Miles walked today: 2.8
Total training miles to date: 31.4
Days left til I leave: 57

On Saturday, Mary, Jill and I went up to Maxwell Butte Sno-Park — and snowshoed a total of 5.5 strenuous miles. Actually, they snowshoed — I found the grainy snow easier to walk on in my hiking boots. There was about 4 feet of snow and it was beautiful. It even snowed a little while we hiked and it was a magical fairy land coming back down the mountain.

We didn’t take photos, so you’ll have to imagine it. 🙂

I’d been getting so used to increasing in mileage that I felt disappointed this morning when I didn’t reach 3 miles on the treadmill. Almost teary.

After consulting with some wonderful running friends, turns out this is not at all odd. Depending on how well I feel, what I’ve been eating, and how well I’m sleeping will affect how energized I am on my walks. Like if you put cheapo fuel in a car, you’ll get pings and bad mileage. If I weren’t such a novice walker, I might know this already, but I didn’t.

Anyway, it was a relief. And then my mom added some wisdom to the conversation by saying, “This may also be another snapshot of what the Camino will be like. There will be days when you just need to stop, rest, breathe, refresh and absorb what is happening ‘today.’ What a great reminder.

Not to mention the fact that we all have days when we’re more motivated — without even throwing exercise into the mix. I’m reading Father Dave Pivonka’s Camino book and I was ironically reading about a super slow day he had — due to a nasty virus that hit him 4 hours later.

Makes me glad I was just slumpy today and nothing worse! 🙂