Railways, rambling and ruminating

Yesterday, Andy and I went out on another longer training walk. Saturdays have seemed to smile on us weather-wise so far - it was a perfect day for walking, all sunny and clear. Since Diana has gone off on holiday to Scotland with the car, we needed a Bristol based walk, as public transport to the start of a hike can take aaaages, and so we decided to walk the Bristol to Bath Railway Path. This is a 15 mile tarmacked cycle track (although pedestrians are also welcome to use it).

We set off at 11 and managed to find the start of the path - the map in the leaflet I'd got was useless! I'm getting slightly better at keeping up Andy's pace, which I was pleased about. I think I managed to sustain keeping up with him for about 12 miles (even if some of that involved him getting ahead and then me jogging to catch up) before my muscles turned round and said 'no, sorry - we're not doing this anymore!' Jogging some actually helped as it uses slightly different muscles so in a way it's a break from the walking. The last 2-3 miles were done at a much slower pace - I think for the first 3 hours we were walking at over 4 miles an hour, though Andy may disagree. It averaged out as an overall speed of 3.75 miles an hour, which I wasn't too unhappy with.

On the other hand, the path is one of the easiest we've tackled yet, as it was totally flat - well, being on the former track of a railway, this isn't surprising! Still, it was good to get the chance to practice keeping pace with Monsieur Casey without having to worry about any inclines. I find it really difficult to match the length of his paces constantly, though I think we're taking the same number of steps on the whole. Apparently running will help me to extend my stride (mental note to add that to the list of reasons to go running!) It wasn't the most interesting path to walk, as lots of it is straight and in very urban areas (think many warehouses and much graffiti) but the path's planners have made an effort to make it pleasing; there are sculptures all along the route, like this 'Fish On Nose'. Don't ask me why the artist thought a fish on its nose would be good. It just exists. (Art and me = confusion!)

In other news, the thing I that have learnt from this walk is that I need to learn to eat on the move! I managed a Nutrigrain but Andy pointed out about 12 miles in that I really needed to consume more than that in order to keep going. Never in my life have I been told to eat more, so it will perhaps be something I won't mind practising on walks! For some reason I just lose my appetite whilst exercising - sitting at home I could happily consume anything you put in front of me. But doing a 100k walk I'm definitely going to have to learn to eat on the hoof without worrying I'll be sick, so best to get in training now(!)

Anyway, we finally got to the outskirts of Bath just before 3 and got the train home (amidst some grumpiness about just how much First Great Western overcharge). There was just time for Andy to observe that I was now walking like a croquet hoop/John Wayne (bah, damn you, stiff muscles) and for us both to dash home to clean up before rewarding ourselves with an evening cinema trip (I highly recommend 'In the Valley of Elah') and a cosy drink in the pub. A very good day methinks.