15 km out and back

I was not looking forward to this walk.  The more I thought about it the more daunting it became.  15km is the longest walk I have done in almost a year.  I was worried how my hip/glute would hold up and how I would hold up. 

I woke up at 8am and checked the weather as I was going to do the 15km late in the afternoon but when I saw it was only 25degs and 50% humidity I knew that now would be the best time weather wise.  I drank a glass of Dfine 8 and really hoped that the energy boost would help. (I actually believe it did)

I topped up my water bottles and strapped on my water belt.  I figured it would be stupid to do this with out carrying water.   I started out from home.....walked down the 5 stories of stairs..ugh.  For the first 50m the pain in the back of my hip was terrible and I kind of hobble walked and really did wonder if I can complete this.  But after 100m it didnt hurt as much and did end up a dull ache for the rest of the walk. 

I discovered the I can walk from home along the walkway, the single lane road, onto another walkway, round Nobbys beach Nob and back onto a beach front walkway, right down to Burliegh Heads.  I stopped at 7.8km ..... It was under big pinetrees and was VERY humid and hot.  I would guess I had another 500m a head of me before I would run out of walk way.  I had a drink from the water fountain and turned back to head for home.  I decided to stop by one of the showers and douse myself as I was starting to over heat and struggle a little.  (I ended up stopping twice more on the way home to quickly do this) 

I was very pleased to hit stop on my watch but more surprised that my time was actually ok.  I really had no expectations time wise and had expected to walk about 7km pace for most of it.  I was really pleased to see 1:38:46 and even better was my heart rate was not through the roof (except for some odd spike on my garmin???)  so my avg heart of 149 is not bad all considering.  I guess that is the difference between a cooler day and lower humidity. 

I got home and dragged myself up the stairs.  Had a good stretching session and then went back down the stairs for a dip in the pool.  I really do feel the new supplement helped along with the better weather.  This walk felt better than my fartlek the day before.

15km out and back data