Weekly Workout Recap : Lake District

July 3, 2013

Last week Mark and I went on a break to the Lake District – neither of us had ever been to that part of the UK before, and we both love camping so decided to go for a few days to explore and chill out.

Monday– Crossfit 7-8pm

Tuesday– REST

Wednesday– Mountain biking ~20miles

Thursday– Some walking (Coniston Lake)

Friday– Walking (Aira Force and Thirlmere Lake)

Saturday– REST

Sunday– Race for Life 5k Richmond Park

Mountain Biking

We hired bikes from the campsite we were staying at in Low Wray on the western edge of Lake Windemere (£20 each for the day), and did a route that looked something like this – but not exactly! I think it was probably a bit longer due to going down some tracks before changing our minds (!) and also not being able to exactly follow the paths on MapMyRun (I drew this afterwards).

Although there were definitely some massive hills as you can see! Or at least huge to a girl from Norfolk, probably the flattest county there is…

Cycling round the edge of Lake Windermere was gorgeous. We cycled about 5miles south before taking the ferry across to Bowness-on-Windermere, the main touristy town on the eastern side. We stopped for some lunch and a wander round before heading back across to carry on exploring.

We cycled cross-country to Esthwaite Water where we refuelled with some Kendal Mint Cake (I’d never had it before, interesting…)

Then there was some “dirt bike” cycling on uneven cobbled tracks and scree slopes, past some amused sheep.

The views were amazing and it was so lush and green.

There were a lot of breaks for map reading and working out where we were going but we didn’t get lost, and despite turning round on some tracks (a bit too narrow for bikes) we plotted a pretty awesome route through the countryside 🙂

I’m pretty sure I’m leaning on the bike to hold me up by this point! My legs were so achey afterwards!

We arrived back around 6pm, so really got our money’s worth! There were times when I thought I was going to be sick trying to cycle up some of the steep slopes, and it was equally scary flying down the insane downhill inclines hoping my brakes didn’t fail! But I really enjoyed it – it was a great way to see the countryside and I would definitely recommend it for exploring the Lake District in a different way. Just pack your strong legs!

Walking
Aira Force
This was a short trek through the forest to see the Aira Force waterfall on the north side of Ullswater, which drops an impressive 65ft into the gorge.

Thirlmere waterfall walk
The weather got progressively wetter on Friday so we got rather soaked on our second walk, an approximate 3mile loop to see another waterfall, on the edge of Thirlmere Lake.

We followed the yellow track

The rain at least meant the waterfall looked pretty spectacular though – we thought it was better than Aira Force, but maybe that’s because we were the only people there! Private waterfall 🙂

And we should have expected to get wet really with the Lake District being the rainest place in England! The rain mist across the lake and the valley looked rather impressive, even if it was dripping off my nose in a most unflattering way….

We drove back home Saturday, and I ran the Race for Life with my work colleagues/friends on the Sunday on the hottest day of the year so far- 27degrees in London, talk about a contrast! (race recap to follow)

What’s your favourite activity to do whilst on holiday?

Beki x

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