Solid training

We've had some good solid walks this week.  Now 2.5 weeks into our four week stop at Sao Paulo, Brazil, our bodies are feeling quite good thanks to reduced heavy days of cycling.  Perfect for allowing us to take on some tougher walks.


First, we walked 50km last Sunday at Park Ibirapuera.  This urban park has a walking and cycling track around it in immaculate condition.  The whole road width for these activities is about 10 metres, and divided about half each for cycling and foot bases activities.


There must have literally been 10,000 people in the park when we were there on Sunday.  Volumes fluctuated a bit, but at its height there must have been 10 people in every 2 metres of track.  With the entry and exit parts of the path and other central activities like football and basketball, the maths starts to quickly add to that tally.


We held a strong and consistent pace for the 50km.  Our GPS watches suggested 7:40 per kilometer, but it's always hard to be sure that's correct on a course that doesn't have a known, properly measured distance.  Funny, but today we went to a 400m athletics track, hoping to turn some laps so we could get a feel for a "real" pace.  Alas, we weren't allowed onto the track and were turned away.


Anyway, the walk last Sunday was good.  Both Shaz and I have bought new sneakers here which are hopefully for the continental centurion in 5 weeks, and then also the Parish walk.  My feet were good, and though I had what feels like a very deep pressure blister forming under the ball of my right foot, it was never bad and any discomfit has already completely gone away.  It's Wednesday now, so that's three days.


Sharon developed quite a large but shallow blister on the inside of her right heel.  Heel blisters have been fairly normal for us in centurion and other long, sustained effort walks.  She still thinks the new shoes are good, but will tape the problematic area when using these shoes for future long walks.


After a couple of easy days, we today headed back to Ibirapuera park for a shorter, but harder walk in the opposite direction.  10km at 7:13pace for me, and everything felt good.  I'm just not currently used to walking at that pace and really need to do more of it in the next couple of months if possible.  That gets a bit difficult in constantly changing places, and needing foremost to continue cycling our heavy tandem around the world.  But we'll do what we can!


Sharon's feet were good today.  She put tape over her blistered heel, and felt no significant discomfit during the faster-paced walk.  Good.


We're still in Sao Paulo for 10 more nights.  But we do plan to walk a final 30km session at solid-enough pace next week.  Plus, we'll usually walk a minimum of 5km every day.  Hopefully that also goes well.


Around the walking, we have done some more cycing and general sight-seeing.  Nothing significant though, preferring right now to focus on rest and relaxation.  Just moving day to day on the bike (when we are), is thrilling enough.  These rest periods are great for us.


A reminder, that to follow more of our story, mostly unrelated to walking, head to Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustinS007/














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