Week 4 Mini Milestone - Mt Coot-tha Kokoda Track

Yesterday marked the last day of week four of the 12wbt. And per Michelle's instructions, we were to take on a mini-milestone challenge. The Queensland 12wbt crew had quite alot of events planned around Brissy for me to choose from, or I could choose to just stick with Mish's planned programs per the site. I thought I better go to an organised event so I pushed myself to the extreme. I opted for the Mt Coot-tha Kokoda Track walk/jog.

I had absolutely no idea what I was in for, apart from the fact that Mt Cootha is (stating the obvious).... A MOUNTAIN!! And it was named after the official Kokoda Trail, so that says something.

I started the morning following my gps there, getting nice and lost on the way, only to turn up right at 7am - when everyone was getting the run down from the trainers and jogging to begin the warm up. I was slightly embarrassed to turn up late, but then again, at least I didn't give up when I got lost and just drive home and go back to bed. The old me definitely would have done that. Especially with my partner not going to be at home, I could have gotten away with the whole charade.

Next we needed to partner up - firstly putting our hands up if we were a "beginner" per Mish's fitness test. I was one of two people who put my hand up. Embarrassing again! And I know I'm only a beginner because I haven't followed the strength and core & stretch programs per Michelle. I've been just getting by doing a half-arsed attempt at the fitness days. Mostly because of how hectic my work schedule has been, but I mostly blame myself. I could have improved more from week 1 but I did not push myself enough. Anyway, I believe my lesson is learnt. Moving on. We were meant to pair with 1 beginner and 1 advanced together, or 2 intermediates together. I have made a friend through bootcamp who was there, and she's an intermediate. We wanted to go together so I kind of shrugged off that I was a beginner and said I was an intermediate. Hehe. Whoops. Not very cool. The only person I was punishing with that was my partner.

So the trail basically consisted of a 2.5k treck down the hill, then a 2.5k treck uphill. And boy did I underestimate uphill at this point in time. On the way down it wasn't too bad. Every time we had to catch up with the front trainer we had to do 20 pushups between the two of us. If one team member from the pair arrived first, they did pushups until the other arrived, as long as it was a total of 20. And that is where I mean my partner was punished. At first I could keep up mostly (well, not fall too far behind). But eventually my poor partner was doing the 20 on her own. Poor thing! That happened for two sets, which drove my motivation to keep up, because I just felt so damn bad for her. So I pushed on. I could jog most of the downhill portion, which I was proud of. I only really stopped to walk on the slippery parts.

Then we arrived at the flat grassy point - where the path trecking downwards meets the start of the path trecking upwards. The trainers explained to us that we'd just done the easy part. There were to be no more pushups - just getting up that damn hill. I was anxious. I had no idea what to expect and I was hurting at that point. The time had hit 20 mins. So about 2.5kms and about 50 pushups done in that time. And these were proper girl pushups (ie. bum down low). I'm getting better at the pushups, but I still hate them, and I was groaning with every pushup. Hehe. I sounded like a tennis player.

Right before we started going up, it was already sprinkling with rain the entire time we were going down (hence the slipperyness), but by then it just started bucketing down. We were saturated before we even began the treck up. Now just to give you a preview of the treck, here is the picture of the facebook event. I did not even click from this picture just how high the incline we were going to be treking up was. Lol. Silly silly me.

Look at these guys. They're almost crawling up that hill!! Anyway, pouring rain, we began the trek upwards. I fell behind the majority of the team very quickly. One by one people powered on up the hill, while I pushed myself to just keep up with a fast paced walk. Well, in my mind it was fast paced, but it wasn't getting me up that hill at a fast pace at all. All I could do was keep walking. I kept looking ahead, at what looked like a never ending hill above me. I couldn't even see the top of it, it just kept going up and up and up. I watched the distance between the crowd and me getting bigger and bigger as time went by. I watched the incline just getting steeper and steeper. I knew there were a couple of girls behind me, plus the trainer that stayed at the back. I got to the point where I was talking to myself the entire time I was going up "come on, you can do this, come on, just keep walking, just keep walking, the more steps you take the closer to the end you'll get, come on, just keep walking". God it was hard! I can't believe how hard it was. I ended up using every curse word while working my way up that hill. A few loud moans of irritation at how hard it was, with the crowd looking back to see who was moaning. Hehe. There were so many stops and starts as I spent the entire time convincing myself to keep moving. At one stage I was crawling my arse up that hill because I could just barely stand upright. I looked forward to every tree along that path because it was something I could grip on to and leverage myself up just a little bit more. As I got further up that hill, amongst all of the talking to myself, I started crying. I don't know why it happened, it just did. It was just so hard, and I knew looking up that hill the only way out was up. I didn't want to do it. I wanted to give up, but I stopped crying, and I just kept stepping. One foot in front of another.

I eventually got there. When I was close to the top of that hill a couple of the super fit girls there came out for some moral support. Coaxing me to the top. It was great. It was so motivating that towards the top I jogged to the finish line. Don't think I would have without those girls. But it felt so damn fulfilling to hit that yellow bar at the top. It took every ounce of my energy to get there, and I felt like I was going to pass out when I got to the top, but I freakin did it. I can't believe I actually turned up and did it. I'm so proud of myself. I keep trying to explain to my partner just how physically, mentally and emotionally challenging it was, but I don't think anyone could understand without doing it. I did the whole challenge in 50 minutes, burning 760 calories. That's the most I've ever burned in one session, especially 50 minutes! Usually I'm at about 500 in that time. I know I definitely want to do that challenge again, and improve on it. I know I don't want to be one of only two beginners again. I want to improve my fitness on every level.

After we all finished, we all stumbled around, trying to keep ourselves moving and not faint. We got a group photo, then all headed to our cars to get home. I made it home, and after a hissy fit of thinking I lost my house keys and sitting inside my car crying my eyes out extremely hard (I imagine it was brought on by the challenge), I finally made it inside my house, got my drenched clothes and shoes off, had a shower, and slept for hours. I was spent. But what an amazing day. I'm so glad I did it. And I just want to thank everyone involved - the participants, the trainers, and the organisers - it was such a fantastic challenge that took everything out of me. I've never felt anything like that before. Something that could affect every aspect of me - physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Bring on the next four weeks and bring on the week 8 and 12 milestone. I LOVE THIS PROGRAM!!!!!