Playing Catch Up

The training schedule had an 8 mile walk set for today but I had to make up a walk from earlier in the week so thought I'd combine them and do 13. I was skeptical about my Garmin performing as it should so I asked Spen to reset the foot pod and after much reassurance it was fixed (and an impromptu rearrange of H's bedroom furniture), I set off.

I checked on the foot pod about a mile in and found that according to my watch I had only done .4 miles. ARGH! I was really ticked off, the day was gorgeous and I was set to do the miles but had no idea of my route without the distance approximations from my pedometer. I phoned up Spen to see if he could see a decent turning point on WalkJogRun but he wasn't familiar with the software.

I found myself in a bit of a conundrum wondering if I should just do a familiar 8 mile route or try to estimate how long 13 miles would take. I told myself that, at worst, the distance could be covered in 4 mph taking 3 hours and 15 minutes. As that was the case, I thought it best to just head out for 1 hour and 36.30 minutes and loop back on myself.

The walk itself was great, the sun was overhead and everyone on the path seemed to be training for the London Marathon or the MoonWalk. It was really a great atmosphere. The beaches were covered in groups and families sharing ice creams and fish and chips and the pub fronts were full of people toasting the warmth with a cool drink. It was a cheerful scene on the way out, but I was pining for those pints, chips and flakes on my return trip.

My walk took me all the way to the end of Folkestone Harbour and back again. The Harbour area has definitely changed since my last visit and I was really impressed. In fact, I thought about calling Spen to see if he wanted to bring the girls down and have lunch but knew he would say no as I would be copping out on the mileage. Its a good thing that I carried on tho as I ran into a fellow MoonWalker, Diane, and her sister on the return trip and stopped for a quick catch up. Diane told me that she saw Sam not much further ahead and it spurred me on to try and catch her- many thanks for the much needed motivation!! I never did see Sam but I did the return trip just over a minute faster than the trip out.

After I got in and did some stretching, I checked my distance on WalkJogRun and was shocked to find that it wasn't 13 miles at all, but instead 15!!! No wonder I felt nauseous and wobbly when I stopped. In fact, I wobbled back from the trail head like a drunkard, relatively weak on my feet.

I feel great now, conquering over half of the distance with a consistent pace and in a decent time.

Thank goodness tomorrow is a day off!

15 miles - 27,204 steps - 3.13.51