Wednesday, June 6, 2012

City Hiker

Passion Flower
It's been a busy couple days! Yesterday I went for a walk after work with some folks from a Meet Up group in  Forest Park. Forest Park is one of the largest city parks in the country, it's about 6 miles around the perimeter if you walk the whole path. We went from the planetarium to the zoo and back, which was about 3 miles round trip. I still can't seem to push much past 3 miles an hour no matter how hard I try, it's driving me crazy! I can't quite figure out why I can't go just a bit faster. I mean being heavy is going to slow me down of course, but I have seen some folks who are by no means tiny and they are bookin' it. I really want to pick up a little speed, my goal is to walk a half marathon this fall and from what I have heard, most of the time they want you to be able to do a mile in 18 minutes. Right now I'm consistently 20ish. Of course, my legs still feel a bit sore and heavy from the hiking trip, but honestly, right now all the gosh darn bug bites are far more annoying. I have been bathing myself in anti-itch cream when I'm not scratching like a mad woman. 

Anyway, I enjoyed the walk in the park, the people were super nice and I especially enjoyed the company of a lovely little lady from Taiwan, Kang (sounds like kong). She was so excited every time we saw a berry or a pretty flower. She spotted the gorgeous passion flower above right outside the zoo. I really appreciated her positive attitude and grateful demeanor. People like that are so enjoyable to spend time with. This week I had a conflict with a friend and it's been weighing heavy on my mind. I really dislike being out of harmony, it's like it throws my balance off. I'm not sure that this issue will be resolved anytime soon, so I need to find some peace with it. Perhaps in the mean time I will do my best to emulate Kang and get excited about the small stuff through out the day. 

Today was a long day of training off-site at an extension office for the University of Missouri. I'm taking an intermediate Access course and it's a bit of a snooze fest. Informative, but not the most thrilling topic. Fortunately, they are generous with breaks and there's free coffee. After work I went and got my hair trimmed for the first time in 6 months. Nothing new style-wise really, just freshened up! I like it, it's almost exactly the same as before minus 2 inches of severely split ends! 
Tonight was a fun time, I belong to a crafters professional organization and we had a meet and greet for the new members. We met at a gelato place near my house and I got to have dinner with my bestie beforehand (who makes awesome sewn goods for the whole family, go check her out http://www.zenbotbaby.com/). We went to a fabulous Vietnamese place and I had a chicken dish in a most delicious brown garlic sauce that was so good I wanted to lick my plate. I seriously considered it, but it was a full house. Afterwards at the gelato place I was really tempted to chow down on some gelato, but I ordered a sugar-free latte instead. I had rice noodles with dinner, which is pretty carby and I also had some dark chocolate so I'd pretty much maxed out on "treats" for the day. The get together was really fun, it was nice to sit around and gab with friends old and new. 

Instead of boring you with the list of crap I ate today, how about I just give it a grade. I'd say today was a C+. Not awful, but there was certainly room for improvement. No exercise for today, I'm in recovery mode. Tomorrow I'll hit the elliptical at the gym. 

Yaaaaaaaaaawwwwn... time for this girl to head to bed. I have another full day of training tomorrow and I should probably attempt to stay awake the whole time! I hope you had a great day today and an even better one tomorrow!

4 comments:

  1. Great job on your walking!! I think you're doing great and I loved hearing about your walking buddy who was so happy to see each flower and berry. That totally made me smile! I love being around people like that too who seem to soak in life and appreciate the little things. Your hair looks awesome!! I just got mine done yesterday too and I think we have a similar style. Congrats on doing awesome!

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  2. Holly - maybe we twins separated from birth! Same name, same hair, and similarly shaped. Hmmmm.

    Kang was awesome, I love people who get excited about the small stuff, it makes the mundane so much more enjoyable!

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  3. I know exactly what you are talking about in regards to walking faster. I remember the first 5K I did I saw people heavier than me walking faster. I didn't understand it. But the way that I have gotten faster is by walking. When I signed up back in december to do a 12k in May of this year, the farthest I had ever walked without feeling out of breath was a 5k. how the hell was I going to do 12k with friends? I researched walking techniques and such and found out that the trick is to just walk. I started following Hal Higdon's Half Marathon walking guide and it helped in making me faster. I definitely recommend you checking it out.

    make sure you get fitted for good shoes & get some socks. I recommend Thorlos. They are a bit pricey but so worth it. I also modified the training guide when a distance seemed too daunting. And that's ok.

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  4. That's a great tip! I will definitely check out the guide. I think interval training will help, too. At least I know I can go faster! I wear good socks and wear good shoes, that definitely makes a difference, doesn't it?

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