Get the latest updates on Gail's Kokoda Track Journey
Overview of early training:
On 25 January I had my first session with a personal trainer. It went well and was very strenuous both aerobically and strength wise. I did 2 visits a week for a total of 12 visits and then stopped because I was getting permanent pain in my knees. I did get stronger and fitter though. My wonderful mentors Bron and Stuart (ex-Olympians) said that if I was going to walk Kokoda the best training was to walk up and down mountains so that is what I started doing. On 4 and 5 March I walked Mt Rogers and Lake Ginninderra, the first is undulating and the second is fairly flat. I also started swimming later that month. During that month I also got the first of 5 plasma injections into my knees so didn’t do any other exercise except swimming. My wonderful masseuses advised me to do that and it helped my knees a lot. On the 9th April I did my first walk of Mt Ainslie, a moderately challenging walk of 4.5km up and back where you go up about 280 metres overall. It is supposed to take 1 – 1.5 hours. It took me 1 hour to get to the top and I felt dizzy and nauseous the whole way and stopped about 20 times or more. I was very proud of my self for reaching the top, but realised I had a LOT more work to do! Over the succeeding weeks I walked Mt Ainslie between 1 and 3 times a week gradually improving to where I could walk straight to the top without stopping. In May I did 2 sessions of walking all 3 circuits: Mt Ainslie, Mt Rogers and Lake Ginninderra. Boy, was I sore after that! Then I added in some incline training on my treadmill at home and from late August I joined a local gym to use their Stairmaster and incline treadmill, plus weights. As mentioned on the donation page I have now walked Mt Ainslie 4 times in a row and have walked 8 days straight around Lake Ginninderra for a total of 165 km. So I am vastly fitter now than when I started in late January.
10 September: Today I walked up and down Mt Ainslie in Canberra 4 times. It is a 4.5 km round trip but quite steep so it took me about 5.5 hours. I noticed my legs were much stronger after having done 4 lots of Stair Master and 4 of treadmill incline at my local gym in the last few weeks. I also noticed that my ankles were quite sore so I need to do some ankle strengthening exercises which I have the exercise bands for and know how to do. Finally, I need to keep working on my very stiff rib cage (decades of shallow breathing) as that effects my mid back. So, after about 5 hours of walking I start to get a really horrible ache in my back which is harder to cope with than any of the other aches and pains. But I also have exercises for that which I will keep doing and hope it improves!
12 September: 2 lots of Mt Ainslie today. Not so much pain. Also spoke to my exercise mentor who advised that she had had the mid back pain and the ache was from the muscles stretching and strengthening against tight ribs, so not going to cause an injury. She walked through it and it got better, so that is what I will try next – 4 to 5 circuits of Lake Ginninderra!
14 September: Today I did 5 circuits of Lake Ginninderra which is 35 kms plus some incidental walking took me to 41 kms for the day. Very sore feet, plus sore knees and hips, but I was able to keep my back pain to a minimum. I used visualisation of my back as being floppy, loose and jelly-like with stretchy muscles and told my brain that the discomfort was really a nice relaxed feeling of my muscles being used and growing stronger. And finally I pushed my ribcage out to the sides as much as I could and that really helped too. Did lots of stretches in between circuits ad also when I got home. Took Panadol and ibuprofen after dinner and stretched some more in bed as I woke up a lot with the aches and pains.
15 September: Felt good this morning after the first few steps to get my body warmed up. I decided to go for a swim which I hadn’t done in a long time. I thought that would also help loosen up my muscles. I did 1 km of backstroke, because I never learnt to swim I can’t do freestyle (the breathing). I float really well so backstroke is really just gliding up and down without too much effort or speed. It was also much easier than previously as I am fitter and stronger. All my muscles felt great afterwards.
17 September: Had a quiet day yesterday. Today at my local gym I did a replica of my upcoming VO2 Max fitness test. Sadly I didn’t do any better than the first time but there could be any reasons for that. I will increase my water and carbs intake and just do my best. In relation to Kokoda I won’t be walking that at 5.5kms an hour as I have to do for the VO2 test so I am not too worried about that. Although, on Kokoda there are 2 parts that are particularly challenging. One is an elevation of 400 metres over 2 kms and the other is an elevation of 750 metres over 2.5 kms. The first won’t be too bad, but the second will be a nightmare! Anyway I will keep plugging along. 😊
18 September: Slower tempo today. Went to my stretch and strength session with my husband – he mainly goes for the jokes and laughs from the wonderful people who run it! I take it a bit more seriously. After that home for a healthy salad with beef slices, then off to the local swimming pool to do a few laps. Only 500 metres today. The next 2 days will be fairly light so that I won’t be tired out for my VO2 Max test on Thursday. I’ll let you know my results after I have completed the test. I am hoping for a better result than from the one in July, even thought that was fairly good. I will reveal both results on Thursday!
21 September: Well, my fitness test was a bust! I arrived and mentioned that I had some diarrhoea this morning and was told that it would not be a good idea to do the test as I probably wouldn’t do as well as I normally would. So, we discussed maybe getting another test when I get back from doing the Kokoda trek. In June I did the first VO2 Max test and my results were scored as 28. This equates to the 60th percentile for 40 – 49 year olds, which means I tested fitter than 60% of 40-49 year olds. So, I was very happy with that at the time and was hoping for a slightly better score this time as I had done so much training. It is likely that I would have scored higher but I will just accept that the test didn’t happen and move on with my training. Tomorrow is likely to be strength training at the gym and a swim.
22 September: A more successful day today. I did a very concentrated 45 minutes of strength training and my stomach crunches are definitely improving. I do the ones where your lower arms are resting on padded rests, your body is hanging straight down and you bring your knees up to your chest. Today I did 3 sets of 10 reps – although the last 2 reps of each set were a bit dismal! I then had a wonderful lunch with friends – yum fish and chips! My excuse is I do a lot of exercise so I can indulge myself. After that I went to the pool and swam 1 km backstroke so am feeling very virtuous today. Over the weekend I willdo some more of the dreaded aerobics – Stairmaster, treadmill incline and possibly Mt Ainslie.
23 September: Today was the Stairmaster which I definitely do not enjoy! But, I did a total of 1803 steps over 41 minutes – 30 minutes straight, short break, then 11 minutes, then collapse. I also did some stomach crunches. I was going to go for a swim but felt too tired so I will do that tomorrow. This morning before the gym I did an 10 minute radio interview on NETs and Kokoda which went well. They have asked me to come back after the trek and talk about it, so that is good too.
24 September: A bit of a late start but I still got in my 3 circuits of Lake Ginninderra (21 km) and a 500 metre swim. It was too busy to do the whole 1 km swim. I had a bit of a surprise on my walk as there was a 1 metre brown snake slithering across the path about 2 metres in front of me. They are the poisonous ones! The lake area is looking lovely as all the pink blossoms are coming out and the deciduous trees are all sprouting bright green leaves. I wore the wrong socks so underneath a couple of toes is a bit sore. My back was good, only slightly twingie and I just focussed on expanding my rib cage outwards which worked. But I do need to do those ankle strengthening exercises that I mentioned a while ago and haven’t yet done! My left ankle was a bit painful after a while – so do the exercises!
25 September: Today was a lighter day. I did my stretch and strength session with Ian and then we went to visit a friend in hospital who has a broken leg. We brought her the things she had ordered plus a few treats! It was 3.30pm by the time we got home and I was feeling quite tired so I didn’t do any more today. I think I might be suffering from a bit of over-training as I was very tired this afternoon and evening. I am giving myself 2 days off to recover – plus I have my 3rd and final Rabies injection tomorrow.
For those who are interested in details of the trek itself the following link provides text and photos of each day of each current trek. As noted my trek begins on 13 October 2023. https://www.australiankokodatours.com.au/current-trekk
Facebook and Instagram links to the treks are available here: https://www.facebook.com/australiankokodatours/ and https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw9L52yPnEk/ .
