Back in black

Evening all! After last week's washout I've got some better figures to report this week:

	Distance (miles)	Time (hh:mm)	Energy (kcals)
Since last post (25 Feb 2013)	30.2	08:11	5103
Since records began (27 Dec 2012)	186.1	52:56	34292

I put in 5.2 miles on the way home from work this evening to pass the psychologically important 30 mile marker for the week. Unfortunately I made it hard for myself by leaving my trainers at home this morning: five miles doesn't sound that far, but in my office shoes it felt like a marathon! If I'd had more sense I would have walked directly home, changed to my trainers and gone back out. Still, beating my previous best was worth it!

I had hoped to go further over the weekend. The weather is much milder in the city now and the snow has all but vanished, so we thought a walk in the countryside might go down well. We headed out to Konopiště: the home of Archie Duke before he shot an ostrich when he got hungry, precipitating the First World War. [I always think of Blackadder when we go there!] It's a beautiful spot for a walk, but the temperatures had stayed a bit lower, so there was still a lot of snow on the ground and much of the lake was frozen over.

Konopiště château, with frozen lake in the foreground

Some of the paved paths around the estate had been cleared, but the unpaved paths through the woodland and around the lake were icy, so it was rather tough going. We completed one circuit relatively comfortably (albeit slowly), but decided against a second lap.

Stepping up a gear

January and February have come and gone, so it's time to check progress against my plan again. I'm now over a third of the way between day zero and race day. Aside from last week, I think I've stuck fairly closely to the plan: building up regular mileage, and putting in a couple of longer walks during the month.

I'm cautiously optimistic that I can stick to my original target for March of at least one longer walk a week, and that I can start steadily building the distance of those longer walks. One idea for next weekend is to cross the city from one end of the longest metro line to the other: about 15 miles. So far, I've found that keeping variety in the longer routes has helped keep me interested and motivated.

My aim for the shorter walks during March is to inject a bit more pace. It wasn't considered in my original plan but, per the comments on a recent post, I'm also going to start building other exercises and sports into my schedule.

Thanks for reading and have a good week!

P.S. From the Parish Walk Facebook page I see that congratulations are in order to regular contributor Michael George for his win in the Ascot Hotel 20km Walk on Saturday. What a pace!