Week 4 distance walk 4 hours – 11 miles
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic”. Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
29 Jan
I decided on the same route as last week, but this time with just #dogbeast and me. My reasoning was that I knew the route and knew what to expect, so I could beat the mental challenge head on, having completed this only 7 days previously.
For whatever reason on Saturday morning I woke up tired, it would have been the easiest thing in the world to put this week off. I have built a couple of weeks buffer into the plan in the anticipation of something unexpected. But, this wasn’t unexpected, this was waking up a bit weary. I slept well on the Friday night, so this had all of the hallmarks of a potential mental crash about it.
I read somewhere that when you are out of motivation, the process to follow is Action, Inspiration, Motivation. Act first, do whatever, from that come flashes of inspiration, shortly followed by motivation.
I made my packed lunch. Got together a flask of coffee, packed a couple of bits of fruit and made myself breakfast. I packed the day bag, got the dogs coat on and before I realised, I was heading out of the door.
Knowing our way, meant that we were at the first hill, warmed up and raring to go. The walk was sublime, it was cool, but not freezing and although it threatened to, it didn’t rain once. Almost easy to forget that we are at the end of January and not late March.
#dogbeast and I got to TBH at the hour mark, and pushed hard to get to the top with as few stops as possible to catch my breath. Four. I made it to the top of TBH stopping only four times. Progress!
We stopped at the fallen branch as we had done the previous week for a sandwich and coffee and actually, I felt in really good shape.
After a about 10 minutes, a coffee and half a round of ham and cheese on wholegrain, we set off again. The going was a little harder than I remembered from the week before. I think because I had so enjoyed spending time with #littleDacombe, and as fun as #dogbeast is, he’s not a natural conversationalist. He did however cause a little embarrassment as we threaded our way through a large group of (I am assuming) friends and family out for a Saturday walk. There were several small kids, one of whom had a fine collection of sticks. #dogbeast sidled up to him, tail wagging, tongue lolling out of the side of his stupid ginger head and as I started to call him away, he stole the biggest stick straight from the little kids grasp and ran away with it.
Mortified, I turned to apologise but the party was in hysterics, except the kid, who was a little hysterical. Assuring me there was nothing to worry about, I found the next couple of kilometres flashed past really quite quickly.
We made really good progress up Whiteways hill and onto the Sculpture trail. Feeling tired, but knowing what lay ahead we even took the longer way home.
Tired, but very happy with the apparent progress, I celebrated with the last bottle of chocolate milk and started to make plans for next weeks 5 hour excursion. At a bit of a loss, not sure what it’s going to be yet. Will keep you posted.
“You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring. The first lesson is to make yourself that strong.” Holly Black, The Wicked King
