Wednesday, January 07 – Training walk and other stuff.

So, today was yet again, not the best day for me. It started out at the funeral of a close friend of my son. He was a bright young man, only 30 years. These things are never easy, as everyone knows; we are supposed to bury our parents and grandparents, not our children.

When we got back home, after the dinner that followed the funeral, I tried to go to work. It just wasn’t happening today. Instead, I came home and cleaned up my dishes and changed clothes for the only thing that would really make me feel better: my walking workout.

It was time for a good tempo walk. So, I planned at least 6 miles at 10k race pace. I also wanted to try out my new headlamp. I headed out toward the little league park in my Saucony Grid Type A Racing flats. Those are the hottest looking pair of red racing shoes anyone could want to wear. They are nice and light weight, but they also have ample cushioning in the midsole for my neutral gait. It was still light out when I left my house. I walked to the park, which is 1 mile from home, then a ¾ mile lap around the park. I stopped my timer to stretch and do my flexibility drills, then walked 2 more ¾ mile laps at the park. I was planning to walk at the park until I reached 5 miles total, but the path at the park is red gravel. I had lots of it in my shoes, so I stopped the timer again, emptied the tiny red rocks out of my shoes, put on the headlamp because it was getting dark and headed back into the neighborhood for the rest of the walk.

I felt kind of funny wearing the headlamp at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly. I was able to continue at 10k pace without tripping on anything and I was also visible to oncoming traffic. Nothing like speed and safety!

I made 10k in 76 minutes, which is 1 minute slower than my pr for that distance. Here it is broken down by miles:
Mile 1 - 13:00
Mile 2 - 12:19
Mile 3 - 12:28
Mile 4 - 12:12
Mile 5 - 11:40
Mile 6 - 12:03
.31 miles - 3:57

Now I am home, have stretched really well and dinner is cooking while I am typing my blog entry.

If it wasn’t for my walking, I would go nuts.