"Hey, let's climb a mountain. Twice!"

I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!

Ok...

I'M THE PRINCESS OF MT COOT-THA!

Well, for today I felt like it at least! :)

I did my Week 3 challenge!  I climbed the Kokoda track on Mt Coot-tha, twice in a row! :)

Nooooo!

It was hard!!  Oh, so hard.  But I did it!  I did it with a friend, Aaron.  Both other times I've done it I was in a huge QLD crew group, so it felt a little strange.  And I was pretty nervous.  You know by now that I am a #bushprincess - I'm no queen of any mountain / bush / greenery of any kind.  I'm a (fearful) novice girl.  And Aaron had never done the track before, and here I was, encouraging him to do it twice.  He is an experienced bushwalker, but it still made me nervous.

I have also been very well looked after when I've done it with QLD crew - we've had PT's / trainers, warm ups/downs, people checking on us the whole way, someone at the front, middle and back....the first time I did it we had cut up oranges waiting for us - and the second time we had Mish herself waiting for us!  Well today there was no oranges or Mish, or any other cool thing.  It was just Az, myself, our water bottles, my First Aid kit and sunscreen, and this crazy idea I had to conquer a mountain.  Twice.

This isn't even the steepest part

Sliding down

We had a set back as soon as we arrived at the top - the (fairly easy) track leading down the mountain was closed!  I couldn't believe it.  I'm not sure why but I wasn't about to go through the orange netting to find out.  Apart from driving a fair distance to the bottom of the mountain and doing it in reverse, or postponing our jaunt, the only other option was to go down the actual Kokoda track.  It is steep.  That's the challenge of climbing it.  But to go down it??  I almost said to Az we should quit, when we stood at the top and looked down.  It's crazy steep and slippery and there's lose rocks.  I did not want to cause another injury or worsen my current one.

But we were determined!  I ended up sliding down most of the steep part.  I don't have great shoes and I didn't want to slip.  So I sat on my butt and slid instead.  I had flashback memories of dragging myself out of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland following #princessaccident!  One Active pants are tough - I have no holes in them.  But my hands and tail bone are sore tonight, let me tell you!

Only 1/4 of the way through!  Bottom of the mountain.  1 lap down.

I brought my moon boot and wore it apart from when it was really steep, to give me more support on the rocky ground.  We made it to the bottom - that was hard enough.  We then had to turn around and climb the mountain.  Then repeat!

Moon booting it...space boots on the side of a mountain

Going up was tough.  I think I've lost some fitness over the past few weeks, and I had to stop a lot more than I did last time.  Each time my heart rate got to 190, I'd stop and wait till it got down to 180.  I didn't have to worry about Aaron being a Kokoda first timer though - he ran up the steep bit!  Crazy kid.  I took a bit longer.  We made it to the top, touched the yellow pole, and then turned around to slide down and climb up the mountain again. :)  A few times I considered stopping, or just doing 1 lap.  But we kept repeating "if it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you."  It was tough in parts, we played Shannon Noll's "Lift" when we were struggling with the first climb. :)  I swore a bit.  I left my moon boot on the steep bit during our first climb because I didn't need it until later, and we slid back down and picked it up on the way. ;)

Because of the different trail we had to use, it took a little bit longer than expected, and I was getting a bit stressed because I was going to be late for boot camp.  It was like my reward for climbing the mountain...yes, that sounds weird!  But I love it and it propelled me on and made me keep going when I wanted to rest more.  I had to get to boot camp!

WE DID IT BABY!

Eventually though, in just over 3 hours, we made it :)  We touched the yellow pole, took the obligatory 'I conquered Kokoda' photos, and then I raced to boot camp.  We were so proud of ourselves :)  It was hard - especially doing it twice!  But I couldn't stop grinning - Week 3 challenge, done! :)

My cal burn record!

I missed half of boot camp, but I still had a ball.  I seriously love it.  After that, I was wanting to do some more exercise.  Weird yes, but I ran with it - this is not a common feeling, trust me!  I got home (and had some dinner!) then did some laps of the internal stair case in my apartment block.  It's always been a goal of mine to do 1000 steps - anywhere!  Today I even considered making this a weekly challenge for myself one week.  But I'm not going to, because I achieved it tonight!  I did 1000 of my apartment stairs :)  I was working towards it months ago and stopped.  Well I fixed that up quick tonight! :)  By the end I was so close to burning 3000 calories for the day, I decided to reach that.  I've never done that before and today's effort is not exactly a common thing, so I joined in a 30+ challenge and did 100 butterfly sit-ups after the stairs.  Well actually, I did 102 - just to knock the calories over the 3000 mark ;)  I got to exactly 3000 and stopped.  Woo!  Big exercise day.  I feel great.  Exhausted, but so proud of the Kokoda x2!  You can do anything you put your mind to.  These weekly challenges are putting smiles on my face.

And that's why I'm loving it :)

:)

Az a bit exhausted

Me a bit exhausted

A cute water tank I've never noticed before

My friend Ange gave me this butterfly when we had lunch today so I had to wear it :)

Spot the boot :)

At the end of the day - sweaty but happy :)