Coast to coast preparation walk – longest yet
Up early and felt good after yesterday’s knackering 9 mile walk. Today’s coast to coast preparation walk is a 12 miler so wasn’t sure what to expect really.
Out ot the pool as usual (when I’m in Lincoln and it’s a weekday) and did 35 mins of up and down water pushing. Not many in and so had the lane to myself for a while. Then a girl/woman got in and started putting me to shame. She did at least two lengths to my one. I didn’t mind. There were only two of us in the lane and we didn’t get in each other’s way. Makes a change from some of the larger ladies who get in towards the end of the lane swimming just to “warm up” for the over fifties session after 9am. Most of them are faster than me but hey…
Stopped off at the coop garage over the road to Yarborough Leisure Centre to get some bacon. A must to accompany the eggs I bought whilst out on yesterday’s walk.
After a leisurely cooked breakfast (tomato, 3 mushrooms, 2 slices of coop back bacon and a lincolnshire sausage from Curtis’ on the George Foreman Grill and 2 poached eggs – 400 ish calories ) I nipped out to buy a merino wool base layer from GoOutdoors. They didn’t have my size so ended up buying a Berghaus long sleeved synthetic base layer. Figured I could wait for the right size merino job. Also picked up a couple of lightweight fleeces for a tenner – can’t go wrong really – and an orange plastic survival bag. I’ve been looking for a roll up hiking mat for witting on when stopping for a rest out and about but can’t find the right product. Decided that a survival bag would do instead and funnily enough it also doubles up as a, you got it, survival bag.
Perfect weather for a walk today and didn’t use the waterproof jacket although I had it in my day bag. Instead settled for the base layer and fleece just purchased and warm lonap fleece to go over. Wasn’t massively happy with the pace of the walk but after making it to the top of south common through all the mud I picked up a second wind, abandoned any thoughts of providing an excuse for cutting short the walk and persevered.
Walked past RAF Waddington and stopped for lunch in Waddington village, sitting on a bench outside the graveyard. This was opposite a Budgeons store so nipped in to top up my water supply, also purchasing some lucozade sport and a bag of energy pills (also known as rolo chocolate sweets.
The walk back was uneventful and I was very pleased with myself for creating a new personal best of 12+ miles. It took 5 ½ hours which is too long but that may partly be attributed to hurty feet (still). I’m expecting that the more of these walks I put in the less the feet will hurt, partly because they will get used to the hammer and partly because there will be less weight on them.
Day off tomorrow due to the England Wales rugby match although I may spend some time in the gym. Tom and I will be in the Morning Star with the boys and Anne is picking up a curry on her way to pick us up after the match. Yay 🙂
Weight loss to date is 10.7Kg btw. Featured image is a rotting tree trunk seen at the top of south common on the coast to coast preparation walk. Below is map of the walk route.
pics here
vids below
Trefor.net blog post on coast to coast walk preparation.
Tags: diary