Training Walk: 23.97 miles with an extra-heavy pack; or: I doubt my own sanity so you don't have to
This morning I set off on a walk which the OS app assured me was 22.79 miles, with a pack which weighed 10.5kg when I put it into the back of my car. I think that was with the water and food and so on in it, because when I weighed it just now it had come down to 7.6kg.
A note: in order to achieve this weight, I carried an extra 2L bottle of water all day. Spoilers: I'm never doing that again.
A further note: I was beginning to be quite worried about the accuracy of the distance measurements on the OS maps app, but I just plotted the route I actually walked with my usual attention to detail as far as wibbliness goes, and OS reckons it's 23.22miles which is close enough for me. However, something is very off about my time calculations:
Naismith's, on the information I had before the walk: 9 hours
Naismith's, on the route I just plotted: 9h40
OS: 7h20
Actual time it took me: 6h22
That is quite a big difference. Thankfully in the right direction!
Anyway, my walk. I walked 23.97 miles with a pack that weighed between 10 and 8kg, because apparently that's what I do for fun? It wasn't fun. I cannot, repeat: cannot carry a pack that heavy on LEJOG. It stopped being fun around 16 miles and by 20-odd I was seriously considering calling a cab and/or dumping out the extra 2L bottle of water I packed purely for additional weight. However, as a testament to the strength of my character/the depth of my sheer obstinacy, I did neither. My shoulders and neck are not thankful for that. For context, 10kg is the average weight of an 18-month-old girl (or a 14-month-old boy); my pack started off weighing nearly 19% of my body weight. In order to counterbalance that, I spent 6 hours and 22 minutes craning my neck and head forward as hard as I could and I have the headache to show for it. I won't be doing that again.
On the positive side:
- still no blisters
- lots of spring!
- lambs! so many lambs! One of whom had got the opposite side of a fence from its mother, giving me the opportunity to Save The Lamb - I even resisted the urge to take a selfie with it. I'm so proud of me.
- sunshine! Although I will definitely have a sunburn tomorrow because this was the first walk since January that I didn't apply suncream, sensibly enough
- never have to do that again if I don't want to - seriously, I packed all the things I want to take with me, except a toothbrush and soap, and then threw in 2kg of water. I hope a toothbrush and soap don't end up weighing 2kg.
On the less positive side, a lot of this walk turned out to be very familiar from my walk nearly to Horton and my walk around the Gower a fortnight ago, so whenever I got stuck in mud up to my ankles I only had myself to blame because I knew it was like that. This probably wasn't helped by the thunderstorm that kept me awake (briefly) last night.
Boot cost per mile: £1.31
Paracetamol required: 1g, as soon as I got home; probably double that if I'd had the sense to bring any with me in my 10kg pack it's not like there wasn't room
A note: in order to achieve this weight, I carried an extra 2L bottle of water all day. Spoilers: I'm never doing that again.
A further note: I was beginning to be quite worried about the accuracy of the distance measurements on the OS maps app, but I just plotted the route I actually walked with my usual attention to detail as far as wibbliness goes, and OS reckons it's 23.22miles which is close enough for me. However, something is very off about my time calculations:
Naismith's, on the information I had before the walk: 9 hours
Naismith's, on the route I just plotted: 9h40
OS: 7h20
Actual time it took me: 6h22
That is quite a big difference. Thankfully in the right direction!
Anyway, my walk. I walked 23.97 miles with a pack that weighed between 10 and 8kg, because apparently that's what I do for fun? It wasn't fun. I cannot, repeat: cannot carry a pack that heavy on LEJOG. It stopped being fun around 16 miles and by 20-odd I was seriously considering calling a cab and/or dumping out the extra 2L bottle of water I packed purely for additional weight. However, as a testament to the strength of my character/the depth of my sheer obstinacy, I did neither. My shoulders and neck are not thankful for that. For context, 10kg is the average weight of an 18-month-old girl (or a 14-month-old boy); my pack started off weighing nearly 19% of my body weight. In order to counterbalance that, I spent 6 hours and 22 minutes craning my neck and head forward as hard as I could and I have the headache to show for it. I won't be doing that again.
On the positive side:
- still no blisters
- lots of spring!
- lambs! so many lambs! One of whom had got the opposite side of a fence from its mother, giving me the opportunity to Save The Lamb - I even resisted the urge to take a selfie with it. I'm so proud of me.
- sunshine! Although I will definitely have a sunburn tomorrow because this was the first walk since January that I didn't apply suncream, sensibly enough
- never have to do that again if I don't want to - seriously, I packed all the things I want to take with me, except a toothbrush and soap, and then threw in 2kg of water. I hope a toothbrush and soap don't end up weighing 2kg.
On the less positive side, a lot of this walk turned out to be very familiar from my walk nearly to Horton and my walk around the Gower a fortnight ago, so whenever I got stuck in mud up to my ankles I only had myself to blame because I knew it was like that. This probably wasn't helped by the thunderstorm that kept me awake (briefly) last night.
Boot cost per mile: £1.31
Paracetamol required: 1g, as soon as I got home; probably double that if I'd had the sense to bring any with me in my 10kg pack it's not like there wasn't room
Well done! How are you this morning?
ReplyDeleteMy back is a bit stiff and I have some interesting sore patches on my shoulders and hips where the bag sits but otherwise I'm fine - until I have to walk downstairs. I may need to buy some knee supports for LEJOG.
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