It’s hot and humid out there – I could feel the heat radiating off the pavement throughout my entire run. I was drenched by the time I finished 3.0 miles.
Since it was so unbearably hot outside, I took lots of walk breaks. So many people think you can’t take walk breaks and be a ‘real runner,’ but my response is that you decide whether or not you’re a runner – not a pace clock. In my world, walking breaks are not only acceptable but sometimes necessary to be safe and have fun! And, crazily enough, many people find that they actually are faster overall when they take regularly schedule walk breaks.
I say ‘regularly scheduled’ because I do have a walking system. I don’t just take breaks whenever I feel like it. I maximize my walk breaks in two ways…
First, I always take walk breaks either: 1) in the shade or 2) on an uphill. Since I’m walking and thus moving more slowly, I want to be shaded, not in the sun. My rule about uphill is mostly centered around the fact that I hate to run uphill. Heh. Now, don’t get me wrong, I often run up hills, but I’m not going to ‘waste’ a walk by walking down a hill.
Secondly, when I stop to walk, I always decide ahead of time when I’m going to start running again. I think it’s very important to have a goal in mind – otherwise, it can be really challenging to begin running again (“Oh, I’ll start in a few minutes… maybe in another minute… maybe after this songâ€). I use a street sign or a tree as a visual marker and think to myself, “Once you get to that sign, you WILL start to run again.â€
Here’s the kicker: I always start to run about five feet before the visual marker. Then I give myself a big pat on the back for being so enthusiastic. It’s the little things, folks.
The most common walking rule (which I don’t use very much) is to time your walks. The Couch to 5K program is based entirely on this philosophy. You walk for 30 seconds, run for 2 minutes, and walk again for 30 seconds.
Came home, showered, and made this simple lunch:
I’ve fallen back in love with arugula. Peppery and flavorful, arugula is my new spinach.
It’s so flavorful, in fact, that I can eat a salad of just arugula and EarthFare Sundried Tomato dressing. Not fancy fixin’ required.
The sandwich included scrambled egg and goat cheese. Oh goat cheese, I love you.
Speaking of love, how cute is this picture?
We have to wrestle the dogs into crates before we leave the house. It’s always chaos as we struggle to catch them before they hide under the couch or bed.
I wish we didn’t have to crate the pups, but we do. Once, we left them out, and Maggie pooped in the Husband’s shoe, and James ate his green card. Really. I can’t make this stuff up.
Are you a fan of walking? What are your walking rules?
I’m currently doing the Couch to 5K program, so I took lots of walk breaks on my run this morning. I think that it really helps with the mental aspect of running. THinking I am going to run for 15 minutes can seem daunting, but breaking it up into 90 second intervals make it that much easier (for me anyways).