Training Walk: stringing walks together
After yesterday's experience, I decided free-styling was the not the way to go walking around Powys. However, the local council have published a selection of walks on the town website, all of which have been checked and use only clearly marked, walkable footpaths. This is all well and good, but not many people are entirely insane and so the longest walk they have is 9.3 miles, which they reckon will take 4 hours, and is marked "moderate"; the next longest is the one I walked with my Mum back in January, which was 8 miles and marked "moderate to difficult". Neither of these really works for me.
However! Both walks are circular; the start/end point of each is separated by a mere mile or so of the Severn Way through the centre of town - so I added the two together, added in a two mile there-and-back detour along the canal towpath, and walked 20.81 miles in about eight hours. I say 'about' because Runkeeper, the GPS tracking app I use, decided to throw a hissy fit after about 17 miles and cut out on me, leaving about a mile unaccounted for. This is the second time it has done something like this to me in three months; hopefully it continues at no more than that rate.
It turns out that most of what slows me down is navigation and getting lost - with well-written instructions for one of the routes and my memory of last time for the other, I stormed along. I know that 2.6mph doesn't sound like storming, but the Naismith rule says this route should have taken the best part of 9 hours.
It was mostly very pleasant, with the exception of the places I remembered from yesterday as being distinctly bog-like (and even the route description agreed with me!), until I hit about 18 miles when I stopped to talk to someone and in the space of a three-minute conversation suddenly became very, very aware that my feet were killing me.
It has finally happened. I have blisters. They are not joking around - walking around the house I keep on trying to wipe small stones off the bottom of my feet which aren't there because that is what walking on these blisters feels like. They are ominous-looking things, lurking deep under the hardened skin on my heels and the ball of my left foot. This has happened to other people before while walking Land's End to John O'Groats. I am not enjoying it.
However, I have seen the Ominous White Patches on the soles of my feet before, and I seem to remember it all being fine the next day, so here's hoping!
Boot cost per mile: £0.85
Distance walked today: 20.81 miles, probably
Time by Naismith: 8h56
Actual time: about eight hours? Honestly, who knows. I left at nine and was back before half five and had some breaks along the way.
However! Both walks are circular; the start/end point of each is separated by a mere mile or so of the Severn Way through the centre of town - so I added the two together, added in a two mile there-and-back detour along the canal towpath, and walked 20.81 miles in about eight hours. I say 'about' because Runkeeper, the GPS tracking app I use, decided to throw a hissy fit after about 17 miles and cut out on me, leaving about a mile unaccounted for. This is the second time it has done something like this to me in three months; hopefully it continues at no more than that rate.
It turns out that most of what slows me down is navigation and getting lost - with well-written instructions for one of the routes and my memory of last time for the other, I stormed along. I know that 2.6mph doesn't sound like storming, but the Naismith rule says this route should have taken the best part of 9 hours.
It was mostly very pleasant, with the exception of the places I remembered from yesterday as being distinctly bog-like (and even the route description agreed with me!), until I hit about 18 miles when I stopped to talk to someone and in the space of a three-minute conversation suddenly became very, very aware that my feet were killing me.
It has finally happened. I have blisters. They are not joking around - walking around the house I keep on trying to wipe small stones off the bottom of my feet which aren't there because that is what walking on these blisters feels like. They are ominous-looking things, lurking deep under the hardened skin on my heels and the ball of my left foot. This has happened to other people before while walking Land's End to John O'Groats. I am not enjoying it.
However, I have seen the Ominous White Patches on the soles of my feet before, and I seem to remember it all being fine the next day, so here's hoping!
Boot cost per mile: £0.85
Distance walked today: 20.81 miles, probably
Time by Naismith: 8h56
Actual time: about eight hours? Honestly, who knows. I left at nine and was back before half five and had some breaks along the way.
You'll be fine so long as the feet don't feel as though they are burning with every step!
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