Monday, January 21, 2008

Phew!

What a weekend!

Nothing like a 3-day weekend to reinvigorate a stufy-headed, sleepy brained, tired-bodied lawyer after her first week back (which was OK, but busier than I have planned and, coupled with a calorie "controlled" diet, wore me out a bit).

We spent a "day" out in the Wairarapa, with a short, flat ride in Featherston. My head was congested, and I just wanted some saddle time without upping the HR too much. The road was pretty poor, and the headwind was a touch frustrating, but with no ego to worry about, I was happy to get my hour in, and to pop into lovely Greytown for a hearty bowl of lentil soup. Yum!

Sunday was quiet, a real "weekend" day. We got up late, pottered around, made desserts (ambrosia and fruit salad) for a BBQ, then P went into town to go to a movie with a friend, and I set the trainer up in the sun to work on some skills. The ride on Saturday had showed me that I really will need trainer time as well as road time to get in shape for Rotorua. My cadence was shot! Plus, as I mentioned to Pip, riding down a steep hill to turn right onto a busy highway is not my ideal start to an outdoor ride...I suffered through half an hour on the bike, then put a top on and headed out for what I expected to be a short run-off. Uphill for 10 minutes, then down through the bush, back up a different bush path (a lot of walking/climbing here...), then took a wrong turn and had to go up about half the first hill again. I ended up spending about an hour out, but with the walking and climbing only probably covered about 8km. We went to the BBQ out in Tawa, which was lovely, but I just couldn't eat the way I used to. Has my tum shrunk already?!

Today (Wgtn anniversary day, wahoo!), I did the Haywards/Korokoro (or Puke Ariki) traverse, a 22km hike that takes in almost all of Belmont Park. I've loving being so close to these awesome trails, and can't wait to run some more of them! Due to an unplanned detour early on, we ended up doing the Waterfall track as well, which added about 45 minutes, and an equal number of stream crossings, to our journey. I'm pretty beat now, which is hardly surprising as we spent 7 hours in total walking today (including the walk back home from the Cornish Ave exit), a good bit of that was in the sun, and it included around 2500ft of ascent..

So, all in all, a good weekend. I wish I could say I'm raring to go back to work tomorrow, but I'm not quite switched on to this year yet. I am looking forward to paying my deposit for Bootcamp tomorrow though!

4 comments:

Pip said...

Wow - your day today was certainly active! I did 40 minutes on a bike on a hill setting at the gym, then a Balance class. I just couldn't face getting toasted again outside, although I did go for a nice long walk this evening.

Are you doing Boot Camp at Les Mills? I was thinking about signing up, but am opting for Gear Shifters instead - hence the Grape Ride training.

I haven't forgotten about organising a ride together. I'll see what my trainer wants me to ride this weekend and let you know!

Wes said...

Welcome back, Kate :-) Glad to hear things are turning around for you (or shrinking as the case may be ;-)

Mike said...

Wow! that's a lot of walking! Hope it wasn't too bad going back to work :)

Trisaratops said...

I have to go back to work next week, too! Booooooo. Nice job on the trainer ride! I need to get on mine more often...