Adventure Activity: When your legs don't work like they used to before...

While I was a student in Tullamore College we always went on our hikes in the Slieve Bloom Mountains, located in Laois and Offaly. I completed both my Bronze and my Silver Gaisce hikes in these mountains. To come full circle, I wanted to complete my final Gaisce hike in the Slieve Bloom Mountains, by doing the whole of the "Slieve Bloom Way".

This particular route is approx. 84 km according to Discover Ireland

If you are thinking of completing this trail yourself, please note that there are a few different versions of the Slieve Bloom Way, and as the Irish Trails website indicates, it is important to have the most recent maps to hand.

Day 1: "I don't just want to be alive, I want to live"
One of my best friends (and obviously the craziest for agreeing to come with me on this hike) just recently came back from an adventure in Australia, so it was the perfect chance to catch up. When you're stuck up in the mountains, with the prospect of 4 days straight of hiking ahead, conversation rapidly gets past the "lovely weather" stage, and straight into something more meaningful. So as we followed the winding trails, the boardwalk over the boggy areas, navigated the marshy ground, we inhaled the lovely fresh air, soaked in the sun and gobbled some blackberries, all while talking about the past, the present and the future.



Day 2: "What number deer is that?"
This was the longest day by far - we were out walking 9 hours. Despite the long day walking, however, we only saw 2 other hikers, but 14 deer. It was a very misty day, and some parts of the trail were hard to see. We came across wild blueberries and lots of funky mushrooms. A significant part of day 2 was spent walking on the road too, so if you are planning on doing the Slieve Bloom Way, make sure to have a hi-visibility jacket with you. When we finally made it into Kinnitty our legs were barely functioning.

Some photographs I took of the wildlife we encountered

Day 3: "When your legs don't work like they used to before"

In relation to accommodation, the highlight was definitely staying at Giltraps in Kinnitty - a self-catering glamping place with lovely cabins. Thankfully we had a good rest so we were ready for day 3.

We had to climb over a good few stiles, and my legs were so stiff from the previous two days. Our favourite part that day was just outside of Cadamstown - where if you are interested, you can do a short looped walk in that area. It was lovely, beside the river, well-marked and an interesting walk. The end of day 3 was quite tough, and the blisters were really starting to kick in. I was flagging at some stages of Day 3, so Anne Marie started playing some songs on her phone for some added motivation. When Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" came on with its opening lyrics When your legs don't work like they used to before, I think no song could have described our current predicament so accurately.

Day 4: "Why is it that the phrase 'It's all downhill from here' means things taking a turn for the worst? Downhill is great!"

While this day started with a slow, gradual incline, generally the second half of the walk was either flat or downhill.

We got lost a few times, which is where the View Ranger app came in. Sometimes it was a case of taking a wrong turn by accident, or sometimes the way-marked posts had become a bit overgrown. This did mean adding in a few extra kilometres and wasting a bit of time walking in the wrong direction, but we were never lost for long thanks to the App.

Very near the end, we could see our destination, but we were on the wrong side of the river, so we did end up going for a quick dip in the River Barrow to get to the other side, as the track on our own side was running out.

The Gold Gaisce hike really is a test of endurance, determination and resilience. Suddenly all of those cliché motivational phrases start to come to mind, and you're telling yourself that every step forward is a step closer to your goal, just keep going, you can do this... and in the end, it does all pay off. It felt like such a great achievement at the end.

A New Yoga Class

If you have given yoga a shot and think that it is not for you, bear in mind that a different instructor may take an approach more suited to you, or you could even try out the different types of yoga. As far as I'm aware, the classes I have been to are Hatha yoga classes. But take one look at Groupon, and you will see advertisements for "Hot Yoga"- where the room you are in is very hot - which honestly sounds really uncomfortable to me, but could be your cup of tea.

So far on my Gaisce challenge, I have had 5 different yoga teachers, and for being the same physical activity, it is amazing how significant the differences between the approaches can be. Some yoga classes have left me exhausted, others have just left me feeling nicely stretched, but most recently, I leave yoga feeling calm.

While I have finished the 52 weeks for the "skill" (Ballroom Dancing), I had to put the two other challenge areas on hold, because training to become a teacher does not result in buckets of free time... Now that it is summer, and that the dance classes are finished, I can turn my focus back to both yoga and working in a charity shop.

In the mean-time, I also moved away from Dublin, meaning that I needed to find a new yoga class to join. The great thing about yoga is that no matter where you are in Ireland, you will probably be able to find a class nearby. In UCD they even have Ióga through Irish!

The new classes are a mix of yoga and meditation, and this time my mother has joined me at the classes, which make them a bit more fun. I still have 24 weeks of yoga to go, but I think these classes will be a great stress reliever once term starts back in September.

Ballroom and Latin Dancing- 10 months on

Since Christmas, we have been in the improvers class and WOW. The difference. Some people in that class have been there 2 years! They dance and you just want to stop and watch them move. Four of us progressed on from the beginner class to the improvers class this semester, but we really are quite far behind in comparison. In many of the dances we have a lot of catching up to do. This semester we learned rumba, which I love, and it’s quite different from everything else we have done so far. The pace of the improvers class is much faster, and I feel like we’ve learned so much since Christmas. My usual dance partner wasn't there one day, so for the first time since I started, I was actually dancing with a man, as a woman! While in theory this sounded good, he kept complaining about my trying to lead...

No, this is not me, but this is a snap from our class!

We added new steps to our quickstep - the lock-step and pivot turn - which we still don’t have quite right so it looks a bit clunky. The cha cha is still probably one of my favourites because it's so up-beat. We got to add a new step called the cross-basic in the cha cha, which is taking a while to get the hang of. Since Christmas we have also spent much more time on swing dancing, and added a new step called the American Spin which is good fun but it makes you so dizzy after a while! It’s one of the only dances where I do the woman’s part, so a few times I got to dance with the teacher, and she's so amazing it's kind of scary to be her dance partner. We added in a "conversation piece" to the Foxtrot as well, so it's nice to have something new in there. When I switched to Monday classes one night, some other people in the class thought I had been doing dance for ages, which was a nice compliment to get.

Towards the end we had a very quick introduction to samba, which I would really like to learn more of because I love the music for it. We also did a "Yearning Saunter" which I think definitely wins the award for the poshest dance title! It is a strange sequence dance that feels as though it belongs in an Austen film adaptation. (I realise that all makes it sound interesting but really it’s more of a yawning saunter).

Before starting dance this year, I had never really grasped how much you have to use your brain for it. And a different part of the brain than usual, at that. But it really is the case that as soon as you start over-thinking the dance steps, you suddenly can't do it anymore. I imagine come September we will have forgotten a lot of what we have learned. The four of us who progressed from the beginner to the improvers class since Christmas are all planning to go back in September, which will be lovely. And I must say I am actually glad now that I learned the man's part, because otherwise it is very easy to allow yourself to be led, and never really learn the steps independently, but learning both parts means I am able to teach other people how to do the same dances.


PS: I have yet again- obviously- failed to take any pictures to actually show I do any of this (sorry). For the end of the Gaisce challenge, I do need to hand in a portfolio with pictures/videos of my various activities, so if anyone wants to volunteer to learn all of these dances and pose for pictures, let me know :P 

Yoga...10 months on

After getting a yoga mat for Christmas, I had great intentions of doing yoga each night before bed, but as with most New Year’s Resolutions, that never really came to pass, but I still have made some progress over the last few months. In January I got a bit of a surprise to find one of my lecturers from my master’s course was in my class too!

One of the most interesting things about yoga is the diverse ages, abilities, and flexibilities of the people in the class. No two bodies have the same level of flexibility, and even something as simple as having a cold can dramatically change your ability to hold a pose. At the beginning of each class, the instructor checks to see if anyone has any injuries, and it’s rare someone in the class doesn’t. One class in particular had loads of new people there, somewhere in the range of 40-60 years old, and they were all trying to "one-up" each other on how long it had been since they'd done exercise, and how stiff they felt. This of course gave me the impression that they were going to find the class difficult. How wrong I was. The more they spoke, the more I realised they were all yoga fanatics, and they very comfortably (but also competitively) were doing splits and all sorts of mad poses no problem, while I looked more like an awkward baby elephant.

Not every class leaves you feeling relaxed, or at peace- sometimes it’s simply exhausting. So much so that one student stormed out of one class saying “I’m too old for that sort of thing!”. And although I enjoy the “focusing on your breathing” aspect of yoga, some classes where we start off "stimulating the third eye" leave me a bit bewildered. But in general, I'm really glad I started yoga, and I think it really is helping to minimise my stress levels. It isn't until I'm in the class that I realise how tense I've been holding myself, even down to my facial muscles. During the warmer weather, we did yoga outside on the balcony, over-looking the sea, which was really nice.

Overall, I have to admit that every time I go to yoga class, I can never be sure how it’ll go. Sometimes doing the simplest of poses can trigger lots of cracks and creaks in my joints that really don’t sound good, and other times, I feel like yoga is exactly what my body needed to do. I am seeing a gradual improvement, and it is certainly something I will keep up when I have finished the Gaisce challenge.

Yoga

 I have now done 4 weeks of yoga classes and I am really enjoying it. What I love about yoga is that the instructor frequently reminds us that it's not about the poses other people in the class are doing; it's not about all being at the same level, but rather about doing what feels comfortable for you. The instructor will adapt different positions depending on what different levels people are at. It can be hard not to push yourself to a higher level, but when the instructor starts doing crazy poses where all the weight rests on her hands only, I know I am not ready for that (yet!) but I look forward to being able to do it.


Aside from the physical aspect, the instructor focuses on the "meditation through movement" aspect of yoga, telling us to focus on positive thoughts, to let go of negative feeling, and to try and carry that attitude out with us afterwards. On the morning of Trump's election, it was lovely to go to yoga to forget about it all!

I'm surprised how different yoga is from week to week. It's hard to remember the names of all the poses too, but as you can see I have a few pictures here of some of the poses we do. I had to miss yoga one week because I was ill, and my body really knew it- my joints kept cracking throughout the following week's class. I am definitely going to invest in my own yoga mat soon so that I can practise at home.I can tell I am making progress with my ability/inability to touch my toes, so I am delighted with that.