Three day walking practice - day one

With a poorly foot I thought I'd better lay off the walking for a while so the last ten days have been very sedentry. My last long walk was a complete circuit of Rutland Water, which is either 14 or 17 miles, depending on who you ask.

I've had lots of advice about the difference between walking a long distance as a one-off, with a whole week to recover, and walking day in, day out. So back in December I booked three days holiday beginning today. Though there's some uncertainty about my fitness a check of my diary at the start of this week confirmed that if it didn't happen now there is very little opportunity to squeeze it in.

After meeting with the Diocesan church heating advisor and our churchwarden Paul this morning, I set off with a full pack (total 11kg, including the clothes I'm wearing). I've taken virtually everything that I'll be carrying on the big trip, in order to make it as realistic a rehearsal as possible. Thankfully, it all fitted in quite nicely too.

I deliberately decided to make the pace very gentle, stopping for a proper five minute rest every 30 to 40 minutes and massaging the muscles that felt tightest. This really seems to have made a difference and I'm pretty sure that most of the damage I did to myself at Rutland Water was due to the relentless pace. This is a lesson learned and confirmation that practising has been essential.

My left foot has held up really well and I've made it to the Old Black Horse in Houghton in one piece.

I've polished off a slightly underdone lamb burger and chips but will wait a while before hitting the road again. The wait is made harder by the fact that it's the second day of Lent and I've given up alcohol. A pint of Everards would be pretty good but I'm sticking to black coffee.

Update: got back home in reasonable nick at 3.45pm. Very grateful that prayers for a less painful walk appear to have been answered.

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(sent from mobile)