dogs vs poles

Life caught up with me today and I begged off my usual routine with a migraine that threatened all day. In the end I spent the afternoon napping it away and a couple of hours either side of that digging and planting in my heinously neglected garden.

On one of my walks this week Neka & I were distracted by the sound of half a horse clip clopping somewhere behind us. I was pretty sure it wasn't actually half a horse, but that's what it sounded like. Eventually we were overtaken by a woman walking along at a very fast past with two walking poles - hence the clipping and clopping. The woman had a good 10 years on me - maybe more - but she looked great. And she motored past us and left us eating her dust.

Now I consider myself a fairly fast walker, being long of leg. I do make a point of trying to maintain a steady pace that I think I could sustain over a long distance. I admit, however, that I occasionally find myself dawdling a bit at about 3 or 3.5 miles into the longer routes. At that point I've done all the climbing and I'm up on the ridge with wonderful views down the fields into the village where I live and then up again to the moors beyond. There is no traffic, seldom any other people, and I get distracted by the lambs in the field next to me, the woodpecker hammering away in the tree over my head, and the buzzard circling over the field on the other side of me, hunting for mice.

And, of course, I'm often trying to control an excited Finnish Lapphund or two who has just spotted a squirrel that she's sure she could catch if only she could break her lead.

But considering this woman who easily covers twice the distance I do in the same time has led me to the conclusion that my daily excursions are currently conducted at about half the pace they could be. In one of my books I read that the "average walker" (whatever that means) does 5 miles in 2 hours. That's approximately what I've been doing, although it should be noted that all but the shortest of my walks involve some pretty fierce hills.

Perhaps my speed will improve with time as I get fitter. Perhaps I need some poles. I can just imagine trying to manage poles and dogs.