This weekend’s hike has a success element that may be surprising to be an element of success: I stopped earlier than planned! I was going for 55km but after 41km I had enough and I took the bus back home.
I did not quit because I was injured, beyond exhaustion or because I could not make it before dark. I had fun, and I wanted to stop while it was still fun. Going for another two and a half hours would exhaust me, I anticipated, so hiked to the bus stop and started my travel back home and to my bed.
The morning after it proved to be a wise decision. The night before the hike I could hardly sleep, but had to get out of bed early and I spend the whole day outdoors. All of this made me so tired that I slept over ten hours straight. I did not wake up once, as far as I know, so my cats may have been sweet and quiet or I was sleep deprived. Also, getting out of bed was hard as my muscles were sore and did not wanted to go to work, they wanted me to stay in bed (they did, not me).
Maybe I could have finished my 55km yesterday, I did a distance like that before and I took longer breaks this time, but I am glad I did not. I was tired, my feet were hurting and I really did not wanted to overdo it like the last time I hit 55km. In earlier blogs I wrote that I somehow never even thinking about quitting before I reached my goal, despite it leads to terrible hikes with pain and possible injuries as a result. Therefore, because I finally did quit halfway, I call it a new success!
In addition, apparently I set a new speed record for my hiking. I hiked 41km with less than 10 minutes per kilometers, or over 6km/hr. I doubt whether it is correct though. First few kilometers were fine, I had quite a nice pace but when the sun started to burn, I felt like a turtle, almost unable to overtake older dayhikers. This hardly ever happens and I already thought about a blog stating I am a reversed cold blooded animal, having the sun sucking out the energy instead of energizing me. Maybe I was faster than I thought, or my tracking app is of no good.
Anyway, I had a good hike with a lot of diversity, and I am looking forward to the next one.
Hike on!
Distance: 41/706/1500 (this hikes distance/total so far/goal to reach)
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