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Advice for female walker

Advice for female walker


Postby Doyley » Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:05 pm

Hi guys
Im new here amd looking for some advice/tips.
Ive been walking/hiking properly for around 18 months now. I’ve done a fair amount of walks (yorkshire 3 peaks, ben nevis, snowden, scafell pike, pen y fan, mam tor etc). I’ve just recently upped my game so to speak tackling Buachaille Etive Mor and Tryfan via Heather Terrace this week. Both of this were massively out of my comfort zone and tough going but i want to build on them. I walk with my partner who is very experience and i trust his judgment my issues are with me ha ha. The biggest 2 being:
- I struggle with exposure and can melt down a little when i come across it
- I can’t seem to pick up my pace so the days out are long days with my partner being much quicker - i don’t necessarily want to be as fast - im quite short and can only go so fast with little legs ha ha
Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciate!
Thanks :)
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby FiferStu » Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:27 pm

Hi Doyley,

Not sure what sort of advice you're looking for, but I've always said to myself - hillwalking's not a race, it's something you should do at your own pace. Would you say your partner is getting impatient with you...? If so, it might be an idea to find another walking partner or group with similar abilities as yourself. Or, of course, to go yourself. That's how I do most of my walks.

As for exposure, I'm much the same, I always try to take the easiest route up and down a hill. I don't see it as bottling it, as somehow ducking difficulties. It's making the right choice of route up and down that you're comfortable with. However on one of the hills you've done, Buachaille Etive Mor, had me seriously wondering whether I'd make it up alive (I think we took the wrong route up!!). Lesson learned, anyway.

Those are my thoughts, anyway. Others may contribute quite contrary opinions; there's no right or wrong.
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby Sgurr » Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:48 pm

Maybe have a word with your partner? Amenable to compromising, or just insisting that you do what he does? I am lucky in that my partner realised I had a serious issue with exposure very early on when he looked round and found me crawling up a 1 in 10 grassy slope. Luckily it seemed to have abated over the years, partly as a result of very gradual increase in difficulty, and partly as a result of becoming a granny at which my system seemed to say to me "right, you have safely passed on your genes, now you can go and fling yourself over a cliff if you want." (Most of the portfolio under my name has been acquired since then). Nonetheless, although Buchaille was OK, I did have a slight wobbly on Heather Terrace. A friend who used to cliff climb with no worries at all suddenly became unable to when her kids were born, and although many women carry on through the early childhood of their kids, I worry that there isn't a built in brake , hard to overcome. The other thing I would suggest is that YOU research the routes that are being suggested so you don't find yourself in negotiation on the morning of a climb, or freezing half way into it. Forewarned is fore-armed. Good luck.

Can't help you with the pace. Mine improved when I discovered I was asthmatic, and partner's got worse when we went to Everest Base Camp and he got pneumonia after altitude sickness. Since he broke a hip I am about 4 times as fast, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Last edited by Sgurr on Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby jmarkb » Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:52 pm

Welcome to WH!

Doyley wrote:- I struggle with exposure and can melt down a little when i come across it


You may suffer from some degree of Visual Height Intolerance, which can be overcome through repeated exposure (no pun intended!). This article might be helpful - https://www.alpinetrek.co.uk/base-camp/how-to-get-confidence-in-the-mountains

Doyley wrote:I can’t seem to pick up my pace so the days out are long days with my partner being much quicker - i don’t necessarily want to be as fast - im quite short and can only go so fast with little legs ha ha


You might be unfairly comparing yourself with a very fit/quick partner! Hill fitness will also improve if you can get out regularly, though any form of cardio exercise, and losing spare weight if you have some, will be of benefit. What do you find is limiting you - your legs or your lungs? Downhill speed is more about technique and confidence - some reasonable advice here (ignore the bit about throwing water away!)
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby Doyley » Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:55 pm

Thanks guys! No, he is really patient with me! Its just me getting frustrated with myself. I maybe worded my opening post wrong. Its more me than him! He talks to me about routes and i always research things before i do them! I also tell him when im not comfortable and he listens and supports. I want it to be something we enjoy and achieve together. After we’ve done something - we always evaluated and say what we could do better
jmarkb thanks for this these! I want to keep going and get over my ‘fear’ so to speak - and i know the best thing is to just keep trying! I’ve also taken up indoor rock climbing to help but havent been since march due to lockdown! But getting back there this week! I have done the couch 2 5k but struggled ince finished so starting back from
Earlier on in the course so that should
Help cardio! And yes i need to shed
Some pounds so have a plan for that too! Its more my legs than my lungs! Im asthmatic but its well
Controlled and my breating seems to have got better! But my legs just go i cant go any more so i stop!
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby Sgurr » Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:01 pm

Doyley wrote: He talks to me about routes and i always research things before i do them! t


Do you ever get to choose which hill you do next? Maybe if you take it in turns? Maybe you do already.
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby Doyley » Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:07 pm

Sgurr wrote:
Doyley wrote: He talks to me about routes and i always research things before i do them! t


Do you ever get to choose which hill you do next? Maybe if you take it in turns? Maybe you do already.


Yes i do. Although as im relatively new i dont always know properley what to do or choose. I just look at things people have done and say that looks good.
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby jmarkb » Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:11 pm

Doyley wrote:Its more my legs than my lungs!


Some strength training might help in that case, maybe something like https://trailrunnermag.com/training/cross-training/the-5-minute-leg-circuit-for-mountain-running-strength.html
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby Doyley » Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:43 pm

Thank you :)
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby NickyRannoch » Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:46 pm

Doyley wrote:
Sgurr wrote:
Doyley wrote: He talks to me about routes and i always research things before i do them! t


Do you ever get to choose which hill you do next? Maybe if you take it in turns? Maybe you do already.


Yes i do. Although as im relatively new i dont always know properley what to do or choose. I just look at things people have done and say that looks good.


That's how everyone chooses their hills !!

You sound like you need to build your confidence. I don't know if it's an option but you might benefit from going out on the hill with someone else. Do you have friends or a local club? I have also seen women only navigation courses in the past. Building your own confidence without deferring to someone else who you see as having the knowledge and expertise could be worth exploring.
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby Manwaeadug » Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:05 pm

Doyley wrote:........ and can only go so fast with little legs ha ha......



Stilts? :wink:
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby Sunset tripper » Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:18 pm

NickyRannoch wrote:
You sound like you need to build your confidence. I don't know if it's an option but you might benefit from going out on the hill with someone else. Do you have friends or a local club? I have also seen women only navigation courses in the past. Building your own confidence without deferring to someone else who you see as having the knowledge and expertise could be worth exploring.


That's a terrible suggestion Nicky.
Doyley has posted that she wants it to be something they enjoy and achieve together
Now you have them going out doing hills apart :roll:

Doyley, good advice from others regarding the issues you mentioned.
I'm not particularly fit but I find the more often I go out it starts to become easy or easier and the exposure problem should lessen the more you encounter it, but don't do anything you think is unsafe.

All the best :D
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Re: Advice for female walker

Postby Fiona Reid » Tue Sep 01, 2020 7:29 am

If you don't already, then perhaps get your partner to let you go first so you set the pace. There's nothing worse than having someone taller and stronger leading the way and always playing catch up.

Also if they are in front on a narrow path you can't see where you're headed whereas the other way around is fine as they can easily see over your head when walking behind.

Short legs shouldn't be a show stopper. You might need to move them a little faster to keep up with a taller person but short legs can be just as strong and fit as longer ones. Deep snow or tussocks might be more of a pain but in snow you send the tall person first and let them tire themselves trail breaking, in tussocks you moan together.

A two pronged approach of improving cardio fitness and strength is likely your best option. Get back to that couch to 5km or anything else that makes you breathe hard, do some leg strengthening exercises and get out on the hills as much as possible - there's nothing that really does quite the same as hillwalking and the more you do it the easier it will get.

Finally, if you've got local hills (I'm very lucky as the Pentlands are a few miles from where I live so can cycle there, do 5km circuit) then get out for a walk in the evenings as often as possible before it's too dark again.

Failing that even a pavement with a decent gradient slope, and length of slope. You could walk up and down the slope trying to get faster whilst still being able to hold a conversation and time yourself once a week. You should get faster and find it easier as time goes on. From there you could wear your rucksack and add the sort of weight you'd normally hillwalk with. Boring perhaps but it would be a way to improve fitness without having to wait for decent weather and you'd be able to measure your progress.
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