As the month is over now, I want to show you my walk from June 20 - the longest day of the year here in Berlin, Germany.
Epilog: a few years ago - 2015, 2016 - a co-worker and me are pushing each other to walk longer and longer distances. 30km, 40km, 50 km..and some day I walked (better strolled) 60km on a very long saturday until past midnight. But two weeks later my friend killed this record by walking above 66km. At this time I surrendered, but to get back this record some day was a permanent "needle in my brain".
The years went by and on January last year I thought: ok, this year I will get it back. Meanwhile owning an Apple watch I started to close my rings every day and tried walking short distances faster and faster. Went from 12"/km to under 9"/km sometimes. But this was wrong: after 4 months my right knee hurted a lot and then in may 19 a gastritis came in to finally end up my dream to walk more than 66km at beginning of the summer.
Let´s go to april this year: I have got some easy monthly challenges from my watch, but in the same time I has fallen back to some unhealthy behaviour of drinking beer nearly every evening and eating way too much sweeties. Felt fat and uncomfortable.
And then: ok..last year you have done too much..let´s try it this year. From first of may I´ve got 7 weeks for getting "fit" and preparation.
So: no beer for 7 weeks, no sweeties for 7 weeks. And I made a plan.
When: that was easy. 20.06.2020 - the longest day of the year. Walking from sunrise to sunset. 4:43 a.m. to 10:32 p.m.
Where: also easy. In Berlin there is the "Berliner Mauerweg", a path where in earlier times the Berlin wall stood. Km for km with no traffic, no traffic lights, only a few people (if the weather is not too good) and another advantage: i know every meter of this track because the last 5 years I took one week of holidays and together with the weekends before and after I have walked these 165km in 9 parts five times.
How fast: I calculated with 14 hours of walking and 2 3/4 hours of breaks. 14x5 km will be 70 km. With a speed of 5km/hour. Some of you may say this is lame but according to my age, the long distance and my weight I considered it appropriate.
The weather: i´ve made myself crazy by looking in the forecast for two weeks. At the end it was not good - the whole day clouds with some warm summer rain, nearly no sun, only 19° C but in retrospect the best weather to walk the whole day.
The early beginning: From first of june I have set my alarm from my normal 6 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. in the last days. I knew I need enough sleep for this project and learned to go to bed at 7:30 p.m. And the last two weeks I walked five or six km in the morning before work (full time office job) to get used to move so early in the day.
THE day: Getting up at 2:30, public transport to the starting point, started walking at 4:43 a.m. Reaching the goal at 10:21 p.m. 10 minutes left. Getting home with a cab for 50 €. Shower and bed.
Fazit: I´ve done it. But I didn´t fulfil the plan. Until km 55 I could more or less hold my speed. Then I went into a shop to buy some water and food. After that a big "stone" appeared in my right calf. And the whole tension went away in a millisecond. I was really tired and I was afraid of getting cramps. Luckily I was "good in time" and by minimizing the third break I strolled the last 15 km with 15 minutes per each.
Shortening the last break was a no-brainer: sitting down after such a long distance was making it worse. You get so "stiff". It is no recreation anymore. Better walking further in a slow speed.
Will I do it again? Not in the next years.
Have I stopped walking after this day? No. The next day I strolled about 12 km to get the tiredness out of my legs. And then I realized I was only nine days away of a perfect month (800cal). The first one since october 19. So I ended up today with this medal and ironically the monthly challenge was also walking (355km) which I fulfilled on this 20th of june. So..june 2020 will be the best month for a long time: getting the medals, walking altogether 480km (>700000 steps) and getting back the record. Not too bad, I think.
The screenshots:
![Der 70er-1.png]( "Der 70er-1.png")
![Der 70er-2.png]( "Der 70er-2.png")
And the satisfying video (some folks like that):
Epilog: a few years ago - 2015, 2016 - a co-worker and me are pushing each other to walk longer and longer distances. 30km, 40km, 50 km..and some day I walked (better strolled) 60km on a very long saturday until past midnight. But two weeks later my friend killed this record by walking above 66km. At this time I surrendered, but to get back this record some day was a permanent "needle in my brain".
The years went by and on January last year I thought: ok, this year I will get it back. Meanwhile owning an Apple watch I started to close my rings every day and tried walking short distances faster and faster. Went from 12"/km to under 9"/km sometimes. But this was wrong: after 4 months my right knee hurted a lot and then in may 19 a gastritis came in to finally end up my dream to walk more than 66km at beginning of the summer.
Let´s go to april this year: I have got some easy monthly challenges from my watch, but in the same time I has fallen back to some unhealthy behaviour of drinking beer nearly every evening and eating way too much sweeties. Felt fat and uncomfortable.
And then: ok..last year you have done too much..let´s try it this year. From first of may I´ve got 7 weeks for getting "fit" and preparation.
So: no beer for 7 weeks, no sweeties for 7 weeks. And I made a plan.
When: that was easy. 20.06.2020 - the longest day of the year. Walking from sunrise to sunset. 4:43 a.m. to 10:32 p.m.
Where: also easy. In Berlin there is the "Berliner Mauerweg", a path where in earlier times the Berlin wall stood. Km for km with no traffic, no traffic lights, only a few people (if the weather is not too good) and another advantage: i know every meter of this track because the last 5 years I took one week of holidays and together with the weekends before and after I have walked these 165km in 9 parts five times.
How fast: I calculated with 14 hours of walking and 2 3/4 hours of breaks. 14x5 km will be 70 km. With a speed of 5km/hour. Some of you may say this is lame but according to my age, the long distance and my weight I considered it appropriate.
The weather: i´ve made myself crazy by looking in the forecast for two weeks. At the end it was not good - the whole day clouds with some warm summer rain, nearly no sun, only 19° C but in retrospect the best weather to walk the whole day.
The early beginning: From first of june I have set my alarm from my normal 6 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. in the last days. I knew I need enough sleep for this project and learned to go to bed at 7:30 p.m. And the last two weeks I walked five or six km in the morning before work (full time office job) to get used to move so early in the day.
THE day: Getting up at 2:30, public transport to the starting point, started walking at 4:43 a.m. Reaching the goal at 10:21 p.m. 10 minutes left. Getting home with a cab for 50 €. Shower and bed.
Fazit: I´ve done it. But I didn´t fulfil the plan. Until km 55 I could more or less hold my speed. Then I went into a shop to buy some water and food. After that a big "stone" appeared in my right calf. And the whole tension went away in a millisecond. I was really tired and I was afraid of getting cramps. Luckily I was "good in time" and by minimizing the third break I strolled the last 15 km with 15 minutes per each.
Shortening the last break was a no-brainer: sitting down after such a long distance was making it worse. You get so "stiff". It is no recreation anymore. Better walking further in a slow speed.
Will I do it again? Not in the next years.
Have I stopped walking after this day? No. The next day I strolled about 12 km to get the tiredness out of my legs. And then I realized I was only nine days away of a perfect month (800cal). The first one since october 19. So I ended up today with this medal and ironically the monthly challenge was also walking (355km) which I fulfilled on this 20th of june. So..june 2020 will be the best month for a long time: getting the medals, walking altogether 480km (>700000 steps) and getting back the record. Not too bad, I think.
The screenshots:
And the satisfying video (some folks like that):
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