11th Trailwalker Training on Oct 29

We started to get bored to do Maclehose Trail. So we decided to do Wilson Trail section 3 and 4 this time. It would be our last training before the big day. We need to take a rest in the following week with moderate training like gym and running. We actually did the training with team 120 (another team from the company). Michelle, Joel and his friend joined us too. We met at Yau Tong MTR station at 8am. We walked to the starting point of section 3. It was a nice day!

According to the website, Section 3 of Wilson Trail was in 2-star of difficulties. But we found that it was just too easy for us. :P Yes, Section 4 was a bit harder but it still shouldn't be scaled as 3-star difficulties. Comparing with Maclehose Trail, they are nothing. Francois was still the quickest. The second was Mike Morris. oh. yes.. Joel is going to climb the mountain in Bali (AGUNG) in Nov. He wanted to do a bit of training so he carried a 11kg backpack with him!!! I really dont know how he can walk up and down hills with this heavy bag.. The sign in Wilson Trail was not as clear as those in Maclehose. We always confused which way we should go. We passed through many villages.

After we finished section 4 of Wilson Trail, it was still very early. Hence, we decided to walk back to section 5 of Maclehose Trail. Due to landside, part of section 5 was closed for a while. We always walked the detour for training. But now it is reopened. It is nice to walk the original route before the race. It was good. It is shorter than the detour. Yeah. we dont need to walk to the GREAT WALL! Then, we had lunch in the little grocery shop in Lion Rock Pavilion. Michelle and Adrian got something to do in the afternoon so they headed back home. The rest of us continued to finish section 5. I couldn't remember how many time we have done section 5 now. I guess it is because Francois was leading us, we walked pretty fast. We finished it less than 2 hours. We broke our record in this section.

I didnt know why. My knee got a bit pain. It was not serious. But it was again the outer side of my knees. Guess I didnt do enough stretching. I learnt a lesson!

In the next day, I would fly to Sydney and Wellington for biz trip. I am worried if I could maintain my fitness after so much travelling.

10th Trailwalker Training on Oct 22

We had company picnic in Pui O on Oct 22. We didnt want to skip a week for training so we decided to do a short one in Lantau Island. Since Ben needed to bring his wife and daughter to the picnic site, he didn't join us this time. We did section 2 and section 12 of Lantau Island trail.

Adrian brought his camera with him. A big one.. with all kind of gear. The camera bag was so heavy! He thought that it was an easy trail so he brought his gear. Well.. He regreted it as it was just too heavy.

As I said, the trail was not difficult.. yeah.. we are quite professional now! :P The view was nice! It was a short one. just took us 5 hours to finish.. then, we had a nice picnic in Pui O with our colleagues. It was a nice day!

9th Trailwalker Training on Oct 15

This was our second evening training and this was an IMPORTANT training for us. Why? 'Coz we did section 1 to 5 all together. This was sort of a mock race for all of us. We started at 9:08am on Saturday (Oct 15) and finished at 2:52am on Sunday (Oct 16).

We did a lot of stretching at the starting point. We really did it seriousely as we knew that it was very very important to us. Okay.. we started our journey! Section 1 was a simple flat trail. We found that many other trailwalkers were doing the training, too. And I could see that some of them were from super team.... as they are running.. We started pretty relaxed.

There were a bit of uphills in section 2. Maybe I haven't warmed up enough and Ben were not in a good condition. The heat was killing me. Both of them found that it was not easy. I sweated a lot! I had to walk slowly. After a while, I started to feel well. We had 30 mins lunch in Ham Tin. We finished section 1 and 2 at 3:20pm. It was post 49. Oh.. I saw a snake at post 47. a long and brown one.. about 1.5m. so scary. I was with no one at that time! We took about 20 mins break at the end of section 2. You know what.. I really felt good. not tired at all.

Then, we started our journey again. Also, we called our supporters. Jhun and Sam were very nice to be our supporters on that day. We asked them to meet us (with food) at the end of section 3. Adrian was a bit of tired in section 3. He walked slowly. Ben and I were ahead. Towards the end of Section 3, it was getting dark. We were thinking whether we should take out our headlights and torches. oh.. Adrian fell down. He stepped on a wrong step! He hurt his knees. It was bleeding seriously.. Oh no! Ok.. so we all took out our lights and Adrian took out his first aid kit and put on the bandage, we continued to walk and meet our supporters at the end of section 3. It was 6:48pm. Ok! I was very very hungry!! Sam, Jhun and his wife were waiting for us with food and drinks. We had tomato beef rice, corn minced rice, lemon tea, coffee etc. Adrian! When he saw Jhun and Sam.. He just said.. ..give me the cigarette... yeah.. this is Adrian! He said that cigarette can release his pain!! OKAY!.. :) I finished the whole tomato beef rice!! hehheh.. yes, I know I eat a lot.

Okie dokie.. we had 2 more sections to go.. You can't believe that there were so many people on this evening in Maclehose trail. All of them were trailwalkers. We even talked on the trails and exchanged experience. Very funny! Even though I had done section 1 to 3, I still felt that I had a lof energy! I was really in a good shape! We started section 4 at 7:25pm an finished at 11:23pm. After the end of section 4, we need to walk the detour.. yes.. the original trail was still not opened yet because of the landslide. We all hate the detour. It was so long! We called this part as Great Wall! Oh.. there were many many cars in Fei Ngo Shan Road, too. yeah... many couples.. We had torches... shall we? ....hehehhehhe..

Alright! Last section for us in this evening.. section 5... we started at 101 at 12:40am. Adrian and I didn't like this section as there were many downstairs. These hurt our knees. Surprisingly, I was still not too tired. I could still walk pretty fast! We were in 2 pairs. Ben and I.. Yvonne and Adrian. Ben and I were ahead. Ben actually asked me to walk slower.. okay.. but I could help. I guess I really wanted to finish it ASAP :P We finally finished at 2:52am. Yvonne took a taxi back home by herself. 3 of us took another taxi but Adrian and I went to Sham Shui Po to eat and Ben went home straight. I was very surprised that my knees were not too pain. I am pretty confident to finish 100K. And our team members are in good shape, too!

Oh yes, I could only sleep for few hours as I had a 4pm flight to catch. I was flying to Tokyo for biz trip.

8th Trailwalker Training on Oct 8

We have done section 7 to 10 on Oct 8. It is totally 37.8km. We started at 7:59am and ended at 7pm. Samual did section 7 and 8 with us. The weather was pretty good. I would say it was too sunny.

I was in a pretty good condition. We have done section 7 and 8 before. But it was our 1st time to do section 9 and 10. We did pretty good in section 7 and 8. We spent 2.5 hours in section 7 and 3 hours in section 8. But the sun was killing us. I felt like I was walking in the desert. I could only hear my breathe and nothing. The last part of section 8 was all concrete road and downhills. It was quite boring. But we found 2 or 3 shortcuts. It shortened the time a bit. yeah.. we are cheating.. hehehe.. but I am sure a lot of people do. :)

Oh we saw a large group of people lining up into 2 rows and yelling in the hill. We thought that they were insurance agents and doing some kind of moral activities.. Then we realised that they were students and having camping.

We had lunch at the end of section 8. It would be a big checkpoint on that day. We were so hungry. We ate instant noodles, fish balls, siu mai.. YUMMY!!

Ok.. Samuel needed to go home and 4 of us continued our journey to do section 9 and 10. Everybody told us that section 9 and 10 were boring. At the very beginning, we found that it wasn't that bad. There were many nice trees and plants and some lotus leave, too. Pretty nice view... but then.. gosh... concrete road is bad! Our legs and feet started to feel tired and tight.. so all of us just stopped to do some more stretching.. okay.. then, we were saying that we must bring our IPod, radio etc in these sections! The beauty in these 2 sections are that there are many many beautiful butterflies. I didnt know that you can find so many beautiful butterflies in Hong Kong. Besides butterflies, we saw many many cows. I think we saw more cows than human being in this training!

Actually, we didn't know exactly where the end of section 9 was. We just kept walking. Yvonne even bought her slippers and wore them to walk section 9 and 10. We also thought that we should wear our running shoes or something more comfortable than hiking shoes to walk these sections. Oh.. you know what.. part of section 9 or 10 are not concrete road. So, we could walk a bit faster.. we walked 6 mins in every 500M ... not bad at all. It was just too boring. We really wanted to finish it quick!

It began dark around 6:30pm but we haven't finished.. and we didnt bring our lights or torches. I supposed to write down the timing every 1km but it was just too dark to do it. We walked and walked and walked. We couldn't find the "exit". Finally, we find a little road around post 198. Actually, we found out later that we should go to the finishing point via another small lane after post 194 but we missed it. It was 8pm already! Gosh! We were so HUNGERY.. so what did we eat!? Of course lah! Roasted Goose in Shum Cheng! ehheheheehhh.. NICE!! And we had dessert there, too!! We deserved to have a nice dinner after a long walk!

How were my knees. It was not as bad as before.....

Between Trainings on Oct 1 and Oct 2

We didn't have training this week as I haven't fully recovered from knee pain, Adrian went camping with his son and Yvonne hasn't recovered from flu. We took a break this week.

I went to see physio last Tuesday. She told me that my patella leans outwards. That's the reason why I have knee pain. My right knee pain is more serious than my left. My calf muscle is very tight, too. She recommended me to visit her in regular basis and do many stretching as it can get worst if I still continue to do exercise. Also, she said that my core muscle is weak which leads to give a lot of pressure on my knees when I do hiking. She also recommended me to do Pilates for enhancing joint flexibility.

So, what I do now.. I do stretching everynight. And I have joined Pilates class. Trying to do some exercise to strengthen my thigh muscle and do sit up everyday.

I actually went for a walk/run this morning. I walked and ran in the park next to my home....the one with a long stair. At the beginning, I was running. But I found that I should walk instead and get used to keep my body straight (as I found that I like to lean forward when I walk uphills and stairs which is not good) and learn how to use my thigh muscle to walk and how to knee down a bit when I walk downhills and stairs which would give less pressure to my knees. I walked for an hour plus today. Even though I was just doing walking, I still sweated a lot. I guess it is because of the heat. and...You know what.. it is quite tired to keep reminding myself to use which part of muscle to walk properly.

I felt a bit guilty not to do trailwalker training this week. But I have to take a rest. I am really worried about my knee pain. I dont have enough time to enhance my core and thigh muscle now. But I would try my best to do whatever I can.