I'll Try Anything Once

You may be wondering where my workout stats and purdy pictures are. I'm trying out a blogger.com feature that allows me to e-mail postings to a special address made just for me, which then publishes them to the World Wide Universe. What better use of the time on the train between home and tutoring? Several of the people around me are snoozing, but I just had an invigorating! walk, and so my peepers are open. For now, I'll just tell you that yesterday's walk was, on average, my fastest ever, due in part to a burst of speed at the end, during which I tried to reach the corner of my street before my 30 minutes were up. I got darn close, and ended up doing what was probably racewalking, but felt like the Road Runner as he jets away from Wile E. Coyote. I think the pace of that quickest moment was 11:19/mile, but I don't feel as though it's anything I could keep up over time--at least not yet. But an interesting experiment. Today's
walk was slow, my slowest in a couple weeks. But I'm okay with that. Some days it's an accomplishment just to get out the door and start moving. I also ventured farther beyond our neighborhood than I usually do during my workouts, and discovered that outside our yuppie
enclave, more men have something to say to a woman walking by in stretchy pants. Nice to be noticed and all, but I don't have much to say back. And that is why we have headphones.

No, Thank *You*.

Below are the names of the people who have contributed to my fundraising campaign so far:

	Tom and Phoebe Styron
	Rose Styron
	Zack Hample
	Mike Sullivan
	Margo Wallasch
	Terry and Wendy Halle
	Jackie & Roger Norden
	Amelie & Bernei Burgunder
	Alexandra Styron and Ed Beason
	Sue & Rick Rizzo
	Allan Hillman
	Kay & Gary Stevens
	Patrick Mulryan

Many, many thanks to all of you for your generosity.

Just a Spoonful of Rennet

Time: 30:06 - Distance: 2.41 miles - Avg Pace: 12:27/mi.
Calories: 281 - Shins: Not Bad
Soundtrack: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

During tonight's walk, Barbara Kingsolver and her family (the authors of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, if I didn't already mention that) talked to me about homemade cheese. The first 20 minutes or so were a continuation of yesterday's audio introduction to Ricki Carroll and a workshop of hers that Kingsolver attended in Ashfield, Mass. After that, 19-year-old Camille Kingsolver talked to me about growing up in the kitchen. A delightful listen, as always.

But this is about the walking. Tonight's terrain was quite flat--considerably more so than yesterday's--and so maybe under those circumstances, last week's 12:07/mile isn't an impossibility. Just gotta keep moving those feet.

Eureka!

Saturday's walk:
Time: 40:08 - Distance: 3.15 miles - Avg Pace: 12:43/mi.
Calories: 367

Soundtrack: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

So the Shin Thing is not entirely behind me, although it did go away yesterday partway through my walk, which makes me think it's a warming-up-type issue. Not having walked in two days (due to Cross-Training Thursday and Rest-Day Friday) causes the parts to take a bit to get cranking. Wonder if there are some stretches I could do before starting that might loosen everything up from the get-go. The end of Daylight Savings last weekend meant that my 4:50pm walk ended in near-darkness. But listening to Barbara Kingsolver talk about locally grown vegetables and the virtues of cooking at home as I walked around Prospect Park at twilight--it doesn't get a whole lot better than that. And I know this is elementary to regular exercisers, but it kind of blows my mind that I find it very chilly outside right now, but when I'm working out, I'm comfortable in fewer and lighter layers than when I'm not. Maybe training over the winter won't be so bad (she says naïvely in the second week of November). As I look at the consistency of my pace lately, it makes me think that something might have been a little off with my measuring devices on Wednesday. 12:07's pretty fast compared to the rest of what I've been doing. But hey, if it's actually possible, I'll see if I can get back down there.

One of the most exciting parts of today's walk was stretching after I got home and finding that...I could touch my toes! I have notoriously tight hamstrings and generally only dangle nearby rather than actually laying finger to footwear. But sure enough--I double checked several times--I had my hands on my sneakers. Woohoo! Benefits galore to this walking stuff!

Never reported on Thursday's cross-training, which was a Magic Circle Mat Pilates class, my first at the Pilates Boutique in Carroll Gardens. The Magic Circle is a piece of equipment that looks like this thing on the right and provides additional resistance during Pilates mat work. Sometimes you put it between your hands, other times between your thighs or ankles. Anyway, the things about the class was that the guy teaching it wasn't doing any of the exercises. He was standing and instructing, and so often, he was moving too quickly. Not I-can't-follow quickly, but we'd-get-a-better-workout-if-you'd-slow-down quickly. So that was frustrating. I don't know that I got a ton out of it, nor that I would take another class with him, but it is close to home and I liked the space, so maybe I'll give it another try sometime with a different teacher. Finding a class on Thursdays, especially when I'm tutoring, can be tricky, and so I think I might invest in a Pilates DVD of some sort. Still waiting to get my bike back from the shop.

Fuschia/Fuchsia: Both Are on Dictionary.Com

Time: 30:08 - Distance: 2.48 miles - Avg Pace: 12:07/mi.
Calories: 289

Soundtrack: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I did walk yesterday (I'm writing this on Thursday), but I fell asleep last night looking for the picture I wanted. I was trying to find one of my Marmot fleece jacket, because I thought it was a good indicator of the weather, but it seems that since no one sells it anymore, there aren't any photos. It's kind of like this one on the left, except that the body is bright pink and the highlights are dark fuchsia. Anyway...the walk was good. Sunny and windy. I had a little of the shin tightness starting out, but it passed. I wasn't sure for some of the walk whether I was really moving that quickly. But the overall pace is looking nice, and at the end Paula Radcliffe (I admit I didn't know quite who she was until I looked her up, but she's hot stuff!) congratulated me on my longest walk yet. Motoring around Park Slope for half an hour is fine, but I may want to explore other environs someday soon. Oh! Important note: I decided to wear some capri-length bottoms for a change of pace. The length was fine, although the material--a thin spandex cocktail--seems to have left my legs a bit pink and spotty from the cold. But the main point is that pants with a seam right up the middle of the crotch are to be avoided for ladies who dress for workouts to avoid panty lines. If that makes sense to you, I urge you to heed my advice. If it doesn't, thanks for reading this far.

And the Winner Is...

Me! Thanks to Sense - National Deafblind and Rubella Association, I have a guaranteed place in the Flora London Marathon on Sunday, April 13, 2008. My job, aside from training like a rock star, is to raise at least £1400 for Sense between now and then. I'd be thrilled if you wanted to sponsor me--just click here to become one of a select group of phenomenal people lending their support.

Nice Talkin' to Ya, Lance!

I wanted to share this with you, because I'm excited about and proud of how my pace improved over the course of the walk. I also input my weight into my nano, and so it's now calculating my calories burned as well. Here are some happy things:

As I continued to move my feet more and more quickly (which is, I learned in my last walking lifetime, how you walk faster--not bigger strides), not a lick of soreness in my shins. Which leads me to believe I just needed to start using them and stretching them and showing them what they need to do for me.

I started doing a little of the classic speed-walking rear-end swing, and it really seemed to propel me forward.

At the end of my 30 minutes, Lance Armstrong came on and congratulated me for my personal best mile time. At the very end of the walk, I was actually doing an 11:52 mile, which is pretty cool. We'll see where I can get to and sustain it, but it's a nice feeling to be at that pace even for a moment.

I think I have a place on a charity team! I'll make an official announcement once I'm sure.

It was raining this morning, and then it stopped. And then I walked.