Our Training Sessions (December 2007)

Welcome to the experiences of our training sessions (Satyam Snails and Slugs)

When the ten of us from Satyam Snails and Slugs signed up in late November 2007 to do the Oxfam Trailwalker event 2008, we all decided on one thing and that was to train every weekend on the actual trail.

Our training plan details can be found in the blog entry titled "Our Training Plan" dated 3 December 2007.

This section gives a glimpse of what we see and feel during our training session.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Practice Session 6 (Sections 8 and 9)
CP 7 (Woori Yallock Primary School) to Finish (Wesburn Park)
Date : 23 December 2007 (Sunday) 7:15 am to 13:35 pm (24.0 kilometres)

Weather condition :

Mostly wet and cold, 10-17 degrees centigrade, misty, cold and wet in the morning. The drizzle stopped in the afternoon

Trail condition :

Slippery and difficult, Difficulty rating 6/10

Trail experience :

Long, Straight, Uneventful, Dreary, Unrelenting (Warburton trail) , The last section from Milwarra Primary school to Wesburn Park is quite difficult and demanding, even when attempted as part of just a 2 section workload.

Session story:

After last weekend's long and unrelenting Warburton Trail experience, we were looking forward to a good strong 2-section training session from Woori Yallock Primary School to the finish at Wesburn Park. We had a full strength team with all 10 walkers present at Woori Yallock. We were worried about the weather because it had rained continuously and heavily for over three days here in Melbourne. Fortunately, the rains had eased overnight and we started our session in reasonably good weather (light drizzle). You can see many of us decked in ponchos flimsy raincoats) and plastic sheets. Someday, we will become a little more sophisticated and spend more money acquiring water-proof Gore Tex Jackets and pants. But for now, all we can afford is some plastic sheet to keep the water out.

We made good progress on the section from Woori Yallock to Milwarra Primary School, walking at about 5.6 to 5.8 km/h speed on a constant gradient trail. You can see photos of the terrain and surroundings in the section titled "Our training sessions" to the right of this page.
There were quite a few pit stops by the male members of our team along this 13.5 km stretch (must have been the cold weather) and as usual the women had to suffer in silence till they got to Milwarra which had public toilet facilities. We stopped for about 20 minutes at Check Point 8 and a few walkers bought some doughnuts (instant energy) at the local bakery next to the sawmill.

We then commenced the long hard uphill climb having left the Warburton trail to our left. We could see the strongly flowing Yarra to our left. Obviously the rain had done a lot of good to the parched country side. The trail was very narrow, muddy and slippery - very different to the long, straight and flat Warburton trail. Within minutes many walkers had their walking poles out of their backpacks and were using them effectively to leverage strength and balance from the upper body. The uphill climb continued for about 5-6 kilometres along Mount Little Joe. The winding, thick, wet and slippery trail took us through Dolly Gray Picnic grounds. This is a beautiful place to behold and enjoy and took our minds off the dreaded thought of how our tired legs, body and beaten mind would cope on actual event day. It is one thing to trundle along this difficult path having started off fresh, just 4 hours before at Milwarra Primary and quite another thing to get this far having walked for over 24 hours and covered almost 90 kilometres. Apparently many walkers give up at Milwarra Primary having been broken by the Warburton section. We hope our experience will stand us in good stead.

Soon we experienced a 2 kilometre downhill section that gave us some eagerly accepted respite from the climb. The rest was short-lived as we started the final ascent over steep, rocky and challenging trail. We kept wondering what fate might have in store for us here on actual event day. We hope our practice sessions will build enough endurance in us to withstand this torture after 97 kilometres.

We finally arrived at Wesburn Park Oval having tackled the Conduit track with renewed energy (the end was in sight). It was a great feeling having accomplished our first goal of "The complete 100 km trail familiarization". It had taken us 6 practice sessions over 6 Sundays to get from Start to Finish at an average rate of 16 km/training session. Today, was the longest session we had walked (24 kilometres in 6 hours and 20 minutes) since we started to practice in late November 2007.

I had expended almost 2000 calories in walking the 24 kilometres today and I drank 2 litres of water and 1 litre of electrolytes in the process. I also ate 2 muesli bars, a banana and had 2 energy gels during the walk. A rough calculation tells me that I probably created a deficit of about 500 calories. Hurray, I lost 50 grams!. This goes to show why even after all this walking I still look the same - I tend to eat more and then blame it on increased metabolism or the silly season.

We are having a well deserved rest next Sunday over the Christmas period and we will resume training on 6/1/2008. We intend to cover 3 sections (35 kilometres) in one session starting from Jells Park and finishing up at Grants Picnic. We are aiming to increase our endurance during this phase of training. Our training goal is to be able to cover the 100 kms in 3 training sessions by end of January 2008 and in 2 sessions by end of February and hopefully, eventually in 1 "real" session on April 11th 2008.

We invite you to view the photos from today's session. Unfortunately we didn't carry a video camera today because of the wet weather and therefore we don't have a video to share our experience. Perhaps we will have one in the next session update on 6/1/2008.

Finally, we would like to thank Sumana Prathivadi and Dennis Biasotto for the wonderful support they provided in driving 80 kilomteres to pick us up from Wesburn Park and bring us back to Woori Yallock where we had parked our cars. We are very grateful to our support crew. Without them we wouldn't be able to hold any practice sessions.

Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy new year from all of us at Satyam Snails and Satyam Slugs.

Have a great day and do write to us on this blog.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Practice Session 5 (Sections 6 and 7 )

CP 5 (Silvan Reservoir) to CP 7 (Woori Yallock Primary School)
Date : 16 December 2007 (Sunday) 7:00 am to 12:15 pm (21.5 kilometres)

Weather condition : Mostly Sunny, 13-21 degrees centigrade, fresh and invigorating in the morning, changed to warmer and sultry conditions in the afternoon

Trail condition : Good, Difficulty rating 4/10

Trail experience : Long, Straight, Uneventful, Dreary, Unrelenting (Warburton trail)

Session story:

All of us assembled at the Overflow car park in Silvan Reservoir at 7:00 am. We were all relaxed and cheerful having enjoyed the Satyam@Telstra annual Christmas party yesterday at Gumbuya Park. We were looking forward to an easier session after last week's gruelling uphill climb from Grant's picnic grounds and knee crushing downhill trail from Olinda Reserve.

Silvan Reservoir Park is set in the foothills of the Dandenongs. Established in 1931, the park is home to exotic trees including cypress, spruce, liquid amber, poplar and maple, and local fauna such as beaked echidnas, sugar gliders and wombats. We had a relatively easier time finding the trails, compared to last week, and we were soon on our merry way walking the "Olinda Creek Trail". We were soon into the dense forest valley and the sounds of honeyeaters, blue wrens, wattle birds, fantails, willy wag tails, thornbills, grebes and other birds was enchanting and mesmerising.

This trail then led us into "Track 10" and "Aqueduct Borang Avenue" leading us away from the forest into less endearing bush. This change in the landscape also caused a slight change in the mood of the team. We became quieter and a few male members went off into the bush for their "bio-breaks". We felt sorry for our uncomplaining lady walkers. On these walks, our lady team members have to hold on till they find a public toilet in park facilities or a reserve. Unfortunately there aren't many. We do feel for them. As someone said, they are "Brave, but stupid". That is what we will call ourselves next year - if we survive this year - "Brave, but stupid"!

We were soon on the dreaded and weary "Warburton Trail". We had heard from many previous Oxfam walkers to watch out for this section. Apparently, most people drop out at this section, firstly because it goes for over 15 kilometres starting around the 65 km mark of the entire trail and secondly because it is a dull, boring, flat and tiring trail. There is nothing much to see or do here other than just put one foot ahead of the other. There is nothing to hear other than the sound of our hiking shoes crunching the gravel path.

To avoid boredom, we spoke a lot to each other and we even discussed the objectives of why we were doing this event and how we might feel at this stretch on actual event day (April 11, 2008).
Although we were practising this stretch during day time, we will be grinding along at night on this section. Fortunately, there is nothing to see and we won't be able to see much either at night.

Occasionally we came across cyclists on the trail and one or two runners that looked like seasoned marathon runners that wore no flesh on their bones. The cyclists were a nuisance though because we had to break up our strides and group to give them enough way on the trail. Some of them appear crazy because they would zoom past us on a slope at a furious pace.

We decided to continue past Check Point 6 (Graham Colling Reserve) having covered the 8.5 kilometre section in about 2 hours.

The stretch between Check point 6 and Check Point 7 is really boring and uneventful. This is where the Warburton trail begins. It is impossible to get lost on this section because it is just one long straight path. There is a beautiful view of the mountain top merging into thick clouds, but apart from that there really is nothing much here other than some horse shit, cyclists and a few locals walking their dogs. It took us about 3 hours to complete the 13 kilometre stretch and we reached Woori Yallock Primary school at 12:15 pm, hungry, thirsty and tired. We had walked continously for about 5 hours and covered 21.5 kilometres.

We went to the local bakery at the Woori Yallock shopping centre to have a coffee while waiting for our support crew to pick us up and take us back to Silvan reservoir where we had parked our cars.

That's it for today, two more sections covered and crossed off - a total distance of 21.5 kms in 5 hours, almost exactly as per estimate. We have now covered the cumulative distance of 76.0 kilometres of the 100 kms trail in 5 training sessions. Sometimes, we cannot stop wondering as to how the hell will we do the entire stretch in one go on April 11th? Brave, but stupid!

You can see photos from our session to the right of this section. Clicking on a photo will launch them in a seperate window.

Let us remember that the driving force of why we are doing this is to raise money for charity. So please help us raise funds for Oxfam.

Finally, we would like to thank Martin Block and Srikanth Parna for graciously sacrificing their personal time this Sunday afternoon to drive up to Woori Yallock to pick us up after a long hard walk.

Have a great day.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------