flameout

Monday's attempt at a walk turned out to be a shit-show.

As you know, I didn't end up doing the final two days of the originally planned four-day walk. I had worked very late at the office on Saturday—ten hours—and Sunday ended up being a day of rest and recuperation. I went over my options, up to and including doing a 60K "crazy walk" on Monday—crazy walks are normally a winter thing for me—and eventually settled on just walking the 26K to Hanam City's Starfield department store. Sunday night, I checked the AccuWeather forecast for Monday, and everything looked clear. I also decided I'd do the walk wearing my old New Balances.

Everything went wrong. I woke up at 6 a.m. plagued by a feeling of deep laziness and inertia—very much an "I don't wanna do this walk" moment. The feeling didn't dissipate, either, when I stepped outside at 6:30 and began my trudge toward the Han River. At 6:30 a.m., the sun was out but shrouded by clouds, and the cloud cover didn't go away even after an hour or so. Somewhere around the two-hour mark, it started raining. This was a gentle, misty rain at first, but it still annoyed me because AccuWeather had said nothing about this. Maybe thirty or forty minutes after that, the skies opened up, and it started pissing down rain. I had made a command decision not to bring along my rain jacket; I began regretting that right away. With the weather being cool, and with everything I've said before about how demoralizing a cold rain can be, that "I don't wanna" voice in my head morphed into a "just give up" voice... and I listened. In part, I rationalized giving up on the walk because I didn't want to catch a cold this close to my departure date. But I knew I was essentially wimping out. I was also plagued with an irritation on the sole of my left foot. This turned out to be a full-on blood blister, as you'll see in the photo below.

Why the irritation and blister happened while I was wearing my faithful old New Balances—the same one's I'd worn last year for Jeju and Sangju-Andong—was initially a bit of a mystery to me. It shook my faith in the idea that my new Skechers were more problematic: the Skechers had been quite comfortable until they suddenly weren't, and I had fully expected to slip nicely into my New Balances with no problem at all. But now, here was clear evidence that I could get a blister after only 11K of walking while wearing my New Balances. Clearly, something was wrong.

My current hypothesis is that it's me, not the shoes, and this may apply to both the Skechers and the New balances. I hate to admit it, but I've regained weight since last year, and while my recent walks have probably helped to keep me from ratcheting back up to my pre-stroke weight of 128 kg (282 lbs.), I'm still heftier than I need to be for this walk.

I'll inevitably lose weight over the course of the long trek, but I can help that process along by fasting three days out of the week. I've chosen Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as my fasting days. On weekends, then, I can eat two days in a row. I'm also going to restrict heavy carb intake (Snickers and other bad stuff) to Saturdays, and snacking on the trail will be minimal at best—preferably some combination of nuts and beef jerky if possible. Maybe some fresh fruit from convenience stores. I won't be starving, and walking a full day without eating won't kill me (the experts I watch recommend exercising while fasting, something I've done before).

I'm going to stay off my feet this week, walking only minimally, as a way to let the blister heal up. As for the shoe situation, I'm likely to alternate between the Skechers and the New Balances more often than originally planned. Both shoes are a bit worn down in the treads; they might be in interesting shape by the time this walk is over. Whatever happens, I'm predicting this is going to be one of my most painful walks unless and until I lose a good amount of weight on the trail. On the days I fast, I'll drink some combination of water, diet soda, carb-free barley water (you have to read the labels: some barley water has carbs; other brands don't), and other carb-free drinks. 

couldn't resist photographing these danger cartoons

the newest addition to my foot problems

You can ignore the thing on my big toe. That started out as a blister, then it shriveled and the remaining blood coagulated. The thing feels hard as a rock now; I could probably cut it off with my convex nail clippers, but I've chosen not to mess with it for now.

Shocking that this sole blister formed after only 11 km. As the rain fell, I broke off from the riverside trail, went into the city, and quickly found a cab that took me back to my place. In all, Monday was a frustrating day.

On a more positive note: Monday, which was also Hangeul Day, was the day for the Seoul International Peace Marathon. I passed through a long part of the marathon's route and wondered why no one was out running, then I saw a sign saying the marathon's start time was 9 a.m., and I was seeing all these indications of a marathon much earlier in the day. As the time got closer to 9 a.m., though, I saw more and more folding tables for drinks, and plenty of staffers placed at intervals along the route to both guide the runners and regulate traffic flow since some of us bumbling pedestrians would be on the trail. The race apparently started at Gwanghwamun Square, which is why I never saw any runners by the time I chose to give up my walk. I felt bad for the runners since they'd have to endure the rain, but I gathered that the rain didn't last all day, so maybe the runners didn't have to suffer the entire time.