speed over shorter distance: much improved

My walking route to the Tan/Han confluence can be broken down into three parts: (1) from my place to the east end of the bridge I cross when doing my "U-turn" to go back; (2) 130 meters to cross the bridge; (3) from the west end of the bridge back to my place. That comes out to 4.8 + .13 + 4.7 kilometers, or 9.63 km. I started the walk at 10:49 p.m., and I was back at my place's front door (where I'd started timing) at 12:59 a.m., i.e., it had taken me 2 hours and 10 minutes to go 9.63 km. 2 hours and 10 minutes = 2.167 hours, and since distance = rate • time, 9.63 = rate • 2.167. Solve for the rate.

Rate is therefore 4.44 kph—a huge improvement over Sunday's shamefully sluggish walk. Of course, 9.63K is much shorter than 25K, so there's an apples-to-oranges dynamic at work here: I tend to slow down over long distances. But the much faster speed is still heartening. I hope the improvement shows during the walk to Hanam tomorrow. Maybe it really is just a matter of getting out there and allowing my body to remember what it only recently had been capable of (I was doing 1.5 staircases this past February! Jesus!).

I look forward to reporting my time after the Tuesday walk. We're all off for a "temporary" national holiday: Armed Forces Day (normally just a flag-raising day). We're also off this coming Thursday for National Foundation Day. The mythical story of Korea's founding is kind of wild. See here for one version.