Progress on This Path

This is the view along the river where I'm taking my Temple Terrace walks!

So much for daily updates!
Now, I'm aiming to update once a week.
It's important to document progress on this path.
I.m learning so much that will be helpful to others who want to get in tip top shape.

Let me follow me Facebook texts and follow the process.
At the start of February, I was following #TeamIvanka's training strategy- substituting walking for running and Zumba for cross-training.  This worked very well for a while.
February 2nd- did 1.33 miles in 30 minutes.
February 6th- had a check up at Curves where I lost 2.5 pounds but 7.5 inches in the month of January.
February 15th- did 1.81 miles in 50 minutes.
March 1st- did 2.07 miles in 57 minutes.
March 12th- joined Miles for Moffitt 8 week training program.

Several things I learned right off the bat:
1) Needed a really good walking shoe- one designed for my weight and gait.
2) Needed to improve my form- found that when I was walking correctly, could walk faster for short periods of time without pain.  Also could walk longer distances.
3) Found that I needed compression wear for support on my knees and to minimize swelling in my lower legs.
4) Found that I really needed to work on my breathing- a lot.
5) And because I wanted to track my HR, my routes, and my time- and I needed my hands free- I needed to get a smart watch- after a little searching- got a Fitbit Surge and it has become an invaluable tool.  Better than the watch is the app.  Without the app- the watch wouldn't be anywhere near as helpful or useful.  Only thing I don't like is that it is hard to give progress reports on Facebook- have to do cuts of screen shots to update folks on my time and distance.

Some highlights:
March 22nd: 2.4 miles in 59:02 minutes- out for 30 minutes and back in 29 minutes- longest walk to date.
March 29th: 2.6 miles in 62 minutes- this time added hills to the course and added speed up the hills due to my hills training class.
This is the week that I got over-ambitious on the hills workout and re-introduced pain to my legs.  From this point on, a long walk-run can cause tingling in my shins and my knees were weaker.  Started to really focus on stretching and RICE- rest, ice, compression, elevation.  Time started to slow down...
April 5th: 2.32 miles in 62 minutes
April 12th: 4.02 miles in 1 hours, 51 minutes.  This surprised me a lot.  We went from walking for an hour to 4 miles.  This may not have been a stretch for some- but I needed to double my distance.  Made the walk but this finished me for the rest of the day!
April 18th: Color Me Rad 5K- finished in 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Surge said it was only 2,86 miles but the 24 minute mile was the fastest time in weeks- being in a race might have helped-but I was also walking on flat ground for the first time in weeks.
Which brings me to Sunday: 4 miles in 1 Hour- 50 minutes.  Exact same time- but this time after icing my legs on the way home (Carrying gel packs in a cooler to my walks- strap them to my legs to save recovery time- those leg weight straps were finally good for something!).  After I came home did my mild curve stretches and after a while did some foam roller massaging- and legs were as good as new!  (Except today my knees were weak and couldn't get down the stairs without holding on to both handrails).

So many things to talk about!  But we'll leave those for other days and try to give you an update every week on Sunday evening.

This to come:
Miles for Moffitt 5K- May 9th.
Miles for Minds- August
Trot Thru the Terrace 10K- Nov 14th
Possibly Linda Gray's Running College 1st and 2nd semesters- if she gets 2 or 3 more cardio-walk students.
That's all for now.  Lots of things to catch up on and people, places, and things to credit in the coming weeks.