Lawn Mowing

So today the lawn was needing mowing, so in a bit of whimsy I turned on the GPS tracking on my cell phone to see just how long a walk it would be. I figured a quarter mile, half mile, something like that. It's a pretty average size lawn... so it turned out about a mile and a quarter. Which probably isn't that surprising considering it usually takes about a half hour...

What was fun was to look at the picture afterwards....

No, I didn't cross the street and no, I didn't cut across the neighbor's swimming pool behind us... big privacy fence... so I guess the whole GPS thing isn't super precise off a cell phone, but still... kinda fun.

Getting Back to Speed

Some time back I did a 4 mile walk in which I think I averaged between 16 and 17 minutes per mile, and I was really working for a couple of those to try to maintain around a 15 minute pace.

After all the tightness in my muscles and the troubles my knees gave me for awhile, now I'm feeling like a 20 minute pace is kind of brisk. Amazing what a difference.

This is significant for one reason: The Denver Marathon requires a minimum pace of 4 hours for the half marathon, or 18 minutes and 19 seconds per mile.

I got me some trainin to do.

Actually, the fact that not that long ago I was able to do between 16 and 17 minutes fairly easily and at that time thought that with some more regular walking and training that a 15 minute pace was achievable, that leaves me thinking I can do it again.

The good news is my knee's been rather cooperative lately. For awhile the knee was feeling okay but the rest of my muscles were screaming, and I think it was because I was favoring the knee so much. For a few walks I decided to wrap the knee with an ace bandage and that seems to have made all the difference in the world -- with the added stability or something I could walk a bit more normally. Now I'm where a 2 or 3 mile walk doesn't incapacitate me for the rest of the day -- kind of a good thing you know. And, I've been used to walking much more slowly, so now it's just a matter of getting back into the swing of things.

Plus my wife's going to have me coming along when she's training. Once a week comes the longer runs (or walks for me) and then during the week there are speed workouts and then hill workouts. So this next hill workout is supposed to be something like 8 times up a hill for 45 seconds at a time. Not sure what the time inbetween is supposed to be, but it's supposed to help with endurance. Anyway, I'm working on getting a longer stride in and that's helped -- on my walk today the last mile and a half was closer to an 18.5 minute pace, so.... hopefully by October with a lot less pounds I should be doing good yes?

What am i thinking???