It was a cool day today. It was 53 degrees when I started my walk so I wore running pants, gloves, and the fleece shirt I got from the Polar Dash Half Marathon back in January. I was warm and my new Brooks PureCadence shoes felt comfy. I started at a good 15:00/mm pace, listening to my favorite running music playlist. I decided to walk a modified version of the route I ran yesterday.
With this walk, I wanted to determine two things. First, I needed to get in a Long Walk to see how my legs would do in a substantial distance and time under foot. Up until now, my longest walk has been 4.55 miles. Second, I wanted to see how the legs would feel after having run 10 miles the day before (and a 1.10 mile run this morning). Never having run long distances on consecutive days before, this would be a good thing to experience.
The good news is, everything felt fine. My legs didn't really feel fatigued during the Walk, so I guess the previous day's run was not enough to make my legs tired enough to affect things today. I suppose that is an indication of the positive results of my training up to this point. Or maybe I was just lucky. Either way, the Walk felt good. My only issue was that the temp dropped quite a bit so by the time I was done, my hands were pretty cold (even through the gloves).
I walked for 9 miles at a 15:23/mm pace (2:18:36 hours). Not a bad first time out. Between now and the end of May, I will be increasing my walk distances to 20 miles, and continuing to plan consecutive runs and walks so that I get used to what it feels like (before I have to walk the "real thing" on June 2-3 when I walk 39.3 miles over two days).
So this week ends with a total of 34 miles of combined running and walking. The most miles I have accumulated in a single week! W00t!!