I just returned home after a nice walk in my neighborhood and it felt good to return the sidewalks and to the streets for a change. The temperature wasn’t devastatingly cold today, so Melissa and I both went for our walks, but 40 minutes apart. She decided to go ahead and get her walk in because our daughter needs a ride home from school at random times, so we stagger. I guess it’s OK to not walk together once in a while. Neither of us feels compelled to outpace the other. Her pace is usually better than mine, so don’t assume anything.
My stats today were: 48:18 minutes at an average pace of 15:12 minutes per mile. I’m quite happy with that. Only a little tightening and pain today from my shin muscles around the 1.5 mile mark. I walked through it and came out OK. A 15 minute per mile pace is respectable. I did it by staying on level ground–or as level as possible in my neighborhood, which isn’t easy.
Melissa’s pace was off a bit at around 16:48, as best can recall. Seriously, anything below 20 minutes per mile is doing pretty well. That’s just my opinion, though. However, if your pace is much over 20 minutes per mile, you need to adjust something, because that’s a very slow walking pace. That’s more of a leisurely stroll. You have to push yourself just a little bit in order to train. You don’t have to experience excruciating pain, but a little muscle soreness lets you know that you’re working muscles harder than usual, which is the whole point.
I don’t know what your specific goals are for your workouts, but I’ll share mine with you. When I was younger, I was a sprinter. I could outrun just about anyone on two feet. I ran a very fast 100 yard (Yes, yard) dash at 10.2 seconds. I don’t recall my 220 or 440, but they were respectable as well. Now, I know I’ll never get back to my 10.2 second 100 yard dash days, but my goal is to be able to run/jog an entire 5K this year. Additionally, my weight goal is to lose 20 pounds. My current morning weight is 232.6 pounds and I’ll keep you posted of my progress.
5K a Day 2017 