A different kind of training – part two

Wow, mountains are really steep! 

I mean, there are steep hills and then there are…mountains! 

I know you are probably now thinking “No shit, genius!” but I haven’t done this for years and I forgot what it was like. I think I got complacent because it’s “only walking”.

But I was as out of breath as anyone climbing Sugar Loaf in Wales this Sunday. 

It was so tall; we were in the middle of a cloud… 

…an actual cloud, for goodness sake! 

It was cold up there too so thankfully stopping for lunch didn’t last long (thankfully because I left my sandwich in the car). At least I had proper boots this time, North Face and heavily reduced in the January sale. 

I tested their waterproof aspect by trying them on at home and running them under a tap to see whether my socks stayed dry. (Some people seem to think this is odd behaviour but some of the best product reviews I have seen put the manufacturer’s claims under vigorous testing.) 

As a group we did the mountain in four hours. We then got a reality check that one of the peaks with 300m more elevation than that one has to be done in the same timeframe. 

Better keep training! 

Today’s lesson: mountains are really tall. Next time: lakes are really wet and marathons are really far. 

ps. Doesn’t this just look like something out of Game of Thrones? Really cool!