Training walk #3.5 - "time is of the essence"

Training walk #3.5 - "speed training" on the Test Way

With only a short window of time for a walk, and the need to plan one close to Romsey as my parents had offered to look after Isabelle for a few hours for us, we decided on a quick "there and back" walk along the Test Way from the main car park near Michelmersh.

The plan was fairly simple; walk for 1 hour then turn around and walk back to the car - ideally maintaining the 1 hour that it took on the way out.....

Walk stats
Distance - 7.3 miles
Time - 1hr 56m 50s
Avg Speed - 3.75mph
Height Gain - 399ft (pretty much flat!)

As you can see from the above stats the return leg took just under 57 minutes so marginally faster on the return but hardly anything in it.  The main thing is that we managed not to slow down on the return leg and kept a fairly healthy 3.75mph average speed.

The Test Way (from Michelmersh to Stockbridge) follows an old dismantled railway line so is pretty much dead flat and straight with the only obvious ascent and descent being up (and back down) to the road crossing point at Horsebridge.

We didn't have any time for scenic pictures or anything much aside from walking to be honest but I was happy with the distance and the time on the return leg - we're going to try to repeat this at least a couple of times a month to build up on the distance (while staying within the 2hr time limit), the goal being Stockbridge and back (around 9 miles).

Route details recorded via ViewRanger on my GS5;