North Downs episode 4

So a huge gang was out today for a very sunny new year walk around Box Hill today. We did 2 quick laps of the long walk and poor Dan was fighting a losing battle to convince us all to do another one as the cold and the dark drew in around 3.30.

great pic, mostly of my shadow. hoping Jess/Emma/Will's photos might be better...?

Best of luck to Chris, who is taking on Kilimanjaro in just a few weeks, and also all power to the boys' who are embarking on a 30 mile training hike next weekend in prep for their silly Derbyshire sore-knee-athon in March.

Speaking of Derbyshire - I can't wait to come up to walk with Anne and Ben this coming weekend - Rosie and I are going to see how its done ooop north!

I am also hoping my newly sore toes will go away magically... not a great sign for a two week walking challenge if it hurts when walking. What a fun new development.

Chloe

day two of two

Good old Harry - despite waking up this morning with a horrible streaming cold to add to the slight hangover from too much fun at Barry and Paul's dinner party last night, in addition to the aches and pains from yesterday's 17 mile route march; he bravely soldiered on to day two of the weekend's walking.

We headed out to Richmond for my favourite route - a gentle 2.5hr stroll back along the river, across Richmond Park, across Wimbledon Common and along the edge of Putney Heath to the bus stop home. Bit of rain, but check our the very flash kit we used to deal with it. We really weren't as miserable as the picture makes us look...

Now our feet hurt. Ow. But now my body now knows what it is like to wake up feeling unwell, get out and walk anyway and get over walking aches from the day before. It's a serious manning-up process. I have a feeling all of this will come in very handy in Nepal.


Chloe

north downs way part 2

The North Downs Way is a huge ridge of hills which disrupts the south of England like a sleeping dragon from Farnham to Dover. It's also really close to London, and include some tall hills and some pubs - making it perfect for weekend training hikes.

Having already conquered part of the north downs way around Box Hill, I cleverly arranged for Will to cleverly arrange a day-long hike from Guildford to Dorking yesterday. Intrepid and fearless Jess, wonderful Harry (who was supposed to be in London for Vicki's birthday, but she had buggered off to the Brecon Beacons without us), and of course endlessly cheery yomp organiser Will and I set off at 9.30am. We set a good strong marching pace and didn't stop (except for that nice relaxed pub lunch, including some walk-incompatible pies and ale) until we limped quietly into Dorking at 4pm and made a beeline for the pub nearest the station.

We must have smashed 17 miles...? I am afraid to check in case it it less than we thought, as Dan (of cow fame, see post from ) has arranged a proper route-march for next Saturday across yet another part of the North Downs - longer and earlier and faster than yesterday. I am a little scared, but can't admit it to the other (except in this blog), but today has set a brilliant standard.

Thank you Will, Jess and Harry - you are fantastic walking company!!

Chloe

tomorrow?

Fab and supportive cousin Jo is coming to meet me at 7.15am tomorrow so we can walk along the river to my work for about an hour and a half.

Wow - that's above and beyond the call of cousinly duty.

Have I mentioned that Jo is doing les marathons des sables in 2013 - arghhh - talk about a challenge - running 250km across the Sahara in 5 days. She is blonde. She will turn into a bacon-flavoured frazzle. She is also extraordinarily brave and amazing. And we love her.

Also my bro Tom is coming over this evening to hang out, and he and I are planning to somehow lever him out of bed at the crack of sparrow-farts to come walking too. Let's see how that turns out.

come on Tom - we can do this!

Chloe

turning into forrest gump

So it turns out the best cure for over-enjoying yourself in the pub is to go for a run! who knew?

I started week 3 of Laura's calm and affirming podcasts from the NHS Counch to 5K programme this morning after rather a large galss of wine last night after a hectic week. I feel great. need to conserve some energy for the marathon cooking/cleaning/getting ready of today for the supper club tonight though.

Then a nice long walk across Richmond Common tomorrow. That should do the trick!

Chloe

the day after the climb before

Our Boxhill hike went really well - we enjoyed a 1 hour warm up walk down the hill to the stepping stones and back up again.

Then after a restorative sarnie and cup of tea, we strode out on the long walk with Alice deftly giving us directions as we went, and throwing in some history, geography and geology knowledge along the way, picked up from 50p's worth of handy map. We finished it after about 3 hours, and felt like we had had a good training afternoon.

My legs definately tell me it went well. Here is proof.

We also met those pesky cows at the same spot as last time I was there with Dan and the gang. Only this time the team were fearless, and it was daylight, which helped, so we managed to steal past them.

week five - proof!

see. i did it.

Chloe