Yesterday, I bought a new pair of running shoes. I went to a specialty store where they know all about feet and shoes and walking and running. Apparently I am not one of the 15% of the population who are blessed with a neutral gait and I slightly overpronate, so my shoe corrects for that. I was amazed at how differently each of the shoes felt. She brought out 6 pairs in my size and I tried each of them on. Initially 3 of them just didn't feel right so I put them away. The other three, I had to really try on one of each and walk around doing a "Pepsi Challenge" sort of comparison. The interesting thing about that was that my right and left foot felt really different in each shoe. I narrowed it down to two pair and then kept going back and forth between them before deciding on the pair I got. I have just never paid so much attention to the fit and feel of what I put on my feet before. The shoes seemed to do great on this first walk, although I did find myself adjusting them a lot as the walk went on. I don't know if that's normal or not.
The people at the shoe shop were great to work with, but as I was walking today I was stunned anew by the idea that the woman helping me mentioned. She commended me for starting my training early, and said that there are some folks who do the 60-mile walk WITH NO TRAINING at all. This concept boggles my mind. I'm out of shape and I know it. I am VERY glad that there are many more months to go before I have to attempt this and that I can spend some time at these lower mileage walks to get used to it all before trying to go the longer distances. I can't even imagine what is going through the head of someone who thinks, "Well, I'll just force myself to do it... 60-miles can't be that bad!" I mean, I think it's wonderful that they want to help support this cause, but they need a reality check. My longest walk so far (4.8 miles) really kicked my butt and I took two days off after it to recover before going back to my 3 mile walk.
Anyway, my point is, if you're reading this and planning on going on this walk, let me be one more voice who says to you, don't think that you have to stick to the training schedule to the letter (we all know life is going to get in the way), but do train seriously and attempt to follow the plan as closely as possible. 60-miles is a LONG distance and you have to prepare your body to be able to do it. Just as I have spent a LOT of time trying to find the right shoes and the right socks, I need to spend a lot of time prepping myself to be able to make it through the 3 days without feeling like I've been through the wringer. I don't expect to avoid ending up tired and sore at the end of the three days, but I do hope to be able to make it through all 60 miles without feeling like it was more than I was really capable of.
Fundraising: Total: $1,965.00
Training: 3.5 miles, 1 hour 30 min
Total miles to date: 34.5
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment