I Am The Tortoise, But I Want To Be The Hare Sometimes

I am slow. I move as slow as a turtle, sometimes even as slow as a snail. But I get where I want to go. For the past month, I’ve been getting used to my new elliptical. It’s very surprising to me how slow it’s taking my legs (even my whole body) to get used to it. The new stance is working new leg, arm and back muscles. The longer stride length is working my cardiovascular system like it’s never been worked before (stride length is longer and I’m still going at the same pace, maybe faster than I was). I’m taking more breaks than I’d like.

But I get the job done. I’m only going 1/2 mile at a time, between 15 and 16 minutes, and I’m beginning to feel the impatience. I want to go longer, I want to go farther, but it that smart? I told myself a few weeks ago I would not go more than 1/2 mile until I could do that 1/2 mile with no breaks. I’m still taking two, sometimes three, breaks. But, the other day I did manage to go .3 mile before my first break.

I’m thinking about going longer, but don’t know if I should. My thinking is this. If I go more than 1/2 mile, will that help my endurance and help me do the 1/2 mile with no breaks eventually? Or will going longer cause some sort of pain and injury? Should I just stick with my plan and only do 1/2 mile until I can do it one shot? I don’t know how long that will take. I’ll give it until the end of this week before I decide. And if I do increase my mileage, I’ll only do it in 1/10 increments.

Feet and ankles are still doing fine. I am no longer using the towel under my foot. It wasn’t intentional, but having the towel under my foot made it easier to move my left foot over. The towel slipped off while I was on it, and I was still able to move my foot over without a problem. Big accomplishment there. I’ve never been able to do that before. Maybe it’s partially due to the narrower stance. In any case, I didn’t use the two at all and was able to correct my foot position without it.

We’ll see what I end up doing. I can’t decide yet. I’m flip flopping quite a bit. I might do a longer workout one day to start with, then follow it up the next day with a shorter one. We shall see.

For now though, here are the latest pictures from the virtual walk site.

Mile 303.2                                                               Mile 303.6

                 

Mile 304.2 (motorcycles and tractors)                     Mile 304.6

                 

Mile 305.2                                                               Mile 305.6

                  

Mile 306.2



 

(photo credit - Copyright 2006 Lawrence Berkeley Lab)