Motive
I have always been interested of living and doing things as independently of others as possible. There’s something fascinating about trying to survive as independently as possible – a trait which is probably driven by our a western culture I’m living in. Here independence and individuality is something I have been taught unconsciously since I have been a kid.
I’m also interested of using things to other purposes they are designed for. By using a service or a thing in a innovative way, makes life more interesting and makes me feel more free.
Making a long trip by feet, in an urban environment, hits these two objectives. Urban/suburban environments are not designed to be travelled by feet by long distances. In cities, you can do that, and they have been designed to be walkable, at least for short distances, but between cities that’s not the case. You are supposed to use a some kind of transportation device, be it a car, plane, train or a boat. This is using your environments infrastructure to something else that it was designed for.
Objective
To make the objective impossible, the objective is:
Walk about 200 km (~ 125 miles) during three days in a urban environment.
I did choose 200 km, as it’s a convenient distance between two cities I’m planning to travel. Three days timeframe is based on previous experience, when I did walk in the summer of 2020 about 80 km (~ 50 miles) during two days, but then had to quit, as my feet did not handle the stress. Walking 200 km in 3 days does sound impossible at the moment of writing this objective down.
Planning
For planning, there’s five different key areas to consider:
- Training
- Route
- Equipment
- Nutrition
- Safety and quit conditions
Let’s break down all the areas one by one. In my calculations I’ll use length of 240 km for the total length of the walk, to compensate all kinds of problems and inaccuracies in my plan, which does mean about 80 km of walking per day divided equally for three days.
Training planning
To prevent injuries and make the impossible possible, I have to train my endurance for the walk. I still do have small problems in my feet from the last time, even there has been almost six months when I first tried to walk for a long distance in an urban environment.
Training contains:
- Walking long distances
- Practicing with equipment
Walking long distances
Walking and running training logbook (updated regularly during the training). To have a chance to walk 80 km / day, I’d have to have pace of minimum 9 minutes/km, taking 12 hours to for 80 km. However, walking 12 hours three days in a row is really difficult, so speed of 8 minutes/km would be more realistic.
| Date | Distance | Time | Speed | Load (kg) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25th of March 2021 | 4,22 km (~2,6 miles) | 24:20 | Running (5:46min/km) | 0 | |
| 27th of March 2021 | 4,59 km (~2,9 miles) | 27:38 | Running (6:01min/km) | 1,5 | Unconforatble, stretching feeling in the right feet, in the arch. |
| 27th of March 2021 | 3,95 km (~2,5 miles) | 1:05:58 | Walking (13:49min/km) | 0 | Little bit pain in both heels |
| 27th of March 2021 | 5,87 km | 54:30 | Walking (11:14min/km) | 12,8 | Long back side muscle slight pain in the beginning |
| 28th of March 2021 | 14,09 km | 1:49:21 | Jogging (7:46min/km) | 2,8 | Too long toenails, pain in the big toe finernails. Almost blister on right feet, in the arch. |
| 29th of March 2021 | 2,5 km | 38:28 | Walking (10:34min/km) | 2,8 | Arches of the feet felt sore. |
| 29th of March 2021 | 2,5 km | 26:30 | Walking (10:49min/km) | ~5 | Slight pain in both heels. |
| 1st of April 2021 | 5 km | 1:01:00 | Walking (12:12/km) | 0 | |
| 2nd of April 2021 | 2,08 km | 11:02 | Running (5:19/km) | 1,5 | Pain in both calf sides in the beginning |
| 2nd of April 2021 | 1,91 km | 20:07 | Walking (10:32/km) | ~ 5 | |
| 2nd of April 2021 | 17,33 km | 1:01:54 | Cycling (16,8 km/h) | N/A | Pain in the arch beginning in the right foot. Maybe this is the source of the heel pain? |
| 3rd of April 2021 | 0,90 km | 6:01 | Running (6:42/km) | 1,5 | Pain in both calf sides in the beginning |
| 3rd of April 2021 | 2,42 km | 26:57 | Walking (11:07/km) | ~ 5 | |
| 3rd of April 2021 | 2,34 km | 13:07 | Running (5:36/km) | 0 | Had to stop because of feet arch pain in the right leg |
| 3rd of April 2021 | 2,06 km | 22:24 | Walking (10:51/km) | 0 | |
| 4rd of April 2021 | 18,67 km | 1:06:06 | Cycling (16.9km/h) | N/A | |
| 8th of April 2021 | 2,25 km | 12:10 | Running (5:25 min/km) | 1,5 | Pain in both calf sides in the beginning |
| 8th of April 2021 | 2,5 km | ~30:00 | Walking (~11:00min/km) | ~ 8 | |
| 11th of April | 22,0 km | 2:42:24 | Running (7:23 min/km) | 2,5 | Pain in the beginning of the right feet arch in the beginning, maybe about 30 minutes. Little bit pain from too long toe nails. |
| 11th of April | 2,12 km | 29:14 | Walking (13:48 min/km) | 11,0 |
Practicing with equipment
Plan for practicing with equipment (updated reguralrly during the training):
| Date | Distance | Speed | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Route planning
Last time I did route planning with Maps.me, which gave me surprisingly good walking route, even with few defects. Route needs more careful planning and spots for shops visits must be planned ahead of time, as well as sleeping spots do need to be known beforehand.
Equipment planning
Last time the main issue with my equipment was the weight. I don’t need to get every gram or ounce to be cut off, but I had way too much weight on me last time.
Listed below is the gear which I used on the first trip marked as Revision 1 (I can’t remember all the things which I had, but most of them are there). For the next trip, I’ll be using Revision 2 equipment.
These lists purpose is to get general idea, how much my gear does weight and what items do weight the most. In that way, I can review the equipment and change them to the Revision 2 equipment. I expect most of the equipment to be the same in the end.
| Revision 1 equipment | Brand and model | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeping bag | Halti Helium 30M | 1,4 kg (~3,1 pounds) |
| Hammock | Amazonas Moskito-Traveller | 0,45 kg (~1 pound) |
| Sleeping pad | Husky Frosty Lite 2,5 | 0,78 kg (~ 1,7 pounds) |
| Backbag | Osprey Kestrel 38 | 1,5kg (~3,3 pounds) |
| Revision 2 equipment | Brand and model | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeping bag | Halti Helium 30M | 1,4 kg (~3,1 pounds) |
| Hammock | Amazonas Moskito-Traveller | 0,45 kg (~1 pound) |
| Sleeping pad | Husky Frosty Lite 2,5 | 0,78 kg (~ 1,7 pounds) |
| Backbag | Osprey Kestrel 38 | 1,5kg (~3,3 pounds) |
Nutrition
To get enough energy and needed nutrients, some planning is needed. Also, this significantly affects to the weight, so nutrition has to be carefully planned.
Safety and quit conditions
To make the test safe, safety needs to be thought beforehand and prepare beforehand to situations.
Quit conditions are conditions which are decided beforehand, and if they become true during the test, I will quit. Choosing the conditions beforehand helps to fight poor judgement at the moment, when there could be low energy and high stress making thinking clearly difficult.