How Is It Wednesday Already?

For the first time in far too long (4 weeks at least) we went for a walk on Sunday. Nothing spectacular; in the interests of saving the environment and time, we set out on foot from the house, passing through the village before arriving at the canal.

In all of our pre-K2B outings that involved the canal (of which there were many), we headed south. So it was something of a departure, upon reaching the cut, to head north.

The last time we did that was some five years ago when we first moved here, on which occasion we forgot the map and didn’t notice its absence until we came to leave the canal and set off across country. On that day we found ourselves foundering on rights of way in between gravel pits. Every which way we went, we got cut off within half a mile of where we wanted to be by working pits. We ended up retracing our steps and having a day that was over twice as long as intended.

This outing was somewhat more successful in that we remembered the map, managed to leave the canal at the right place and except for a bit of navigational uncertainty when crossing fields that bore very little resemblance to the boundaries shown on the map, managed to pass successfully through a couple of local hamlets before heading back onto paths with which we were familiar.

Unusually given the weather so far this year, the day was fine and at times verging on warm (and once again I was fooled by the warm weather and surprised by the amount of mud on the ground; will I ever learn that torrential rain for 3 months = mud – even on a sunny day).

Walking back across the estate that lies behind our house (that being estate in the ‘landed gentry’ sense, rather than ‘housing’) the views were impressive under the clear sky. All was well in the world.

I’ve often thought of running this route, but have been put off by the slopey bits (I have a bit of a psychological issue with running on any terrain that isn’t flat or downhill), so on the most significant hill across the estate I decided to see whether I could run up it.

Surprisingly, I could (even if I was gasping by the top). Maybe sometime soon, I’ll go and run (plod?) the whole circuit.

It was nice to get out and stretch the legs, but my goodness how quickly walking fitness is lost. Despite regularly running in the weeks since I’ve last walked, my legs were definitely feeling the efforts of the walking. A short jogette on Monday soon sorted them out.