Sunday, August 9, 2009

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Bush Walking, Fitness Assesments & the CITY2SURF

First off – apologies... I’ve been meaning to post this for awhile however I’ve been a lil pre-occupied with other things (aka lazy) and haven’t had a chance!
So while KTP was off partying it up in INDONESIA...


KTP partying it up

Alicia and I were left back in beautiful Sydney to attempt our first bush walk in our new boots. For some reason Alicia was not particularly enamoured with my bushwalking outfit (I have no idea why) and after being adequately supplied with water, minties and snakes by our overly concerned and protective friends (who apparently have no faith in our navigational abilities) we headed out from the house we were staying in.


Recent photo... just in case we went missing and also showing off my AWESOME bushwalking outfit.

Luckily for us, Echo point was JUST across the road and we set out in the direction of Scenic world. We managed to reach the first lookout with no real problems and I took a few quick snaps... however we really had no idea where we were meant to go to from here!! We followed the only path we could see and it took us up some stairs into a nice and quiet SUBURAN STREET!... Alicia decided it would be best if we followed the road and we ended up finding an entrance to the Prince Henry Cliff Walk near a cable car.


At the first lookout... She doesn’t know it yet, but Alicia is going to regret wearing those jeans (Shorts ftw!)

We headed down to the Katoomba Cascades – mainly cause I wanted pictures of waterfalls! Here we tested out the waterproofing of our boots – Alicia ran hers under the waterfall, while I trudged around in foot deep water. Good news is both our feet stayed dry! Yay for waterproofness.


The Cacascades, Both myself and Alicia testing out our boots

We then headed past ‘Witches Head’ and down the Furber Steps down to the bottom of the valley. Took a few photos of the Katoomba Falls which were actually running this time!! (The last time I was here there was a drought and we missed the falls... as there was no water falling down!) At the bottom of the steps we decided not to head over to Scenic world and instead started heading back toward Echo Point via the Federal Pass.



Witches Head & some of the Furber steps.


From the top of the valley... to halfway there!

At the end of the Federal Pass we took a bit of a breather as we knew what was coming next... Oh yes. All 900 stairs that make up the Giant Stairway. But eventually we made our way up them all – Alicia (who is a MACHINE) motored up them while took a lil (much) longer as I stopped to take photographs (catch my breath) along the way!


Alicia makes a start up the Giant Staircase.... and her much further away

Anyways, we both survived up the staircase It only took us about 20-25 min to make our way up all of them (well me anyways... Alicia probably did it in like 15!). I think our journey was ~5 – 6 km which I think is a pretty good start for a first time! We’ll have to start planning a few longer journeys for future weekends!


Alicia and I sweaty from the climb....

Alicia relaxes after a hard days work


Anyways... on to OTHER NEWS...

I've continued on my gym program. Last week I had a Fitness Assesment/Program done to a) see how I was going and b) input a lil direction into my workout. The result was relatively simple - my cardiovascular fitness is good however I'm a lil overweight.... no surprises there. My program is relatively similar to what I'm doing now... with a lot more Intervals and the like thrown in. I'm also taking of my heart rate and have even ordered a heart rate monitor... which will hopefully come in soon.

As KTP said on Sunday the three of us are doing the CITY2SURF which, to be completely honest, I'm a lil nervous about. My current goal is to try and finish within 2 hours... not entirely sure if I'll be able to do it... but I'm going to try! I've even bought nice new joggers for it (which I've been breaking in over the past two weeks!).

Anyways, I'll post again after the run... assuming I survive!

SB