Losing a part of me

It is likely that if you were to ask Leslie right now, before she reads this entry, she would say that she pushed me to go out to walk today. She did, of course… but it was not solely her encouragement that got me out of the house. It is certainly not her fault that I pushed myself, despite setting out in the wrong shoes to begin with.

I wanted to turn back before I hit the first kilometre, my feet were in pain before the second, and I knew that my pace was terrible from the outset, with only one (the second) of eight kilometres clocking under 11m10s. Whereas yesterday I broke all sorts of records, today’s walk included some of my worst statistics in months.

• Distance: 8.0 km (9.2 km)
• Duration: 1:29:42 (1:30:55)
• Average Pace (Min/km): 11:12 (9:53)
• Best Split-Pace Kilometre: 10m55s (9m24s)
• Steps: 10.2k (11.5k)
• Calories burned: 933 (1,250)
• Elevation gain: 27.7 (26)
• Average cadence (steps per minute): 112 (126)

Of course, there are two ways to look at this abysmal performance. Yes, it was nowhere near the performance I turned in yesterday. But I turned in a performance. Despite the exhaustion, the fact that I just did not feel like going out for my walk, despite the pain from nearly the very beginning of my walk, I still walked eight kilometres. I simply wanted to crawl into bed… or sit on the balcony with a cigar. I can think of myriad activities I would have rather done than gone for a walk.

With my wife’s encouragement, with the knowledge that if I did not go, I would not be giving it my all to lose as much weight as possible by next Wednesday, with the understanding that I am trying to form a positive habit, I went. When I realized I had chosen the wrong shoes (I believe last month I walked in these, and decided their limit was 5km), I kept going… knowing that the soles of my feet would be hurting.

Not for nothing, I took yet another new route today… only this is one that I will not be revisiting. I decided to walk down Walker’s Line to North Service Road, and then east to Appleby Line. Knew when I decided on the route that the service road is adjacent the highway, and there would be noise and all. What I did not realize was that not only is there no sidewalk (on either side of the street), there is also not enough space on the road to walk safely in a lot of parts, and I had to walk on either grass (not a problem) or gravel (more of a problem). Thanks all, but the service road is not going to be a repeat route.

I need to shower, make my evening meal replacement, and light a cigar. If I thought I would sleep through the night, I might go right to sleep… but I do not want to wake up at 4:30am… especially knowing that with my feet the way they are, I could not simply go for a walk before class. I will have a nice chat with my wife, and I will be in bed at a decent hour.

If my feet are not in too much pain, tomorrow should be a Taekwondo night. Wish me luck!