill my legs started to burn, and by three-quarters of the way I suggested to Michelle that we should pretend we were dancing and then it would seem like fun. You can guess her response to that suggestion.
When we cleared the top pond and started around it and out to the road, suddenly walking seemed very easy, seeing as how we were now on relatively flat terrain.
When we got to the main road, we turned right and walked approximately 2 kilometers to the Lairg Road. I was cold and my ears hurt - June 4th and I was wishing for earmuffs. I'm not sure I would have gone all the way to the Lairg Road but I didn't want to appear to be a less than totally fit person while walking with Michelle. ;-) Once we turned around, I suggested we be brave and start running for a telephone pole's distance. First we had to establish some ground rules:
a) no laughing
b) if you hear a car stop running immediately and pretend you were walking all along
c) no stories out of school
d) if the other person drops to the ground, flag down the first car, tell them they were hit by lightning and call 911 right away.
So off we went for our first telephone pole. A car came so we had to stop about 3/4 of the way along. A telephone pole break of walking and then we ran again, even making up that extra 1/4 telephone pole. Then we had to just walk a few minutes because it was uphill and I think there is a law against running uphill when you start to run. After two more telephone poles we started to think this running thing isn't as hard as you might think. A total of seven telephone poles running, offset by walking and assessing the odd noise that seemed to jump out behind us by the lake and then we were at the entrance road. It was a quick walk in as it is downhill most of the way, and we had to build speed for that last steep uphill trek. It is amazing how energetic you can feel at the end of a 6km walk/run. I danced most of the way downhill while Michelle rolled her eyes at me and watched to make sure no one could see her walking with this lunatic.
We arrived at the camp in good condition and had coffee with Mum while trying to recover our wits. After the coffee and cold water, I measured the distance on this one and it was 6km in length, took about 1 hour 10 minutes. And don't forget the steep uphill part should count as triple time.
Believe it or not, I used the push mower to mow the grass around the trailer Saturday afternoon, with help from Michelle, Wayne and Todd. It became a group effort by the end of it. I never exert that much energy in one day.
Next post: Reflections on Week One of Exercise
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