Welp. Guess I have another person to follow on Instagram? Are you on it? That's a great pace for a 20k. Which hike did you do on Sunday? I'm finding that the more you push the easier the things that you push through get. Then you do something harder. And harder. It's an addiction, I think.
I hiked a stretch of the Ice Age Trail, out and back. I actually did it in two sections. One in the morning, got lunch at a nearby cafe, and then figured I could finish that stretch. It makes me continuous through all of Dane County, Wisconsin. Part of it was on a gravel bike trail. That was so boring. There's another 20 miles of that going south, and I think I'll be running that. I can bike 8-10 miles down and then run back to my car. I totally agree that pushing oneself makes that the new norm. Last year I was running three days a week. This is my third or fourth week doing four runs. It's harder, but I feel capable. It's partly an addiction and partly feeling like I'm more like myself. All my life I was a moderately capable distance runner trapped in an under motivated guy's body.