The Shift in Perspective

At some point during the months of training for previous 3-Days, I've always reached a weekend when my perspective shifts. I lose all sense of reason when it comes to what constitutes a "short" walk versus what constitutes a "long" walk. This is the weekend the shift in perspective happened for the 2011 training season.

I knew that after last weekend's walks, 21.6 miles on Saturday and an until now unreported one mile on Sunday, I wanted to split my Saturday and Sunday mileage this weekend more evenly between the two days. Although I hadn't settled upon a total mileage for the weekend, I think I was hoping for something close to 30 miles.

I just didn't get there, and I feel guilty. Instead, with a 12.5 mile walk on Saturday and an 8.8 mile walk today, I hit "only" 21.3 miles this weekend, or 1.3 miles less than I walked last weekend.

This is a perfectly respectable distance for a weekend, definitely nothing to sneeze at. What is my problem? The shift in perspective is my problem. It's moved into my head for the 2011 training season, and I do believe it's here to stay!

On the plus side, both walks really did feel short, and with the exception of one new blister, I was none the worse for wear when I was done with the miles. I didn't take any pictures on Sunday, as my route was very similar to Saturday's walk, which you can see pictures of below. Enjoy!

For the first time in weeks, yesterday was a sunny Saturday, which was lovely. Once again, I saw many pretty flowers along my route.

Others also took advantage of the gorgeous day to walk; I passed by this neighborhood walk event sign a few miles into my Saturday journey, then continued on my way.

Just across the bike trail from where I passed the September 11 memorial last Saturday, I stopped to spend some time at this memorial which honors war veterans, just across the Falls Church border from Arlington.

I continued my walk westward, crossing from Falls Church into Fairfax County.

I didn't see any horses on my walk, but if I had, I would have yielded.

I walked back through Falls Church into Arlington, and I had two great surprises: some pretty clovers hidden along the trail, and even better, I ran into my friend, Patrick, along the trail!

Yesterday, rather than having a french fry/salad lunch, I enjoyed a homemade post-walk lunch of pancetta pasta and salad.

And while, as I said above, I didn't take any pictures of today's walk, I did capture a picture of my latest post-walk baking adventure: cappuccino cupcakes with mocha buttercream frosting. Yum!