Come off it. You just haven’t bothered changing after last night’s Altern8 gig.
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Driving to a place called Bawdrip
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Did you visit the Dwarf’s house?
Didn’t know about it til now
Not a great deal. Tidying the workshop and watching the snow come down.
View from the bedroom window, just now.
You will feel like you are in Africa when you get to lopwell
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Off to Munich first. Expecting that to be like Mumbai
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Walking.
Across the fields to Wallingford then
Down the Thames to Streatley then
Up The Holies (not a euphemism !) then
Down through the golf course then
Along the Ridgeway to, er, where the path to Woodway leaves the Ridgeway then
Via Blewbury, home
24 miles, give or take.
VB
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Graeme hi, Approx how long does 24 miles take you? I have bought OS premium and have been doing some walking. Furthest yet is 12 miles around Blenheim and back home which I have done twice. My next plan is to walk to Farmoor reservoir around it and back -That’s around 12 miles also. I usually manage 6500 steps per hour on my longer trips - I’m wondering if that is a normal pace?
Hi Andy, I don’t have a step counter I’m afraid so I don’t know my steps per hour rate. Yesterday my GPS, which claims to be able to tell when I’m walking and when I’m not, reckoned that the walking time was about 6hrs 35 mins for 23.9 miles, so an average of 3.6mph. I also had about 50 mins of lunch break, stops for water/snacks and the occasional staring at the view (landscape, wildlife, young women in Lycra …). I started with about a 7kg backpack (including 2kg of water and 0.5kg of food). The path underfoot was dry and sound the whole way (mud slows me). The first bit-more-than-half of the journey was on the Thames Valley floor, so dead flat. I covered this a bit quicker than the average. The second bit-less-than-half had a few hundred metres of climb in it which again slowed me a fair amount. I have short calf muscles (the medics now have me on exercises to try to stretch these, but that won’t happen quickly) a consequence of which is some tendonitis in my right Achilles. I also have wonky ankles as a result of a fracture years ago (left) and a sprain about 16 months ago (right). The remaining grief comes from simple impact soreness and wear and tear on the soles of both feet. The orthotic insoles in my boots have reduced this a lot. But in the end after 10-15 miles my walking speed probably becomes limited by the various pains below the knees, especially if there’s any serious uphill to do. Paracetamol and ibuprofen help with this.
I actually reckon that 10-15 miles is an ideal physical distance for a walk. It’s far enough to get all the benefits yet short enough to minimise any damage. Up to about 2 years ago that was as far as I ever walked and back then I could, under ideal conditions, cover a walk like that at an average of 3.8-3.9mph. Since I got into the long distance stuff I am actually now more damaged and I fear that at the age of 58 I may never actually recover. 3.6mph is now towards the top of my range and if the conditions have any challenges at all (significant climb, mud, a heavier pack, starting with blisters/soreness) then 3.3mph is more typical.
So much for me. If you want some idea of the range though then you could have a look at the finishing times for the Ridgeway 40 http://www.ridgeway40.org.uk/results/rw_results_2016v2.pdf. Last year’s fastest finisher I think did the 40 miles in 6hrs 21mins elapsed. He’d have been a runner of course. The slowest took 14hrs 56mins. I came in in 11hrs 53mins - 3.4mph including all the stops - carrying the worst blisters I’ve ever had over the last 12 miles (that thing where you peel your socks off and bits of your feet come off with them …).
VB
6500 steps per hour sounds reasonable to me. My Fitbit estimates my stride length to be 76cm, (I’m 182cm tall) so you can work out your distances from that, etc.
Cheers guys for the info - I have a step length of 73.9 cm set on my fit-bit - I read somewhere that was an average for a 5ft 10 male. I remember when I was a boy scout I was told that 4 mph is a normal walking pace . My most frequent local walk takes me between 75-90 minutes and is almost exactly 10000 steps and I have done it four times with my fit- bit OS maps custom route ( I have recently gone premium with OS) tells me that it is 7.84KM, so 74.8CM may be a more accurate stride for me and gives me a walking speed range of between 4 and 3.2 MPH
This number does seem to have entered the culture. But IME 4mph is fast walking, not normal. As I say, I could, once upon a time, keep nearly that rate up for 10+ miles with a light load and my feet in good condition on a paved surface. My shirt would be sweat-soaked though, even in cool weather.
VB
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Yep, 4mph walk is quite a lick.
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I’m chuffed if I keep to just over 3 mph on a 8 - 10 mile walk. It drops considerably when climbing over 2000 ft.
Just been completed the 7.84KM walk at top wack for me - 1 hr 20 mins this time was only 9579 paces.
Using this data calculates my speed as a slightly disappointing 3.65 MPH and my step length 0.818. There was a hill at the end but total accent was just 57m.
What was good was my step rate - 7184 per hour
Yes - I would be satisfied with that on a long walk
I have just double checked my height 1760 mm - 2 cm less than I thought - Claire’s comment was “I didn’t know you could loose weight from the top of your head”
Being upright causes the spine to compress. We all lose height through the day due to this (assuming we’ve bothered to get out of bed/off the sofa). I wouldn’t be surprised if brisk walking scrunches it down even further.
VB