Kilimanjaro Training: Hyde Park walk

The gloves are off...or should I say, the boots are on!

The route has been mapped, the rucksack is filled (to about 10kg, because that's what we'll be carrying up Kilimanjaro) and the ipod is fully charged.

Following the advice of every Kilimanjaro related blog I could find, breaking in your boots is so important. The last thing you want on the side of a mountain is to be wincing with pain every step because of a blister. I'll have enough things like altitude sickness and muscle spasms to worry about, thanks very much.

I bought a pair of Meindl SoftLine Ladies boots in Cotswolds in early Feb, just as the sales were finishing for £109. I think they were around £150 originally. I picked Meindl (after trying on about a dozen pairs!) because I had an old pair of Meindl Burmas to muck around the horses with when I was living at home, and they would have lived a very long and happy life, and I probably would have worn them for Kili too, if they hadn't had an unfortunate run in with a teething puppy. The ankle support was sadly knawed off, still wearable of course, but lost a bit of the important support factor.

So last weekend I took myself out at the crack of dawn (read: 10am) to walk the streets of London with the boots for the first time!

Here's the route:

Clapham > Battersea > Sloane Street to Knightsbridge > round Hyde Park > and back again = 11miles!

And here's some pretty pictures I took along the way.

What I learned from the walk: stretch. Always stretch. My shins were aching the next day and I'm pretty sure it was simply because I didnt stretch out before and after. Lesson learned!