Encouragement for strangers in training

From now on if I ever see anyone training hard for anything I am always going to throw some encouraging words towards them!

When I'm in the middle of a tyre pulling session and things are hard it is a welcome distraction to have people show an interest and ask what I'm training for or to say well done for the obvious effort - and my effort probably is very obvious with my bright red face and sweat dripping freely off my nose!  I can even raise a smile for the 1 in 5 that tells me I have a flat tyre or that something has got caught on my backpack - I forgive you wannabe comedians as at least it stops me thinking about what I'm doing for a second.  Or as just happened today, cheers of very enthusiastic encouragement from a mixed group of mountain bikers as I was half way up a fairly steep hill.  I don't know if it was just the exhaustion but the cheers of support actually moved me.  Being a cynical Englishman raised in a country where it seems uncool to support each other I always suspect some of the shouts may be a little sarcastic for the 'nutter in the forest', but I use them for positive energy so I don't care either way.

Today was the first day I've gone out and trained with a lot of other people out - as it's Saturday afternoon - and I was really pleased by the general reaction of people.  I genuinely appreciated the support and it definitely helped get through some of the harder parts.  I even took 15 minutes off my last time over the rather hilly 5km, this time pulling 30kg of tyres in a time of 1hr 5mins.

I am not sure that always training up and down hills is the best method but the nearest space for me happens to be quite a lumpy bit of forest so it will do for now.  I will research a bit on the web to see what experienced adventurers advise.  I'll also try to gauge a consensus on the best type of terrain and also body positioning whilst pulling, in order that I best prepare for and mimic the pulling of the pulk on the ice cap.

So thank you good people of Bracknell and Swinley Forest for an enjoyable session today!