Posts Tagged ‘walking’

Good views guaranteed.

Bohernabreena Reservoir offers an 8.5 km loop, which includes an initial out-and-back section. It has some nice views and is relatively accessible. There isn’t much in the way of hills so not very strenuous.

We wanted to hide Tonelagee. But when we drove into the hills, it looked like this:

So we diverted to Bray instead. Even Bray Head was in the clouds when we arrived, but after a snack break the mist cleared and we were able to get good views. We walked was far as Bray Head Hill which is the highest point between Bray and Greystones.

The moisture had left all of the spiders webs visible.

Djouce is a mountain in County Wicklow. Ireland sometimes has a generous definition of mountain, but at 725 metres high, it is starting to feeling like a proper hill. It is a 7-8k round trip that takes around two hours to complete, a lot of which is on boarded paths.

It forms part of the Wicklow Way which was created by J. B. Malone. Malone was a Leeds lad, so we’re claiming the Wicklow Way and hill-walking as a Leeds invention now.

Last week we hiked up Tibradden Cairn via Three Rock and Two Rock. It is about 10k there and back from Ticknock. Two Rock is the highest point in the Dublin Mountains at 536m, although the Dublin Mountains are part of the Wicklow mountains which go higher (they’re just the other side of the county border).

I free soloed the Little Sugar Loaf. Technically, there is no climbing involved and you just walk up. Also, some would say a hill that is 342 metres high isn’t much of an achievement. Especially when the car park is like half way up. But I wouldn’ be great with heights and this one just turns into a scramble at the top.

I didn’t actually fancy the scramble. There are a few false summits that way and by the second one I decided there was too much scrambling. So I went around the other way and took the more gentle path. You get a lovely view from the top.

You might be surprised to learn that it is fairly near the Great Sugar Loaf.

We hiked up a hill. Classic Snowdon style: drive most of the way up to th highest car park and then walk the last little bit. And I didn’t even summit it as I wasn’t feeling great. Beautiful scenery none the less, though.

With Storm Kathleen sweeping over our islands I wasn’t sure what parkruns would be on. There was a nervous wait from 8:00 to 8:30 as I refreshed all of the Facebook pages hoping to see someone would confirm their parkrun was on. Royal Canal parkrun were the first to confirm so was delighted to join them.

The course is an out-and-back that starts from the town centre. It is pan-flat with no locks on the course. I set off thinking I would not be able to match last week’s time, especially as there would be more of a headwind coming back. But as it happens, I managed to set another walking PB of:

33:38

It was my first visit to Kilcock and it looks like a beautiful place.

After five weeks of resting and physio, I’m still not able to run. So, thinking about what old man sports I could do, I decided to watch a race walking tutorial and see if I could improve on my 5k walking pb of 35:38 set earlier this month.

It turns out that with only a basic understanding of the technique, the answer is yes! I managed to take over a minute and a half off my time and achieve a new pb of:

33:57

I was expecting some soreness after and I did get it but not where I expected: my arms were the most sore and continue to be so.

We did a family hike up Three Rock. Little Bear had lots of fun. Of course, he didn’t have to walk any of it.