Thoughts on long walks

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Bike 16 miles, run 5½ miles

I'm actually not feeling too bad today—yeah, okay, sore, but not ridiculously so. The first few steps after sitting at my desk for a long time are kind of comical, but after sufficient warm-up, I can walk like a human being. (And run 5½ miles!)

I am a little worried about my feet, though. They're not that much worse off than they were before the latest death march, but the left one especially never fully healed from plantar fasciitis, and I think these long walks are brutal on it. I was planning to do two more death marches before my race, but now I'm worried that that might be too much for them to heal up from.

One thing I decided (yesterday, in my fog of pain) is that six hours is long enough. Not just for my sanity but for my body, too. After all, I'm only planning to be out on the run course for 6½ hours! Next time I'll keep the walk to six hours again but try to increase the distance covered by jogging a bit, maybe two minutes out of every ten or something like that.

Oh, and I made another decision, too. I'm going to make the next long walk a bit less of an "adventure" and instead do loops centered around my house. Billings people will appreciate this: My 20-mile walk was from my house, up Zimmerman Trail (harrowing), and ALL the way along the Rims to just overlooking Main Street. And back. Scenic, yes. Safe, relaxing, and dotted with bathrooms, not so much.