by Gordie12 » Sat May 08, 2021 3:28 pm
Date walked: 08/05/2021
Time taken: 5.7 hours
Distance: 31.6 km
Ascent: 557m
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The plan was to get up at 4:20am when the alarm went off but our cat decided he fancied breakfast half an hour earlier and having tried to ignore him as he cried at me a foot from my face I eventually gave up and fed him. No point in going back to bed for half an hour so just got ready and left the house around 4:30am meaning I started walking at 5:30am.
A different day today, overcast, windy and rain due PM. The only consistent thing about the weayjer this morning is that it remains very cold for early May and it feels more like mid February.
I'm trying not to check my times at the moment as compared to 2017 it doesn't look good but I did reach Mill Dam in 34:59 which is the first time I've gone under 35 minutes since lockdown ended (by a hole second).
It was fairly cold early on and that was with the shelter of the woods, once I was on to open moorland it was freezing (gloves would normally be discarded in March - they were on all day today). It went from freezing to whatever is colder than freezing at Loch Ordie with the wind coming over the open water and hitting me full on.
I was toying with wimping out and shaving a couple of miles off today's walk but in the end I just kept going to my usual turning point but there was to be no stop at Lochan OM on the way back and I eat my rolls on the go rather than stopping as I couldn't seem to find any shelter.
The tracks were a bit wetter today with more surface water and mud now that the dry spell has finally broken.
Back at the car my walking time was 05:37 which is 6 minutes slower than my post lockdown best time but some of this can be put down to the weather and underfoot conditions.
My Keen approach shoes look like they are heading for shoe heaven as the left shoe has ripped open at the front. They were pretty cheap and they have been worn to death over the last 12 months so I've had my money's worth out of them.
The weekly weigh in took place at home after today's walk, I've lost 2lbs this weeks and 15lbs in the last 4 weeks so that's my lockdown lazy fat gone, now I just need to improve my fitness but that will take a while as having shed the weight, my pace hasn't improved (yet).
