by Gordie12 » Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:25 am
Date walked: 18/08/2016
Time taken: 3 hours
Distance: 18.7 km
Ascent: 260m
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Having been off the hills for 3 weeks after injuring my back this was a very gentle comeback after work on Thursday night.
The weather was warm and on the higher ground there was a good breeze blowing.
On the early fairly gentle climbs I could feel my back tightening but this eased off after a couple of miles and I felt fine. I was setting a good pace but after 3 weeks away I was finding the pace hard going and there was a lot of sweating and effort to maintain the pace. I reached the bridge at the far end of Loch Ordie in 1hr 31 mins with an average pace of 3.9 which is pretty decent for me (I'm normally 1:32 to 1:34 to this point as part of a 16 mile circular I do a lot in the winter).
I had a few minutes break at the bridge as it was such a nice night then stuck the headphones on for some music on the way back to the car.
The route back is mostly downhill but I didn't feel my pace was as good and I also had a small blister developing late on (used a pair of approach shoes I hadn't worn for a year as they gave me a blister last time out) so I was surprised when I got back to the car to see that I had got my average walking pace up to 3.9 and my walking time was 2hrs 58mins. I don't normally cover this shorter distance very often so I don't have much to compare in terms of past times but for 11.7 miles I was happy with this even although I had to work really hard to cover the ground at this pace.
Beautiful night, should take advantage of my early Thursday finishes more often before it's too late.
