Long Distance Walk, January 4

I got up at 6 am and drank a glass of water, and then I ate my Kashi Oatmeal, with an added tablespoon of natural peanut butter and ½ cup of skim milk and took my morning dose of vitamins. When I left the house for my 20 mile LSD at 7:30 am, it was really warm and humid, and a layer of fog was hanging just above ground level.

I started out slow enough to warm up and was hoping for an average pace faster than 14 mpm. Soon I settled into a rhythm and was feeling pretty good in spite of my recent bout with sciatica. I knew there was a cold front coming, and I didn’t want to get caught in any severe thunderstorms that sometimes precede cold fronts in southeast Texas. I called my mom when I had passed my house at about 10.5 miles. I could see the dark clouds nearby and wanted to know if there were any storms. My mom said it was just drizzling a little and didn’t look like it would get any worse. She also said that when the front passed her, the temperature dropped about 20 degrees all at once. Just after she uttered that sentence, the wind changed direction and oh my goodness, the temperature went from 70 to 50 with at least 20mph gusts!

I was pretty sweaty from the humidity, and I was wearing shorts and a short sleeve t shirt. I wasn’t going to turn back toward home to get a jacket or gloves, because I would probably just stayed there instead of walking as far as I could under the circumstances. So, I just kept walking in the direction I was heading. It was really cold and I just happened to have a bandana with me. I took turns wrapping the bandana around my hands, when the exposed fingers started to stiffen; I switched the bandana to the other hand. That seemed to help.

The real problem is that I started to speed up because I was cold. Remember, my sciatica is acting up. I was still doing pretty well and took my chocolate GU at mile 16, like I usually do on a 20 mile walk. My right leg started to hurt at that point. I am a very determined person, so I tried to finish the 20 miles… You know: no pain, no gain? Then I thought to myself… you dumb @$$! You have a marathon in 4 weeks and a 50 mile trail race 1 week after the marathon. GO HOME AND STRETCH. So here I am at home, with warm dry clothes on and getting ready to stretch.

The workout was a total of 18.2 miles with an average pace of 13:37 mpm. I will call that a good workout and move on to the next one!