I hiked a good 67kms on the Pieterpad this weekend, and despite my legs and feet were tired after, it was mostly a mental challenge. Not only did I suffer from a small hangover on day two, but mostly the sections were so boring! First day was not too bad, a lot of straight paths but at least they were going through the forest and being there always makes me happy. But the second day, it was mostly straight on the country side! But I definitely got an A+ on this mental challenge because I remained really happy. I was just thinking about the night before, where I was drinking wine with the owners of the B&B where I stayed and how they fill their retirement with art, enjoying the outdoors and running the B&B. Also, I was happy just by being out there hiking, and motivated by the idea of hiking 67kms in two days.
Aside from superb mental state, I also did good on the blister prevention. Though, maybe I was not and I was just really lucky in not getting another one. But it felt good and I will do it the next times as well, and when my number of experiments increases, the confidence of the outcome will hopefully increase with it. My new tactic was basically to be more gentle for my feet. When hiking, your feet swell a little bit, which makes your shoes fit a little bit tighter, exactly the reason you should buy your shoes a little bit bigger. So with this in my mind, every time I would feel a burning sensation I stopped and had a break of at least 15 minutes. If possible I took off my shoes and socks and massaged my feet. After the massage I would elevate my feet and let them and the socks dry and cool off. Before continuing the hike I put on the other pair of socks, which were totally dry. With this tactic, I cooled down my feet, reduce the swelling, and hypothetically I prevented blister formation. Also, I believe this tactic would prevent any other injuries in the feet.
Next weekend is Easter weekend and I got four days off to hike more sections on the Pieterpad. Again I will use my anti blister tactic and my happiness, I am so excited to hike on!
Distance: 67/446/15000 (this hikes distance/total so far/goal to reach)
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