Green Insoles

Rock

With the Towis 4 down to the Towis 2 due to birthday celebrations in Edinburgh and the ongoing continuation of a fading football career, Carl and Tony decided to tackle the evil Beacon Hill of a couple weeks back - a good judge of how fitness and knee mending is getting on.

The check point 1 car park was packed Sunday morning, mainly due to a "walking group" assembling (that tried to sign me up) and a woman doing a survey on the South Downs, asking if I'd used public transport that day (whilst leaning against my car) and if I felt having trips to the South Downs Way was an environmentally friendly way to spend the day (again, leaning against my car, which is best described as "not very environmentally friendly").

Seagulls (honest!)

In the past few weeks I've had pain in the side of my calves, so on the advice of the Cotswold Outdoor shop had bought some "Superfeet green insoles".  As we trekked our way from the car park to Beacon Hill it became apparent they were working - usually the pain comes early and then eases, but today there was no pain.  One of those "if only I'd have bought these a year ago" moments.

For me, going up Beacon Hill was a lot easier than last time - I stopped halfway up to momentarily catch my breath, then made it to the top without feeling the need to collapse and lean on a fence post whilst trying desperately to breathe.  Tony too made better pace up the hill, so the general mood at the summit (!) was better than last time.  Jelly babies were still eaten with the same gusto as before.

Log

We then headed on at what seemed like a quicker pace, enjoying the ever warming day.   There were still a few pointy moments, as we surveyed "stopped to survey the scene", but felt a lot easier than last time.

The route climbs up and down some hills, then through some woods, before opening out into a 4 or 5km "straight" through some open fields with stunning views to the south down to the coast and Goodwood Race course, and to the north to a big hill that we really need to find out the name of.  Previously we had stopped for lunch at the turn round point, a car park by an A road, this time we decided to stop on some logs to enjoy the views and practice our ornithology - "oh look, a bird".  Much more preferable to the car park.

Along the way we also saw two or three other groups possibly training for the TrailWalker - groups of four.  We need some kind of flag to say we're training so we can recognise each other.  One team looked way to keen though, wandering past at a fair old speed with nothing but camel paks whilst we trundled along with rucksacks, sticks and packed lunches!

Upon reaching the halfway stage we checked our time and saw we had completed it around 10/11 minutes quicker than last time - good to know we had improved, though the exact same time wouldn't have been a problem.

Heading back we stopped again at the log for lunch part two, then began feeling the effort as we struggled up a couple of the slopey bits - especially the evil hill/field before Beacon Hill which strained our tired bodies.  But the return leg took abut 15 minutes less than before, so even more good news, and I also felt a lot better after it all with my "for goodness shakes" shake refuelling me and my green insoles making the whole walk more comfortable.

So another 14 odd miles completed, 25 minutes quicker than last time.  Next couple of weeks will be drabs of the team again, or individual efforts, then hopefully as a team we can tackle checkpoint 2 to checkpoint 3 early April - another stage that starts with a hill!!

Date:		11 Mar 2012 10:36 am
Distance:		13.9 miles
Elapsed Time:		5:35:56 (5:59:12 before)
Avg Speed:		2.5 mph (2.3 before)