Like public transport, you wait ages for one to come along then you get two at the same time, just like our blog at the moment!
This weekend was fantastic though, I couldn’t help blogging about the beautiful autumn walks we had. Saturday was a blue sky sunny day and we chose to walk the ‘Beaumont Circular’ and an 8 kilometre walk, starting on the south coast of Jersey and walking through St Peters Valley and round past the Jersey War Tunnels. We set off in fleeces as it is the middle of November so it’s going to be cold of course… but we were soon down to t-shirts and zipped off trousers to ¾ length.
Autumn and spring are my favourite times of year for walking, I love the changing colours of the leaves and the crisp sound they make when walking though them. I also can’t help but kick them like a child which Ben finds highly amusing/ irritating, not sure which. J
It felt good to be out on a proper walk again, I was wearing my heart rate monitor to see how my fitness levels are going and I was pleased to see my average heart rate stayed fairly low.
On Sunday we took a walk through another of Jersey’s valley’s- Waterworks Valley, so called because there are reservoirs from top to bottom linked by streams and little aqueducts that run to the Jersey Water plant at the bottom. The valley is always quiet and peaceful with the foot path climbing from road level up into the woods.
Sometimes when I’m on my own thought the quietness can freak me out a bit after reading the story of the ghost bride. Jilted at the alter she committed suicide on her wedding night. There have been several ‘witnesses’ on a full moon night, of the sound of galloping horses coming down the valley, a horse drawn carriage comes round the corner with a bride in the back but when she turns around her face is a skeleton. It may only be folklore, but it still plays on my mind when walking alone!
Thankfully on Sunday I was walking with Ben and the ghost bride didn’t cross my mind. It was another blue sky sunny day warm enough to be out in t-shirts although a keen wind was picking up. We walked at a good pace but had to stop often to pick dandelion leaves as our pet house bunny is now on a ‘natural’ diet so we are regularly seen in the garden or hedgerows picking grass and dandelions, I think our neighbours think we are slightly mad! There were some enchanting patches of wild mushrooms, some were real fairy tale style...
During our walks we decided it was time to focus on our next challenge. I blogged a while ago that I was setting myself the challenge of a marathon next year, which I am still keen to do and so far have decided that it has to be either the Edinburgh Marathon (flat-ish) on the 27th May 2012 or the Marathon du Medoc (wine and oysters- yum yum!) on the 8th September 2012 but we are going to be aiming to do the ITEX walk again in June- 48 miles around the Island of Jersey. This year we completed it in a painful 18 hours 45 minutes, next year we are setting ourselves a goal of sub 15 hours, so the marathon training will definitely be coming into play! Our final plan of 2012 or 2013 is to do the Rat Race Scotland Coast to Coast, 15th & 16th September 2012- 2 days of running/ walking, cycling and kayaking from the East to West coast down the Great Glen. Would love to do it next year… but we’ll just have to see for that one!
Update...
We have decided to start a little smaller than a marathon and will be taking part in the Leeds "Run for All" 1/2 Marathon on the 13th May 2012. Read more about the inspirational Jane Tomlinson charity here...
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