20K

This was an interesting workout! First, the weather was bizarrely warm for December. It was quite warm (50F, 10C to start, and 56F at the finish!) but windy. Windy enough that it slowed us anytime we walked south, and made us lots faster walking north.

I met Kelly at 8:30 am and we started our walk; we were both feeling pretty recovered from the previous workouts. However, about 12K poor Kelly just really started hurting - her legs were really, really tired. She found it hard to hold her form, and at that point I started being a very obnoxious cheerleader :). Actually, even before that I started giving her red cards every time I saw her left knee bent. I got up to nine by 17k, and then I told her to see if she could keep from getting 3 by 20K - she did much better then, and only got one before the finish.

Let me back up. We both felt pretty good to start and did 5K heading north (remember, here the wind was at our backs) in 29:45. Then we headed south for 10K, doing 31:13 and 31:10 for the next two 5Ks. Finally, we headed back north and with the wind at our backs we got to 20K in 2:03:29, doing 31:21 even despite how tired Kelly was. I was tired, too, but not too awful. My glutes and hamstrings were noticing the training this week, that is for sure, but I didn't crash and burn. I could have gone faster at points, especially near the end, but not a lot faster. My average HR was 148 for the walk, which is pretty typical for that distance. Regardless, I really wanted to walk with Kelly, and speed doesn't matter right now - just doing the km. She was really anxious that she was slowing me down, and I told her to never mind that, because it was just fine! And it was!

Poor Kelly worked SO hard today - she was really very tired from 12K on, but she kept plugging away and was able to stay really fast until about 1km from the end, when she really started to lose it. I have to give her credit for her determination and grit today, and for the fact that even when she felt TERRIBLE she was able to still walk a 2:03:29...I'm going to be in trouble when she gets trained! She'll be kicking my behind!!!!!

Garmin data here.