Pushing On!

Yesterday's plan was to walk 17 miles. But somewhere around mile 14 I got the idea that I should do more and ended up wrapping up the day with 19.

Waking along Rock Creek Parkway

There's something about having to cross one of the bridges into DC that makes the walk mentally more challenging, especially at the end, so I decided to eliminate them from the route altogether this week.

I drove in to the city and parked in East Potomac Park and then headed down around Hains Point, along the Tidal Basin and into Rock Creek Park. I've driven Rock Creek Parkway countless times, but had never been through on foot before. It's a really cool space, and I'm sure the trails that aren't along the busy roadway are even nicer. When I exited the park, along the VERY steep hill onto Calvert Street by Woodley Park I was 7 miles in to my route.

The Ecuadorian Embassy at my
half way point... well, what I
thought was my halfway point.

I stayed along Calvert into Adam's Morgan and then over to Meridian Hill Park. This was another area of the city I hadn't spent time in before and it was nice to walk through. There were hundreds of people doing a work out class in Meridian Hill Park which was also cool to see. From there I headed east on W to 14th Street and then down into Logan Circle, where I shifted to Rhode Island Avenue and walked through Shaw, another DC neighborhood that is new to me. Once I reached 7th I headed south, back to Massachusetts and onto a route pretty similar to last week's.

I went a few blocks further into Capitol Hill this time, and ended up walking past Eastern Market where I did a bit of browsing and came up with a few ideas for holiday presents as I walked by the artisans set up there. Yay for multitasking!

I stopped in the Capitol Hill Starbucks for a snack and to refill my water and ended up taking a decent break and reading a chapter of a book on my phone. Once I snapped out of reading mode and realized I needed to keep moving was when the idea of making the walk even longer came to me.

Last year I followed a 16 week training plan and that had two weeks between the two longest (20 & 22 miles) walks. The 12 week training plan doesn't do that, and has me walking 20 miles next week and 22 the weekend after. I decided if I could push on and do 19 or 20 this week then I could make next week a short walk and give myself a bit of a break. The idea of skipping a crazy long walk next weekend was incredibly appealing, so I did some quick rerouting and decided I could do 19 miles.

Walking by Jefferson during the last LONG mile

Back down Pennsylvania, past the White House and down 17th to Constitution and then on to my bestie Lincoln who I seem to walk by on a very regular basis these days. From there it was just over a mile back along the Tidal Basin to my car.

And yet again, the last mile was ROUGH. I really do think it's completely mental. I'm moving along at a decent pace, with sore feet but not terribly so and then I realize I only have a mile to go and my feet hurt SO much. And my pace slows down. And it's hard. Really hard.

But then I'm done! And back to my air conditioned car where I can sit and not walk.

Once I got home I rested for a few hours, but then actually made it back out later in the evening to visit some friends at their house and then get some errands done at Target. I was happily amazed that I was mobile and not really in pain last night!

Today's plan called for 9 miles, but improptu free Redskins/Cowboys tickets called for a revision! I got up this morning and did a short, 2ish mile walk just to make sure I really could keep walking. My FitBit unfortunately was left behind so I didn't capture how much walking I did today at the game but between the parking lot and the long hike to the upper level I definitely feel like I got a good bit of walking. And again, I feel good. Not even sore!

I am definitely so much more confident about this event now. And I'm really happy it's 2 weeks before I had to attempt another super long training walk!