Walk this Way....

Welcome to Boobie Tuesday!

And now for Rachel's weekly update...

Week 2 – Holding Back

I am not a patient person. I can be if I need to, but it doesn’t come naturally. Once I decide to do something, I want it done NOW. So of course, I want to be fully ready to walk a marathon and a half TODAY. Well, apparently that’s not how one is supposed to train for something like this. So this week, I had to learn about recovery time, and not pushing things too hard, even though I feel as if I can.

Last week I was sure that I was going to be sore the day after our big training walk. To my surprise, I actually was fine. No soreness at all. I did a recovery walk on Monday – a little over a mile at a much more moderate pace than my usual. Tuesday was a little faster, and I tried to push it while going up a pretty steep hill on Wednesday. Mistake. I did something to my calf – probably a minor tear – and had to take 2 days off in a row. It’s fine now, but lesson learned. For now anyway – I’m sure I’ll do something equally brainy later.

I’ve gotten better about stretching, and it’s really helping. We had a team training walk today – pretty tame one – about 5 miles. I’d done a moderate 3 miler Saturday so my legs were a bit tight. I stretched when I got up, just before I got into the car, and again just before we started walking. And I stretched briefly twice during the walk. I think it made a big difference. It goes against the grain for me (back to the patience thing – I don’t want to stretch, I want to get walking NOW!) but there are obvious benefits and potentially some serious consequences if I don’t do it, so I’m just going to have to make it a habit.

Duh move of the week (oh god, are they really going to happen every week?):

I finished my walk today, came home feeling great, and got ready to get in the shower. On my way, I rammed my knee into the corner of our bedframe. So hard my legs nearly collapsed under me. Damn that hurt!

Proud of myself moment of the week (I have those too):

Deborah, our team captain, owns a lovely yarn shop in Los Gatos, which is where we all meet to start our walks. This weekend, she was having a sale – 20% off of everything, and dang she has some beautiful stuff! I’m not on a formal yarn diet, but really – I need nothing. So guess what? I bought nothing! I don’t always have that much self control – maybe I did today because I’ve spent so freakin’ much on gear for this walk recently. I’ll talk more about some of the things that I use during training next time.

I need to go make dinner – I burned over 1000 calories walking today!

You go Rachel! Check it out folks! She's raised over $1300 already. Giddy Up!!!!!

Ok now girl - keep it up - AND DON'T FORGET TO STRETCH! Any moment you can while you are walking, you need to stretch. It helps.