Training is Tapering This Week

This is the last week of prep for the Avenue of the Vines half-marathon next Sunday. By Thursday, I will have logged 258 miles since I started training in the last week of January, and the race will add another 13 for a total of 271 miles! That's about three times the distance between Sacramento and San Francisco!

I walked 10 miles yesterday. I started walking at 6:45 a.m. and returned home at 10:15 a.m. - just in time for the nice Mother's Day brunch Pat and Laurel prepared: Eggs Benedict, toast, and coffee. I'll be attending the interval training on Tuesday, then the walking tapers off to 3 miles, 2 miles, and two days of rest before the race.

I saw a map of the course, and it looks like the grid is conveniently divided into 1-mile blocks, so it should be easy to pace myself. I know I can do it, but the thought of walking 4 1/2 hours nonstop is a little daunting! I downloaded some more marches to my Shuffle, including some circus marches, and that should help me focus during the last couple of miles.

John Phillip Helps Me Focus

Two more weeks till the Half Marathon in Lodi. Our weekly "long" walk has jumped dramatically from 6 miles to 9 miles, and next week it will be 10 miles. So, how do I know when I've walked 9 miles?

Aside from knowing that I'm a pretty consistent 20-minute-miler, there is a neat "pedometer" hack for Google Maps - you "record" your walk by clicking on the map, and it calculates the length of each segment as well as the total length of the walk. You can turn on other features, like mile-markers and calories burned (based on your weight.) This is where I walked yesterday. (You will have to zoom out to see the entire route.)

Ah, but you ask, "Who is John Phillip?" Well, here's the story. I've been listening to audio books on my walks to make them a little more interesting. I've walked through Lois Lowry's "Gathering Blue", a couple of pedantic motivational titles, and am currently involved in "Snow flower and the Secret Fan", by Lisa See. This is all good, as long as I'm walking in the green belt parkway or on lightly-trafficked streets. Walking on the levee, however, is much noisier, because it runs right alongside the immensely-busy I-5 freeway. I was looking for something to listen to that I could hear above the traffic noise, and thought that perhaps marching music might be just the ticket. I downloaded a handful of John Phillip Sousa marches from iTunes, along with a couple others that are very different (Irish, New Orleans). Now, I stride along to the tubas and trumpets I remember from my childhood - my dad was in the Army band during WWII, and had several recordings we listened to often - and discovered it's GREAT walking music! Even if you're getting tired, the next march has you stepping right along and loving it! (Photo courtesy of SoldiersMediaCenter on Flickr and used under the terms of its Creative Commons license.)

The Walk to Nugget

I intended to walk 3 miles after work last evening, which I estimated would take about an hour. But M suggested we have Chicken Salad for dinner, which required crunchy chow mien noodles to top it with. "Why don't you walk down to Nugget and get some?" he suggested - so I did. It took me longer than I expected: 45 minutes of brisk walking. I called him as I left the store to let him know I'd be a little late getting back, and he said, "change of plans - we don't have enough chicken."

Ooohhh!

So I walked 45 minutes back with a can of crunchy chow mien noodles, a bottle of lite soy sauce, and a packet of Chinese chicken salad seasoning - then heated up leftover spaghetti for dinner, which we consumed at about 8:15 p.m. And the battery in my Zen Nano ran out of juice, so I couldn't even enjoy the consolation of a good story.

Google Pedometer said it's 2 miles to Nugget, 4 miles RT. My right knee has been complaining all day. I wonder if I'm actually going to make this half-marathon! My training plan shows a 5 mile walk this weekend - hope I can do it! The gel ice-pack is my friend!

TTES

Gulp!

A few years ago, my friend Alison and I did a 5 kilometer walk as a benefit for the American Heart Association. It took an hour, and we had a lot of fun.

A few weeks ago, I got an invitation in the mail to participate in a benefit for the American Stroke Association, a sub-group of the AHA, by raising funds and participating in a half-marathon. I went to the informational meeting this morning, and signed up. Now I'm wondering if I'll have the courage to follow through. It's not the walking nor the distance; it's the requirement that I raise a minimum of $2,100.00!

The program I joined is called Train To End Stroke, or TTES. There are hundreds of participants, many who have participated multiple times. Each team has mentors, trainers, a nutrition counselor, and someone to help with fundraising suggestions. Team Sacramento will meet twice a week to train and learn. I won't be able to attend those group meetings because of my work schedule, but they assure me that will not be an obstacle.

The first team practice was a 1 mile walk after the kickoff session this morning - but I had to work at the library today, as I do every Saturday, so I'll have to get my practices in on different days. I'll be blogging my progress here, and on the fundraising web site.