Catching up again.

I just cannot seem to keep all my internet stuff up to date. The whole purpose of the blog, the facebook account and the Running Ahead log is to keep me honest about the workouts I do.

Saturday, September 12
It was raining softly when I walked out the door at 5:54 am. Not cold, or windy, just softly misting rain. I was not planning to let that stop me. I chose to wear the trail shoes and go to the little league park where I have been doing many of my walks. I always have company… even on this rainy morning. An elderly woman was walking her tiny dog and I spoke to her. The dog wanted to follow me, so I greeted her every time we passed.
This was not a good walk for me. I was feeling sluggish so chose to stop before my planned 12 miles. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.

Monday, September 14
I guess a walk on Sunday was just out of the question. The first 6 miles averaged 13:35mpm. Not fast enough, but I am training for a 100-mile race, so too fast is not good either. I walked a total of 8 miles, the last two progressively slower until cooled down so I could stretch fully when I got home. Found out why the walk was not so good today… when I took off my shoes, there was the prettiest dime-sized blood blister on the ball of my right foot… should have used the body glide after giving myself a pedicure last night.

Tuesday, September 15
Started the morning workout somewhat late, but I did not really think running the stadium bleachers in the dark was such a good idea anyway. I am not going to report my time, only what I did over a 4-mile distance.
1.25-mile walk to the track, 28 bleachers, 4 x 100m sprints, 2x 100m skipping, 2x 100m side slides, walked all the curves, then lots of stretching before the .6 mile walk home.
I will call this cross training, which included strength and flexibility training. Btw, I ran up the bleacher stairs and walked down.

Wednesday, September 16
mile 1 - 13:16mpm (warm up walk to the track)
miles 2-5 avg pace 12:28mpm (racewalk at the track)
mile 6 - 14:07mpm cool down walk home
.2 mile - 15:37mpm
6.2 miles; 1:20:18.62; HR Average: 76% / Max: 84%
It was a cool, clear and beautiful morning, even though still humid. Junior high boys’ football team was taking pictures this morning, so I had an audience for about 2 miles. I was glad when it was time to head for home. I just need to get my arse out the door earlier!

Thursday, September 17
I overslept this morning. Not too critical, I did not have to be at work until after lunch today. So, I still got a workout done this morning. It is still very difficult for me to adjust to getting up really early when I have never (NEVER) been a morning person.
Walked 8 miles mostly in the dirt paths at the little league park.

Sunday, September 20
This was the fun walk! I drove the 100 miles to Huntsville State Park to test out the 20-mile loop from Rocky Raccoon. That’s the name of the 100-mile race I will be doing on February 7. I had my Gatorade mixed, my peanut butter and jelly sandwich made, my orange sliced up and my fritos and fig cookies bagged up and packed in the fuel belt. I was also wearing my camel back to make sure I had enough water for the whole 20 miles. It was about 84 degrees when I started walking.
The trails were in good shape, it appeared as if the park staff had dumped fresh sand in many places on the trails. The bridges have all been repaired, and fallen trees had been dragged off the trails. As I walked across the first bridge in the swampy area near the lake, I saw a beautiful lizard. It had lengthwise stripes and was a beautiful iridescent dark blue. I have never seen a lizard that color before. I only lost my sense of direction once in the first part of the walk where the service roads intersect with the Dogwood trail more than once.
The walk went very well, and as I made my way onto parts of the park I had not previously seen, I was really enjoying the scenery. I was eating and drinking enough to keep my energy levels up and only had to stop once to work on my feet. My socks had a hard spot on the inside and I was in danger of developing a blister. I stopped, cleaned my feet, re-applied body glide and put my socks back on, but wrong side out. I did not have any more problems with my feet. Raymond called me once on the cell to see if I was alright, and as soon as I hung up the phone, a large red and black ring striped snake crossed the path in front of me. When I had walked a few miles further a large deer came crashing through the woods and across the trail about 50 yards ahead of me.
It took me about 5 ½ hours to walk the 20 miles, and I am very happy with that result. Driving back to Sealy, I stopped at my Mom’s house. She had homemade cabbage rolls for dinner and they were the best cabbage rolls I had ever tasted. In case you have not heard of cabbage rolls… hers are made of browned Italian sausage and ground beef with brown rice, rolled up in a cabbage leaf and baked to perfection in home made marinara sauce!

More later.