i’ll make it a goal to do this once a week after classes end.
Today: I used spring break to do the outer loop plus the spur out and back. Ok, conditions were PERFECT and I took the outer loop at a very steady, easy, unhurried pace. 14:12 at Deer Run, 40:07 at Bee Tree and 49:xx at Wilderness. No trouble at all: 58:17 which is my fastest outer loop time in close to a decade..and it was easy! Then spur 1 in 24:09 (the out part which features 2 uphills) and that was a challenge. But then I fell for it: near the summit I took the “easy, soft” way (trail is darker and easier) and ended up having to double back. So, my diversion took 36:18; realistically this added about 15 minutes of time. So I’ll call my “usual 6” a 6.5 and lesson learned. 1:58:44 . Yeah, I swore a bit on that last..in fact, it was starting to get tough on that first out spur, near the end of the one way spur.
I had thought: “wow..this is just like my McNaughton days” but, in reality, it was nothing like them. That first 3 miles fooled me into thinking I was in better shape than I really was.
And this had NOTHING in common with the initial 83 minute limp-and-pain fest from 3 years ago. Pain was basically non-existent.
In that first outer loop segment…the power up the hills was there; it was “just like old times.” Well, sort of. Weighing 20 lbs less helps. Having a stronger core helps. All of the extra PT warm up (did some toe taps) helped. And not being in pain REALLY helped.
Ok, some reality: back in 2003, my outer loop walking PR was 47 minutes; typical was 52-55. Up until 10 years ago, this would have been “on the slow side” time for me. Still…it was a good walk.
Life of an old goat 