10/1/14: 1873.5 to 1880.9 Miles - How to get Bouncy Legs

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Virtual Hike Weather Map The animated street view didn't work for this leg, so the weather map will keep you oriented. The day's route follows route 12 in southeastern Washington. The route did not pass through any towns today.

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I'm surprised at how warm it is throughout the northern part of the country. It's the first of October and the night time temperatures are still in the 50's throughout the potential trouble spots in the north.

Yesterday, I said the muscles in the leg acted like a shock absorber for the knees represented by the scissor strut in this picture.

I thought of a way to teach the leg muscles.

First, to learn what wrong feels like. Stand with the feet flat on the floor and do a slight slow knee bend while paying attention to what the muscles feel like. This represents a shock absorber that is too soft.

Then bounce with that same knee bend. It's only about an inch or so. Practice until feeling the muscles shake a bit. 

Set a metronome to 120 beats per minute or to your normal stride rate. Hit bottom on the slight knee bend at each beat. Only do this for about a minute or you may have tired feet afterwards. 

The purpose is to teach the subconscious what feeling you are looking for while walking. The muscles are already there, so there is no need to strengthen them.

Before you walk, tell your subconscious you'd like to use "bouncy steps" and then forget about it. 

Yesterday's walk was easy. The hardest part is still getting the 3.5 miles of random steps during the day. I need to focus more on getting them early in the day so I don't have to worry about them later.

I've noticed there are more difficult days with this training plan than when I walk each day based on how I feel. That's one of the goals of the training plan -- to stress the body during half the month to get a training effect.