Hiking thread

malg said:
Good thread. I'm taking this up as I'm too old to be running. Fancy some places that are a short train ride away, probably this week as I'm off work. I've done the West Highland Way before and Ben Nevis.
Click to expand...
Hebden Bridge and Todmorden are less than 30mins from Victoria and have some good pubs and hills nearby to walk up before the pubs open.
 
malg said:
Good thread. I'm taking this up as I'm too old to be running. Fancy some places that are a short train ride away, probably this week as I'm off work. I've done the West Highland Way before and Ben Nevis.
Click to expand...

Thing about running, mate, which an awful lot of people don't realise. I ran a fair bit from the age of twelve or so up to about fifty. I'm naturally what they call an ectomorph (well, I'm not now, because I've got a bit of a belly these days!) but I was the natural shape for middle-distance, say 10k or so. Tall, stringy, that sort. I'm not saying I was a great runner, but I was decent.
A lot of people who run don't know how to run. They think they're being virtuous, but they're fucking themselves! Specifically, they're fucking their ankles, their knees, their hips, and crucially their spinal column. You've got to have a natural, smooth rhythm, not jerky, all the limbs well coordinated along with the upper body, and minimal use of energy for maximal kinetic efficiency. You've also, of course, got to have good shoes (which doesn't necessarily mean fuck-off expensive ones that look good, but the best adapted for you and your feet).
And — this is vital — you run only on grass or dirt tracks if you possibly can (I realise that this isn't an option for many people. Sometimes I watch people in the street and I feel like gently stopping them and saying, “You know, you're buggering yourself and you don't even realise it. Take up another sport, friend…” Of course, I don't, because it's basically none of my business).
Hiking is a balanced way of getting fairly fit. If you go with a mate, and you can share banter along the way, it's also fun. And if you like the countryside, you see things that no motorist, even no cyclist, ever sees. You can only see those things in the slow rhythm of walking. I used to go hiking in my teens, and have more or less done it all my life. I've hiked in Patagonia, New Zealand, Iceland, Jasper National Park Canada, etc., etc. Plus the Lake District, the Peaks, Lewis and Harris (Outer Hebrides), the south Wales coastal path, in the UK. In France I've probably hiked most in the Drôme, which is in some ways my favourite place on earth. Because I like my creature comforts too, and after a hard day's hiking, there's nothing better than having a good, long hot shower, changing into clean clothes, and then moseying out to find the best restaurant in the village, and having a fine meal, accompanied by a few glasses of good wine.
Then sleeping the sleep of the just, and getting up the next morning and doing it all over again.
Hiking — excellent choice by you. I loved playing squash, and played it up till about fifty, and was then buggering my hammy and all of that in the last years, and I hung up my racket. It was time. It's a young man's sport, really, unless you're technically good. Which I never was. Loved the haring round the court like a demon bit, but I was never coached, and I never ironed the things out of my game that I should have. Still miss it (and I'm now sixty-nine!).
Just a tip, though. Three years ago, I discovered a sport I'd never so much as thought of practicing. If you have any access to a rowing club, give it a try. It is absolutely glorious once you get the hang of it. When you get your rhythm right, that boat just flies over the water like a bird. You can do it solo, or in a pair, fours or eights (the last I have never done). Even fours, when everyone's synchronised, it's an astonishing feeling. You feel the people power in the boat, and it just surges over the water.
Of course, it can be pretty expensive. No idea what it costs in the UK, but in France you're looking at about £200 for the year (that's rock bottom, in a very small club), ranging up to £600-700 easily for the year's subscription. I've mainly done sea rowing, but also river rowing (which poses different kinds of technical problems). It's very good for you, a very balanced sport, which requires the whole body (which is not what people imagine, because they've seen Olympic rowers with huge pecs and generally built like a brick shithouse). Everybody can row at their own level.
Edit: just realised that like a moron I've been using the wrong term. I've done exclusively sculling, not rowing, and that's what I was talking about. I always get the two terms confused…
 
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Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Thing about running, mate, which an awful lot of people don't realise. I ran a fair bit from the age of twelve or so up to about fifty. I'm naturally what they call an ectomorph (well, I'm not now, because I've got a bit of a belly these days!) but I was the natural shape for middle-distance, say 10k or so. Tall, stringy, that sort. I'm not saying I was a great runner, but I was decent.
A lot of people who run don't know how to run. They think they're being virtuous, but they're fucking themselves! Specifically, they're fucking their ankles, their knees, their hips, and crucially their spinal column. You've got to have a natural, smooth rhythm, not jerky, all the limbs well coordinated along with the upper body, and minimal use of energy for maximal kinetic efficiency. You've also, of course, got to have good shoes (which doesn't necessarily mean fuck-off expensive ones that look good, but the best adapted for you and your feet).
And — this is vital — you run only on grass or dirt tracks if you possibly can (I realise that this isn't an option for many people. Sometimes I watch people in the street and I feel like gently stopping them and saying, “You know, you're buggering yourself and you don't even realise it. Take up another sport, friend…” Of course, I don't, because it's basically none of my business).
Hiking is a balanced way of getting fairly fit. If you go with a mate, and you can share banter along the way, it's also fun. And if you like the countryside, you see things that no motorist, even no cyclist, ever sees. You can only see those things in the slow rhythm of walking. I used to go hiking in my teens, and have more or less done it all my life. I've hiked in Patagonia, New Zealand, Iceland, Jasper National Park Canada, etc., etc. Plus the Lake District, the Peaks, Lewis and Harris (Outer Hebrides), the south Wales coastal path, in the UK. In France I've probably hiked most in the Drôme, which is in some ways my favourite place on earth. Because I like my creature comforts too, and after a hard day's hiking, there's nothing better than having a good, long hot shower, changing into clean clothes, and then moseying out to find the best restaurant in the village, and having a fine meal, accompanied by a few glasses of good wine.
Then sleeping the sleep of the just, and getting up the next morning and doing it all over again.
Hiking — excellent choice by you. I loved playing squash, and played it up till about fifty, and was then buggering my hammy and all of that in the last years, and I hung up my racket. It was time. It's a young man's sport, really, unless you're technically good. Which I never was. Loved the haring round the court like a demon bit, but I was never coached, and I never ironed the things out of my game that I should have. Still miss it (and I'm now sixty-nine!).
Just a tip, though. Three years ago, I discovered a sport I'd never so much as thought of practicing. If you have any access to a rowing club, give it a try. It is absolutely glorious once you get the hang of it. When you get your rhythm right, that boat just flies over the water like a bird. You can do it solo, or in a pair, fours or eights (the last I have never done). Even fours, when everyone's synchronised, it's an astonishing feeling. You feel the people power in the boat, and it just surges over the water.
Of course, it can be pretty expensive. No idea what it costs in the UK, but in France you're looking at about £200 for the year (that's rock bottom, in a very small club), ranging up to £600-700 easily for the year's subscription. I've mainly done sea rowing, but also river rowing (which poses different kinds of technical problems). It's very good for you, a very balanced sport, which requires the whole body (which is not what people imagine, because they've seen Olympic rowers with huge pecs and generally built like a brick shithouse). Everybody can row at their own level.
Edit: just realised that like a moron I've been using the wrong term. I've done exclusively sculling, not rowing, and that's what I was talking about. I always get the two terms confused…
Click to expand...
Done 25 years in the Army so I done a lot of running/tabbing/cross training. Rowing sounds good, but to be honest I'm now a bit lazy. Hiking is easily accessible for me so that's the direction I'm going in for now.
 
malg said:
Done 25 years in the Army so I done a lot of running/tabbing/cross training. Rowing sounds good, but to be honest I'm now a bit lazy. Hiking is easily accessible for me so that's the direction I'm going in for now.
Click to expand...
You could also try some river kayaking, you're just steering more than paddling, great way to get around and get a new perspective
 
Sky Blue Thinking said:
Hebden Bridge and Todmorden are less than 30mins from Victoria and have some good pubs and hills nearby to walk up before the pubs open.
Click to expand...
Did the first stage of the Pennine Way last summer, Edale to Hadfield and really enjoyed it.

I like to do my running & cycling but it has made doing more of the Pennine Way a real tempting thought - I see it as a project to do all the legs of it over the next couple of summers.
 
A very good walk starts from Widdop near Hebden Bridge. As a bonus, there is an excellent pub there called The Pack Horse Inn that does good food and beer. You might decide to fuck off the walk and stay there. But if you do FGS have a driver with you who likes soft drinks. Because this is a car job, Widdop is in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, you follow the Pennine Way to 'Wuthering Heights'. You can come straight back or descend to Haworth. (More pubs, including at least one selling Timothy Taylor.) Then back either the same way or via Oxenhope. (Large Scale Map advised.) This is a moderately strenuous round and too much for an old git like me nowadays, but I highly recommend it. Especially the pubs. Best done on a bright, sunny day, but I have done it in snow and it was still fun.
 
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