Last night I took a walk with my husband for one loop around the lake. He ditched me to go check on the kids (left the 14 year old to watch the 6 year old) and then I did a loop by myself.
The first loop I did with my husband was quick, but not pushing things hard. We were talking the entire time. The air was heavy and muggy and when walking two abreast, speed isn't the highest priority. It was 3.4 miles per hour. Which is a brisk walk, but not super hard. When my husband left, I set the fitness watch for the second lap and took off. I realized, when I was about a third of the way into it, that it was my best pace yet. What was interesting is that it didn't feel like I was pushing myself harder or walking faster, but I was.
I went down the steep hill and then back up the other side. I saw I lost a bit of my time even though I always try to walk as fast up the hill as on the flats, I apparently do slow down. Now, not happy that I had lost time, I started to really push it which is about the halfway point. I caught back up to where I was, but then I wanted to build a bit of a buffer because the last leg of the walk has two small steep hills. My heart rate usually hangs around 130 when walking the lake, but on this last 1/3 of the lap, I was keeping it between 150-160. It felt great. My legs (especially my shins) were handling it fine with no complaints, and I pushed it to the very end. My best time ever before was 3.7 miles per hour. Last night, the second lap (which is 1.35 miles) I had it at 3.9 miles per hour. If I had started with a bit more gusto, I would have had a 4.0 miles per hour - or 15 minute miles.
Here's my fitness log from that walk: June 11th walk by berryblondeboys at Garmin Connect - Details
Of course, for those of you who are really fit and beyond me in what you can do, walking 2.7 miles fast might seem like nothing, but it still works for me and you have to start somewhere. My starting point was walking in place for an hour and that in the beginning was difficult. The month before that, when my blood pressure was through the roof, walking across a parking lot had me huffing and puffing. Grocery shopping wore me completely out. Now, I can walk 4 miles per hour with no aching and I feel great. That's in less than 6 months which is the most amazing. The body is an amazing machine!
Stats for 6/12/11:
Beginning weight: 255.6 Now 202.2 (up a bit)
Exercise total hours/minutes in 2011: 184.25
Walking/Biking total miles in 2011: 487.5/1000
That's a really good walking pace. That's how long it takes me to do my 5K jog/walk in the morning, 5 min jog and 1 minute walk, and repeat...it works out to 15 minute miles for me (pretty slow jog).
ReplyDelete