I had no enthusiasm for running this morning.
I promised myself that I only needed to cover the distance.
My first half-mile felt slow. The temperature was markedly cooler than any of the other days I ran.
I wasn't doing anything special. I was just running.
My time was within five seconds of the last time I ran. That is a variance of two-parts-in-a-thousand.
I find it a little bit freaky that my times are so repeatable. It doesn't FEEL like the runs are that similar. I start running. I slow down when I start feeling a bit of discomfort. I speed up when the discomfort fades away. Over and over and over again.
Step-counter
I carried the step-counter in my left, rear pants pocket. That gave me a very plausible 2060 steps per mile. My phone got demoted to the left sammich pocket on my cargo shorts.
Walk-about
I am thinking of going for a 13 mile (20km) walk this week, just to see if I still have it in me. 20km is a typical distance for a stage on the Camino de Santiago.
Wednesday is the first day that I have open. Cloudy weather with a high of 71 is predicted.
My rehydration budget is 20 ounces every hour (or three miles or 5km) so I will need a bit more than three bottles. I can only fit two bottles of Gatorade in my fanny-pack, so I will be wearing a day-pack. Four bottles will give me an ample surplus. That and a few baggies of trail-mix and it should be a walk in the park.
As motivation on your walk, I suggest walking to a restaurant or ice cream place, where Mrs. ERJ and Quicksilver can meet you. Having tasty vittles and smiling faces to meet you will speed you right along.
ReplyDeleteOf course you can have tasty vittles and smiling faces upon reaching home, but a special, out of the ordinary treat, for an endurance event, will make the walk seem more like an adventure.
DeleteIf it isn't too personal to ask - where do you 'go' when you need to 'go' ? Is the terrain friendly to pulling over to yon bush screen and relieving yourself ? I find myself drinking less before my short walks so that I avoid that. Thirteen miles - at LEAST two pit stops for me.
ReplyDeleteIf question is too personal - just ignore it.
The terrain for my runs is very friendly. I pass two houses in the last two miles of my run. I saw two vehicles on the road during today's run and they were both garbage trucks.
DeleteFor the route I intend to take for the 13 miles I plan to walk 6.5 miles out, turn around and walk back the way I came. The terrain is less accommodating but manageable. The fact that Mrs ERJ wants me to wear high visibility colors makes it a little more complicated.
Some years there is a lot of corn planted and I can step four rows in and be totally invisible to people driving on the road because they have to be looking forward and not rubbernecking. Not as much corn has been planted this year, probably due to the high price of Nitrogen fertilizer.
It helps to know the area. For example, my route is fairly heavily populated but some of the roads that intersect provide privacy a mere 50 paces down them.