Sometimes you just gotta walk

I went for a walk today on my lunch break.  A leisurely, stop-and-smell-the-roses kind of walk.  I honestly can't remember the last time I took a walk, with the exception of walks at work.  That's my new thing.  My one-on-one meetings are now conducted in sneakers around the building.  My staff really seems to like it and we have much more to talk about when we're out there swinging our arms and legs in the fresh air.  But today I walked instead of ran.  How leisurely was it?  Well... I even stopped and took a picture!

View from the West Hill Dam spillway

I walked partly because my legs were tired, but mostly because I've had a couple of back to back long runs, and track tomorrow night.  If last week's killer track session was any indication, I better have some fresh legs when I get there!  I'm not 100% sure if I'm getting any faster at track.  It seems that every week I'm just as depleted and sore afterwards as the week before, and I still always run at the back of the pack.  I guess the truth will come out if I finally bring myself to enter a 5K this fall.  The very cool thing about track is the great group of ladies I've gotten to run with.  Here we thought track was so intimidating and only for the fast guys, but us chicks have formed our own little pack.  We stick together and encourage each other, and last weekend we got together for a super fun long run!



This is my standard view on any run - road, track or trail!

Sunday's Chick Run

Another reason I went for a walk today is because I'm forcing myself to get into the habit of cross training.  Although my "official" Disney marathon training plan doesn't start until September 10, I built in a few pre-plan base weeks to make sure I could get into the routine.  It calls for a cross-training day (which should be Monday) and should be walking, cycling, swimming, or any other type of aerobic sport.  I tried to convince myself that my firearms class at the range tonight would qualify as cross training, but even I couldn't make that leap.  Truthfully I probably should've done something a little more challenging than a walk, but it felt good to stretch my tight hip flexors.  Walking through the woods today reminded me of how monumental it was over the winter when I finally graduated to one crutch, and then to one ski pole, as I gained stability.  That seems like eons ago!

Today is my 10 month anniversary of the hip surgery, and honestly sometimes I forget I even had it!  It seemed like the end of the world at the time, but here I am running 25 miles a week and gearing up for a winter marathon.  I'm hoping to jump into a couple 5K's this fall, and then I'll be running the Newport half marathon on October 14.  I'd like to find a good race to run on October 28, which will be the one-year anniversary of my surgery.  After that it's train-train-train to Disney!