15K

I felt so-so on my racewalk today. Not great, but not terrible either. When I started out I could tell that my legs were a bit fatigued from all the activity this week; by 3.5km I was thinking that it could be a long and painful walk. However, I rebounded a bit and felt more or less just fine until about 11km when my legs started to feel much more tired. By 14km I was really glad there was just 1km left!!!

Total time was an unremarkable 6:27/km for 1:36:44 with ave HR 139 (low? my watch said 148 when I was done w/the workout..not sure what is up here) and 988 calories bye-bye :).

The best news for the week? Yes, not only did I do FIVE workouts racewalking, but TWO of them were speed work, and one was a long day. My total number of km is still relatively low at 48km for the week, but it is significant that I could do even that many with the speed work and the long day. Assuming my legs continue to feel good, I think that maybe, just maybe, I'm on my way back!!! I am pretty sure that the last time I was able to train this hard was over TWO years ago, in January 2013. Wow. I am very grateful to be feeling better.

I wore a new pair of my favorite shoes today, the New Balance 1400s. I either wear a men's size 9.5 or women's 11 (my usual size is women's 9.5 for everyday shoes, but I like my RW shoes roomy). I prefer the men's because I have pretty wide feet, and they are cut just a bit better for me. Anyway, my new pair is a women's 11 and I was giving it a bit of a test drive because I've mostly been wearing the men's. The shoes were totally fine - I didn't notice them at all, which is just how I like it. And wearing a size 11 means I can find them on clearance more easily, and who doesn't like a bargain?

The weather was glorious today at 8.9C (48F) when I started and 14.4C (64F) when I finished, but it was windy. The Garmin website says it was 8kph but there is no way that is right. It was quite windy, almost to the point where it was hard to walk into at times. The national weather service website shows that when I finished the wind was averaging 15mph, which is 24kph, not including gusts. Yikes! But on the positive side, it's spring here, and it was warm, and since it's Saturday I was able to wait until the sun was up to go walk. I'm thankful that my kids are old enough now that I can walk later in the morning. It used to be that I had to go at the crack of dawn so that my hubby didn't have to do too much while I was gone (he is NOT NOT NOT a morning person!!!), but now they are capable of amusing themselves while I'm gone and not disturbing Loren until he's more awake. This morning they played Monopoly while I was out walking, and they did get in one fight that necessitated them calling me, but fortunately they called right when I was finishing up.

Oh, in other randomness, I took my dog Sugar with me today and she loved it. Lots of other dogs on the trail to see, though she's very well-behaved on the leash and doesn't pull much, especially if I remind her to heel. I got a collapsible canvas-type bowl for her and she carried it in a fanny pack around her neck, and that was awesome. I stopped to give her water at 7.5km and ~11km, and she drank eagerly from the new bowl, which was a relief as she can be quite choosy about these things. The weather's warming up and she is a Pyrenees/Lab mix which means she has a lot of fur and will heat up quickly, so she needs to drink often.

The photo is a spring photo of SLC that I borrowed because I forgot to take any photos on the Jordan River Parkway this morning. It really is this lovely here in the spring, with all the flowers, when it's not snowing! It did snow earlier in the week, though fortunately it was on a day that I was cross-training.