Wednesday 16 August 2017

Keeping up the pace

It's been a fairly quiet week, and only a week since I wrote a post! Life has carried on as usual with the general daily happenings. I haven't done as much sewing this last week, though the last couple of days I've been busier as finishing up one project and several coming up.

I have gone for a walk each day except Sunday. I kept to my plan for pushing myself a bit and have gone for a 2km walk each day. The walk I took on Saturday is one of the tougher ones, well for me anyway. There is a steep street nearby and this route takes me up it. I chose all the routes to give me a variety of walks, some flatter and some hills as well.

On the way up the street I saw this car tucked away - and it doesn't look as though it has gone anywhere for a while!


As I was walking towards the steep part of the street I heard footsteps behind me and soon enough two women came jogging past, holding walking poles. I watched with interest as they headed towards the steep bit then slowed down, the younger one to walking pace, and started using their poles as they went up the steep bit. Off they went up around the corner, and a third woman appeared too, but I'm not sure if she was with them or not. 

Meanwhile I kept walking steadily, and started up the steep section. I made it to the first lamp post and stopped for a breather. Good excuse to take a photo! Then I made my way to the next lamp post - and the two women came jogging down! Up and around the corner I plodded, my hamstrings letting me know they weren't too keen on this particular bit. I was having another breather when the slightly older lady came past again, soon followed by the younger one, and I asked her, "Do the poles make it easier?"  "Yes, 30% easier!" she replied. Hmmm, I thought to myself, I must do some research on this! They got to the brow of the hill and down they went again. I have no idea if they went up a 3rd time as I continued on my loop. 

Crikey! was my main thought while I was watching them. Still I completed my walk which was my aim so that's good. 

I've now sorted my walks into alternate flattish and steeper/more hilly so my muscles get a bit of a change each day. I also work around the weather, figuring that if it's raining earlier in the morning I can always take a break during the day and go for a walk when the weather fines up.

 Today is my "away" walk so I went to Titahi Bay. I edited the map by adding the words "Titahi Bay" and an arrow to show where the bay is.

Source

This photo shows the bay from above, quite a good angle to see it from.

Source

There was quite a lot of what I guess is run-off water after the rain creating these little rivulets running down to the surf. Most of them I could just step over but a couple I had to leap - not particularly gracefully most likely but I kept my feet dry!


Mana Island, which looks as though it is sitting in the middle of the bay, but isn't.


I thought I'd walk around the coast a wee bit. First I had to cross this bit which has turned into a wee stream with run-off. It was easy enough to get across as the rocks formed stepping stones.


I went around as far as I could, only about 5 minutes around, scrambling a little bit over some of the rocks. Then I didn't go any further as I wasn't going to get across this gap. The only other way was up the cliff!


When I got back to the road entrance I took another photo as since it was such a clear day the top islands of the South Island are smudges on the horizon.


I really enjoyed this walk today, the slight breeze and the sound of the surf. Then it was home and on with other tasks!

Friday 11 August 2017

A walk in the rain

One thing to contend with when wanting to increase my fitness is the weather. Especially at this time of year! A lot of folk choose to join a gym, but I prefer the open air. Running isn't my thing but I do like to walk. I've more or less decided that Wednesdays will be my "go somewhere" walk, by which I mean somewhere other than the streets around home.

On Wednesday it was raining quite a bit so I decided to go for a walk at Otari-Wilton's Bush because with the tree cover you don't get quite as wet as walking out in the open in the rain. Though you do still get wet! 

For now I usually go for walks by myself. There are a few reasons. One is that I can go at my own pace - which is steady but not that quick. I can stop and take a breather whenever I need to. I sometimes find when I walk with others, who are generally fitter and not anaemic, I'm conscious of holding them up. Or they go on ahead, stop to wait for me to catch up, then when I get there take off again - so I don't get much of a breather! The end result being I don't enjoy the walk as much. another reason is that I get some "thinking space" and time to reflect. Lastly, in general the time when I go for a walk everyone else is heading out to work. I find if I don't get a walk in early in the day it's less likely to happen.

Part of the map of Otari-Wilton's Bush

I walked in from the "You are here" along the purple path which is fairly flat.


This an outlet from a pipe that goes under the road at the beginning of the walk, lots of fast flowing water there!



A mini-rapid - well not really but the stream is full and flowing quickly.




I took a wee detour to see the waterfall which I thought would be further away, but it was not that far
from the main path. Over a bridge and up a short path.


I was really glad I'd worn my boots as there was quite a lot of water on the path and I didn't need to try and avoid it.

Once I got to the picnic area  I decided to do a small circuit of the yellow trail. I've done it before and it doesn't take long.

 

I haven't been here before when it's been raining, there is a lot of water flowing under the bridge  I needed to cross to get to the track.






And then there were steps! I made it to the top of these without stopping - and then had a wee breather. There were a few more sets of varying lengths. This is where walking by myself means I can stop however many times I need to - which I did after each set of steps!





Decision! Up . . . or down? It wasn't a tough one as I needed to go down a) because that was the route I was taking and b) there wasn't enough time to do the longer walk as Locket would need picking up from her course soon. I think the longer yellow trail was about an hour - but would probably take me up to an hour and a half!





River stream crossing! There are all these little side steams feeding into the main stream which of course fills it up more.





This is another view of the same outlet pipe at the beginning of the walk showing how the water is pouring out.







Once I got back to the carpark I decided to walk up the road a bit. I've always been intrigued by this waterfall on Churchill Drive, right beside the road! It comes from quite high up I think. It usually has a trickle but when it rains it pounds down and I've always wanted to get a photo but it's not a safe place to stop.





A little way up the road there is another waterfall which usually is dry - except when it is raining.

 Photos all done I headed back to the car. It wasn't far for which I was very thankful as I found out a few of my toes had rubbed on my boots and given me blisters on the tops of the toes! Note to self - get some gel toe protector caps or sleeves.  It's possible I need new boots but not at the moment.

I really enjoyed this walk. The rain brought out the earthy smell, which I find very grounding - no pun intended! It's peaceful and quiet, apart from nature sounds, and as I didn't see anyone else on my walk it was as though I had the whole area to myself.

I feel ready to push myself a bit more than I have been doing. 10 minute walks are great but to build stronger muscles and also stamina I need to walk farther. I want to build up to longer more challenging walks over time and this is the way to do it. I also took a small day pack to carry my water bottle etc which added around 5kg of weight. For some it would be hardly a walk at all, but I was happy with what I'd achieved. I found the small trail a little easier than last time I did it. Footstep by footstep I'll get stronger 😃

Thursday 10 August 2017

Living Life . . . though it seems to fly past!

It's August again already! Which is when I wrote the bulk of my last post. So what are the changes?

Boar continues to go to work everyday and keep in good health, and though it's about 4 1/2 years away he is looking forward to retirement. That will mean a bit of a change for the pair of us!

Sunshine and Halfpint have both turned 5 and started school.

In May we were blessed with a new grand-daughter, a third daughter for A-M Prof and Moneypenny. I'll call her Blossom, she is now 3 months old and a wee sweetheart  😃 

Frosty and Chip are living here at the moment, and will be for a few months more at least.

Pa had 3 admissions to hospital in a 4 week period back in late January-late February and has now moved into Johnsonvale Rest Home where Ma was. The good thing is that all the staff know him already from when he used to visit Ma. He has settled in well and I usually go and visit him once a week and have afternoon tea with him. I also take him down to the shops and other places he might want to go.

Brains is up in Auckland at Unitech studying and doing Contemporary dance. Locket is in the second year of her Arts degree majoring in photography.

Braveheart continues to work for Kato, when there is work for him to do. He has Halfpint and Battler most weekends.

Smurfette continues to work at the same place. There was a bit of a re-structure meaning she, and others, had to re-apply for their jobs and thankfully she was offered a position. So she is happy about that.

As for me - I just carry on as usual doing what needs to be done. I've been doing a bit more sewing work this year, fitting it around all the other things there are to do. Which are the necessary but not that wildly interesting things!

One thing I have been trying to do is work on my fitness. Back in 2013 I was searching for information on how to work out walking speed, and how far I would walk in an hour. Because everyone's walking speed is different. I used to walk quite quickly, however these days my pace is slower. During my search I found this Walking For Fitness pdf on a site called Metrication Matters. It had a walking plan as well which I found helpful since I was pretty unfit. This walking plan seemed achievable in that to begin with you just walk for 10 minutes a day.

For quite some years on and off I've had a struggle to maintain my iron levels - meaning my haemaglobin drops. Which in turns affects fitness. Walking along flat places is o.k., but as soon as I start to go up a slope, or steps, I get breathless pretty quickly and then my heart starts thumping. 10 minutes a day was a walk around the block, or as I found out last year Alex Moore Park close by has a paved track all the way round and takes me about 12 minutes at a steady pace. It's mostly flat too.

So on and off for the last couple of years I've tried to walk 10 minutes a day . . . a lot of the time I haven't though. Last year I found NZ Mapometer site and I was able to create a whole lot of different walks and know how long they are. This gives me a bit more variety. Plus I'd begun to feel the need to push myself a bit more. I made up different routes, some with only gentle rises, some with hills. The first lot are just over 2km each, 6 of them so I can walk Monday to Saturday and have a rest day on a Sunday.



This is a photo I took one of the mornings I was walking round Alex Moore Park. I loved the way the clouds are lit up by the sun.