conditioning begins

From 7:20AM to 9:20AM, I did my first 2-hour walk since coming back from Korea. I had asked my parents to wake me up when they normally wake up (about 6:20AM, as it turns out), a request I made for a couple reasons. First, I need to be ready to wake up early during the walk itself: arriving at each religious destination in time for a shower, a change of clothes, a discussion, a (possible) dinner, a pow-wow about the next day's route, and a decent night's sleep is rather important. Second, I need to shake off, as quickly as possible, whatever jet lag I'm experiencing. They say that it's easier on the body to go east than to go west, and I suspect that's true. While I am indeed feeling a bit of the lag, it's not nearly as bad as when I go back to Korea. I've been home almost two days and feel I'm adjusting well.

Luckily, my dad has Google Earth on his computer, so I was able to use the "ruler" function and calculate the distance I walked today to see whether I'm setting a reasonable pace. My assumption before today's walk was that a decent 3mph clip, unencumbered, wouldn't be bad. With up to 70 pounds (31.8kg), I'd expect my speed to drop to a more modest 2.5mph. Throughout this month I'll be both lengthening the distance I walk and adding encumbrance so that, when I start the walk in Coquitlam, my shoulders and back won't receive a sudden surprise. I don't plan to hit the ground running, but I do hope I can manage to hit the ground walking.

As it turns out, today's walk was 3.3 miles in a single direction; the round trip took me 2 hours and 3 minutes, which puts me at a little under 3.3 miles per hour. When I used to walk up Namsan in Seoul, my speed was closer to 3mph, for obvious reasons: the walk up the mountain was all uphill, and the walk back down the mountain was done by a tired Kevin. Still, I was happy with today's results, and with the fact that, despite months of not having walked a significant distance, it wasn't hard to get back into the groove.

I regretted not bringing my camera along for today's walk; it's a gorgeous day. I'll try to remember to bring the digicam along tomorrow, but first I need to buy a new battery charger: the one I brought from Korea is for 220V plugs and doesn't fit American sockets. Come to think of it, new batteries would also be nice...


_