February 23, 2008

Doing Longer Walks

Thanks to a very generous donor, I have met the 25% minimum for the Avenue of the Vines half-marathon on May 18. Now the training gets serious, with the shoe-fitting, customized training plan, and nutrition counseling. I also still need to contact my co-workers and put up a poster at Curves, to try to raise the next 75% by May 11.

I've upped my weekly mileage to 14, and discovered that the walk around Lake Greenhaven is almost exactly 2 miles - and that I walk a 20 minute mile. I looked at the finishing times of last year's participants, and they all completed the half-marathon in a little over two hours. I estimate that my finishing time will be about 4 1/2 hours - oh, man! I might have the distinction of being the last, the very last, finisher.

I discovered a neat Google tool: pedometer. You enter your zip code, and get a map of your area. Then you double-click on points on the map - and they don't have to be roads ; Google draws your path and shows your mileage. This is a great help when planning routes of a specified length. I discovered the distance from home to the "pillars" on the levee is 1 mile, for example. If you are inclined, you could turn on the calorie-counter, and print or save your route.

3 comments:

PeonInChief said...

I'm still working on getting the pedometer to work. Maybe I should just buy one of the mechanical kinds for the technologically challenged.

annot8 said...

Check out this "pedometer": Gmaps Pedometer. Type in your zip code, zoom the map to where you want it, click "start recording" and have at it. Everyone I've showed it to so far LOVES it!

annot8 said...

Re: finishing times - some of the participants are runners. Whew! that makes me feel better. Anyone who could finish 13 miles in even 2.5 hours has to be at least jogging!