second walk to Hanam

Not many pics to show this time around. The walk to Hanam during our "temporary" day off (Tuesday; another day off is coming this Thursday, then a third day off on October 9) started in the afternoon and went into the evening. I think it was, overall, a somewhat faster walk.

Let's start by recalling the 25K walk this past Sunday: 3.5 kph.

The Tuesday walk to Hanam went from 2:25 p.m. to 8:48 p.m. with about 15 minutes spent either sitting down and resting or in the bathroom for a quick piss. I stopped only twice this time, which is an improvement over stopping five times. 2:25 to 8:48 is 6 hours and 23 minutes. Subtract 15 minutes for the stops, and that's 6 hours and 8 minutes, or 6.13 hours. It was 25K again, so my rate was 4.07 kph, a marked improvement over 3.5 kph on Sunday. And the total time of 6:21:00 was an improvement over 7:50:00 last time, too. It didn't hurt that the day was cool and cloudy, with the rains having stopped by the time I was hitting the trail. Temps started out at around 20ºC (68ºF); they got down to around 16ºC (61ºF), which is getting close to jacket weather when I'm not moving around and heating myself up.

There were way too many people out, but that's the price you pay when you live in Seoul, walk on a holiday, and choose a very popular route. But the pedestrians and bikers began to peter out as I reached Hanam's border, and the hour got later. It was dark by the time I finished and hopped on the 9303-1 bus.  I noticed, too, that my feet were hurting more; I still need to check, but I may have gotten a blister under my right big toe. Leukotape to the rescue.

The three pics below are all I took: two during the walk and one after, showing off my "bandanna head."

The sun sets.

About 8.8K to go.

Pardon the red eye.

It's October now, and summer's grip is slipping. If it's getting this cool during the day, I'll soon be able to switch entirely to daytime walking—something I need to do to get used to the hours I'll be keeping while on the trail.

I might rest on Wednesday, do a short walk on Thursday, train out to Hanam on Friday, stay there overnight, then do Hanam to Yangpyeong on Saturday and Yangpyeong to Yeoju on Sunday, just to see what two days in a row of long walking will do to my feet. Since I weigh a bit less, I'm hoping the damage won't be severe. Any problems right now likely have to do with my feet's being a bit deconditioned. Luckily, this time around, I'm not dealing with any diabetic ulcers or other such nonsense, so I have high hopes that my feet will be ready for a long journey. The week of October 7-11 will see more training walks, and I might do a single long walk over the weekend of October 12-13, but I might also just rest my feet. By October 9, though, I ought to have a pretty good idea of whether I can go on a long walk this year (I'm leaning more and more toward yes); we'll know more in about a week.