DAY 1 This weekend, I did something I have never done before. I packed my bags and headed on a hiking weekend, knowing absolutely no one. It was organised by the blogger Challenge Sophie and was done in partnership with Land Rover, so all routes and camping set up was organised for you. We were also putting Land Rover's new phone to the test and checking out all their adventure settings. My morning didn't start great, because my alarm didn't go off... so I was in a bit of a frenzy, but luckily I had given myself 45mins time to spare, so I made it to the cafe just in time. After arriving at the cafe (our meeting point), I made some slightly awkward conversation with some people, but soon got to know them pretty well. Soon enough we set off and headed from Seaford to the Seven Sisters. The group was about 30 of us, all with the same love for the outdoors and escaping from our normal lives for a weekend. I have walked the Seven Sisters for my bronze DofE before, so I knew the hills were going to be tough. However the heat and humidity, made it very hard work. The views at the top though, were 100% worth it! Over the first couple of hills there was a bit of cloud cover, but by about the 5th, the sky was so blue (first photo) and the sea was the most crazy colour... you could have been in Hawaii. We stopped at Beachy Head to have lunch. They had organised our lunch and we got meals in what looked like ration packs... however they were the tastiest ration packs I have ever had. I had pasta bolognese, which was just what I needed after 12km of hiking. After munching this down, we then headed off to Eastbourne pier. At Eastbourne we all enjoyed a pimms and an ice cream, to mark the end of our hike. Our Land Rover phone had navigated us successfully to where we needed to be and still had pretty much full battery! I was very hot and my feet were tired, but when we sat down on the beach, it made it all worth it. The heat combined with the tough climbs, really took it out of all of us. But when we got back to the campsite, we had the amazing yurts (big tent like things) already set up for us, so we dumped our stuff in them and headed for a shower, before all our evening activities. My initial thoughts, when we were told we were doing painting in the evening were sceptical. However once we were given our little wooden boxes and paint, the next hour flew by. It was so nice to actually do something like painting, as its just so calming. We then all gathered and watched our dinner cooking and also got to join in and help make it. We had a mushroom salad to start, a vegetable and coconut dal for main and some scrummy crumble to finish. It was such a lovely evening, finished off by all chatting around the fire! DAY 2 After a good nights sleep, we all got up bleary eyed and headed to the big tent to sit and have our breakfast. It was porridge and fruit, which was perfect to set us up for the day ahead. Today was much hotter, after just the first huge hill we were already pretty hot and sweaty. Our walk was in lots of open fields and because of the sun, it was hard to find the comfort of shade. However 2 hours later we made it back to the cafe, which we started at and all said our good byes. This was actually really sad, because over the weekend, I had made some great friends with similar interests to me. I am proud of what I did this weekend, by going out my comfort zone. I had so much fun and would recommend, just giving things a go to so many people. I loved all the walking and will definitely be planning more adventures soon... as soon as my blisters go away! I hope you have all enjoyed this super sunny weekend!
G x
3 Comments
This blog post is continuing on from last weeks (4 month injury update part 2), as there was so much to talk about I had to put it in two posts. After this, I had made it to the end of cross country season, but to be honest it should have come to an end a lot sooner. Here I was, with my body in a mess and low positivity at having a horrific end to a season, following the best opening season ever. In the end my hip flexor issue meant I was unable to do pretty much anything for about 6 weeks. Everything I did seemed to hurt it... cycling hurt, swimming hurt, running hurt, gym work hurt... even walking hurt. This was during easter, so I guess it gave me more time to revise, but it did not help me mentally... I felt pretty lost to be honest. Stress levels were pretty high from work and I had no sport to turn to. This was hard. After these hard six weeks, I could slowly start doing some cross training. However if you are wondering about my foot and shin, this was still going on. During the six weeks off I also had my foot scanned because I was pretty sure it was a stress fracture. It turned out to be 'nothing' apparently, however there was certainly something very wrong with my foot at one point... because I couldn't walk on it. At this point I was happy because I could see progress because my shin, foot and hip flexor pain had gone. The next step was returning to running. Running was going great, until on my third run in, my shin started to hurt. At this point, I was pretty fed up. I was about to start my exams so as you can imagine, I probably wasn't the happiest I've ever been. I tried on and off running through exams, having several days between each run and not running for long, but still the pain in my shin wasn't going anywhere. Finally after exams, I sought more help for my shin. This time, I feel like I really got an answer. My physio said, I almost definitely had a stress fracture in my shin back in March... and I really wasn't surprised to hear this. Luckily, my shin in June was not still a stress fracture and the verdict was, it probably just needs a few more weeks rest. I was very happy with this and rested up. A month on, and I'm progressing on my walk/ run programme and I can see hope. I can see a future. Its going to be a slow process, but every step I'm thankful for. The excitement I get before every run is pretty great! My fitness is clearly lacking, but I expected this and I'm hoping when I get back to more structured training, it shouldn't take too long to return.
I hope you have enjoyed this post and I am hoping that others can learn from it. Pushing through my injury, got me nothing. I broke my body more and was rewarded with some shocking race results. G x |
HelloI'm Grace, a 18 year old runner, and fitness fanatic. Join me on my crazy journey through life, squeezing in an adventure in every second of spare time I have. Archives
February 2019
Categories
All
Latest Instagram's: |