My first.........

Blister!! Ouch. Saturday I was unable to take the 8 mile training walk due to a migraine so I made sure I did the 6 mile walk on Sunday. I was dragging my feet about doing it and then just made up my mind, put on my shoes and headed out the door. I ended up doing 6.5 miles. Yay! About 1 mile in I noticed that I didn't change my socks before leaving. It was cool that morning so I had on a pair of cotton socks. About the 5 mile mark I noticed a little burning pain but nothing too bad. Shoes came off when I came home and there it was. Ouch. This is a good reminder to always double check my equipment before leaving. I got a some new clothes to try today and looked at the Camelbaks. I am deciding which I should get. They aren't cheap! Now that I am doing the longer walks I really need to be prepared for things like having an extra pair of socks with me and moleskin and such.

The training is starting to get a lot more serious with these long weekend walks. I feel the commitment now. I now have two things to focus on, my training and my new job as the assistant to the Executive Director of the Oregon Humane Society. It's pretty much my dream job. I told them about the walk during the first interview and they were excited for me and they liked that I am not afraid of fund raising. Score!!

Oh, I also joined a team fitness challenge. A friend does it online through her gym. It's all about getting points for different levels of exercise and fitness. I figured this would be a fun thing to combine with my training walks. So far, so good. At the end of the first week I am #10 out of #30. I can't believe this is lazy me talking about all this. It feels good.

First group training walk

Today I attended my first group training walk. We are lucky to have a trainer in town since there is no 3 Day Portland. She told me that there are over 300 people in Portland doing walks all over. Today was a 5.5 mile walk. There were five of us walking and wearing our pink. 2 are doing the Seattle walk, 1 San Diego, 1 Twin Cities and me in Phoenix. This was the 6th walk for one gal and 3rd for another. Me and the trainer were the only first timers.

It was really nice to walk with some others that share the same goal. It was also great to talk with those that have done this before about tips and their own experiences. They gave me great ideas on gear too. One gal used the CamelBak which I had decided not to use because my back would get too hot. Her secret was filling it with ice. I might reconsider getting one since it would hold a lot more stuff.

The photo is from a few weeks ago at my local neighborhood parade. I loved the float and their name.

3.5 on a new trail

Today was BEAUTIFUL! 70° and sunny. This is how it should be this time of year but for the last 3 weeks we have been in the 50-60's and rainy. I took advantage of the great day and went for a 3.5 miles walk on a new path. It is a biking/pedestrian path that I have been a bit nervous about walking by myself. A girl has to be cautious. I figured today there would be lots of people out and about and there were so I felt safe. It actually backs up to houses and apartments the whole way and isn't as secluded as I thought. The other bonus is that the path has a gradual decline in elevation so the return was a slight rise which gave me a better workout. My thighs feel it.

I got an application for my Android called Runstar. It records my miles and time based on GPS. It keeps track of your elevation and time too and keeps historical data so you can see how you are improving. I love it!! Since I like to wander on my routes this keeps up with my total mileage. I am sure there are several of these apps out there but this one was free. Yay!!

Nothing

I was a slug today.

3 Miles

Keeping to the schedule, today was a 3 mile moderate walk. Done! I took the waterfront area that has a huge hill to get up and down. Near the end I stopped in a local bookstore and picked up "Portland Hill Walks." There are 20 walks all over town. Most are 3-6 miles so great for training. They go through a lot of historic area and the book describes what you are seeing. I am excited to try one.

At the bookstore I was telling the owner about the walk and she said a friend of hers is doing the Seattle walk. I told her how I hoped to train with some of the local walkers who are doing that one. She then told me her friend was a walk trainer named Bonnie. When I got home from my walk there was an email from Bonnie, a local walk trainer, introducing herself and inviting me to a training walk. How funny is that!

Yay! Good day!

The official start

Over the weekend I received my first official training email for the walk. The weather turned nasty here a few weeks ago and I have been really slacking on the training so I figured this will be my fresh start.

I got in 3 miles today before the wind and rain. I guess I will either have to move the treadmill around into a usable space or deal with the rainy weather the next few days. We are very late in getting any warm weather and I will be so happy when sun gets to be part of my walking.

I went to one of those foot stores a while ago to figure out what was up with my feet hurting. Turns out I have high arches and very flexible feet. They said my feet are "special" so really only a $500 custom insert will help. I don't think my feet are that special. I ended up getting a $60 pair of inserts. The pain was immediately gone from the right, bigger foot. The left foot is 1/2 size smaller so the insert didn't work as well. Today I did some trimming and it seems to be better. The real test will be how my feet feel after tomorrow's walk, 2 days in a row.

24 weeks seems so close!!

One of the reasons I walk

I am one of the lucky ones who's mom is a survivor. We need more stories like this.